This tracker will be continuously updated to reflect any major actions taken by the Trump administration to disrupt vaccine research, production, or uptake within the public.
January 20: In a flurry of first–day actions, Trump orders the U.S. to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). Besides operating “as a de facto drug and vaccine regulatory agency” for lower income countries, the WHO also “also runs the process through which the strains that annual flu shots and Covid vaccines should target are selected.”
January 21: The Trump administration announces an “immediate pause” on federal health agency activity such as “regulations, guidance, announcements, press releases, social media posts and website posts.”
January 22: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) cancels its National Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting in compliance with the Trump administration’s federal health agency activity embargo.
February 13: Senate confirms RFK Jr.’s nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). During his confirmation hearing, the longtime anti-vaccine advocate refused to dismiss his belief that vaccines cause autism.
February 14: Trump administration targets over 5,000 recently-hired federal health agency workers for layoffs “including dozens at the Vaccine Research Center housed at NIH.”
February 20: RFK Jr. indefinitely postpones the first Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting under Trump. ACIP “advises the director of the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention [CDC] on how to use vaccines in the U.S. population to prevent the spread of infections, such as measles, influenza, whooping cough, and polio, and how to prevent serious complications from infections such as hearing loss, cancer, or death.”
February 20: RFK Jr. orders the CDC to halt multiple vaccine promotion initiatives, including its “Wild to Mild” flu vaccine ad campaign.
February 26: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) abruptly cancels its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) meeting to determine seasonal flu shot formulations for 2025 and 2026.
February 26: Trump administration considers defunding H5N1 bird flu vaccine research with HHS review of a Biden-era contract with Moderna.
March 6: In a Fox News Interview with Sean Hannity, RFK Jr. publicly opposes vaccinating poultry against H5N1 bird flu for the first time. The HHS Secretary warned of potentially “turning those birds into mutant factories […] that could actually accelerate the jump to humans,” if vaccines are unable to confer sterilizing immunity.
March 7: STAT News reports on how the activity embargo at NIH is disrupting the vaccine patent pipeline:
- “Clampdowns on external communications and new contracts at the National Institutes of Health by President Trump’s administration […] have also blocked the agency from sharing research materials with collaborators and taking crucial steps to ensure the discoveries its own scientists are making can later be used in the development of drugs and vaccines. For five weeks, employees at NIH technology transfer offices have been barred from filing new patent applications and been restricted from licensing existing ones, according to emails obtained by STAT and interviews with current and former NIH employees.”
March 12: NIH cancels over 40 research grants related to vaccine hesitancy:
- “An email circulated among NIH leadership this week included a list of grants that were to be terminated and details on the specific language to use in those notices. ‘It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment,’ the email states.”
March 13: Three weeks after canceling the original VRBPAC meeting, the FDA meets behind closed doors to announce influenza targets for 2025-2026 flu vaccines:
- “The meeting was not previously announced or open to the public and took place the same day as the previously scheduled VRBPAC meeting would have taken […] The hour-and-a-half-long meeting was attended by officials from FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense, and was called to a close 55 minutes before it was scheduled to end, according to a summary released by FDA.”
March 16: NIH orders agency scientists to remove references to mRNA vaccine technology from their research grant applications.
March 25: The Washington Post reports that HHS has hired David Geier to conduct a federal study on possible links between vaccines and autism. Geier is a vaccine skeptical researcher who has no medical degree and was punished by Maryland’s Board of Physicians for practicing medicine without a license.
March 28: The CDC cancels the release of a measles outbreak assessment that emphasized the importance of vaccination against the disease.
March 28: The Wall Street Journal reports that Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, has been forced out of government:
- “He submitted his resignation after a Health and Human Services official earlier in the day gave him the choice to resign or be fired, people familiar with the matter said. ‘It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,’ Marks wrote in a resignation letter referring to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
April 2: The Wall Street Journal reports on the FDA’s abrupt decision to delay full approval of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine:
- “Federal drug regulators have missed the deadline for making a key decision regarding a Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax, days after the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief was pushed out. The agency was set to give full approval to Novavax’s shot, but senior leaders at the agency are now sitting on the decision and have said the Novavax application needed more data and was unlikely to be approved soon, people familiar with the matter said.”
April 9: RFK Jr. falsely asserts that “single antigen vaccines have never worked,” in a CBS interview:
April 25: The Wall Street Journal reports on further delays to the full approval of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine due to FDA’s request for a new clinical trial.
Image Credit: “Vaccines Save Lives” by Johnny Silvercloud is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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