American Academy of Pediatrics

iStock, hapabapa One of the two new members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines before the Texas Senate in 2021. Ahead of a scheduled meeting later this month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has added two members to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, continuing what has been a chaotic run for the committee under the second Trump administration. The first of these new ACIP members is Sean Downing, a specialist in internal medicine and pediatrics who has been working in the primary care setting for more than 20 years, according to a news release on Friday. Joining Downing is Angelina Farella, also a pediatrician, and owner of the mental health center A Brighter Tomorrow Family Health and Wellness, located in Texas. Together, Downing and Farella “bring decades of real-world experience” to ACIP, Kennedy said on Friday. “That frontline perspective is essential to making recommendations that are grounded in gold-standard science and worthy of public trust.” In June 2025, Kennedy fired all 17 previous members of the ACIP, asserting the need for a “clean sweep” to “reestablish public confidence in vaccine science.” Not long after, the secretary reformed the group, with many of its current members sharing his skepticism toward vaccines. Like several of her fellow ACIP panelists, Farella has spoken out against vaccines. In 2021, for instance, she came before the Texas Senate and cast doubt on the safety of COVID-19 shots, claiming that the vaccines skipped animal testing. The ACIP advises the CDC on which vaccines the agency should recommend to the broader U.S. public. The CDC isn’t required to follow the committee’s advice, but it often does. The panel convenes three times a year and was originally scheduled to meet last week , but that meeting has been postponed to March 18-19 amid continued instability at ACIP, as well as mounting controversies regarding the country’s vaccine policies. The upcoming meeting will include discussions on injuries purportedly linked to COVID-19 vaccines, as well as issues surrounding long COVID. The new ACIP members in December voted to recommend delaying hepatitis B vaccination for infants not deemed high-risk to two months after birth—guidelines the CDC has since adopted. Then, in January, the CDC removed six of the 17 recommended shots for children from its vaccine schedule. Vaccines Postponed ACIP Meeting Rescheduled for Mid-March The rescheduling of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices comes amid fresh leadership upheaval at the CDC as NIH director Jay Bhattacharya replaces Jim O’Neill as acting head of the agency. February 25, 2026 · 3 min read · Tristan Manalac In response to the ACIP overhaul, the American Academy of Pediatrics in July last year sued the HHS , alleging that the move was illegal and that Kennedy has worked to erode the public’s confidence in vaccines since becoming health secretary. The case continues. In January, a federal judge dismissed the government’s motion to junk the lawsuit. Last month, the same judge delayed his decision pending more information, giving the government’s lawyers more time to respond to additional statements from the professional group, according to reporting from STAT News .

iStock, Vladimir Mandic The CDC’s changes threaten to cut vaccine sales for makers including Pfizer, Moderna, Merck and more, but a legal expert suspects affected manufacturers will stay on the sidelines rather than back a push to declare the revised schedule unlawful. As 15 states sue the Department of Health and Human Services over changes to the childhood immunization schedule, it remains unclear whether manufacturers with sales threatened by the update will lend their voice to the legal challenge or stay on the sidelines. Vaccine makers that could be affected include Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, GSK, Sanofi and others. Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Law San Francisco, noted in an email to BioSpace that manufacturers have not filed amicus briefs in support of the case the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) brought last year against HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other people and organizations behind earlier changes to the recommended immunization schedules for children and pregnant women. The AAP case focuses on the May 2025 decision to remove COVID-19 vaccines from the list of products recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. Last week, 15 states led by Democrats brought a new case against the HHS, Kennedy and others. That case challenges the CDC’s recent decision to reduce the routine childhood and adolescent immunization schedule from targeting 17 diseases to 11. Some vaccine manufacturers have expressed concerns about the changes. Thomas Triomphe, Sanofi’s executive vice president of vaccines, said on an earnings call in January that the “sudden shift” to the new schedule will create confusion for parents and healthcare providers. Guggenheim Securities analysts cut their estimates for U.S. sales of Merck’s Gardasil in 2026 and beyond in response to the changes. The potential for the revised immunization schedule to cut sales creates an incentive for companies to support the states’ challenge by filing amicus briefs. Yet Reiss said pharma companies “may reasonably think it’s better to stay away, given their lack of popularity.” While noting that she has no inside information, the professor said that she would guess manufacturers will opt against filing amicus briefs. Vaccines Vaccine Investors Keep Their Heads Down as Trump Cuts Shot Schedule The US dramatically altered its recommendations for a series of vaccines, which drive billion-dollar earnings for giants like Merck and Pfizer. January 6, 2026 · 3 min read · Dan Samorodnitsky Read more Reiss expects the public health organizations that filed briefs for the AAP case to submit amici in support of the 15 states’ case against the HHS and RFK Jr. The AAP case docket includes eight amicus filings signed by more than 100 public health experts and organizations such as the American Association of Immunologists, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists and Defend Public Health. The 15 states’ case covers the COVID-19 vaccine change made last May, which the CDC incorporated into the updated immunization schedule in January. In their lawsuit, the states called the new schedule the “culmination of a series of unlawful actions in furtherance of Secretary Kennedy’s idiosyncratic and unscientific hostility to vaccines.” The states seek to get the schedule and changes to the membership of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) declared unlawful. The states claim appointing “unqualified ACIP members” and bypassing the committee to create the new immunization schedule were “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.”

