CDC

CDC vaccine panel realizes again it has no idea what it’s doing, delays big vote

anti-vaccine, CDC, health, robert f kennedy jr / Paul Patrick / December 4, 2025

Today’s meeting was chaotic and included garbage anti-vaccine presentations.

Dr. Robert Malone speaks during a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at CDC Headquarters on December 4, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. Credit: Getty | Elijah Nouvelage

The panel of federal vaccine advisors hand-selected by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has once again punted on whether to strip recommendations for hepatitis B vaccinations for newborns—a move it tried to make in September before realizing it didn’t know what it was doing. The decision to delay the vote today came abruptly this afternoon when the panel realized it still does not understand the topic or what it was voting on.

Prior to today’s 6–3 vote to delay a decision, there was a swirl of confusion over the wording of what a new recommendation would be. Panel members had gotten three different versions of the proposed recommendation in the 72 hours prior to the meeting, one panelist said. And the meeting’s data presentations this morning offered no clarity on the subject—they were delivered entirely by anti-vaccine activists who have no subject matter expertise and who made a dizzying amount of false and absurd claims.

“Completely inappropriate”

Overall, the meeting was disorganized and farcical. Kennedy’s panel has abandoned the evidence-based framework for setting vaccine policy in favor of airing unvetted presentations with misrepresentations, conspiracy theories, and cherry-picked studies. At times, there were tense exchanges, chaos, confusion, and misunderstandings.

Still, the discussion was watched closely by the medical and health community, which expects that the panel—composed of Kennedy allies who espouse anti-vaccine views—will strip the recommendation for a hepatitis B vaccine birth dose. Decisions by the committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have historically set national vaccine policy. Health insurance programs are required to cover, at no cost, vaccinations recommended by the ACIP. So rescinding a recommendation means Americans could lose coverage.

Medical and public health experts consider the birth-dose vaccination to be critical for protecting all infants from contracting the highly infectious virus that, when acquired early in life from their mother or anyone else, almost always causes chronic infections that lead to liver disease, cancer, and early death. There is no data suggesting harms from the newborn dose, nor any safety data suggesting that delaying the first dose by a month or two, as ACIP is considering, would be safer or better in any way. But studies do indicate that such a delay would lead to more hepatitis B infections in babies

These points were hard to find in today’s presentations. Abandoning standard protocol, the meeting did not include any presentations or data reviews led by CDC scientists or subject matter experts. Kennedy has also barred medical and health expert liaisons—such as the American Medical Association, the Infectious Disease Society of America, and the American Academy of Pediatrics—from participating in the ACIP working groups, which compile data and set language for proposed vaccine recommendations.

Anti-vaccine presentations

Instead, today, ACIP heard only from anti-vaccine activists. The first was Cynthia Nevison, a climate researcher and anti-vaccine activist with ties to Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy’s anti-vaccine organization. She was also a board member of an advocacy group called Safe Minds, which promotes a false link between autism and vaccines, specifically the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal, which was removed from routine childhood vaccines in the early 2000s. (Safe Minds stands for Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders.) According to her academic research profile at the University of Colorado Boulder, her expertise is in “global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen and their impact on atmospheric trace gases.”

Far from that topic, Nevison gave a presentation downplaying the transmission of hepatitis B and the benefits of vaccines. She falsely claimed that the dramatic decline in hepatitis B infections that followed vaccination efforts was not actually due to the vaccination efforts—despite irrefutable evidence that it was. And she followed that up with her own unvetted modeling claiming that CDC scientists overestimate the risk of transmission. She ended by presenting a few studies showing declines in blood antibody levels after initial vaccination, which she claimed suggests that the hepatitis B vaccine does not offer lifelong protection, an incorrect takeaway based on her lack of expertise.

The author of one of the studies just happened to be present at today’s meeting. Pediatrician Amy Middleman, who is an ACIP liaison representing the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) and a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, was the first author on a key study Nevison referenced. Middleman was quick to point out that Nevison had completely misunderstood the study, which actually showed that cell-based immune protection from the vaccine offers robust lifelong protection, even after initial antibody levels decline (called an anamnestic response).

“This is where a really experienced understanding of immunization comes into play,” Middleman said. “The entire point of our study is that for most vaccines, the anamnestic response is really their superpower. So this study showed that memory cells exist such that when they see something that looks like the hepatitis B disease, they actually attack. The presence of a robust and anamnestic response, regardless of circulating antibody years later, shows true protection.”

The next presentation was from Mark Blaxill, an anti-vaccine activist installed at the CDC in September. Blaxill gave a presentation on hepatitis B vaccine safety, despite having no background in medicine or science. He previously worked as an executive for a technology investment firm and, like Nevison, also worked for Safe Minds, where he was vice president. Blaxill has written books and many articles falsely claiming that vaccines cause a variety of harms in children. In 2004, when an Institute of Medicine analysis concluded that there were no convincing links between vaccines and autism, Blaxill publicly protested the result.

In his presentation, he attacked the quality of safety data in past hepatitis B studies. Though he stopped short of suggesting any specific harms from the vaccine, he aired unsubstantiated possibilities popular with anti-vaccine activists. He also noted a study finding that some babies had fatigue and irritability after vaccination, which he bizarrely suggested was a sign of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).

