With little fanfare, Biden administration stacked vaccine advisory committee with new members ACIP plays a critical role on issues where RFK Jr., if confirmed, may initiate major changes

https://www.statnews.com/2025/01/31/vaccine-policy-acip-members-appointees-hhs/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_eiexusmxqQZkADEFSgyXdrTfSbhI0Qr-spsKnqBf50Aa9plNGY0RXbqqKJuf0GvFd1QDoJWVn_cuE5IYgIk3fpzmBUQ&_hsmi=345022952&utm_content=345022952&utm_source=hs_email Before leaving office, President Biden’s health secretary added eight new candidates to a critical committee that helps set U.S. vaccination policy — a move that could hinder the Trump administration’s attempt to shape the panel with its own appointees, several sources have told STAT. “It was very intentional,” a former senior Health and Human Services Department official said. “It was our goal to fill every vacancy on every [federal advisory committee] the department has, with particular focus on ones like [the Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices] where maintenance of our scientific expertise was critical." The intention was to stack the committee with people who, unlike President Trump’s pick as health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have not expressed skepticism about vaccines. The moves would seem to deprive Kennedy — should he be confirmed as HHS secretary — of a chance to name new members of the ACIP, which helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determine the appropriate use of vaccines, until 2027. But experts in public health and vaccine law note that people who sit on the committee have at-will appointments — and the next HHS secretary could easily overturn the last one’s best-laid plans.