Wyden Blasts HHS Secretary Kennedy for Purging All Experts on Top Vaccine Panel at CDC Despite Public Promise at Finance Committee Hearing
Top Finance Democrat Outlines Deep Concern with New Members’ Financial and Personal Interest in Anti-Vaccine Views
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., blasted Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for purging all 17 vaccine experts and replacing them with unqualified skeptics who have serious conflicts of interests on a top advisory panel at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) despite his public promise at a Finance Committee hearing of “do nothing that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.”
“Your recent ACIP dismissals directly impede patient access to vaccines, despite promises you made to the Finance Committee in sworn testimony that you would ‘do nothing that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines,’” Wyden wrote. “This represents a glaring abdication of your sworn oath to protect the health and safety of all Americans.
Up until Secretary Kennedy’s purge, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has been recognized as America’s top advisory committee on vaccine safety, holding regular public meetings, reviewing scientific evidence, and making immunization recommendations. The fired ACIP members were independent scientists, clinicians, and researchers who followed strict conflict of interest rules.
Wyden outlined the myriads of ways that Secretary Kennedy has spread alarmist misinformation about immunization, abused his position for financial gain, and added to his long history of flagrantly ignoring ACIP conflicts of interest rules.
Given Secretary Kennedy’s appalling actions have endangered the health and safety of Americans, Wyden demanded answers to his questions no later than July 8, 2025, regarding which officials were involved in replacing ACIP experts with unqualified skeptics, what their decision-making process was, and how new members will promote fact-based findings on vaccines.
Wyden has consistently pushed back on Secretary Kennedy’s anti-science rhetoric and mismanagement of HHS. In May 2025, Wyden and his colleagues introduced a resolution demanding public input on the radical upheaval at federal health agencies. In March 2025, he joined colleagues in demanding answers from Secretary Kennedy about Big Pharma’s influence on HHS following his million dollar dinners at Mar-a-Lago. Later that month, Wyden called on the Secretary to launch a national vaccination campaign after America faced its first death from measles in a decade.
The full text of the letter is here.
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