Recently fired members of a committee that advises the federal government on immunization safety lashed out at Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying that their terminations will limit access to vaccines and put American lives at risk.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to overhaul a key committee on vaccine policy has left the country’s vaccine infrastructure “critically weakened,” former members of the group said in a piece published in JAMA on Monday.

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.