Three Days Remain Sept 13: Submit a comment to Save Vaccines! Demand the CDC Maintain Universal Vaccine Access
Tell the CDC to ensure vaccines are available to everyone by Saturday, Sept 13, at 11:59pm EDT.
The CDC’s ACIP has lost its independent decision making and access to COVID vaccines are likely being limited unless we speak up to ensure universal access to vaccines. We need the public to flood the CDC with our voices in support of vaccines. We face one of the largest public crises in decades.
By Saturday, Sept 13th, 11:59 pm EDT: Submit a personalized comment to the CDC demanding COVID vaccines are available to everyone.
You can also sign up to submit oral testimony here. It is important to testify verbally if you are able to demonstrate to government leaders that the public supports vaccines as a major public health measure.
The recently appointed CDC director, Dr. Susan Monarez, was forcibly removed from her role on Aug 27, 2025 because she did not fire top leaders at the CDC nor accept changes to COVID vaccine recommendations to be presented at the upcoming September 18-19 CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting. The newly appointed ACIP committee members were handpicked by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK Jr.) not because of their medical or scientific expertise, but rather for their public opposition to vaccines. Several months ago, RFK Jr. announced by press release the removal of all 17 members of the CDC’s ACIP vaccine advisory committee. RFK Jr. not only bypassed expert advisory committee input but also imposed restrictions on access to COVID vaccines. Now he is planning to appoint another seven new members to ACIP, many with a record of promoting lies regarding vaccines.
In recent weeks, his appointed leaders at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), led by Dr. Marty Makary and the recently reinstalled Dr. Vinay Prasad, have removed recommendations to give COVID vaccines for pregnant people and children as well as narrowing access to adults with underlying health conditions. Yet there is clear evidence that vaccines are widely effective at reducing severe illness, death and Long COVID.
The upcoming meeting, with new ACIP members, will further steps to restrict access to COVID vaccines – and others. Universal access to COVID vaccines must be guaranteed to preserve public health. The public has an opportunity to oppose moves to restrict vaccine access by submitting a “Public Comment” at the upcoming September 18 to 19 ACIP meeting. Public comments opened on September 2 and will close September 13.
Again, it’s urgent to have tens of thousands of comments, flooding the CDC with our voices in support of vaccines and to protect the future of public health and medicine. The last day to submit a written public comment is September 13, 2025.
Learn more about the ACIP meeting at the Federal Register or at the CDC.
You may also seek to speak to committee members, giving a live oral comment at the meeting (via online teleconferencing), by filling out the oral comment registration form by September 13. All fields are required and you are asked to choose either 9/18 or 9/19. If you are not affiliated with an organization, you can write “Self” or “Not Affiliated" in the organization field. If you are selected for oral comment, you will receive a confirmation email and instructions by September 16th, and must respond to confirm your spot to speak. Selected speakers will have 3 minutes. Again, the deadline to register to speak at ACIP’s meeting is September 13.
Our template below makes it easy to submit a written public comment.
See the CDC’s ACIP meeting page for additional meeting details: https://www.cdc.gov/acip/meetings/index.html#cdc_toolkit_main_toolkit_cat_3-upcoming-meetings
We provide some key talking points below for your comment, and a sample comment is below the divider. Feel free to copy, modify, and share any of the text for your own advocacy.
The best comments start with a personal perspective so please add in a sentence or two about why you and your community want vaccines.
Until Sept 13th, you can still make your voice heard and ask the CDC the following:
Secretary Kennedy must restore the widely-esteemed previous members of CDC’s ACIP.
ACIP must acknowledge that available COVID vaccines are safe and effective, and are vital for children, adults, and pregnant people, all of whom rely on CDC ACIP vaccine recommendations for access to vaccines and insurance coverage.
ACIP must continue to recommend widespread and unhindered access to a wide range of vaccines to protect people of all ages in the US.
ACIP must preserve a universal recommendation for COVID vaccines for people of all ages , including children and pregnant people, at least twice annually.
Include some brief personal comments about why vaccination is important and why it matters to you, such as how vaccination for a broad range of infectious diseases has positively protected you and/or your community. Optionally, at the beginning of your comment, you may also include information on professional or other credentials, and whether or not you have any financial conflicts of interest relevant to the topic. Feel free to take inspiration from or borrow the language in our sample public comment below.
