December ACIP Meeting Draws Surge of Expert Concerns About Vaccine Access

As the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) holds its final 2025 meeting (Dec. 4–5), medical societies, public health organizations, and patient advocates sounded alarms about the direction of the committee’s decisions.

More than 12,000 people and organizations submitted written comments ahead of the meeting but less than 4,000 were publicly published before the sessions began. Many comments raised concerns about topics on the agenda, how ACIP decisions shape vaccines access, and the real-world harms that will result from weakening long-standing immunization recommendations.

Experts urged ACIP to rely on rigorous, independent evidence and to preserve a vaccination schedule that continues to shield infants, children, and other at-risk groups from preventable disease.

Below is a snapshot of leading organizations’ perspectives, along with links to their full comments. PFID’s comment letter is available here.

Alliance for Aging Research

“The timing of each vaccine in the schedule is based on clinical studies and real-world evidence on safety. This schedule has proven to work, and we are concerned about the Committee’s willingness to re-open established recommendations based on assumptions. Narrowing or removing recommendations will restrict access and create barriers to patient and provider choice. We urge the Committee to maintain the current vaccine schedule.”

Find the full statement here.

Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention

“Parents and families should have meaningful choices about their children’s care, supported by clear guidance, strong evidence, and reliable access to vaccines. AWHP urges ACIP to uphold a federal framework that prioritizes collaborative decision-making, reflects decades of established science, and recognizes the critical impact of childhood vaccination in the U.S.”

Find the full statement here.

American Academy of Pediatrics

“The AAP is also disappointed that CDC continues to prohibit organizational liaisons, including AAP, from participating in ACIP work groups. These work groups are instrumental in reviewing data on vaccines and producing draft recommendations. It is important to enable open communication among CDC and medical organizations on ACIP issues, particularly implementation. Without liaison representatives, ACIP’s work groups do not have the appropriate subject matter expertise to produce reliable, scientifically rigorous work.”

Find the full statement here.

American Cancer Society

“The current schedule ensures that children are protected early and throughout life, reducing illness, disability, and death from vaccine-preventable diseases. Strong adherence to the recommended vaccination schedule limits the spread of disease and strengthens community immunity that protects immunocompromised individuals, including cancer patients and their families.”

Find the full statement here.

American Pharmacists Association

“It is essential to restore ACIP’s ability to make evidence-based recommendations grounded in high-quality, objective data—collected and analyzed by CDC scientists. These recommendations must remain free from political influence to ensure the safety, efficacy, and trustworthiness of the immunization guidance we provide to our patients and communities.”

Find the full statement here.

American Society for Meningitis Prevention

“For us, this is profoundly personal. We founded these organizations so that no other family would have to bury a child from a disease that could have been prevented. We urge the Committee to remain steadfast in basing all decisions on gold-standard science, maintaining transparent and rigorous processes, and ensuring vaccine recommendations remain universally accessible and actionable for every family. The stakes are too high, and the consequences too severe, to do otherwise.”

Find the full statement here.

Infectious Diseases Society of America   

“The Infectious Diseases Society of America believes recommendations should be made by experts in the fields of vaccines and infectious diseases and based on high-quality, objective scientific data collected and analyzed by CDC scientists.”

Find the full statement here.

National Coalition for Infant Health

“The ACIP’s work is essential to improving public health. We encourage the Committee to continue upholding the high standards that have made it a trusted voice in immunization policy. Your leadership is instrumental in ensuring that every infant, regardless of background or circumstance, has access to timely, effective protection from preventable disease.”

Find the full statement here.

National Consumers League

Vaccine recommendations should always be informed by the guidance of leading experts in the field, and combating misinformation requires trusted voices to deliver clear and accurate information. Without them, consumers across the nation are left confused about where to get accurate, scientifically backed recommendations to guide their decision making. ACIP has always and must continue to play that role.

Find the full statement here.

National Foundation for Infectious Diseases

“NFID will continue to follow the evidence and strongly supports immunization recommendations that are science-based, protect those at risk, and advance health equity. Only by maintaining rigorous, evidence-based recommendations can ACIP continue to protect vulnerable populations, strengthen health equity, and safeguard the nation’s progress against vaccine-preventable diseases.”

Find the full statement here.

National Nurses United

“Vaccines, including Covid-19 vaccines, play an essential role in protecting public health and workplace health and safety for RNs and other health care workers. Limiting access to and availability of lifesaving Covid-19 and other vaccines unnecessarily puts lives at risk. With health equity being central to the practice of nursing, nurses will continue to advocate for strong public health measures to protect and foster patients’ health and healing, at the bedside and beyond.”

Find the full statement here.

The Immunization Partnership

“The Immunization Partnership is deeply concerned the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will further weaken long-standing protections that keep children safe from serious illnesses, disability, and death. These protections are not abstract policies detached from the real-world experiences of children and their families. These polices determine whether millions of children stay healthy, if schools are safe places to learn, and whether preventable diseases can be stopped before they spread into the broader community, putting everyone – particularly children and individuals with vulnerable immune systems – at risk.”

Find the full statement here.

Vaccinate Your Family

“If access to lifesaving vaccines is compromised in any way, more children, adolescents and adults will die. More people will suffer needlessly from preventable diseases. More families will be devastated by preventable tragedies as Americans become needlessly ill from diseases that decades ago crippled public health. We need only to look to history to see what will befall us if vaccines are no longer a part of preventive healthcare. The work entrusted to the ACIP is critically important and must not compromise the ability of families to vaccinate their loved ones.”

Find the full statement here.

World Hepatitis Alliance

“The hepatitis B vaccine is safe, highly effective and was the world’s first cancer preventive vaccine. While there are available antiviral therapies for hepatitis B, these treatments are not curative, meaning that lifelong treatment is needed to manage chronic hepatitis B and prevent progression to liver cancer.”

Find the full statement here.