A Federal Judge Has Spoken; RFK Jr.’s HHS Must Undo All Childhood Vaccine Schedule Changes
The ruling says the changes to COVID and childhood vaccine guidelines were not based in science.
Yesterday in a landmark ruling, a judge determined that Health & Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. violated federal law by changing the childhood vaccine schedule in January and making sweeping changes to who sits on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — a panel of doctors and vaccine experts who convene throughout the year to determine the best vaccine guidelines for public health. The ruling is the result of a lawsuit filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and numerous other health authorities, including the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
The suit was filed to seek injunctions against Kennedy and HHS for his changes to federal COVID vaccine recommendations, downgrades to the childhood vaccine schedule, and the secretary’s dismissal of all 17 members of ACIP. The plaintiffs alleged Kennedy replaced experienced ACIP members with anti-vaccine advocates to undermine the scientific process used to determine the CDC’s vaccine guidelines, and that the changes to vaccine guidance were enacted to “gradually desensitize” the country to anti-science rhetoric.
The courts agreed. Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an order to stay Secretary Kennedy’s appointments to the ACIP committee, stating the appointments were likely made in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which prohibits the appointment of special interest advocates to government advisory panels. The judge also stayed all votes taken by Kennedy’s ACIP, which in turn stays the revisions to the childhood vaccine schedule issued in January of this year. The ACIP, with its current roster of members, is barred from meeting until changes are made. A meeting scheduled for this week has been indefinitely postponed.
In his opinion, Judge Murphy writes that the ACIP has historically based their decisions in careful review of all available scientific evidence, a practice that has been “codified into law through procedural requirements.”
“Unfortunately, the government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions,” his ruling reads.
“When Secretary Kennedy made unsupported and unscientific changes to pediatric immunization recommendations last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics was mission-bound to step up and push back against these dangerous actions that have sowed chaos and confusion for parents and pediatricians across the country. This decision effectively means that a science-based process for developing immunization recommendations is not to be trifled with and represents a critical step to restoring scientific decision-making to federal vaccine policy that has kept children healthy for years,” said Dr. Andrew Rancine, FAAP, president of the AAP, in a written statement.
“This ruling is a momentous step toward restoring science-based vaccine policymaking. The judge recognized that the actions of Secretary Kennedy and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are not grounded in science and that they are destructive. We are thrilled that the court has discarded the baseless vaccine schedule changes made by Secretary Kennedy and is blocking the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from doing further damage to vaccine policy,” said Richard Hughes, lawyer for the AAP.
HHS will appeal the decision, however. “HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing,” said Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.
So, you may see the previously accepted childhood vaccine schedule reappear on the CDC’s website instead of relegating many of the shots to “shared clinical decision-making” status. But for now, medical experts are calling this a step in the right direction for science. The AAP encourages parents to continue leaning on their pediatricians for guidance about their children’s health.
“In the wake of today’s decision, one thing remains clear: parents can continue to turn to the AAP’s childhood vaccine recommendations and talk with their pediatrician about how to best protect their children’s health,” Rancine said.
