The Ethical Dilemma Confronting ACIP

One year-old River Jacobs is held by his mother, Caitlin Fuller, while he receives an MMR vaccine from Raynard Covarrubio, at a vaccine clinic put on by Lubbock Public Health Department, in Lubbock, Texas, on March 1, 2025. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

Commentary

In one his first post-confirmation actions as secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the whole of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. In doing so, he cited the existing committee members’ stated and unstated conflicts of interest with the industry they were tasked with judging. He replaced them with known experts on the safety and efficacy profiles of vaccines.