ACIP puts HPV vaccine back under the microscope, 20 years after approval

MIT professor Retsef Levi will lead a new workgroup to re-examine the HPV vaccine, including its effectiveness, dosing, safety, and long-term population outcomes.

After nearly two decades on the childhood immunisation schedule, the HPV vaccine is undergoing a formal reassessment.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP) has convened a new workgroup to re-examine the vaccine from the ground up — its effectiveness, dosing, safety, and long-term population impact.

The workgroup will be led by MIT professor Retsef Levi, a current ACIP member who has consistently pressed for longer safety follow-up and greater transparency about uncertainty in vaccine science.

For much of the past 20 years, ACIP’s approach to HPV vaccination followed a trajectory of expanding eligibility, strengthening uptake, and adding new indications. Once licensed, the core assumptions underpinning the policy were rarely reopened.

That approach now appears to be shifting.