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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory panel will consider issuing recommendations related to COVID-19 vaccine injuries, according to a notice posted today in the Federal Register.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will also discuss how it makes recommendations.
The agenda signals a big change for the CDC committee that once rubber-stamped COVID-19 vaccines as safe and effective, according to Daniel O’Connor, founder and CEO of TrialSite News.
“When ACIP places ‘COVID-19 vaccine injuries’ and ‘recommendation methodology’ on the same agenda, it signals more than routine housekeeping — it signals an institution aware that its credibility now depends on demonstrable rigor, not repetition of past assurances,” O’Connor said.
Dr. Joel Wallskog, an orthopedic surgeon and co-chair of React19, said he was “encouraged” that ACIP planned to address COVID-19 vaccine injuries. He said many injured by the COVID-19 vaccines “feel abandoned by the systems that were meant to protect them.”
“These Americans deserve recognition,” he said. “They deserve accurate diagnoses, clearer clinical definitions of their conditions, access to providers who understand their injuries, and the development of science-based diagnostic and therapeutic protocols.”
In May 2025, Wallskog testified at a U.S. Senate hearing about COVID-19 vaccine injuries. He recounted how he was diagnosed with dysautonomia and an undefined autoimmune disorder after receiving one dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
React19 is a nonprofit formed after the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to help connect those injured by the shots with resources that can help them.
1 in 10 U.S. adults had ‘major’ side effect from COVID vaccine
A national survey conducted in November 2025 found that one in every 10 U.S. adults suffered a “major” side effect following COVID-19 vaccination.
In October 2025, an investigation by The Defender revealed that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the federal agency overseeing workplace safety, instructed healthcare employers not to report workers’ adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to avoid discouraging workers from receiving the shot.
OSHA didn’t track reactions to COVID-19 vaccines, even though it tracked reactions to other vaccines. Children’s Health Defense has called on the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Labor to investigate.
There are over 16,450 peer-reviewed publications on PubMed documenting COVID-19 adverse effects, according to an analysis by Ronald N. Kostoff, Ph.D., a researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology. PubMed articles are high-quality studies published by the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine.
The studies revealed “eleven major categories of adverse effects, with cardiovascular, neurological, and autoimmune complications receiving the most research attention,” Kostoff wrote in a TrialSite News op-ed about his analysis.
An investigation in August 2025 by attorney Ray Flores and The Defender found that over 1.5 million people who reported COVID-19 injuries to the U.S. government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) were shut out from applying for compensation.
Two lawsuits ask court to disband ACIP
ACIP, which will meet March 18 and 19, is at the center of national conflict over U.S. vaccine policy.
In separate lawsuits, medical groups led by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and 15 states have asked courts to disband ACIP. They allege its members were illegally appointed in June 2025, when U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named all new members after removing the panel’s former members.
Kennedy wrote in a June 9, 2025, Wall Street Journal op-ed that the change was needed due to ACIP’s past ties to the pharmaceutical industry. “A clean sweep is needed to re-establish public confidence in vaccine science,” he wrote.
Since then, ACIP voted to remove the mercury-based preservative thimerosal from flu vaccines and ended the recommendation that all newborns receive the hepatitis B vaccine.
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ACIP canceled February meeting amid legal pressure
The panel typically meets three times a year to review scientific data on the risks and benefits of vaccines and issue vaccine recommendations. The CDC director has to adopt the recommendations before they become federal policy.
ACIP was scheduled to meet Feb. 25-27. However, the meeting was canceled after the CDC missed the deadline for announcing the meeting in the Federal Register. Per federal law, the agency must give notice of ACIP meetings a certain period of time in advance to allow for public input.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was also under legal pressure to cancel the meeting. The AAP asked the court for a preliminary injunction to prevent ACIP from holding its February meeting. U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy has not yet ruled on the request.
HHS did not respond to The Defender’s request for comment by the deadline.
The Defender reached out to ACIP members, including Dr. Robert Malone, Retsef Levi, Ph.D., and Dr. Kimberly Biss, but did not receive a response by the deadline.
Update: This article has been updated to clarify that an August 2025 investigation found that over 1.5 million people who reported COVID-19 injuries to VAERS were shut out from applying for compensation because their injuries didn’t meet the threshold for being considered “serious.”
Related articles in The Defender
- Exclusive: OSHA Admits It Told Healthcare Employers Not to Report COVID Vaccine Injuries
- ‘Maybe We Ought to Look at This System’: Senate Hearing on Vaccine Injuries Sparks Talk of Reforms
- ‘This Is Going to Be a Slog’: Senate Hearing on Cover-Up of COVID Vaccine Risks Just the ‘Tip of the Iceberg,’ Johnson Tells Committee
- 1 in 10 Adults Seriously Injured by a COVID Vaccine, New Survey Says
- Over 1.5 Million People Who Reported COVID Vaccine Injuries Shut Out From Applying for Compensation
