Tag: Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

New CDC Director promises to protect vaccines and support the agency’s “exhausted” scientists

Volume 408 Issue 10557
29 August 2026
WORLD REPORT  Erica Schwartz has sought to reassure staff working at the embattled agency. Washington Correspondent Susan Jaffe reports.
A week after Erica Schwartz took the helm at the beleaguered US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Aug 12, she convened an all-staff meeting. Schwartz fielded questions from staff and pledged to advocate for the agency, which has been gutted through the loss of thousands of workers and steep funding cuts. She assured staff that she would not hesitate to disagree with her boss, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, who has presided over the reorganisation.
…Schwartz told CDC staff that she has met several times with Kennedy since being appointed. She felt comfortable working with him and “will continue to speak truth to power”, according to a recording of the hour-long session provided to The Lancet. “I will make sure that my disagreements are known”, she said, but “probably in private, not in front of the media”. [Continued here.]  
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CDC is “in the ICU right now” former officials say

Volume 406, Issue 10508
13 September 2025
WORLD REPORT  Senior officials say HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is eviscerating the CDC. Washington Correspondent Susan Jaffe reports.    
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implosion was months in the making, senior officials tell The Lancet after they resigned in protest following the dismissal of CDC Director Susan Monarez by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. They describe a gutted agency so damaged that it might not be able to fulfil its core mission to protect Americans from public health threats.  An HHS spokeswoman called their comments “the gripes of disgruntled former employees.”  [Continued here.]
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AMA protests changes to key vaccine advisory committee

Volume 405, Issue 10496
21 June 2025
WORLD REPORT  The organisation, which represents more than 270 000 physicians and medical students, has
been reluctant to criticise the Trump administration’s actions, until now. Susan Jaffe reports.  
After months of relative quiet while the Trump administration overhauls US health and science agencies, the American Medical Association  has had enough.  When Health and Human Services  Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr dismissed all 17 members of the independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, delegates attending AMA’s annual meeting strongly condemned the action.  On June 10, more than 700 delegates approved an emergency resolution calling on Kennedy to reverse his decision [and] required AMA leadership to “immediately” ask the Senate committee overseeing HHS to investigate Kennedy’s actions “regarding his administration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices”.  [Continued here.]
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