According to epidemiologist Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, the United States could be experiencing its most significant disruption to vaccine policy in 70 years, with anti-vaccine advocates now controlling federal vaccine recommendations for 330 million Americans.
This assessment comes from Dr. Jetelina, an epidemiologist and data scientist who hosts the top science newsletter on Substack, “Your Local Epidemiologist,” in a recent interview on Pod Save America. Dr. Jetelina has been closely monitoring these developments since their inception.
Key Changes to ACIP
HHS Secretary RFK Jr. has completely restructured the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), replacing 17 highly qualified vaccine experts with 8 handpicked members. According to Dr. Jetelina, these replacement members include “people that all the way from have no experience whatsoever in vaccines all the way to antivaxers, some COVID contrarians and really a wild bag of mixed people that are ultimately making decisions for 330 million Americans based on vaccines.”
Historic Context: Dr. Jetelina notes that “this process has been grounded in nonpartisan belief system that vaccine policy should be shaped by science and experience and diverse perspectives not ideology and that hasn’t changed for the past 70 years whether it’s a Republican or Democrat administration.” ACIP traditionally consisted of experts in vaccinology, pediatrics, medicine, and epidemiology who made policy recommendations on vaccine schedules and eligibility.
Committee Performance: Dr. Jetelina observed the recent meeting and noted: “it was just clear there are not vaccine experts they questioned basic epidemiological methods we tallied more than 50 falsehoods around vaccines mentioned in two days.” She described the process as “policy-based evidence making not evidence-based policy.”
Committee Membership: The new committee members include individuals who have publicly identified as anti-vaccine advocates. Dr. Jetelina notes that some have financial conflicts through “selling of supplements antivaccine advocacy groups making millions off of vaccine litigation trials” rather than traditional pharmaceutical ties.
Immediate Market Impacts
Fall 2025 Vaccine Season
- Flu vaccines: Approved but with restriction on thimerosal-containing formulations (affects 4-7% of supply)
- RSV protection: Approved for new monoclonal antibody for infants
- COVID vaccines: No vote taken – creates major uncertainty for fall vaccination campaigns
Supply Chain Disruption Risk
The lack of COVID vaccine recommendations creates cascading operational challenges:
- Hospital systems and physicians need to place vaccine orders by July
- Insurance coverage uncertainty (insurers typically only cover ACIP-recommended vaccines)
- Provider education and public messaging gaps
- Potential for competing guidance from professional medical societies
Vaccines Under Future Review
The new committee has announced working groups to examine:
- Routine childhood vaccination schedules
- Hepatitis B vaccines
- HPV vaccines
- MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccines
Global Impact
RFK Jr. announced US withdrawal from GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations), which Dr. Jetelina notes “provides vaccines to half of the world’s children.” She emphasized that “it wasn’t necessarily about efficiency of the budget it was literally antivax” and described the decision as “cruel” with the assessment that “we’re going to lose lives to this.”
Dr. Jetelina emphasizes the disconnect between public sentiment and policy direction. She points out that while currently “95% of people agree with vaccines” and asks “when was the last time that many Americans agreed on something,” her concern is that “the very minority representation is now making these decisions but also have this huge megaphone around this sort of stuff and it’s going to start chipping away at that majority”.
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