Senator Murray, Former ACIP Member from WA Raise Alarm Over Purge of CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held a virtual press conference on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s unprecedented decision on Monday to fire every single member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Dr. Helen Chu joined Senator Murray for the press conference, a professor of Medicine and Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who was a member of ACIP until Monday—when she was fired by Secretary Kennedy alongside the entire panel of experts. Senator Murray and Dr. Chu laid out just how unprecedented and unthinkably dangerous this move is, and what it means for the future of vaccine policy and public health.