The U.S. is heading toward the 2026-2027 respiratory virus season without a functioning Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). That is no small disruption. ACIP has guided national policy on influenza vaccination since its first meeting in 1964, and since 2010 has maintained a universal annual recommendation for influenza vaccination for everyone 6 months and older. The committee has been central to the evidence-review process that translates vaccine science into clinical guidance, coverage obligations, purchasing decisions, and public communication.
Now that process has stalled. A federal district court in Massachusetts stayed the appointments of 13 ACIP members in American Academy of Pediatrics et al. v. Kennedy et al., following an unprecedented move by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fire all existing ACIP members. The committee has not been lawfully reconstituted nor convened. Kennedy has issued a charter that refocuses the responsibilities of the committee, but it's little more than an attempt to rewrite the rules he has broken. No season-specific federal recommendation for influenza vaccination has yet been issued for the 2026-2027 season -- and we don't believe one is imminent.
