Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s reconstituted vaccine committee tweaked the vaccine schedule Friday to alter the preferred formulation of one childhood vaccine and delayed a vote to change the timing of another.
After weeks of handwringing by members of Congress and the legacy press, the committee voted only to bring the childhood schedule into alignment with what most parents prefer on the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) and varicella, or chickenpox, vaccines. The committee voted to recommend Hepatitis B testing for mothers but delayed an anticipated vote that would have postponed the first dose of Hepatitis B vaccine from the day of birth to one month of age.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a group of outside scientists who discuss scientific studies and make recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), met in a marathon meeting Thursday.
Kennedy booted all 17 prior members of the ACIP on June 9. Kennedy has long been critical of the committee as compromised by ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
ACIP chairman Martin Kulldorff emphasizes that “every child will have access to be vaccinated against” measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox).
ACIP voted to recommend standalone chickenpox vaccination in toddlers to reduce their risk of febrile seizures. pic.twitter.com/bXxP1d0hsg
— CDC (@CDCgov) September 19, 2025
The move touched off a high-profile showdown with former CDC Director Susan Monarez. Kennedy asked the White House to terminate Monarez on Aug. 27, less than a month into her position. Kennedy and Monarez have given conflicting accounts of their behind-the-scenes dispute. But at a Senate hearing Wednesday, Monarez dithered on key details about her removal, including when she began communicating with her attorneys, who both frequently represent opponents to President Donald Trump. She repeatedly refused to state their names so they could be formally entered into the record.
ACIP Chair Martin Kulldorff revealed Thursday that Monarez had never reached out to him with her concerns about the ACIP despite those concerns being central to her showdown with Kennedy.
Former CDC Director Monarez showed up to today’s @GOPHelp hearing with anti-Trump attorneys that proceeded to pass her notes and whisper in her ear as she testified. I asked her to name them for the record, she refused. 🧐 pic.twitter.com/H8oz1Ea8iI
— Senator Ashley Moody (@SenAshleyMoody) September 17, 2025
Kennedy’s new committee of handpicked scientists voted Thursday to recommend that parents vaccinate children four-years-old and younger against MMR and varicella separately rather than with the combined MMRV formulation. Eighty-five percent of parents already choose this method, according to CDC data presented at the meeting.
This decision was based on a significant reduction in febrile seizures associated with using MMR and V in separate injections, a Health and Human Services spokesman said. The combined shot remains available for children 4 years or older, the spokesman added.
But bumpy voting proceedings precipitated misleading reporting in The Hill and Wall Street Journal Thursday evening that inaccurately cast the committee as yanking immunizations from the schedule entirely for those children.
“Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s handpicked slate of vaccine advisors voted to no longer recommend a combined shot for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella for children under four,” a push-alerted WSJ story read, without clarifying the committee continues to recommend immunizations against all of those viruses in a different formulation.
The confusion prompted the committee to revisit one question Friday morning. The vote helped synchronize the recommendations for children regardless of their insurance coverage in favor of vaccinating separately for measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) and varicella.
“What all this means is that every child … will have access to be vaccinated against measles, they will have access to be vaccinated against mumps, they will have access to be vaccinated against rubella, which is German measles, and they will access to be vaccinated against varicella, which is chickenpox,” Kulldorff emphasized.
Kulldorff pushed back on criticism — including from former CDC employee Demetre Daskalakis — that the confusion stemmed from a lack of expertise. He emphasized that while the committee has the relevant scientific expertise, the proceedings of the ACIP remain unfamiliar to most of the members.
NO TRUST IN ACIP!
Well, the absolutely incomprehensible vote at the end of the ACIP meeting has left everyone confused. MMRV resolution passed, so it’s off the schedule for younger children and CMS won’t cover it. Private insurance doesn’t have to cover it, but AHIP…
— DrDemetre (@dr_demetre) September 18, 2025
“There is one thing in which we are rookies. With one exception this was our first ACIP meeting or second,” he said. Kulldorff is the only member who has served on the ACIP previously.
The ACIP committee voted Friday morning to recommend that all pregnant women be tested for Hepatitis B.
The test is covered across all insurance programs, according to an HHS spokesman.
The committee had weighed the current recommendation of giving the first dose on the first day of life at the Thursday marathon meeting. They considered concerns about reactogenicity – the symptoms of an immune response to a vaccine.
Some committee members and public commenters questioned why the committee should consider delaying the shot without evidence of a major safety signal.
“It’s clear that a significant population in the United States has significant concerns about vaccine policy and about vaccine mandates,” said ACIP member Robert Malone, a vaccinologist. “The position that many in the United States encounter with birth is that a medical professional acts in a unilateral fashion to perform a medical procedure, an injection, without substantial informed consent.”
The ACIP committee voted to recommend that all pregnant women be tested for Hepatitis B.
The committee initially weighed delaying the first shot until a newborn is one month of age. But after some internal debate, the committee punted on that vote.
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