CDC Advisory Committee Launches Review of COVID-19 Vaccines

The panel is going to study the efforts of repeated booster doses as well as how vaccines and COVID-19 have affected deaths and hospitalizations from any cause.

Retsef Levi speaks during the first meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices at the CDC global headquarters in Atlanta on June 25, 2025. Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

A group that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is going to review various aspects of COVID-19 vaccines, including concerns about the persistence of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), according to a new document.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) work group on COVID-19 vaccines will review data on the shots related to their safety, effectiveness, and immunogenicity, according to the Aug. 20 document, which was released by the CDC.

Members of the work group also plan to look at gaps in existing knowledge “relating to bio distribution, pharmacokinetics, and persistence of the spike protein, mRNA, and lipid nanoparticles to inform immunization recommendations,” the document states.

Studies have found that the spike protein and mRNA in the vaccines persist for some time. Lipid nanoparticles are used to deliver the mRNA.

Other areas of focus for the work group include potential impurities such as contamination by DNA, the impact of repeated booster doses on immune systems, how both COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 have affected all-cause deaths and hospitalizations, and serious adverse events potentially caused by the vaccines.

After reviewing the data and consulting with experts at the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and outside the government, the group plans on issuing new recommendations regarding the shots.

Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been named chair of the work group.

“My goal as the WG [work group] chair is to work with my colleagues at ACIP, the CDC and FDA experts and the external experts to openly study the range of issues and questions outlined in the Terms of Reference, to inform the best science and evidence-based policy recommendations, and having the health and safety of patients front in mind,” Levi told The Epoch Times in an email.

Levi has previously called for halting the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, citing concerns with safety and effectiveness.

Pfizer and Moderna did not respond to requests for comment.

The CDC says on its website that the COVID-19 vaccination “helps protect you from severe illness, hospitalization, and death.” It has acknowledged some side effects, including heart inflammation.

Under orders from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC earlier this year stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children and pregnant women.

Kennedy subsequently removed all members of ACIP and appointed Levi and others to replace them.

The CDC had for years recommended that all people aged 6 months and older receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The previous advisory panel had been considering recommending that the CDC shift to a non-universal recommendation.

ACIP member Dr. Robert Malone, who is serving on the COVID-19 vaccine work group, said on his blog that establishing topics for the group to review was a sign of progress.

“I am sorry it is so slow (and frustrating for all concerned), but we now have the authorization to look deeply into the big questions,” he wrote.

“Hopefully, we will have some answers by the upcoming ACIP general meeting.”

The next ACIP meeting is slated to take place in August or September, according to the committee’s website. Another meeting is due to take place on Oct. 22–23.

ACIP member Dr. James Pagano will also serve on the working group.

Other members of the group have not been disclosed, and Levi declined to name them.

The document says the group “is composed of experts who are appointed based on their professional, scientific, technical, or other expertise.”

CDC employees will no longer be able to serve as members, according to the document, although they can still present to the panel, which meets behind closed doors.