Keep Universal Vaccine Access and Keep RFK Jr. Accountable!
Urgent! Vaccine Access Continues to be Threatened by RFK’s Puppet ACIP Committee. Ask Congress to act by July 17th.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had their Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting a few weeks ago. This meeting had presentations and discussions about several vaccines, including COVID vaccines. As the public watched this two-day meeting unfurl, it quickly became a mess, with the expertise of CDC staff being questioned by newly appointed ACIP members – who appear to be Robert F Kennedy Jr’s. (RFK Jr.) puppets. As Secretary of the primary public health agency in the US, Health and Human Services (HHS), RFK Jr.’s appointment of these ACIP members has further revealed not only their lack of basic understanding of epidemiology or immunology but also his anti-vaccine position. ACIP committee members are meant to be experts with highly relevant experience in these areas and the former 17 members fired by RFK Jr. were experts of these fields, unlike their replacements. Even before the ACIP meeting, RFK Jr. bypassed expert advisory committee input and imposed restrictions on access to COVID vaccines, removing vaccine recommendations for pregnant people and children— despite vast scientific evidence demonstrating vaccine efficacy at reducing severe illness, death and Long COVID. In response, Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester is spearheading a bill called the Vaccine Act to protect access with support from several other US senators.
RFK Jr. has been a source of deceptive claims on many public health issues. As the former founder of an anti-vaccine organization, he has continuously opposed COVID vaccines. He petitioned the FDA in May 2021 to stop COVID vaccinations, and instead promoted ineffective treatments for COVID such as ivermectin. Congress must have a public hearing with RFK Jr. to hold him accountable to the scientific and procedural standards of an HHS leader, and in support of vaccines.
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was the deciding vote in the successful nomination of RFK Jr. as secretary of HHS. However recently, Senator Cassidy spoke up with his concerns about the firing of CDC’s previous expert ACIP members, and RFK Jr. 's hand-picked replacements. If you live in Louisiana, please call his office using the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or email the senator’s staff and express your frustration with RFK Jr.’s decisions regarding COVID vaccines and demand for a public hearing to hold RFK Jr. accountable.
Our call to action is as follows:
Ensure universal access to COVID vaccines and reinstate previous vaccine schedule and access policies.
Support the Vaccine Act by Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester and Reinstate all former 17 members of the CDC ACIP.
Hold a public hearing with RFK Jr. to hold him accountable to the public about vaccines.
We are grateful for your voices in support of universal access to COVID vaccines. We need to ensure COVID vaccines remain available to everyone and that RFK Jr. is held accountable for his decisions. We need to ensure that RFK Jr. and new HHS appointees are making evidence-based decisions with the best intentions for protecting the health of the American public and the future of medicine and healthcare.
You can submit a letter to your members of Congress, both the House and the Senate, via our Action Network or contact members Congress using their contact information, keeping our letter in full or editing it as you wish. Submit by July 17th before their August recess.
Please personalize your letter. Letters to elected officials are most effective when they start with a brief personal comment (a sentence or two) about why and how these individuals could impact you, your loved ones, and/or your community.
Letter Template
Letter Subject: Support Universal Access to Vaccines and Hold Hearing with RFK Jr.
Dear Member of Congress,
As a constituent of your state, I ask for your support to ensure universal access to COVID vaccines. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) restricted access and recommended against children and pregnant people accessing COVID vaccines. It is inappropriate and harmful for him to be making these clinical and policy decisions. COVID infections continue to harm millions of Americans with nearly 500,000 hospitalizations and over 50,000 deaths between October 1, 2024 and June 21, 2025 as reported by the CDC.
Currently, vaccination rates for many infectious diseases are very low, and many communities across the US are directly affected by outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, pertussis, and COVID. Many of these infections can cause serious and potentially lifelong consequences for health. Children and pregnant people in 2025 should not die or become disabled from infectious diseases because of a lack of access to affordable and effective vaccines. Receiving a COVID vaccine within the last year reduces the risk of symptoms, severe disease, disability, and death for people of all ages, including previously healthy people. The new policies by RFK Jr. create barriers to access to COVID vaccines, limiting access for children, pregnant people, and adults under age 65. These restrictions also create immense confusion among the public on the usefulness of COVID vaccines. We ask you to take action and support the reinstatement of universal COVID vaccine recommendations for people of all ages, twice a year, for all COVID vaccine formulations.
As we also learned from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting this week, new members that were appointed by RFK Jr. do not have sufficient expertise regarding vaccines, infectious disease, or public health. This committee’s recommendations to the CDC on the accessibility of vaccines ultimately affects COVID vaccine access in healthcare settings and financial access through health insurance coverage (or lack thereof). We ask that you demand that the former 17 members of ACIP be restored to their former positions
Mr. Kennedy continues to demonstrate a lack of experience and understanding of America’s major public health department. He continues to deceive elected leaders and the public about important health information by promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines. With financial conflicts of interest totaling millions of dollars, he continues to play a significant role in undermining public health. I respectfully ask you to hold him accountable. We need you to hold a public hearing that demands for his support of vaccines and to adopt evidence-based approaches to public health sciences.
Thank you for your time.
We appreciate your continued voices and advocacy for the health of all of us.
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