The 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, who were ousted last week, argued their abrupt dismissal has "left the U.S. vaccine program critically weakened."

All 17 experts recently dismissed from a government vaccine advisory panel published an essay Monday decrying “destabilizing decisions" made by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that could lead to more preventable disease spread.

Fiona Havers, who oversees CDC respiratory virus data, told colleagues she no longer had confidence the data would be used objectively to set vaccine policy.