US Health Department withdraws controversial CDC vaccine charter amid legal battles
The revised charter, which sought to broaden membership eligibility to include individuals without public health expertise, was pulled following a federal court injunction that nullified the committee’s recent votes.
The US Health Department has withdrawn a revised charter for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) following an administrative error regarding public notification protocols. The notice, published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, confirms the retraction of the proposed document introduced by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The proposed charter would have significantly altered the composition and focus of the ACIP. It sought to expand membership eligibility to include individuals without expertise in immunisations or public health, a move that would have allowed anti-vaccine allies to advise the CDC. Additionally, the charter aimed to direct the panel to prioritise alleged vaccine injuries and risks, while welcoming fringe groups and anti-vaccine organisations into federal vaccine policy development.
This withdrawal occurs against a backdrop of intense legal and operational turmoil within the CDC. In June 2025, Kennedy dismissed all 17 existing expert members of the ACIP and replaced them with unvetted allies. The reconstituted committee subsequently held meetings where anti-vaccine views were aired, leading to the removal of longstanding, evidence-based recommendations, including the universal recommendation for a hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth.
Subsequent modelling studies indicated that delaying the hepatitis B dose could result in increased infections, liver cancers, deaths, and significant healthcare costs. The controversy intensified in January when Kennedy bypassed the ACIP to overhaul the CDC’s vaccine schedule for children, reducing the number of recommended vaccinations from 17 to 11.
In March, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction, ruling that Kennedy likely violated federal regulations by unilaterally altering the vaccine schedule and that the new ACIP members were unqualified under the existing charter. This ruling nullified the votes of the reconstituted panel. While the Health Department is currently working to appeal the injunction, the withdrawal of the revised charter represents a temporary setback in Kennedy’s efforts to reshape the committee’s governance structure.
