The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had their Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting two months ago and this week selected an anti-vaccine supporter to lead CDC's COVID-19 vaccine working group. This past meeting had several presentations and discussions that generally implied an opposition to COVID vaccines. As the public watched and heard anti-vaccine sentiment from members over their two day meeting, comments from the newly appointed ACIP members demonstrated their role as Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s (RFK Jr) puppets. As Secretary of the primary public health agency, Health and Human Services (HHS), his appointed members showed their lack of basic understanding of epidemiology or immunology. Committee members are supposed to experts with highly relevant experience in these areas while the former 17 members fired by RFK Jr. were experts of these fields, the current are not. 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 — against vast scientific evidence demonstrating vaccine efficacy at reducing severe illness, death and Long COVID. In response to this meeting and in support of vaccines, 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 in support of vaccines. Even more horrendously, there are possible considerations by the Trump Administration to completely end access to COVID vaccines.

Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was the deciding vote in the successful nomination of RFK Jr. as secretary of HHS. Recently, Senator Cassidy finally 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:

1. Save access to COVID vaccines! Implement universal access policies.

2. Ensure low or no cost access to COVID vaccines.

3. Hold RFK Jr. publicly accountable and Remove Him as Secretary of HHS

We are grateful for all of your voices in supporting universal access to COVID vaccines. We need to save access to COVID vaccines and ensure they remain available to everyone. RFK Jr. must be held accountable for his decisions. We need RFK Jr. and new HHS appointees to be making evidence-based decisions with the best intentions in protecting the health of the American public and the future of medicine and healthcare.

---

Letter Template

Letter Subject: Save COVID Vaccines and Remove 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 call for his removal as secretary of HHS in order to save vaccines and ensure the adoption of evidence-based approaches to public health sciences.

Thank you for your time.