Real-time feedback

Cody Meissner, a pediatrician and voting member of ACIP who is the most qualified and experienced member of the panel, quickly called out the suggestion as ridiculous. “That is absolutely not encephalitis,” Meissner said with frustration in his voice. “That’s not a statement that a physician would make. [Those symptoms] are not related to encephalitis, and you can’t say that.”

As in previous meetings, Jason Goldman, the ACIP liaison representing the American College of Physicians, gave the most biting response to the meeting overall, saying:

Once again, this committee fails to use the evidence to recommend framework and shows absolutely no understanding of the process or the gravity of the moment of the recommendations that you make. We need to look at all the evidence and data and not cherry-pick them… This meeting is completely inappropriate for an administration that wants to avoid fraud, waste, and abuse. You are wasting taxpayer dollars by not having scientific, rigorous discussion on issues that truly matter. The best thing you can do is adjourn the meeting and discuss vaccine issues that actually need to be taken up… As physicians, your ethical obligation is primum non nocere, first do no harm, and you are failing in that by promoting this anti-vaccine agenda without the data and evidence necessary to make those informed decisions.

The panel will reconvene tomorrow for an all-day meeting in which the members will consider a vote on the hepatitis B vaccine for a third time. The meeting will also host other anti-vaccine presentations attacking the childhood vaccine schedule in its entirety.

Beth is Ars Technica’s Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes.

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Meet CDC’s new lead vaccine advisor who thinks shots cause heart disease

ACIP, anti-vaccine, CDC, fda, health, Kirk Milhoan, myocarditis, robert f kennedy jr, vinay prasad / Paul Patrick / December 2, 2025

Milhoan has a history of touting unproven COVID cures while disparaging vaccines.

Kirk Milhoan, James Pagano, and Robert Malone are seen during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on September 18, 2025 in Chamblee, Georgia. Credit: Getty | Elijah Nouvelage

When the federal vaccine committee hand-picked by anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. meets again this week, it will have yet another new chairperson to lead its ongoing work of dismantling the evidence-based vaccine recommendations set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that the chairperson who has been in place since June—when Kennedy fired all 17 expert advisors on the committee and replaced them with questionably qualified allies—is moving to a senior role in the department. Biostatistician Martin Kulldorff will now be the chief science officer for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), HHS said. As such, he’s stepping down from the vaccine committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Kulldorff gained prominence amid the COVID-19 pandemic, criticizing public health responses to the crisis, particularly lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccines. He was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration that advocated for letting the deadly virus spread unchecked through the population, which was called unethical by health experts.

As ACIP chair, Kulldorff frequently made false and misleading statements about vaccine safety and efficacy that were in line with Kennedy’s views and statements. While Kulldorff presided over the committee, it made a series of decisions that were sharply denounced by scientific and medical groups as being based on ideology rather than evidence. Those include voting for the removal of the vaccine preservative thimerosal from some flu vaccines, despite well-established data indicating it is safe, with no evidence of harms. The committee also added restrictions to a combination measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox) MMRV vaccine and made an unprecedented effort to prevent Americans from getting COVID-19 vaccines, though the moves were largely ineffective.

In his new role, Kulldorff will be working with ASPE to provide analyses on health policy options, coordinate research efforts, and provide policy advice.

“It’s an honor to join the team of distinguished scientists that Secretary Kennedy has assembled,” Kulldorff said in a press release announcing his new role. “I look forward to contributing to the science-based public health policies that will Make America Healthy Again.”

The new chair, Kirk Milhoan

With Kulldorff moving on, ACIP will now be chaired by Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric oncologist with a track record for spreading COVID-19 misinformation and anti-vaccine views. In August 2021, the Hawaii Medical Board filed a complaint against Milhoan after he appeared on a panel promoting ineffective COVID-19 treatments, downplaying the severity of the disease, and spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Maui News. The complaint was dropped in April 2022 after state regulators said they had insufficient evidence to prove a violation of statutes regarding the practice of medicine.

While Milhoan claimed at the time that he is “pro-vaccine,” his statement, affiliations, and prescribing practices suggest otherwise. Milhoan is a member of the Independent Medical Alliance (formerly the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance), a group of dubious health care providers set up amid the pandemic to promote the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and the de-worming drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19. Both drugs have shown to be ineffective and potentially harmful when used to treat or prevent COVID-19. The IMA also emphasizes vaccine injuries while pushing vitamins and other unproven treatments.

In 2024, Milhoan appeared on a panel set up by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to discuss alleged injuries from COVID-19 vaccines alongside other prominent anti-vaccine and COVID-19 misinformation voices. In his opening statement, Milhoan suggested that COVID-19 vaccines were causing severe cardiovascular disease and death in people aged 15 to 44—an unsubstantiated claim he frequently echoes. In his bio for the IMA, he touts that he offers treatment for “vaccine-related cardiovascular toxicity due to the spike protein.”

CDC data has found that boys and young men, aged 12 to 24, have a heightened risk of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) after COVID-19 vaccination. However, the cases are rare, relatively mild, and almost always resolve, according to CDC data. In a COVID-19 safety data presentation in June, CDC staff scientists reported that its vast vaccine safety monitoring systems indicated that in males 12–24, there are 27 myocarditis cases per million doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered (roughly one case in 37,000 doses). In cases identified during 2021, 83 percent recovered within three months, with more than 90 percent recovering within the year. The monitoring data found no instances of cardiac transplant or death from COVID-19 vaccination.

