With us health And the secretary of human services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. already develops the federal vaccine policy, some states intervene to preserve access to rescue plans in anticipation of new changes.
The federal government has historically had a major influence on vaccine policy through the Vaccination Practices Advisory Committee (ACIP), trained in 1964 to develop scientific recommendations on how vaccines should be used. The recommendations are almost always adopted by the centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in many states, these recommendations are linked to insurance coverage. If the AIPI no longer recommends certain vaccines, individuals may be forced to pay vaccines to have lived for a long time at no cost.
A longtime anti-vaccine activist Kennedy announced in May that the CDC would no longer recommend COVVI-19 shots for healthy children and pregnant women. In June, he dismissed the 17 members in place of the ACIP and installed eight new members, including several criticisms against vaccines. “Clean scanning is necessary to restore public confidence in vaccine science,” Kennedy said in an agency press release.
During the first meeting of the new committee at the end of June, the members voted to recommend the ban on the conservative Thimérosal of Vaccines against the flu. This decision was largely symbolic because the Thimérosal has not been in any routine infant vaccine in the United States since 2001. It has been abolished due to public growth, despite the fact that it turned out to be sure. Now, Thimérosal is only used in certain multi-dose bottles of influenza vaccine, which represent a small percentage of all influenza vaccines given in the United States. HHS adopted the ACIP’s recommendation in July.
Some state legislators anticipate more drastic changes to the recommendations of the federal vaccine. “Where there is a challenge here in the States where there are legal requirements to follow the recommendations of the APIP,” explains Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Its center founded the vaccine integrity project in April in response to the Kennedy vaccine agenda.
Colorado, a state with a democratic predominance, adopted legislation during its last legislative session to protect access to vaccines, even if the federal directives change. The bill orders the Colorado Ministry of Health and the Environment to consider recommendations of vaccines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical organizations in addition to the ACIP. Previously, the ministry only considered the recommendations of the ACIP.
“We really wanted to make sure that we were making scientific decisions in Colorado,” said representative Lindsay Gilchrist, a democrat who has copardleanic the bill.
Another bill on Colorado more broadly protects insurance coverage for preventive health care in the event of federal police changes. It gives State insurance agencies the power to restore directives on preventive care of federal agencies, including the AIPI, which existed in January 2025.
Maine recently eliminated a reference to the AIPI in a law to allow its state health service to determine which plans should be available thanks to a universal vaccination program. In New York, the senator of the state Andrew Gounardes presented new legislation in June which would oblige health insurance coverage for the COVVI-19 vaccine. A Massachusetts bill tabled in July by the Maura Healey Democratic Governor would allow the State Public Health Commissioner to determine infant routine vaccinations without having to take into account the recommendations of the ACIP.
