The Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention (AWHP) is deeply troubled and alarmed by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s unprecedented decision to dismiss all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a trusted panel of independent medical and public health experts that has long safeguarded the nation’s vaccine recommendation process through scientific integrity and transparency.

For decades, ACIP has served as a nonpartisan advisory body that supports public health, particularly for women, children, and other vulnerable groups. Its members are respected researchers, clinicians, and public health professionals who evaluate the use of approved vaccines with great care and integrity. Disbanding the entire committee outside the usual nomination and vetting process and without transparent scientific reasoning raises serious concerns about the continuity and credibility of the nation’s vaccine infrastructure.

Women across the country rely on recommendations from ACIP, which form the basis for vaccine access and coverage, to protect themselves and their families from vaccine preventable diseases across the lifespan, especially during pregnancy and early childhood. Recent actions by Secretary Kennedy—including halting recommendations for routine COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women and canceling programs aimed at preventing future pandemics—put lives at risk and undermine decades of public health progress and trust.

We urge Secretary Kennedy to immediately clarify his plans for ACIP’s future and commit to appointing independent experts with proven records in public health and evidence-based vaccine science.