ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL CALLS ON TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO STOP UNDERMINING FEDERAL VACCINE GUIDANCE

Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a multistate coalition of 23 states and attorneys general, urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to keep federal vaccine recommendations grounded in science and medical evidence.

In a letter responding to HHS’s request for information on vaccine recommendations and shared clinical decision-making, Raoul and the coalition warn that HHS’s actions over the past year have created confusion and made it harder for states to rely on federal public health guidance. The coalition asserts that the agency’s efforts to weaken the childhood vaccine schedule and sideline experts responsible for developing federal vaccine recommendations significantly affect public health. The letter urges HHS to halt additional changes that could lower vaccination rates.

“HHS has created confusion among parents and made children and vulnerable Americans more susceptible to preventable disease,” Raoul said. “Vaccine recommendations have and should continue to be based on scientific data and research and not politics.”

In their letter, Attorney General Raoul and the coalition urge HHS to: 

• Examine its own role in undermining public trust through its recent changes to vaccine policy. HHS has not identified a change in the scientific evidence on vaccine safety or effectiveness that would justify overhauling the current recommendation categories. Instead, Raoul and the coalition point out that recent federal actions have contributed to the very public distrust HHS says it wants to address.
• Preserve the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) role in setting vaccine recommendations. ACIP is a 17-member federal advisory body whose science-based recommendations help guide federal vaccine policy, as Congress intended. In June 2025, Secretary Kennedy dismissed all 17 ACIP members and quickly replaced them with new members who did not undergo the typical vetting process. Raoul and the coalition warn that replacing ACIP with the Task Force for Safer Childhood Vaccines, which HHS reinstated in August 2025 after nearly three decades of dormancy, would undermine ACIP’s critical role.
• Retain the current vaccine recommendation categories. Raoul and the coalition explain that the current three-tiered recommendation structure for vaccines – routine, risk-based, and Shared Clinical Decision-Making (SCDM) – has historically provided clear, efficient and evidence-based guidance for states’ public health and Medicaid programs. The coalition explains that HHS should avoid misusing the SCDM category, which is reserved for rare situations in which a vaccine’s benefits and risks vary depending on individual circumstances.  HHS recently moved to expand the use of SCDM, including for the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose, without identifying new scientific evidence to support the changes. 

Joining Attorney General Raoul in sending this letter are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, along with the Governor of Pennsylvania.

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