The Trump administration has begun searching for new members for a vaccine advisory committee it is quietly reshaping to look at alternatives to vaccinations, a move that has drawn worries from outside groups. 

The National Vaccine Advisory Committee, created in 1987, has worked across agencies to advise the Health and Human Services assistant secretary for health on strategies to prevent infectious disease through immunization. It previously focused on recommendations on vaccine equity and access issues, including anything from COVID-19 vaccine research during the pandemic to funding for vaccination clinics at elementary schools.

But in July HHS revised the committee’s charter to include consideration of “non-immunization strategies” for individuals who cannot or do not want to be vaccinated. This could include “healthy lifestyle and disease prevention initiatives, off label repurposed use of existing FDA approved drugs and the use of dietary supplements known to support healthy immune function.”

Earlier this week, the administration published a solicitation for nominations for panel members in the Federal Register. 

The committee has been dormant since the start of the Trump administration, having last met in September 2024 under former HHS Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine. It currently has no members, as their appointment terms have all expired. That means Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can handpick an entirely new advisory body.

In the past, voting members of the committee would serve staggered four-year terms in an attempt to keep the advisory committee apolitical.

“You had continuity, and you had members who served through multiple administrations giving their expertise. It’s clearly not political. We don’t have that now,” said Claire Hannon, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, who served as a nonvoting member of the committee for many years. 

Depending on how the HHS assistant secretary views the committee, the group’s recommendations can carry serious weight or not have much influence at all.

“The committee was very critical during the pandemic. [Former Trump administration Assistant Secretary for Health] Brett Giroir really had an interest in ensuring that vaccines were accessible,” said Hannon.

It’s unclear exactly how Kennedy and current Assistant Secretary for Health Brian Christine plan to use the committee.

Santiago Gonzalez, manager at the Adult Vaccine Access Coalition, said his group is “concerned” about the changes to the charter that “seek to expand its work beyond vaccines and immunization.”

“Federal advisory bodies work best when they stay within the responsibilities Congress established for them,” Gonzalez said.

The move comes as vaccine policy and its advisory panels have seen major changes in the second Trump administration. In 2025, Kennedy fired all sitting members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee and hand-selected new members, including critics of COVID-19 vaccine policies and nonspecialists.

The administration also has restructured the pediatric vaccination schedule, reducing the number of vaccines recommended to all children to 11, down from 17 in 2024. Trump also signed an executive order on Monday to recommended pediatric shots be administered at separate visits to the doctor’s office instead of multiple vaccinations being administered in a single visit.

All of these changes would have been discussed in an open meeting of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee if active, Hannon explained. 

HHS did not respond to a request for comment.