While anti-vaccine activists have seized on this minor risk from vaccination, health experts note that the risk of myocarditis and other inflammatory conditions from a COVID-19 infection is significantly greater than the risk from vaccination. Exact estimates vary, but one CDC study in 2021 found that people with COVID-19 infections had a 16-fold higher risk of myocarditis than people without the infection. Specifically, the study estimated that there were 150 myocarditis cases among 100,000 COVID-19-infected patients versus just nine myocarditis cases among 100,000 people without COVID-19 infections and who were also unvaccinated. Similar to what’s seen with vaccination, the study found that young males were most at risk of myocarditis.

Kennedy’s allies attack on COVID-19 shots

Kennedy and his allies, like Milhoan, have consistently inflated the risk of myocarditis from COVID-19 vaccination, with some claiming without evidence that they have caused sudden cardiac arrest and deaths in young males, though studies have found no such link. In 2022, Milhoan and fellow ACIP member and conspiracy theorist Robert Malone were featured in a viral social media post suggesting that 50 percent of college athletes in the Big Ten athletic conference had myocarditis linked to COVID-19 vaccines, which could lead to deaths if they played. But the two were referencing a JAMA Cardiology study that examined subclinical myocarditis in Big Ten athletes after COVID-19 infection—not vaccination. In fact, researchers confirmed for an AFP fact check that none of the athletes in the study were vaccinated. And the rate of subclinical myocarditis in the group was 2.3 percent, not 50 percent.

Milhoan’s misinformation about the cardiovascular harms from COVID-19 vaccines seems particularly pertinent to the direction of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine allies. On Friday, Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator, sent a memo to staff claiming without evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed 10 children. The memo provides little information about the extraordinary claim, but it hints that the deaths were linked to myocarditis and found among reports submitted between 2021 and 2024 to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

VAERS is a system by which anyone, including members of the public, can report anything they think could be linked to vaccines. The reports are considered a type of early warning system, but the vast majority of the reports submitted are not actually related to vaccines. Further, CDC scientists have thoroughly evaluated VAERS reports and ruled out deaths attributed to COVID-19 vaccines. Prasad’s memo—which experts have speculated was designed to be leaked to produce alarming headlines about child deaths—claimed that before Trump administration officials with anti-vaccine views began sifting through the data, these deaths were “ignored” by FDA and CDC scientists. Prasad also claimed that there could be many more deaths that have gone unreported, despite the fact that healthcare providers have been legally required to report any deaths that occurred after COVID-19 vaccination, regardless of cause.

This week’s ACIP meeting

In this week’s scheduled ACIP meeting on Thursday and Friday, COVID-19 vaccines don’t appear on the draft agenda. Instead, ACIP is expected to vote to remove a recommendation for a birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. That dose protects newborns from contracting the highly infectious virus from their mothers during birth or from other family or acquaintances shortly after birth. About half of the people infected with hepatitis B are not aware of their infections, and testing of mothers before birth is imperfect. That can leave newborns particularly vulnerable, as infections that start at or shortly after birth almost always develop into chronic infections that can lead to liver disease, liver transplant, and cancer. In a previous ACIP meeting, CDC staff scientists presented data showing that there are no significant harms of birth doses and there is no evidence that delaying the immunization offers any benefit.

The committee is also taking on the childhood vaccine schedule as a whole, though the agenda on this topic is not yet clear. In his memo, Prasad attacked the common practice of providing multiple vaccinations at once, hinting that it could be a way in which the committee will try to dismantle current childhood vaccination recommendations. On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the committee will examine whether the childhood vaccine schedule as a whole is causing allergies and autoimmune diseases, something Kennedy and his anti-vaccine organization have long floated despite evidence refuting a link.

Under clear attack are aluminum salt adjuvants, which are used in many vaccines to help spur protective immune responses. Aluminum salts have been used safely in vaccines for more than 70 years. The FDA notes that the most common source of aluminum exposure is from food and water, not vaccines.

Meet CDC’s new lead vaccine advisor who thinks shots cause heart disease Read More »

Four-inch worm hatches in woman’s forehead, wriggles to her eyelid

CDC, eye, health, Infectious disease, New England Journal of Medicine, parasite, worm / Mike M. / November 27, 2025

Creeping

For anyone enjoying—or at least trying to enjoy—Thanksgiving in America, you can be thankful that these worms are not present in the US; they are exclusive to the “Old World,” that is Europe, Africa, and Asia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They’re often found in the Mediterranean region, but reports in recent years have noted that they seem to be expanding into new areas of Europe—particularly eastward and northward. In a report earlier this year of cases in Estonia, researchers noted that it is also emerging in Lithuania, Latvia, and Finland.

Researchers attribute the worm’s creep to climate change and globalization. But in another report this year of a case in Austria (thought to be acquired while the patient was vacationing in Greece), researchers also raised the speculation that the worms may be adapting to use humans as a true host. Researchers in Serbia suggested this in a 2023 case report, in which an infection led to microfilariae in the patient’s blood. The researchers speculated that such cases, considered rare, could be increasing.

