HHS begins recruiting new vaccine advisers​

HHS begins recruiting new vaccine advisors

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is looking to revive a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory panel that’s been dormant since last year, after a federal judge blocked his efforts to remake it.

The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday published a request for nominations to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

“Nominees will be selected to represent a balanced range of scientific, clinical, and public health expertise relevant to the Committee’s mission, including person(s) knowledgeable about consumer perspectives and/or social and community aspects of immunization programs,” HHS said in the notice.

ACIP makes recommendations on vaccine policy to the CDC, which help determine which shots are covered through private and government health insurance programs.

Last year, Kennedy removed all the previous ACIP members and restaffed the panel with people critical of vaccines, triggering lawsuits and states splitting off their immunization schedules from that of the federal government.

A federal judge subsequently blocked all the ACIP’s recommendations and Kennedy’s appointment of new members, finding that they appeared to “lack any expertise or professional qualifications related to vaccines or immunization as required by ACIP’s Charter.”

U.S. District Court Judge Brian Murphy in March ruled Kennedy picked “distinctly unqualified” individuals instead of experts on vaccines and immunization and disregarded the scientific process that historically underpinned the committee’s work.

Kennedy was free to try to appoint new members subject to the same legal standard, but until now the agency has not tried .

Richard Hughes IV, the attorney representing the American Academy of Pediatrics in the lawsuit against HHS, wrote in an analysis Thursday that HHS’s request “reads as a sign that Kennedy intends to appoint a committee ready and willing to continue where his previous ACIP was forced, by court order, to stop in March 2026.”

Where the agency previously asked for nominees with “expertise” in the fields of immunization practices and public health, Hughes said Thursday’s notice downplays individual expertise and emphasizes non-scientific perspectives.

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter , we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond:

A federal judge Thursday ruled that the Trump administration’s definition of “medically frail” used for Medicaid is unlawful, issuing a temporary injunction on states having to determine medical frailty. U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns found in his ruling Thursday that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s definition of “medically frail” was “contrary to law” and that demands by plaintiff states to have it vacated were warranted. …

Arizona reported its first case of New World screwworm on Wednesday, making it the third state to be impacted by the parasite. The confirmed case was found in a domestic dog in Cochise County, Ariz., which shares a border with Mexico, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The state’s Department of Agriculture, which also confirmed the case in a Wednesday press release, noted the discovery was …

Interest groups representing major American and foreign airlines asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reassess its new rules for foreign travelers over a record-breaking Ebola outbreak in Congo. The CDC issued a mandate last week requiring that all travelers to the U.S. certify they have not been in Congo within 21 days before departure. To do so, all airline passengers and crew members on U.S.-bound …

Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:

1,400 people died by suicide in Washington state last year, a record ( KUOW )

Oregon is hundreds of millions short in Medicaid funding. Neither top gubernatorial candidate has shared a plan ( Oregon Public Broadcasting )

The campaign to defend trans healthcare in Missouri is slow going, on purpose ( KFF Health News )

Branch out with a different read from The Hill:

Kenya’s Ebola cases hit 8, with no community transmission yet

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ebola cases in Kenya rose to eight on Sunday after another person tested positive while in quarantine, having been identified as a contact of the first patient. Health Ministry Director-General Dr. Patrick Amoth said the eighth case involved a 49-year-old patient attendant who had attended to the first Ebola patient, …

Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

Roger Marshall closes campaign with men who compare abortion to human sacrifice and the Holocaust ( The 19th News )

The rise of colon cancer among young people has been a mystery. Boston experts say they now have clues . ( The Boston Globe )

Kennedy’s closing arguments for the 2026 midterms: Fraud, vaccines, and MAHA ( Stat )

Opinions related to health submitted to The Hill:

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