Kennedy's vaccine committee plans to vote on COVID-19, hepatitis B and
chickenpox shots
[September 16, 2025]
By MIKE STOBBE
NEW YORK (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new vaccine
advisory committee meets this week, with votes expected on whether to
change recommendations on shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and
chickenpox.
The exact questions to be voted on Thursday and Friday in Atlanta are
unclear. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services did
not immediately respond to questions seeking details to a newly posted
agenda, although the department announced five additional appointments
to the committee Monday.
Some public health experts are worried that the votes will — at a
minimum — raise unwarranted new questions about vaccines in the minds of
parents.
Perhaps even more consequential would be a vote that restricts a
government program from paying for vaccines for low-income families.
“I'm tightening my seat belt,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt
University vaccines expert.
The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, makes
recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention on how already-approved vaccines should be used. CDC
directors have almost always accepted those recommendations, which are
widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs.
Kennedy, a leading antivaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top
health official, fired the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and
replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices.
Here's a look at the three vaccines being discussed:
COVID-19
Before Kennedy was health secretary, ACIP would typically vote in June
to reaffirm recommendations for shots against respiratory viruses that
sicken millions of Americans each fall and winter.
This past June, Kennedy's ACIP voted to recommend flu shots for
Americans but was silent on COVID-19 shots.
Before that meeting, Kennedy announced he was removing COVID-19 shots
from the CDC's recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women.
The move was heavily criticized by doctors' groups and public health
organizations, and prompted a lawsuit by the American Academy of
Pediatrics and other groups.
Days after Kennedy's announcement, CDC officials said families could
still get the 2024-2025 version of COVID-19 shots for their kids in
consultation with their doctors. That clarification meant shots would
still be covered by the federal government's Vaccines For Children
program, which pays for shots for families who lack money or adequate
health insurance coverage. It's now responsible for roughly half of
childhood vaccinations in the U.S. each year.
As with flu shots, however, there are new COVID-19 formulations each
fall, to account for changes in which strains are circulating. The
committee has not yet voted on whether to recommend this season's
COVID-19 shots or whether those shots should be covered by the VFC
program.
Further complicating the picture: When the FDA last month licensed this
fall's COVID-19 shots, the agency took the unusual step of narrowing
their use for healthy younger adults and children.
If the ACIP simply follows that, and if there is no additional
clarifying language from the CDC, then “that would take away access for
roughly half of America’s kids,” said Dr. Sean O'Leary of the American
Academy of Pediatrics.
The pediatricians group urges that vaccinations continue for all
children ages 6 months to 2 years.
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B can cause serious liver infections. In adults, the virus is
spread through sex or through sharing needles during use injection-drug
use.
But the virus also can be passed to a baby from an infected mother, and
as many as 90% of infected infants go on to have chronic infections.
A hepatitis B vaccine was first licensed in the U.S. in 1981. In 2005,
the ACIP recommended a dose within 24 hours of birth for all medically
stable infants who weigh at least 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms).
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Dr. Robert Malone listens during a meeting of the Advisory Committee
on Immunization Practices at the CDC, June 25, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP
Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
 Infant vaccinations are stressed for
women who have hepatitis B or, crucially, who have not been tested
for it. The infant shots are 85% to 95% effective in preventing
chronic hepatitis B infections, studies have shown.
Newborn hepatitis B vaccinations are considered a success, and no
recent peer-reviewed research shows any safety problem with giving
kids the shots on their first day of life, Schaffner said.
But Kennedy's ACIP members suggested in June they wanted to revisit
the guidance.
Schaffner noted that health officials used to rely on screening
mothers before birth but that many cases were missed.
“There were lots of failures,” he said. "And so there were
continuing transmissions from mother to child.”
MMRV
Chickenpox was once a common childhood annoyance, causing an itchy
skin rash and fever.
But the highly contagious virus can also lead to complications such
as skin infections, swelling of the brain and pneumonia. Severe
cases are more common among teens and adults who get it for the
first time. The virus — called varicella — also can reactivate later
in life and cause the painful illness called shingles.
The government first recommended that all children get a chickenpox
vaccine in 1995, leading to a dramatic drop in cases and deaths.
In 2005, a combination MMRV shot — measles, mumps, rubella and
varicella — was licensed. The CDC initially recommended that doctors
and parents use the combo shot over separate MMR and varicella
injections.
But within a few years, studies showed children who got the combo
shot more often developed a rash, fever and — in rare instances —
seizures after vaccination compared with children who got separate
shots.
In 2009, the ACIP changed its recommendation, removing the
preferential language and saying either the combination shot or
separate shots were acceptable for the first dose.
Today, most pediatricians suggest separate doses for the first shot,
but give the combined shot for the second dose, pediatrics experts
say.
Again, there's no new evidence about harms from MMRV shots, said
O'Leary, of AAP.
Why revisit it now?
“This version of the ACIP is an orchestrated effort to sow distrust
in vaccines,” O'Leary said.
HHS announces new committee members
Meanwhile, HHS officials on Monday announced five new committee
members — bringing the roster to 12.
The new members are:
— Hillary Blackburn, a pharmacist and podcaster who HHS officials
said is director of medication access and affordability for
AscensionRx.
— Dr. Evelyn Griffin, an obstetrician and gynecologist based in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
— Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who with his wife
operates a medical missionary organization called For Hearts and
Souls. He appeared at a 2024 congressional hearing at which he said
an increase in cardiovascular disease in older teens and young
adults should be attributed to vaccines.
— Dr. Raymond Pollak, a transplant specialist based in Skokie,
Illinois.
— Catherine Stein, a Case Western Reserve University disease
researcher. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked with an Ohio
anti-vaccine group and argued that case counts were inaccurate and
that the coronavirus was not as dangerous as health officials
portrayed.
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