Although the American Academy of Pediatrics has been releasing guidances on vaccines for decades, the 2026 immunization schedule it issued Jan. 26 is creating some buzz given the U.S. CDC’s newly abbreviated childhood schedule that removed several routine recommendations.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy has once again expanded the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), this time adding two more ob-gyns to the membership list. As a result, the ACIP, which can have up to 19 members, now numbers 13, three of whom are ob-gyns.
The chaos Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy has injected into the U.S. vaccine market could have long-term consequences as vaccine makers reevaluate business decisions and pipelines.
If the 2025 U.S. life sciences regulatory scene were to be summed up in one word, it would have to be uncertainty. Two words might be more definitive – chaotic uncertainty.
Driven by a deeply antiscientific political agenda, the current U.S. government is not just sabotaging some of the most groundbreaking technology that has been developed in the past decades. It is also destroying the country’s past successes, such as measles elimination and the reduction of hepatitis B infections in infants to near zero.
The U.S. CDC has adopted the recommendations of its Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding the hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine scheduling for infants, determining that immunization should be an individual-based decision rather than the universal birth dosing practice that has been in place for the past 30 years.
As the systematic dismantling of the U.S. vaccine schedule escalates, the demands to hold Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy accountable are growing. Claiming that Kennedy has turned his back on science and is endangering public health, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., formally introduced articles of impeachment against him Dec. 10 for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Under the Constitution, federal officials can only be impeached for treason, bribery and “other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Individual liberty and choice vs. wider public health became one predictable hinge upon which swung the often-acerbic debates at the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting, which took up – again – the matter of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine scheduling, a day after the panel voted not to vote on such guidance.
Disorganization resulting from last-minute changes to voting questions involving new recommendations for hepatitis B virus vaccines created a moment of déjà vu Dec. 4 when the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 6-3 to once again delay its votes on whether the current recommended birth dose should be pushed back.
“Do not take us backwards,” many doctors and other stakeholders implored the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices ahead of its meeting that starts Dec. 4 with a day-long discussion and votes on whether the current recommended birth dose of the hepatitis B virus vaccine should be delayed.
