Inside RFK Jr.'s push to change vaccines in America
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
Every year, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) gathers to discuss vaccinations and make recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This year, however, the panelists are all new to the job and were all handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who has expressed skepticism of vaccines.
Today on “Post Reports,” host Elahe Izadi speaks with two of The Washington Post’s health reporters, Lena Sun and Lauren Weber, about last week’s controversial ACIP meeting, and what the future of vaccines in the United States could look like under Kennedy’s leadership.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff, with help from Elana Gordon and Thomas Lu. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick, with help from Reena Flores and mixed by Sam Bair. Thanks to Lynh Bui and Fenit Nirappil.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning. I'm pleased to call today's ACIP meeting to order. I wish you all welcome. |
| 0:10.8 | This was the beginning of a pivotal meeting in Atlanta last week. Seven people gathered inside a conference room in a CDC building to make decisions that could impact everyone in the country. |
| 0:22.8 | Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine |
| 0:30.0 | when making vaccine recommendations, and that is what we will do. |
| 0:36.1 | They were members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. |
| 0:40.5 | Every year they gather to discuss everything about vaccines, |
| 0:44.8 | including who should get them and when. |
| 0:47.6 | The group then sends its recommendations to the CDC, |
| 0:51.1 | the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
| 0:56.9 | This year, two of the post's veteran health reporters were inside of the room. So it's Lauren Weber. And Lena Sun from the Washington |
| 1:04.0 | Post. And we're coming to you live from CDC's campus. On the beautiful campus in Atlanta, Georgia. It's pretty hot here, though. We are covering |
| 1:14.0 | the meeting of the newly appointed CDC vaccine advisory panel. Normally, this is a pretty |
| 1:22.3 | dull affair, days of presentations on disease studies and cost-benefit analyses. |
| 1:28.4 | But not this year. |
| 1:30.2 | To some, this year's meeting was a five-alarm fire. |
| 1:36.4 | That's in part because of who is on this panel and how they got there. |
| 1:41.1 | They're all brand new to the job. |
| 1:43.4 | Some of them have voiced skepticism of vaccines. |
| 1:46.8 | And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., handpicked every member. |
| 1:52.5 | That worries a lot of experts in the public health world. |
| 1:55.4 | And it's clear that the new members are trying to raise doubts and so skepticism about the validity of vaccine safety |
| 2:05.1 | and particularly the safety of the coronavirus vaccine. |
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