ATLANTA, Feb. 20, 2026 — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will not hold its late‑February vaccine advisory committee meeting and has not announced new dates, an HHS spokesman said, according to Reuters.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) had been listed to meet Feb. 25–27 on the CDC’s meeting information page, the CDC site shows; trade press also reported the cancellation and lack of rescheduled dates, PharmExec noted.
Notice and agenda questions
The agency had not posted a Federal Register notice or meeting agenda ahead of the session, Reuters reported, a detail also cited by The Detroit News.
ACIP recommendations shape U.S. vaccine policy by influencing insurance coverage, school requirements and clinical guidance, Reuters said, and the committee’s role in national guidance has been under scrutiny, The Guardian noted.
Policy overhaul backdrop
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has moved to rewrite federal vaccine policy, including removing broad recommendations for six childhood immunizations such as COVID-19 and hepatitis B, Reuters reported, amid a wider policy shift described by The Guardian.
The postponement came as medical groups challenged the panel’s legitimacy in court, and the Justice Department notified a federal judge that the meeting would not go forward, Reuters said, with The Detroit News reporting the same notification.
Committee upheaval
The panel has been reshaped repeatedly since Kennedy removed all 17 members last June, Reuters reported, a change that The Guardian described as part of a broader overhaul.
At its December meeting, ACIP voted to remove the recommendation that all U.S. newborns receive a hepatitis B shot, Reuters said, a decision also reported by The Detroit News.
The CDC followed in January by removing broad recommendations for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A vaccines, while ACIP did not vote on those changes, Reuters reported, with the update also noted by The Detroit News.
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Image: “CDC HDR I” by Kameraad Pjotr, CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CDC_HDR_I.jpg. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Modifications: cropped and resized to 1920×1080 (16:9).