ACIP was originally expected to meet from Feb. 26-27 before postponing with little explanation. Following an unexpected delay of the CDC vaccine panel’s February meeting, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has selected dates next month to convene and discuss, among other matters, COVID-19 vaccine safety—a controversial topic on which the Trump administration has appeared misaligned in recent weeks. At the meeting, which will now take place from March 18-19, the CDC’s vaccine advisors are expected to weigh in on COVID-19 vaccine injuries and long COVID before potentially putting the issues to a vote, according to a new listing in the Federal Register. Aside from the COVID matters, ACIP members will also discuss and potentially vote on the panel's recommendation methodology, though the listing caveats that the proposed topics “are subject to change as priorities dictate.” The exact materials ACIP plans to discuss, as well as the terms of the potential voting questions, are unclear at this time, with more information likely to come out closer to the meeting. The panel was originally expected to meet from Feb. 26-27 before postponing with little explanation last week. The committee votes on recommendations to the CDC around vaccines and other immunizations, helping steer U.S. insurance coverage and vaccine schedules. The CDC does not have to side with ACIP’s recommendations, but it often does. The committee’s reputation has taken a nosedive, however, following HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision last June to purge all sitting members of the panel to make way for his own picks, several of whom have espoused views critical of vaccines or vaccine policy in the past. The HHS suggested at the time that the mass ACIP dismissal was meant to eliminate conflicts of interest in the influential vaccine panel. Despite frequent protestations from the revamped panel’s members about being labeled “anti-vaccine,” the new-look ACIP has made multiple recommendations since last summer that constrict access to certain shots long deemed safe and effective in the U.S., which the CDC has seemed more than willing to adopt. RFK Jr. notably pledged not to meddle with ACIP and U.S. vaccine schedules as part of his confirmation process last year. As it pertains to COVID-19 shots, ACIP members in September voted in favor of a change to CDC pediatric and adult COVID shot schedules to emphasize “individual-based decision-making,” which, in practice, looks like consulting with a doctor before receiving the vaccine. The panel also narrowly avoided voting to recommend a prescription requirement for COVID-19 vaccines, in a move that would have no doubt hampered widespread uptake of the shots.The CDC ultimately adopted ACIP’s COVID vaccine recommendations in October, supplanting much broader guidance that had previously covered all people ages 6 months and older in the U.S. More recently, the CDC last month imposed major changes on the U.S. pediatric vaccine schedule, removing six of 17 previously recommended shots, including for COVID-19 vaccines. Invective against COVID vaccines has served as a frequent rallying cry for parts of Trump’s base and certain members of his administration, such as RFK Jr., but pulling the shots from the market does not appear to be such a clear-cut decision despite the critical rhetoric from parts of the coalition.When pressed over social media last month about why the FDA hadn’t yanked COVID vaccines in the U.S., ACIP’s vice chairman, Robert Malone, M.D., laid the blame at the feet of FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, M.D., indicating that he himself was in favor of removing the shots. “I’m not deaf to the calls that we need to get the COVID vaccine mRNA products off the market,” Malone told the nonprofit MAHA Action several days later. “All I can say is stay tuned and wait for the upcoming ACIP meeting. If the FDA won’t act, there are other entities that will.” Since its makeover at the hands of RFK Jr., ACIP has faced pushback on multiple fronts. Many prominent U.S. medical groups have aligned against the revamped panel, and in late January the American Academy of Pediatrics released an updated version of its own guidance on childhood vaccination schedules, bucking recommendations put out by the CDC. Meanwhile, a coalition of 15 states recently filed a lawsuit against RFK Jr. and the CDC for their changes to the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule. In particular, the states—all of which are governed by Democrats—dubbed the gutting of ACIP last summer as “unlawful” and pointed to a lack of scientific evidence behind the pediatric schedule change, which the states are seeking to have overturned.