Submitted written public comments for the meeting must be received by the CDC via Regulations.gov no later than September 13, 2025 at 11:59 pm Eastern Daylight Time for the committee’s consideration.
Step-By-Step Submission Instructions:
Step 1. Go to Regulations.gov to submit your comment and search for Docket CDC-2025-0454-0001.
Step 2. Type your comment under the field, “Comment.” (Note: there is a 5000 character limit. If you would like to write more, upload your comment as a PDF document.)
Step 3 (optional). Submit a PDF or Word version of your comment, or scientific articles or other evidence, under “Attach Files.”
Step 4. What is your comment about? Select Federal Government
Step 5. Select either “Individual” or “Anonymous” depending on whether you want to share your personal information that will be publicly available on the Federal Register.
Step 6. If selecting “Individual,” provide your first and last name at minimum. If you select “Anonymous,” directly submit a comment without sharing your personal information.
Step 7. Click “Submit Comment.”
Sample comment letter (please personalize)
Docket: CDC-2025-0454-0001
Public Comment for September 18 to 19 CDC ACIP Committee Meeting
To Congress, CDC, and Members of the CDC ACIP committee:
I have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
I am a [FOR EXAMPLE: physician/patient/epidemiologist/nurse/concerned American/person with disabilities] deeply worried about recent harmful and unwarranted changes on vaccine policy at the CDC. This is a vital issue to me because of the following below.
I am writing to express grave concerns of the future of public health specifically vaccines and the termination of all 17 members of the CDC ACIP committee by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr as well as the selection of two new groups of individuals as members of ACIP. These former members have an important role on the ACIP committee, as widely-esteemed independent scientists or clinicians with deep scientific expertise who provide their understanding of the safety and efficacy of FDA-approved and authorized vaccines. Their recommendations also guide crucial insurance coverage, as well as coverage for uninsured children through the Vaccines for Children program. Current vaccination rates for many infectious diseases are very low, and many US communities 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 to people’s health. Everyone, especially children in 2025, should not die or become disabled from infectious diseases because they lack access to affordable and effective vaccines.
Further, RFK Jr., Marty Makary, and Vinay Prasad have recently abruptly imposed new policies that limit access to COVID vaccinations. Creating such barriers is reckless and will without doubt harm the public’s health. Updated COVID vaccines must remain universally accessible and widely available at no cost to everyone. The scientific evidence is irrefutable, so it not only endangers Americans’ health but also is a waste of precious resources and time to require additional efficacy studies, which would only serve to sow doubt in vaccines. Receiving a COVID vaccine within the last year reduces the risk of symptoms, severe disease, disability, Long COVID, and death for people of all ages, including previously healthy people. The new restrictive policies create barriers to universal access to COVID vaccines, and are especially essential for children, pregnant people, older adults, and adults with underlying health conditions especially under the age of 65.These restrictions also create immense confusion among the public on the usefulness of COVID vaccines.
I urge you to take action, follow the evidence, and reinstate universal COVID vaccination recommendations for people of all ages, authorizing them twice a year (due to their rapid waning), for all COVID vaccine formulations.
Any changes to vaccine-related policies require a science and evidence-based approach entailing an open and transparent process, which has disappeared recently. At the FDA, the VRBPAC committee members also were faced with undue influence by FDA leadership, including Vinay Prasad. He made a decision for the VRBPAC committee before they had a chance to consider and share vaccine recommendations. This also happened with the Influenza vaccine strain selection, which occurred in a closed-door meeting without recommendations from the FDA VRBPAC committee members, and with no opportunity for public consideration or comment.
Members of ACIP committee should vote for policies advancing and protecting public health measures specifically universal access to vaccines as well as to ensure that decisions are considered, evaluated, and concluded using open and transparent processes, all of which are hallmarks of democracy.
Thank you for your consideration.
END OF LETTER
Full instructions for written and oral comment and meeting information can be found at: https://www.cdc.gov/acip/meetings/index.html
CDC ACIP Meeting Information at the Federal Register: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/29/2025-16706/meeting-of-the-advisory-committee-on-immunization-practices
Submitted written comments or registration to make oral comment at the meeting must be received by the CDC no later than September 13, 2025 at 11:59 pm Eastern Daylight Time.