Acting Ranking Member Lynch and Subcommittee Ranking Member Krishnamoorthi Call Out HHS Secretary’s Life-Threatening Attacks on Vaccines
Washington, D.C. (June 10, 2025)—Today, Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Acting Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services, sent two letters to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long time anti-vaccine activist with a history of promoting vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories. The letters demand information on Secretary Kennedy’s abrupt dismissal of all seventeen members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which develops evidence-based vaccine recommendations that doctors and insurance companies rely on in providing vaccines to children and adults, and HHS’s decision to take away the choice to receive annual vaccinations against COVID-19 from millions of people.
On June 9, 2025, Secretary RFK Jr. escalated his attacks on public health, removing all 17 members of the ACIP, the same medical and public health experts who “review findings and discuss vaccine research and scientific data related to vaccine effectiveness and safety, clinical trial results, and manufacturer’s labeling or package insert information” and use this information to make recommendations to the CDC regarding the immunization schedule for children and adults.
“This reckless decision to remove all of the nonpartisan medical and public health experts who evaluate and recommend adult and childhood immunizations is the latest move in your radical anti-science approach to public health and vaccination, and raises serious questions about who you plan to appoint to ACIP in their place given your history of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding vaccines. In order to understand how you made this decision and to ensure that you do not replace scientific experts with antivaccine ideologues, we request information and documents related to your June 9, 2025, dismissal of all ACIP members,” wrote the Members in their letter to HHS Secretary RFK Jr. regarding his dismissal of all ACIP members.
Vaccines are one of the most important public health innovations of the modern era, saving millions of lives every year. Each year, childhood vaccination prevents approximately 4 million deaths globally. In the United States, for the approximately 117 million children born between 1994 and 2023, the CDC estimates that routine childhood vaccinations will prevent approximately 508 million cases of illness, approximately 32 million hospitalizations, and more than 1.1 million deaths.
Despite HHS’s clear anti-vaccine posture, COVID-19 continues to impact people across the United States, claiming approximately 1,000 lives each week as recently as February 2025, and can cause long-term health problems for years after a mild or moderate case. HHS’s reversal of its previous recommendations that all Americans over 6 months of age receive a COVID-19 vaccine and an annual booster demonstrates a cavalier attitude towards the clear danger of COVID-19 and threatens to make Americans sicker.
“Given your history of promoting medical misinformation and conspiracy theories and the fact that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appears to have circumvented certain medical experts in making its recent determination that only a subset of Americans should have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, we are concerned that this decision reflects your anti-vaccine agenda instead of scientific or expert consensus on what is best for the health of the American people. We therefore request information and documents related to HHS’s recent decision and a detailed explanation of how you plan to ensure that all Americans are able to easily receive an affordable COVID-19 vaccine,” wrote the Members in their letter to HHS Secretary RFK Jr. regarding HHS’s decision to restrict access to COVID vaccines.
The Members requested documents and information regarding these attacks on vaccines, including the purported scientific rationale for dismissing all ACIP members and drastically cutting off access to COVID-19 vaccines and information about any objections raised within HHS, no later than June 24, 2025.
Click here to read the letters to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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