Washington DC - Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. backed away from key changes he made to the charter of his newly revamped CDC vaccine panel.

Having last year replaced the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with a selection of MAHA loyalists and vaccine skeptics, RFK Jr. last month introduced a new charter to govern the committee's work.

The document sought to broaden membership requirements and insist on expertise in areas such as toxicology and health economics for at least some of the new members. It also directed the committee to further scrutinize vaccine safety as well as new technologies such as mRNA.

Allies of President Donald Trump and RFK Jr. praised the changes, but that didn't stop the HHS from quietly withdrawing the document on Monday, only a month after it was released on April 6.

Donald Trump IRS is "forever barred" from pursuing Trump for back taxes under lawsuit settlement agreement

Reuters has reviewed a copy of a new charter, which has been signed by RFK Jr. but is yet to be publicly released.

Within the new document, the HHS has reportedly removed the requirements for a toxicologist and data scientist to sit on the panel, instead stating that its members must include "a balanced range of scientific, clinical and public health expertise."

Additionally, an explicit reference to mRNA platforms has been removed, and the role of the committee in reviewing vaccine safety has been reduced. Such regulation is typically the responsibility of the US Food and Drug Administration, not the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under the new charter, ACIP will have the authority to identify and provide advice on evidence gaps but cannot mandate policy changes.

Despite the changes, RFK Jr. will retain overall control over who sits on ACIP, and the language is expected to make it easier for him to get new candidates approved.