12 Former FDA Chiefs: New Vaccine Rules Undermine Scientific Integrity

I’m writing to demand immediate congressional oversight of the assault on science and public health at the FDA and CDC. Last week, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s top vaccine regulator, sent an internal memo claiming without evidence that COVID-19 vaccines killed 10 children and announcing sweeping changes to vaccine approval processes. He provided no explanation of the process or analyses used to reach this “new retrospective judgment” despite FDA staff having previously reviewed these cases and drawn different conclusions. On Wednesday, December 3, 2025, 12 former FDA commissioners from both Republican and Democratic administrations published a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine warning that these proposed changes would “upend core policies governing vaccine development and updates” and “undermine the public interest.” Former CDC leaders issued similar warnings. The commissioners wrote that the changes “would dramatically change vaccine regulation on the basis of a reinterpretation of selective evidence and by a process that breaks sharply with the norms that have anchored the FDA’s globally respected scientific integrity.” This isn’t isolated to one memo. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. completely overhauled the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the committee that advises the CDC on vaccine policy. The former commissioners warned that supplanting expert scientific inquiry with “the unilateral decision making of a few individuals” will suppress innovation, slow vaccine updates for emerging diseases, and risk Americans’ health and safety. If the goal is rebuilding confidence in public health agencies, the answer is not tossing aside basic rules of science or stifling oversight. I’m calling on you to hold immediate oversight hearings with the 12 former FDA commissioners and former CDC leaders who signed these warnings. Subpoena the evidence Prasad claims justifies these policy changes. Demand transparency about how these decisions are being made and who is making them. Require FDA and CDC leadership to explain under oath how abandoning decades of scientific process serves public health. Americans deserve agencies that insist on open deliberation, solid evidence, and procedures the public can trust. Right now, we’re getting the opposite.