The Republican senator who chairs the committee overseeing health issues publicly undermined the vaccine committee selected by Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging that physicians ignore its recommendations Thursday.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, expressed concerns with the “lack of scientific process being followed” for an anticipated meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Sept. 18.
“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting,” the statement reads. “These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership.”
HHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The ACIP is made up of outside scientists who discuss epidemiological studies, weigh the benefits and side effects reported in clinical trials and make recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the routine vaccination schedules for children and adults. The ACIP’s recommendations inform which shots are reimbursed by health plans. Meetings are open to the public.
Kennedy Jr. ordered a “clean sweep” of the committee in June that removed all 17 sitting members.
Requests to Cassidy for further clarification about which scientific processes were not being followed did not receive an immediate reply. The ACIP charter states that the committee can have up to 19 members. The current ACIP roster consists of just seven people, according to the CDC website.
When Kennedy fired the previous ACIP members, he cited the need for members appointed by the Trump administration, noting the committee’s four-year terms would allow Biden administration appointees to continue to wield their influence. Kennedy also noted committee members often have ties to the pharmaceutical industry, citing a 2000 congressional investigation.
These high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee. https://t.co/38xBrC7cC6
— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) August 28, 2025
Cassidy cast a deciding vote in favor of Kennedy’s confirmation to lead HHS following contentious confirmation hearings. Cassidy said in a speech on the Senate floor in February that Kennedy had pledged to not change the ACIP in order to secure the vote.
Cassidy’s statement does not specify who made the “serious allegations” against Kennedy’s management of the ACIP.
But the announcement follows a high-profile showdown between Kennedy and CDC Director Susan Monarez, the precise causes of which remain unclear.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation CEO Robert Besser, a former acting CDC director, said to several media outlets that he had spoken with Monarez Wednesday and that the spat in part involved Monarez signaling she wouldn’t greenlight every decision by the ACIP.
CDC directors typically follow the recommendations of the ACIP but can overrule them. Rochelle Walensky, former President Joe Biden’s CDC director, overruled the ACIP to recommend COVID-19 booster shots for healthy adults in fall 2021.
Monarez’s attorney Mark S. Zaid declined to provide further details about the source of the rift between Monarez and Kennedy to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Both Zaid and Monarez’s other attorney, Abbe David Lowell, have frequently represented opponents of President Donald Trump. Zaid previously represented the intelligence official whose whistleblower complaint was central to Trump’s 2019 impeachment inquiry. Lowell represents New York Attorney General Letitia James and previously represented Hunter Biden and former Trump administration staffer Miles Taylor.
My resignation letter from CDC.
Dear Dr. Houry,
I am writing to formally resign from my position as Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective August 28, 2025, close of business.…
— DrDemetre (@dr_demetre) August 27, 2025
In a resignation letter posted to X Wednesday, former CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Demetre Daskalakis said that his departure was prompted by changes in recommendations around COVID-19 vaccines for children and the ACIP overhaul. Daskalakis alleged that CDC had not been informed of the committee’s overhaul before Kennedy announced it on social media.
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