The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was scheduled to convene Oct. 22 to 23, but this meeting has been postponed, with no new date specified. The delay comes as the VA published new research showing that COVID-19 shots prevented hospitalizations and death.
An upcoming meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel has been postponed indefinitely, adding to growing concerns regarding anti-vaccine sentiment at the highest levels of leadership within the health department.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was previously scheduled to convene on Oct. 22 and 23, but according to an update to the agency’s website, that meeting is now “TBD”—to be determined. The CDC hasn’t yet specified a new date, and the agenda has not been revealed.
The ACIP, which makes recommendations regarding immunization guidelines across the U.S., has been a key policy piece for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In June, Kennedy ousted all 17 previous panel members, stating in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal at the time that the committee “has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
Kennedy has since repopulated the ACIP with new members, some of whom share his skeptical view of vaccines. The committee’s new chair, for instance, is Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist who spoke out against lockdowns and vaccine mandates during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Also on the panel is Retsef Levi, who has previously called for the withdrawal of mRNA vaccines from the market. Levi heads the ACIP’s COVID-19 subcommittee.
News of the delay of the ACIP’s next meeting came the same day as data from a study conducted by researchers at a Veterans Affairs hospital in St. Louis showed that COVID-19 vaccines continue to be effective at preventing death from COVID and keeping patients out of the hospital.
In a study of 164,132 veterans who received both COVID and flu vaccines during the 2024-2025 season, compared to 131,839 veterans who only got flu shots, patients who received the COVID vaccines had a 39% decrease in hospitalization and a 64% decrease in death compared to those who only got the flu shot. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
Last month, the reformed ACIP convened for a two-day meeting, during which the panelists discussed and voted on updated recommendations for a variety of vaccines. COVID-19 was the focus of the second day of the ACIP meeting. Near the end of that day, Levi called for an unexpected and previously unannounced vote for four recommendations.
Three ultimately passed: one for a physician consultation about the rare side effects of COVID-19 shots, one that asked for adjustments to the information sheets of these vaccines and another suggesting older adults and younger seniors with underlying conditions get immunized. A fourth recommendation, that COVID-19 shots require a doctor’s prescription, was narrowly voted down.
On Monday, the CDC formally adopted ACIP’s recommendations coming from that meeting.
Beyond the ACIP, Kennedy has enacted other anti-vaccine policy changes, including removing COVID-19 vaccines from the CDC’s immunization guidelines for healthy kids and healthy pregnant women, exploring ways to overhaul the U.S. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and terminating 22 mRNA vaccine research contracts under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
