Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the letter says that the dismissal of the advisors and the appointment of eight new ACIP members two days later, along with reductions in CDC staff working on immunisations, have left the US vaccine programme "critically weakened."

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel, claiming it “has been plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. selected eight new members for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee on Wednesday after he dismissed all 17 of the committee’s previous members.