A major federal panel advising the US government on vaccines has stepped back from efforts targeting Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, a change that comes as some Republicans reportedly caution that additional shifts in vaccine policy could harm the party in the upcoming midterm elections.
Several vaccine advisers selected by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr had been exploring the possibility of ending federal recommendations for mRNA Covid shots, but that initiative is no longer going forward, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that the committee had not reconsidered its September 2025 decision to classify Covid vaccines under shared clinical decision-making on the CDC immunisation schedules, and that the FDA and the advisory committee remained aligned.
Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert at UC Law San Francisco, commented that the administration did not want to create more controversy around vaccines and realised this was politically harmful, as most voters are not on board with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine agenda. She added that the current advisory committee members either do not understand their role or do not care about boundaries of authority.
The move away from direct criticism comes as Republicans face plummeting polling numbers ahead of the November midterms and as the Trump administration takes quieter steps to retreat from earlier anti-vaccine stances. Last week, the top vaccine official at the FDA, Vinay Prasad, departed the agency again, and last month the surgeon general nominee Casey Means sidestepped direct questions on vaccine guidance during a Senate hearing.
