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."

Following HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision last week to purge the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and appoint his own replacements, the 17 ousted experts are hitting back at the arguments behind the cull.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actions at the CDC “put U.S. families at risk of dangerous and preventable illnesses,” they say.