Press Releases

Today, Representative Suzan DelBene (WA-01) joined 115 of her colleagues in a letter led by Representative Kim Schrier (WA-08) in urging Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to save lives by restoring the previous childhood immunization schedule. The letter comes on the heels of the Secretary Kennedy-led Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcing they will gut the childhood immunization schedule by reducing the number of universally recommended vaccines without substantive input from relevant scientific and medical experts.

“As Members of Congress, we are outraged at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision to endanger children and families by undermining the established science-driven and expertly considered U.S. childhood immunization schedule. As Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), your duty to this country is to enhance the well-being of all Americans, and yet this decision will put Americans at unnecessary risk of illness and cost lives,” the Members said.

“Your agency’s decision to overhaul decades of evidence-based science is arbitrary and driven by ideology. This announcement completely bypasses the recommendations made by the previously esteemed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a panel that you have replaced with your own hand-picked members, most of whom have long track records of anti-vaccine activism,” the letter states.

“We demand that you reinstate the previous childhood immunization schedule, restore sanctity to the ACIP, and protect the health and well-being of children,” the letter concludes.

The full text of the letter is available here.