A major federal panel advising the government on vaccines has backed away from its efforts targeting Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, a shift that comes as some Republicans reportedly warn that additional vaccine policy changes could hurt the party in the upcoming midterm elections.
Several vaccine advisers selected by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, had been exploring the possibility of ending federal recommendations for mRNA Covid shots. That initiative is no longer moving forward, according to two sources familiar with the discussions who spoke to the Washington Post.
In recent months, members of the health department’s advisory committee on vaccines (ACIP) have openly expressed concerns about both the safety and production of the vaccines despite widespread research. Some of those comments included repeating a debunked claim that DNA contamination in injections posed a health risk.
US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Press Secretary Emily G Hilliard said in a statement to The Guardian that “the committee has not reconsidered its September 2025 decision to classify COVID vaccines under shared clinical decision making in the CDC vaccination schedules.”
“Furthermore, the FDA and ACIP have been consistently aligned: the FDA’s approval of COVID vaccines for high-risk groups and the ACIP’s recommendation to include them in the vaccination schedule under shared clinical decision-making, meaning that the decision to vaccinate is based on individual patient characteristics, are compatible,” the statement said.
Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert and professor at UC Law San Francisco, says what we’re seeing “reflects two things.”
“The administration does not want to create more controversy around vaccines, it realizes this is politically damaging, since most voters do not agree with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine agenda. And the current ACIP does not understand its role, which does not extend to establishing insurance codes,” he said.
“My impression is that the current members of ACIP are either unwilling to work to understand it, or they don’t care about the limits of authority and the rule of law, since they have been criticized for this before.”
Reiss noted that “if ACIP had voted on COVID-19 vaccines, when such a vote was not in the federal register notice, it would have been a violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and a notice issue. That may not have prevented them from doing so, but doing so would have been legally vulnerable.”
“Including the harms caused by the COVID-19 vaccine and long Covid-19 is strange, since it is not clear what kind of recommendations the committee can make in relation to that: the ACIP can include the risks of vaccines in its assessment of recommendations, but it has no independent role in the treatment of diseases, of whatever origin. Members may want to make claims about the harms of Covid-19 vaccines to the public, but their role is not, in fact, to create anti-vaccine propaganda. Their role is make evidence-based vaccine recommendations,” he said. continuous.
The two mRNA vaccines currently used in the US are produced by Moderna and the partnership of Pfizer and BioNTech, and represent the vast majority of Covid-19 vaccines administered.
The move away from direct criticism of vaccines comes as Republicans face plummeting poll numbers ahead of November’s midterm elections, along with continued criticism from medical professionals. In an interview with the New York Times last November, Kennedy said he personally ordered the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to review its long-standing position that vaccines do not cause autism.
But in recent months, the Trump administration has taken steps that suggest a quieter retreat from the previous stance that vaccines pose a significant threat to public health.
Last week, it was announced that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) top vaccine official, Vinay Prasad, would once again leave the agency following a series of high-profile controversies related to the FDA’s review of vaccines. It was the second time in less than a year that he left his position.
Last month, Casey Means, Trump’s controversial nominee for U.S. surgeon general, appeared before the Senate health committee for a two-hour hearing in which she dodged direct questions about vaccine recommendations.
“The reality is that we have a growing autism crisis, and this is devastating for many families, and as a medical community we don’t know what causes autism,” Means said under questioning. He acknowledged that there was an overwhelming amount of evidence refuting claims that vaccines cause the condition. “I also think the science is never settled, and I think the effort to look at comprehensive, cumulative exposures about the causes of autism is important.”
The FDA also recently reversed an earlier decision and agreed to evaluate Moderna’s application for what would be the first mRNA-based flu vaccine after previously declining to review it.