For now, people in America have less to worry about. D. repens has not been found in the US, but it does have some relatives here that occasionally show up in humans, including D. immitis, the cause of dog heartworm, and D. tenuis. The latter can cause similar cases to D. repens, with worms wandering under the skin, particularly around the eye. So far, this worm has mainly been found in raccoons in Florida.

For those who do find a worm noodling through their skin, the outlook is generally good. Treatment includes surgical removal of the worm, which largely takes care of the problem, as well as anti-parasitic or antibiotic drugs to be sure to stamp out the infection or any co-infections. In the woman’s case, her symptoms disappeared after doctors pulled the worm from her eyelid.

Four-inch worm hatches in woman’s forehead, wriggles to her eyelid Read More »

RFK Jr.’s new CDC deputy director prefers “natural immunity” over vaccines

anti-vaccine, CDC, health, public health, ralph abraham, Robert F Kenned Jr., vaccine / Kris Guyer / November 26, 2025

Under ardent anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has named Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham as its new principal deputy director—a choice that was immediately called “dangerous” and “irresponsible,” yet not as bad as it could have been, by experts.

Physician Jeremy Faust revealed the appointment in his newsletter Inside Medicine yesterday, which was subsequently confirmed by journalists. Faust noted that a CDC source told him, “I heard way worse names floated,” and although Abraham’s views are “probably pretty terrible,” he at least has had relevant experience running a public health system, unlike other current leaders of the agency.

But Abraham hasn’t exactly been running a health system the way most public health experts would recommend. Under Abraham’s leadership, the Louisiana health department waited months to inform residents about a deadly whooping cough (pertussis) outbreak. He also has a clear record of anti-vaccine views. Earlier this year, he told a Louisiana news outlet he doesn’t recommend COVID-19 vaccines because “I prefer natural immunity.” In February, he ordered the health department to stop promoting mass vaccinations, including flu shots, and barred staff from running seasonal vaccine campaigns.

RFK Jr.’s new CDC deputy director prefers “natural immunity” over vaccines Read More »

CDC data confirms US is 2 months away from losing measles elimination status

arizona, CDC, health, Infectious disease, measles, outbreak, texas, Utah, vaccination / Rejus Almole / November 18, 2025

Unsurprising

This 9171 subtype “continues, unfortunately uninterrupted, across multiple jurisdictions,” David Sugerman, who leads the CDC measles response, said on the call.

According to the Times, local health officials are pessimistic that they’ll be able to stamp out the virus’ spread, saying that vaccination efforts have had “limited” impact. As Ars reported previously, vaccination rates are dangerously low in two measles hotspots: northwestern Mohave County, Arizona, and the southwest health district of Utah. Vaccination rates among kindergartners in the 2024–2025 school year were 78.4 percent and 80.7 percent, respectively. That’s well below the 95 percent target needed to keep the virus from spreading onward in the communities.

In addition, public health officials in Arizona and Utah have reported barriers to responding to the outbreak. Around a quarter of cases don’t know how they were exposed, suggesting cases and exposures are being missed. In late October, health officials in Salt Lake County, Utah, said that a person likely infected with measles refused to cooperate with their investigation, leaving them unable to confirm the probable case.

David Kimberlin, who sits on a panel of experts that analyzes measles data for the United States’ elimination status review, told the Times, “It would not surprise me in the least if there’s continued spread across these next several months.”

To date, the CDC has tallied 1,723 measles cases across 42 states. Most (87 percent) of those cases were linked to outbreaks, of which there have been 45 this year. For context, there were 16 outbreaks and a total of 285 measles cases in the US last year. This year’s measles cases mark a 33-year high.

CDC data confirms US is 2 months away from losing measles elimination status Read More »

As shutdown ends, dubious CDC panel gets back to dismantling vaccine schedule

ACIP, american academy of pediatrics, anti-vaccine, CDC, health, hepatitis B, kennedy, robert f kennedy jr, vaccines / Tim Belzer / November 14, 2025

Nevertheless, Kennedy’s ACIP members planned to push the first dose back a month. A vote was prepared to recommend not giving a birth dose unless there was “individual based decision-making.” While at first the panel seemed poised to vote in favor of the change, the plan collapsed with basic questioning.

Voting ACIP member Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist, noted: “I’m unclear if we’ve been presented with any safety or data comparing before one month to after one month,” he said. They had not.

“And,” Hibbeln continued, “I’m wondering why one month was selected as our time point and if there are data to help to inform us if there’s greater risk of adverse effects before one month or after one month at all.”

There is no data suggesting that such a move would be more or less safe.

The discussion quickly spiraled from there with an eventual vote of 11-1 to table voting on the vaccine recommendation. According to the Federal Register notice, ACIP will try to take up the topic again. They could revive the vote or attack some other aspect of vaccine recommendations.

Pediatricians fight back

Health experts have blasted Kennedy’s lineup and their attacks on childhood vaccines, including the hepatitis B vaccination schedule. The current schedule “remains the best protection against serious health problems like liver disease and cancer,” the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasized to Ars.

With ACIP’s standing tarnished under Kennedy, AAP has put forth its own evidence-based vaccine schedule for pediatricians to trust. They’ve also been a prominent opponent among medical organizations to Kennedy’s efforts. For instance, in a revised federal lawsuit, the AAP along with other medical organizations is seeking to overturn all decisions made by Kennedy’s ACIP and replace the entire panel with actual experts.

