Senators Hassan, Wyden Press RFK Jr. on White House Involvement in Decision to Dismantle Vaccine Recommendations Panel

WASHINGTON - Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health, and Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member, pressed Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over contradictory statements regarding his decision to fire the federal panel of experts that recommends which vaccines American children should receive from their doctors.

On April 22, 2026, after a line of questioning from Hassan, RFK Jr. admitted that Donald Trump and senior White House officials personally signed off on his decision to terminate all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), contradicting his previous claims that he made the decision unilaterally. If these claims are true, it implicates President Trump and calls into question his judgement.

"For nearly a year, you have publicly framed the ACIP purge as your own judgment call to restore 'public trust,'" the senators wrote to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "Your testimony tells a different story, one in which the most consequential gutting of America's vaccine infrastructure in decades was greenlit by political appointees at the White House, with the President's blessing. This was not a routine personnel action. It was the deliberate dismantling of the nation's vaccine advisory body, replaced with your handpicked allies, several of whom have built careers, and earned profits, undermining the very vaccines they are now charged with evaluating."

In the letter, the senators demand that RFK Jr. produce communications and other records that show how the Trump administration determined the legality, process, and public health consequences of their actions related to ACIP.

Since these firings, RFK Jr. has installed his own handpicked allies, many of whom have built careers and earned profits, by promoting vaccine denialism. Recently, a federal judge ruled that members of RFK Jr. 's personally appointed ACIP lack the qualifications to be members of the highest vaccine committee in America.

These vaccine cynics have now attempted to roll back longstanding vaccine recommendations for kids, contradicting longstanding recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). For instance, the Hepatitis B vaccine is no longer recommended for newborn babies within 24 hours of birth.

"Make no mistake: this is your anti-vaccine agenda," the senators continued. "You have spent your career sowing doubt about vaccines, profiting from litigation against their manufacturers, and pledging to use the powers of HHS as Secretary to validate theories the scientific community has long since rejected. Your reconstruction of ACIP is the culmination of that project, and you have embedded personal allies into the operations of a federal advisory committee to deliver the policy outcomes you have spent decades pursuing."

In August 2025, in addition to firing the entire vaccine advisory committee, RFK Jr. fired his own CDC Director, Susan Monarez, less than a month after she assumed her role. Monarez testified before the Senate HELP committee that RFK Jr. directed her to approve, without question or scientific evidence, all recommendations from his newly appointed ACIP members. When she refused, he fired her.

Since RFK Jr.'s tenure as HHS secretary began, kindergarten measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination coverage has fallen to 92.5 percent, well below the threshold needed to prevent community spread, leaving approximately 286,000 kindergartners unprotected. The U.S. has declared 4,100 measles cases since January 2025, the highest number since measles was considered eradicated in 2000.

Click hereto read the full letter to RFK Jr.

Senator Hassan has repeatedly spoken out about the dangers that Secretary Kennedy poses to the health and safety of Americans and has called for his resignation. Last year, she called for an independent analysis of the impact that the Secretary's decision to cancel nearly $500 million in mRNA-related research and development contracts. The study found that the decision could cost 49,000 lives annually.

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