New ACIP Members Announced, Meeting This Week
Saturday, September 20, 2025
CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) convened this week to consider changes to the childhood vaccination schedule including to the Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Varicella (MMRV), Hepatitis B, and COVID-19 vaccines. This is the second ACIP meeting since HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
dismissed all committee members earlier this year. Ahead of this week’s meeting, Secretary Kennedy announced the addition of five new ACIP members, in addition to the seven that he added following the mass dismissal of the committee’s members in June.
During the two-day meeting, the panel voted
to change a recommendation for the combined measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (MMRV) vaccine for children under 4, instead recommending two separate vaccines for the group, one for MMR and one for varicella (commonly known as chickenpox). The MMRV shot
is no longer recommended for children under age 4, and it will not be covered by the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program. For children over 4, the shot continues to be recommended and will remain covered by VFC. While the committee voted against explicitly
requiring a prescription for COVID-19 vaccination, it removed the blanket recommendation that all individuals over 65 receive the vaccine and shifted to shared clinical decision-making. For individuals 6 months to 65 years, the committee recommended receiving
the vaccine based on shared clinical decision-making with an emphasis on the risk-benefit of vaccination, meaning that the COVID vaccine is more beneficial for those at increased risk of severe illness. This is a shift from previous years where the committee
recommended all individuals above 6 months receive an updated COVID vaccine. These changes will now go to HHS for approval by the interim director of CDC, Jim O’Neill. Additionally, the panel agreed to delay a vote on changing the recommendation for hepatitis
B immunization at birth.
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