Kennedy’s appointees “lack the credentials and experience required of their role,” and all their votes should be declared “null and void,” the organization said.

AAP President Susan Kressly said that pediatricians are already seeing the effects of having an anti-vaccine activist as the US health secretary, namely “fear, decreased vaccine confidence, and barriers for families to access vaccines.”

“The nation’s children are already paying the price in avoidable illnesses and hospitalizations,” Kressly said. “We urge federal leaders to restore the science-based deliberative process that has made the United States a global leader in public health. Urgent action is needed.”

As shutdown ends, dubious CDC panel gets back to dismantling vaccine schedule Read More »

CDC tormented: HR workers summoned from furlough to lay off themselves, others

CDC, health, Trump / Rejus Almole / October 15, 2025

Traumatized CDC has lost 33% of its workforce this year, union says.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – AUGUST 9: Bullet holes are seen in windows at the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) Global Headquarters following a shooting that left two dead, on August 9, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia. On August 8, a gunman opened fire near the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control, killing a DeKalb County Police Department officer before being found dead by gunfire. Credit: Getty | Elijah Nouvelage

The dust is still settling at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a mass layoff on Friday, which former employees at the beleaguered agency are describing as a massacre.

In separate press briefings on Tuesday, a network of terminated CDC staff that goes by the name the National Public Health Coalition, and the union representing employees at the agency discussed what the wide-scale cuts mean for the American people, as well as the trauma, despair, and damage they have wreaked on the workers of the once-premier public health agency.

In a normal federal layoff—called a reduction in force, or RIF—the agency would be given a full outline of the roles and branches or divisions affected, as well as some explanation for the cuts, such as alleged fraud, abuse, or redundancy. However, the Trump administration has provided no such information or explanation, leaving current and former employees to essentially crowdsource what has been lost and only guess at the possible reasons.

The numbers

The union representing CDC workers, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 2883, has been assessing the cuts since termination emails began arriving in employee inboxes late Friday. The union estimates that the Trump administration sent termination notices to 1,300 CDC employees on Friday, in what they called an illegal “politically-motivated stunt.” Of those 1,300 terminations, around 700 were rescinded, beginning on Saturday.

The Trump administration said the 700 rescinded terminations were sent due to a “coding error.” But CDC workers didn’t buy that explanation, saying all the terminations were intentional, and some were only reversed after backlash erupted when people realized what the administration was trying to cut—for example, terminating the experts responding to domestic measles outbreaks and those responding to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who received RIF notices that were later rescinded. Still, with the rescissions, some 600 terminations appear to remain.

In all, the union estimated that the CDC has lost 33 percent of its workforce since the start of the Trump administration. In January, there were roughly 13,000 CDC workers total. Since then, about 3,000 have been fully separated from the agency, including 600 laid off in a RIF on April 1, and 2,400 who were either fired or forced out amid pressure campaigns. An additional 1,300 have been laid off but are not yet fully separated from the agency; they remain on paid administrative leave but are unable to do their work.

In the RIF Friday, laid-off employees said they were given notices that list their termination effective date as December 8, leaving a 60-day period in which they would be on administrative leave.

The RIF was carried out amid an ongoing government shutdown over a health care funding dispute, and the Trump administration has claimed that the RIF is a consequence of the shutdown. But the union, along with federal employment lawyers and even some senior government officials, say a RIF during a shutdown is illegal; a temporary lapse in government funding is not a legitimate reason for a RIF under federal regulations, and it runs afoul of a federal law that prohibits the government from incurring new costs during a shutdown, such as by promising severance packages.

Brutal cuts

In practice, a RIF amid a shutdown added more trauma to the demoralized staff. In opening remarks, Local AFGE 2883 President Yolanda Jacobs noted that the CDC Human Resources staff had been furloughed during the shutdown but were temporarily brought back into work just so they could process termination letters—including their own. A terminated CDC employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said that more than 90 percent of the HR staff is now gone.

Among the terminations were also mental health workers who were helping CDC staff recover from an August attack, in which a gunman fired over 500 rounds at CDC buildings full of agency employees and killed a local police officer.

Another terminated CDC worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity discussed the personal toll of the RIF. She had worked at the agency for over two decades and learned of her termination Friday night as she was doing dishes after making homemade pizza with her family—money worries kept them from ordering out. Her phone “started going crazy” as coworkers were checking in after receiving their RIF notices. She dug out her work laptop, which had been set aside since she was furloughed, to find her own RIF notice at the top of her inbox.

As text messages continued to come in through the night, she said it was “heartbreaking and devastating” when she realized the Trump administration was “actually dismantling us.”

“These are just hardworking Americans who just want to do their job, who just want to help people, who want to make sure the correct information is out there [and] that we are preventing things from happening,” she said.

Since the RIF has sunk in, she has started to worry more for her family and their finances. During the furlough, paychecks are uncertain. And her effective termination date in December will land between holidays, when hiring is slow. She worried about affording Christmas presents for her family.

She also said that staff have asked about getting other jobs while on administrative leave but were told that in order to do that, they would need to get approval from the CDC’s ethics office to ensure there were no conflicts of interest. But staff can’t actually do that because everyone at the ethics office also got RIF notices.

