The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices-Legal Roles, Challenges, and Guardrails

The authors discuss the legal foundations of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a body that makes vaccine recommendations that have been statutorily embedded in numerous federal programs. They discuss the legality of disbanding ACIP, removing committee members, and the HHS Secretary to override ACIP decisions, highlighting the need for Congressional action to protect the committee’s independence and maintain a mechanism for evidence-based vaccine policy deliberation.