Ron Kroening, 63, has asthma and allergies. His doctor recommended the new Moderna mRNA flu vaccine, approved by the FDA in August for ages 50 and up. It took him time to find a pharmacy that stocked the shot. When he did, he was shocked to be charged a $40 co-pay. His insurer told him it was because there is no ACIP recommendation for the vaccine.
Currently, the ACIP is effectively paralysed. A judge's order halted Kennedy's changes, which included cutting childhood immunization recommendations and replacing committee members with handpicked allies, because they were not done correctly. But Kennedy has not nominated any new members. This leaves new vaccines without a formal recommendation, which insurers require before they are legally bound to cover them within a year.
Lindsay Wiley, a law professor at UCLA, explained the knock-on effects. If a vaccine is recommended by ACIP in December 2026, insurers must cover it by January 2028. If a recommendation is pushed to January 2027, coverage is not required until January 2029. 'It's just delaying more and more and more,' she said. For the new flu shot, 'it seems likely that at best we would get a recommendation next year,' but 'there's no reason to think' the committee will act soon.
The US government has appealed the part of the judge's order that disbanded the vaccines committee. Aaron Siri, who has served as Kennedy's lawyer, wrote Monday that 'This White House and DoJ are making no serious attempt to actually revive the vaccine committee.' Dorit Reiss, a vaccines expert at UC Law San Francisco, agreed: 'The federal government is choosing not to put in place a new ACIP.' She suggested a dysfunctional committee may be an advantage for Kennedy. 'Going around ACIP is a plus,' she said, allowing him to potentially make his own recommendations. She described his appointed advisers as 'uninformed' and 'embarrassing.'
Beyond the new flu shot, the uncertainty has halted the committee's previous work. A September 2025 recommendation on RSV shots was voided, though insurers appear to cover them anyway. A voided vote on the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine is now influencing state-level laws. Some states will not allow pharmacists to give vaccines without an ACIP recommendation. For Medicare patients, new flu shot coverage is mandated by law, but delays have been reported.
Kroening said he was able to pay the co-pay, but is concerned about the pattern. 'A $40 co-pay is going to turn people off,' he said. 'They're harder to get now. It's a mess right now, what they're doing with our vaccines.'