Losses

Throughout the briefings yesterday, staff highlighted that the RIF did not just trim here and there, as one might expect with cuts designed to make the organization leaner. Instead, it lopped off entire teams and branches, completely shutting down whole lines of work.

One former CDC employee spoke broadly of big hits to experts in chronic disease, global health, and the National Center for Health Statistics, which runs critical data collection that states and local health departments rely on. The CDC’s library staff are all gone. Suicide prevention experts have been cut, as well as communications and policy staff, who develop briefings and provide information to Congress members.

Abigail Tighe, a former CDC employee with National Public Health Coalition, tried to put the cuts in context, saying: “We are losing the people with all the knowledge to prevent childhood drownings, child abuse, and suicide. We’re losing the experts who help us track and understand the health and safety needs of our communities [and] the brave and brilliant professionals who, on a moment’s notice, respond to new and unknown outbreaks across the world. And that’s just a few examples.”

A terminated scientist who spoke on condition of anonymity said that her entire office was eliminated in the RIF. “My heart breaks for my colleagues and friends who have been tormented, traumatized, shot at, threatened daily. These are kind, hardworking, thoughtful people whose lives are being overturned,” she said.

But, “ultimately,” she said, “I am terrified for the public safety of our country.”

CDC tormented: HR workers summoned from furlough to lay off themselves, others Read More »

Layoffs, a “coding error,” chaos: Trump admin ravages the health dept.

CDC, health, health department, HHS, layoffs, robert f kennedy jr, Trump / Paul Patrick / October 13, 2025

Federal health agencies are reeling from mass layoffs on Friday that appear to have particularly devastated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, despite some terminations being rescinded on Saturday.

Numbers are still sketchy, but reports from Friday indicate that more than 4,000 federal workers overall were initially targeted for layoffs. The Trump administration linked the firings to the ongoing government shutdown, which legal experts have suggested is illegal. Unions representing federal workers have already filed a lawsuit challenging the move.

Of the reported 4,000 terminations, about 1,100 to 1,200 were among employees in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS is a massive department that houses critical federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, among others. Before Trump’s second term, the HHS workforce was about 82,000, but that was slashed to about 62,000 earlier this year amid initial cuts and efforts to push civil servants out.

While it’s unclear where all the new cuts occurred, reports from anonymous and external sources describe a major gutting of the CDC, an agency that has already been severely wounded, losing significant numbers this year. Its former leaders have accused the Trump administration of censoring its scientific work. It suffered a dramatic ousting of its Senate-confirmed director in August. And it was the target of a gunman weeks earlier, who shot over 500 rounds at its employees, killing a local police officer.

As terminations went out Friday, reports indicated that the terminations hit staff who produce the CDC’s esteemed journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, employees responding to the measles outbreaks in the US, others responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, workers in the Global Health Center, and disease detectives in the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

Layoffs, a “coding error,” chaos: Trump admin ravages the health dept. Read More »

Childhood vaccines safe for a little longer as CDC cancels advisory meeting

ACIP, anti-vaccine, CDC, health, rfk jr, vaccines / Kris Guyer / October 11, 2025

An October meeting of a key federal vaccine advisory committee has been canceled without explanation, sparing the evidence-based childhood vaccination schedule from more erosion—at least for now.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was planning to meet on October 22 and 23, which would have been the committee’s fourth meeting this year. But the meeting schedule was updated in the past week to remove those dates and replace them with “2025 meeting, TBD.”

Ars Technica contacted the Department of Health and Human Services to ask why the meeting was canceled. HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard offered no explanation, only saying that the “official meeting dates and agenda items will be posted on the website once finalized.”

ACIP is tasked with publicly reviewing and evaluating the wealth of safety and efficacy data on vaccines and then offering evidence-based recommendations for their use. Once the committee’s recommendations are adopted by the CDC, they set national vaccination standards for children and establish which shots federal programs and private insurance companies are required to fully cover.

In the past, the committee has been stacked with highly esteemed, thoroughly vetted medical experts, who diligently conducted their somewhat esoteric work on immunization policy with little fanfare. That changed when ardent anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. became health secretary. In June, Kennedy abruptly and unilaterally fired all 17 ACIP members, falsely accusing them of being riddled with conflicts of interest. He then installed his own hand-selected members. With the exception of one advisor—pediatrician and veteran ACIP member Cody Meissner—the members are poorly qualified, have gone through little vetting, and embrace the same anti-vaccine and dangerous fringe ideas as Kennedy.

Corrupted committee

So far this year, Kennedy’s advisors have met twice, producing chaotic meetings during which members revealed a clear lack of understanding of the data at hand and the process of setting vaccine recommendations, all while setting policy decisions long sought by anti-vaccine activists. The first meeting, in June, included seven members selected by Kennedy. In that meeting, the committee rescinded the recommendation for flu vaccines containing a preservative called thimerosal based on false claims from anti-vaccine groups that it causes autism. The panel also ominously said it would re-evaluate the entire childhood vaccination schedule, putting life-saving shots at risk.

Childhood vaccines safe for a little longer as CDC cancels advisory meeting Read More »

After RFK Jr.’s shenanigans, COVID shot access will be a lot like last year

ACIP, CDC, COVID-19 vaccines, cvs, health, vaccines, Walgreens / Rejus Almole / October 7, 2025

In an interview with Ars Technica in August, Brigid Groves, vice president of professional affairs for the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) signaled that efforts to limit access to COVID-19 vaccines is concerning to APhA, which is the leading organization representing pharmacists.

