A growing rift between federal vaccine advisers and regulators is emerging due to conflicting viewpoints over whether Covid vaccines should remain on the U.S. market, setting up a high-stakes test for the Trump administration’s public commitment to maintaining vaccine access for patients.

The dispute centers on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the agency that makes vaccine recommendations to both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA, which holds the authority to license or revoke vaccines.²

According to public statements and social media posts from X, ACIP vice chair Robert Malone (a public ally of HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) publicly accused FDA Commissioner Marty Makary of blocking efforts to pull Covid vaccines from the market.¹

How did Malone accuse the FDA commissioner?

In a series of posts on the social media platform X regarding the HHS policy on Covid vaccines, Malone said “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”Malone then continued to publicly state his opinion, responding to a user who suggested to remove the vaccines from the market, saying “We are aligned.”⁴

In response to another comment on the original post asking Malone who and what the holdup is, the vice chairman directly identified the FDA commissioner as the obstacle.⁴

During a call with MAHA Action, a nonprofit aligned with Kennedy’s political movement, Malone said he was “not deaf” to demands seeking to remove the vaccines and urged observers to watch the committee’s upcoming February meeting, adding that “if the FDA won’t act, there are other entities that will.”⁵

According to Malone, Covid vaccines are expected to be discussed at ACIP’s February meeting, although the specific agenda remains undisclosed.⁵ ACIP’s role is expected to be limited in deciding if Covid vaccines remain on the market, as its recommendations carry weight with CDC leadership, but the committee has no authority to revoke FDA licenses.²

When did tensions arise?

The tension stems from several senior health officials, including Kennedy and Makary, who rose to prominence during the pandemic as critics of the government’s Covid response and vaccine policymaking.

At the same time, Kennedy has continued to state that vaccines would remain available to anyone who wants them, including during his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee back in September 2025, in which he said "It depends on the states, but they can still get it. Everybody can get it. Everybody can get it, senator."

The pressure to keep that promise intensified when Children’s Health Defense (CHD) filed a formal Citizen Petition requesting the FDA to revoke the licenses for both Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax vaccines.² 

According to CHD, the petition argues that the FDA granted full biologics licenses without requiring manufacturers to meet the legal standards that typically govern licensed vaccines.²

Mary Holland, CEO of CHD, noted that the petition focuses on regulatory compliance rather than vaccine science, alleging that the FDA “violated its own rules egregiously” during the Biden administration.² The petition is based on research conducted by pharmaceutical industry veteran Sasha Latypova and calls on the FDA to determine that the vaccines are misbranded and adulterated and to reclassify them as emergency use authorization products while the federal public health emergency declaration remains in effect through 2029.²

“CHD is supporting the transparency and integrity at the FDA that the American people deserve, and that U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised,” said Holland.

The petition alleges that the vaccines transitioned from emergency authorization to full licensure without completing required clinical investigations, manufacturing validations, and oversight procedures.³ It further claims that trial data used for licensure did not reflect the commercial manufacturing process and that safety warnings and usage restrictions added since licensure underscore regulatory deficiencies.³

Sources

1. Trump and Allies at Odds Over Covid Shots Axios January 29, 2026 https://www.axios.com/2026/01/29/trump-kennedy-covid-vaccine
2. CHD Asks FDA to Revoke COVID Vaccine Licenses, Calls on Public to Submit ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of Comments Children’s Health Defense December 9, 2025 https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/chd-asks-fda-to-revoke-covid-vaccine-licenses-petition/?utm_source=cc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=defender&utm_id=20251209
3. Citizen Petition from Children’s Health Defense Regulations.Gov December 9, 2025 https://www.regulations.gov/document/FDA-2025-P-6831-0001
4. Robert W. Malone, MD X, X January 18, 2026 https://x.com/RWMaloneMD/status/2012880805115134224?s=20
5. Fact-checking RFK Jr.'s claim that 'everybody can get' the COVID-19 vaccine PBS September 5, 2025 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/fact-checking-rfk-jr-s-claim-that-everybody-can-get-the-covid-19-vaccine