Calls for Scientific Rigor and Maintaining Vaccine Choice for Families
What You Need to Know: State health officials from California, Oregon, Hawaii and Washington issued a statement in response to federal ACIP meeting.
Related: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Recommends Standalone Chickenpox Vaccination in Toddlers and All Children Receive Immunizations for Measles, Mumps, Rubella And Chickenpox From 12 Months
September 20, 2025 - SACRAMENTO – The state health officials of the members of the West Coast Health Alliance 
issued the following statement on outcomes of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP):
Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
"At the September 18-19th ACIP meeting, committee members did not employ standard scientific methods to evaluate information presented to them.
The ACIP recommendations on measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine and proposed tabled recommendations on Hepatitis B limit patient choice and access to vaccines with disproportionate impact on children receiving immunizations through Vaccines for Children (VFC). No new safety or efficacy data were presented to form the basis of these recommendations.
The West Coast Health Alliance (WCHA) affirms the pre-existing and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendation that parents have an option to choose whether their child receives separate (MMR + V) or combined (MMRV) vaccines for children less than 4 years of age.
Restoring a process for systematically reviewing the evidence and a framework for translating the evidence into recommendations will restore scientific rigor and transparency and maintain vaccine choice for all families."
California Department of Public Health
Hawaii State Department of Public Health
Oregon Health Authority
Washington State Department of Health
Source: CDPH