“We are concerned about that because the data and evidence point to the fact that this vaccine is safe and effective for [young, otherwise healthy] patients,” Groves said. “So, to suddenly arbitrarily limit that is very concerning to us.”

And, with the CDC’s permissive recommendations, pharmacies are not limiting them. Representatives for both CVS and Walgreens told The Washington Post that they would not require patients under 65 to prove they have an underlying condition to get a COVID-19 vaccine. CVS won’t ask you to self-attest to having a condition, and Walgreens also said that it won’t require any proof.

“In simplest terms, if a patient wants to get the vaccine, they’ll get it,” Amy Thibault, a CVS spokesperson, told the Post.

With the shared decision-making, there may be extra forms about risks and benefits that might take an extra few minutes, but it should otherwise be just like past years.

On Tuesday, this reporter was able to easily book same-day appointments for an updated COVID-19 vaccine at local CVS and Walgreens pharmacies in North Carolina, without attesting to any medical conditions.

Children

Shots for younger children could be trickier: While adults and older children can visit their pharmacy and get vaccinated relatively easily, younger children (particularly those under age 5) may have a harder time. Pharmacists typically do not vaccinate those younger children—which has always been the case—and parents will have to visit the pediatrician.

Pediatricians, like pharmacists, are likely to be supportive of broad access to the shots. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said that all children should have access. The AAP also specifically encourages children under age 2 and children with underlying conditions to get vaccinated, because those children are at higher risk of severe disease.

After RFK Jr.’s shenanigans, COVID shot access will be a lot like last year Read More »

RFK Jr. drags feet on COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, delaying shots for kids

ACIP, CDC, COVID-19 vaccines, health, robert f kennedy jr, vaccines / Mike M. / October 2, 2025

Previously, the FDA narrowed the shots’ labels to include only people age 65 and older, and those 6 months and older at higher risk. But the ACIP recommended that all people age 6 months and older could get the shot based on shared decision-making with a health care provider. Although the shared decision-making adds a new requirement for getting the vaccine, that decision-making does not require a prescription and can be done not only with doctors, but also with nurses and pharmacists. Most people in the US get their seasonal COVID-19 vaccines at their local pharmacy.

Ars Technica reached out to the HHS on Thursday about whether there was a determination on the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and, if not, when that is expected to happen and why there is a delay. The HHS responded, confirming that no determination had been made yet, but did not answer any of the other questions and did not provide a comment for the record.

In past years, ACIP recommendations and CDC sign-offs have happened earlier in the year to provide adequate time for a rollout. In 2024, ACIP voted on COVID-19 vaccinations in June, for instance, and then-CDC Director Mandy Cohen signed off that day. Now that we’re into October, it remains unclear when or even if the CDC will sign off on the recommendation and then, if the recommendation is adopted by the CDC, how much longer after that it would take for states to roll out the vaccines to children in the VFC program.

“Children who depend on this program, including children with chronic conditions, are still waiting unprotected. The delay in adopting COVID-19 vaccine recommendations puts their health at risk, reduces access and choice for families, and puts a strain on providers who want to deliver the best care for their youngest patients,” Susan Kansagra, the chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said in a statement to Stat.

For now, children and adults with private insurance have access to the shots without the final sign-off, and health insurance companies have said that they will continue to maintain coverage for the vaccines without the final federal approval.

RFK Jr. drags feet on COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, delaying shots for kids Read More »

RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine panel realizes it has no idea what it’s doing, skips vote

ACIP, CDC, health, hepatitis B, Rober F. Kennedy Jr., vaccine / Tim Belzer / September 19, 2025

With a lack of data and confusing language, the panel tabled the vote indefinitely.

Catherine Stein, far right, speaks during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on September 18, 2025 in Chamblee, Georgia. Credit: Getty | Elijah Nouvelage

The second day of a two-day meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—a panel currently made up of federal vaccine advisors hand-selected by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—is off to a dramatic start, with the advisors seemingly realizing they have no idea what they’re doing.

The inexperienced, questionably qualified group that has espoused anti-vaccine rhetoric started its second day of deliberations by reversing a vote taken the previous day on federal coverage for the measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine. Yesterday, the group voted to restrict access to MMRV, stripping recommendations for its use in children under age 4. While that decision was based on no new data, it passed with majority support of 8–3 (with one abstention). (For an explanation of that, see our coverage of yesterday’s part of the meeting here.)

But puzzlingly, they then voted to uphold access and coverage of MMRV vaccines for children under age 4 if they receive free vaccines through the federal Vaccines for Children program, which covers about half of American children, mostly low-income. The discrepancy projected the idea that the alleged safety concerns that led the panel to rescind the recommendation for MMRV generally, somehow did not apply to low-income, vulnerable children. The vote also created significant confusion for VFC coverage, which typically aligns with recommendations made by the panel.

Today, Kennedy’s ACIP retook the vote, deciding 9-0 (with three abstentions) to align VFC coverage with their vote yesterday to strip the recommendation for MMRV in young children.

