CDC Advisers to Discuss COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries, Long COVID

The advisers may vote on the subjects after discussing them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta on Aug. 25, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director will go over COVID-19 vaccine side effects and so-called long COVID, according to a Federal Register notice published on Feb. 26.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which provides vaccine-related advice to the CDC’s director, will discuss “COVID-19 vaccine injuries and Long-COVID” during its next meeting on March 18 and March 19, the notice states.

ACIP will also go over its methodology for making recommendations to the CDC. The recommendations are non-binding, but are usually adopted by the agency’s head or, if the position is vacant, the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary.

After going over the three subjects, the advisory committee may vote on them.

Further details have not yet been made available. ACIP’s chairman did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.

The meeting will take place at CDC headquarters in Atlanta. People can also watch the meeting online.

Dr. Joel Wallskog, co-chair of the React19 organization, told The Epoch Times in an email that people who have been injured by COVID-19 vaccines need recognition, accurate diagnoses, providers who understand their injuries, and science-based protocols.

“We appreciate the ACIP committee’s willingness to begin addressing these critical issues and to consider meaningful solutions for those who have too long been without acknowledgment or a safety net,” he said.

In its last meeting, in late 2025, a majority of ACIP members voted to advise the CDC to stop recommending hepatitis B vaccination for newborns born to women who tested negative for the disease. Jim O'Neill, at the time the HHS deputy secretary and the CDC’s acting director, accepted the recommendation.

In mid-2025, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced all ACIP members, citing conflict-of-interest issues. Some members voted on vaccines even though they had recently received or were receiving money from companies that make the vaccines, The Epoch Times found.

Organizations and states have alleged in two separate lawsuits that the remaking of the panel violated federal law because Kennedy did not follow proper processes in selecting the new members and because many of the new members oppose vaccines. Both filings seek a reversal of the panel reconstitution and of recent changes to CDC vaccine guidance.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in Washington on Feb. 11, 2026. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

“Public health decisions must remain grounded in truth and facts,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement on Feb. 24 after the latter lawsuit was lodged. “That’s why, for the 59th time, I’m taking the Trump Administration to court. My fellow attorneys general and I cannot sit on the sidelines while lives are put at risk and our laws are broken.”

A federal judge in the other case is still mulling whether to enter an injunction blocking the updates to the panel and vaccine recommendations.

“By law, the health secretary has clear authority to make determinations on the CDC immunization schedule and the composition of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,” HHS said in a post on X this week. “The CDC immunization schedule reforms reflect common-sense public health policy shared by peer, developed countries.”