The Vaccine Integrity Project, in partnership with the AMA, has launched an evidence-based, transparent review process for vaccine safety and effectiveness for the 2026–27 respiratory season, focusing on influenza, COVID-19, and RSV.

The AMA-led review aims to continuously and openly evaluate safety and effectiveness to guide clinical decisions, with ongoing collaboration from the Vaccine Integrity Project at CIDRAP, University of Minnesota.

This move signals a broader shift among major medical societies toward publicly questioning federal vaccine policy, following earlier steps by groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics that diverged from CDC recommendations.

Participating societies will use the review briefs to develop and disseminate population-specific immunization guidance for groups such as pregnant women, children, older adults, immunocompromised individuals, and healthy adults.

The briefs will be shared with member societies to inform targeted guidance and decision-making across patient populations.

The initiative emphasizes restoring trust in an evidence-based, transparent process for vaccine recommendations amid concerns about the perceived weakening of the CDC’s ACIP-driven system.

By maintaining continuous evaluation and transparent methods, the effort seeks to reestablish clinician and public confidence in vaccine guidance.

The move follows a CDC ACIP decision to alter infant vaccine recommendations, prompting the AMA to pursue its own independent review process.

Key components include structured policy-question development, ongoing expert panels and monthly scientific meetings, systematic literature reviews, comparative analyses, and open data transparency with an independent verification protocol.

Building on the 2025–26 review, the program aims to create a durable, transparent framework for evaluating respiratory virus vaccines with input from medical societies, public health, and health-care organizations.

The Vaccine Integrity Project, launched in April 2025, has already completed the 2025–26 review and is evaluating the birth dose of hepatitis B and HPV data, with ongoing influenza, COVID-19, and RSV assessments.