Hepatitis B vaccine newborn dose

Next, they moved to a vote they failed to take yesterday as scheduled—a vote to strip a recommendation for a dose of hepatitis B vaccine that is currently recommended to be given universally on the first day of a baby’s life. Instead, the proposed recommendation would be to wait at least a month before the first dose—opening a window for a highly infectious disease that leads to chronic liver disease and cancer—unless the baby’s mother tested positive for the virus.

While it initially seemed that the panel was poised to approve the change, cracks in the plan began to appear quickly this morning, as some members of the panel noted that the proposed recommendation made no sense and was based on zero data.

Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist on the panel, raised the obvious concern yesterday, saying: “I’m unclear if we’ve been presented with any safety or data comparing before one month to after one month, and I’m wondering why one month was selected as our time point and if there are data to help to inform us if there’s greater risk of adverse effects before one month or after one month at all, let alone in negative mothers.”

There was no data comparing the risks and benefits of moving the first dose from the day of birth to any other time point. And there is no data suggesting that such a move would be more or less safe.

Adam Langer, Acting Principal Deputy Director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, stressed in his presentation on the safety data yesterday, that the vaccine is safe—there are no safety concerns for giving a dose at birth. Adverse side effects are rare, he said, and when they do occur, they’re mild. “The worst adverse event you could imagine, anaphylaxis, has been very rarely reported at only 1.1 cases per 1 million vaccine doses administered.”

Langer gave a clear explanation for why newborns are vaccinated at day one. Hepatitis B, which primarily affects the liver, spreads via bodily fluids and can live on surfaces for up to seven days. It can spread easily; only a tiny microscopic amount of blood or fluid is enough for a child to be infected. For some, an infection can be short-lived, but for others it can become chronic, which leads to liver disease, cirrhosis, liver transplant, and liver cancer. The risk of the infection becoming chronic increases with the younger someone is when they’re infected.

Benefits and harms

Newborns who get hepatitis B from their mothers at birth have a 90 percent chance of developing a chronic infection, and 25 percent of those children will die prematurely from the disease. Up to 16 percent of pregnant women in the US are not tested for hepatitis B during pregnancy. Newborns and babies can also get infected from other people in their family or household, given hepatitis B’s infectiousness. Prior to the universal birth dose recommendation, a study of US-born children born to immigrant mothers found that 7 percent to 11 percent of them had hepatitis B while their mothers were negative. This highlights that unvaccinated babies and children can pick up the infection from family or the community.

Part of the reason for this is the elusiveness of the disease. While about 2.4 million people in the US are infected with hepatitis B, about 50 percent of those infected do not know that they’re infected.

In 1991, ACIP began recommending universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth; acute hepatitis B cases then fell from around 18,000 to about 5,500 in 2005 to about 2,200 in 2023. Since 2018, ACIP has recommended universal Hep B vaccination for all newborns within 24 hours of birth.

In the discussion, panel members pushed back on the universal birth dose, arguing that if mothers tested negative, there was little to no risk—downplaying the risk of other family or community exposure and assuming that test coverage could increase to 100 percent. There was a lot of discussion of why some women aren’t tested and if doctors can just try to assess whether there’s a risk that a family member might have the infection—even if those family members don’t know themselves that they’re infected.

Data and trust

Langer acknowledged there might be ways to assess risk from at least the mother in the 24-hour window after birth—”or,” he suggested, “you cannot have to worry about all of those different things that could go wrong, and you could simply give the vaccine because there is no data available that says that there is any harm that would come to a newborn compared to a one-month-old infant [getting the vaccine.]”

He summed up the discussion succinctly: “The only thing that we’re discussing here is if there’s some benefit or removal of harm that comes from waiting a month. And I have not seen any data that says that there is any benefit to the infant of waiting a month, but there are a number of potential harms to the infant of waiting a month.”

Panel member Robert Malone, who has falsely claimed that COVID-19 vaccines cause a form of AIDS, explained that the proposed change for the hep B vaccination was not due to any safety concern or evidence-based reason, but about trust among parents who have been exposed to vaccine misinformation.

“The signal that is prompting this is not one of safety, it is one of trust,” Malone said yesterday. “It is one of parents uncomfortable with this medical procedure being performed at birth in a rather unilateral fashion without significant informed consent at a time in particular when there has been a loss of trust in the public health enterprise and vaccines in general.”

Dashed decisions

But the questions and uncertainties of the proposed recommendation and the data behind it dogged the committee again this morning.

This morning, the voting language was put on a slide and immediately drew criticism. The language was:

If a mother tests [hepatitis B]-negative:

The first dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine is not given until the child is at least one month old.

Infants may receive a dose of Hepatitis B vaccine before one month according to individual based decision-making. *

*Also referred to as shared clinical decision-making.

Hibbeln, the psychiatrist, again pushed back, this time noting that the language of the change is confusing. “You can’t say don’t give it and then give an opportunity to give it,” he said, arguing that shared clinical decision-making is, essentially, all or nothing.

Discussion quickly spiraled, with another member questioning whether there was any data presented at all on the proposed recommendation. There was a fast motion to table the vote indefinitely, and the motion to table passed in a speedy vote of 11–1, with the ACIP chair, Martin Kulldorff, being the only holdout.

For the rest of the day, the panel is discussing COVID-19 vaccines. Stay tuned.

RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine panel realizes it has no idea what it’s doing, skips vote Read More »