1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

Dear Member of Congress, As a constituent of your state, I ask for your support to ensure universal access to COVID vaccines. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) restricted access and recommended against children and pregnant people accessing COVID vaccines. It is inappropriate and harmful for him to be making these clinical and policy decisions. COVID infections continue to harm millions of Americans with nearly 500,000 hospitalizations and over 50,000 deaths between October 1, 2024 and June 21, 2025 as reported by the CDC. Currently, vaccination rates for many infectious diseases are very low, and many communities across the US are directly affected by outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, pertussis, and COVID. Many of these infections can cause serious and potentially lifelong consequences for health. Children and pregnant people in 2025 should not die or become disabled from infectious diseases because of a lack of access to affordable and effective vaccines. Receiving a COVID vaccine within the last year reduces the risk of symptoms, severe disease, disability, and death for people of all ages, including previously healthy people. The new policies by RFK Jr. create barriers to access to COVID vaccines, limiting access for children, pregnant people, and adults under age 65. These restrictions also create immense confusion among the public on the usefulness of COVID vaccines. We ask you to take action and support the reinstatement of universal COVID vaccine recommendations for people of all ages, twice a year, for all COVID vaccine formulations. As we also learned from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting this week, new members that were appointed by RFK Jr. do not have sufficient expertise regarding vaccines, infectious disease, or public health. This committee’s recommendations to the CDC on the accessibility of vaccines ultimately affects COVID vaccine access in healthcare settings and financial access through health insurance coverage (or lack thereof). We ask that you demand that the former 17 members of ACIP be restored to their former positions Mr. Kennedy continues to demonstrate a lack of experience and understanding of America’s major public health department. He continues to deceive elected leaders and the public about important health information by promoting conspiracy theories about vaccines. With financial conflicts of interest totaling millions of dollars, he continues to play a significant role in undermining public health. I respectfully ask you to hold him accountable. We need you to hold a public hearing that demands for his support of vaccines and to adopt evidence-based approaches to public health sciences. Thank you for your time.