RFK Jr.'s new panel takes on vaccine ingredients, shots for kids

Rachel Cohrs Zhang, Gerry Smith and Damian Garde, Bloomberg News on Jun 18, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan for America’s vaccines is coming into focus, with his revamped immunization advisory panel set to discuss the use of measles shots in kids next week and vote on an ingredient that’s been wrongly linked to autism.

The draft agenda for next week’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting revisits old topics concerning vaccine safety, raising questions that many public health experts consider long settled. Any decisions could have sweeping implications for American public health, potentially upending how vaccines are manufactured, paid for, and distributed around the country.

Just last week, Kennedy overhauled the ACIP panel, firing all of the existing members and putting several new people on the board who’ve been vocal vaccine critics. The group recommends which vaccines go on the childhood and adult schedules after reviewing safety data. These decisions help determine which shots are covered by insurance.

The new ACIP members will hear a presentation about thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative that is used in some adult flu vaccines. The group will later vote on “thimerosal-containing vaccine recommendations,” according to details of the agenda posted Wednesday. The panel will review a presentation and proposed recommendations for the measles, mumps and chicken pox vaccines for kids under five years of age.

Kennedy, the Health and Human Services secretary, had also been considering asking a key government vaccine advisory panel to examine shots that contain aluminum ingredients, which could impact at least two dozen vaccines on the market, a source familiar with the matter said. That topic is not on the agenda for next week’s meeting, though.

“What they are doing is launching a complete dismantling of vaccine recommendations,” said Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Disease Society of America. If the committee votes to remove thimerosal from vaccines, manufactures will have to create and ship single doses, which some manufacturers may not be able to do, she said. Ultimately, the move would “chip away access to vaccines.”

Federal policy guides billions of dollars in industry investment, and dramatic changes to recommendations could have a chilling effect on vaccine research.

Thimerosal is currently used in three flu vaccines for adults sold by Sanofi SA and CSL Ltd. according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Sanofi and CSL weren’t immediately available to comment. A representative for the Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment on the aluminum issue.

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—With assistance from Jessica Nix.