Judge blocks US government from slimming down vaccine recommendations

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked federal health officials from reducing the number of vaccines recommended for each child and said U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely violated federal procedures when revamping a key vaccine advisory committee.

The decision ended an order by Kennedy — announced in January — to end blanket recommendations that all children be vaccinated against influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, certain forms of meningitis and RSV.

It also interrupted a meeting of a Kennedy-appointed vaccine advisory committee, which was scheduled to meet this week in Atlanta.

The judge’s order, however, is not the final word. The holds are temporary, pending either a trial or a summary judgment decision.

Federal health officials have indicated they plan to appeal.

“HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned, along with his other attempts to prevent the Trump administration from governing,” said Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Monday’s order is the latest development in a lawsuit filed last July by the American Academy of Pediatrics and some other medical groups. The lawsuit in federal court in Boston originally focused on Kennedy’s decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for most children and pregnant women.

The lawsuit was updated as Kennedy took new steps that alarmed medical companies, leading the plaintiffs to ask Judge Brian E. Murphy to also take steps to respond to these policy changes.

For example, the plaintiffs amended the lawsuit to stop the reduction of the national childhood immunization schedule. They also asked the court to review Kennedy’s actions regarding the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises public health officials on which vaccines to recommend to doctors and patients.

Kennedy, a leading anti-vaccine campaigner before becoming the nation’s top health official, last year fired the entire 17-member panel and replaced it with a group that included several anti-vaccine voices.

Murphy, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, said Kennedy’s reconstitution of the ACIP likely violated federal law. He ordered that the appointments – and all decisions made by the reform committee – be suspended.

The ACIP was scheduled to meet this week to discuss, among other issues, the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, but that meeting has been postponed, officials said.

“The ACIP, as currently constituted, cannot meet,” said Richard Hughes IV, an attorney representing the AAP. “How can a committee meet without almost all of its members?

Jason Schwartz, a vaccine policy expert at Yale University who has studied the committee, called the interruption of an ACIP meeting for legal reasons “unprecedented” in its 62-year history.

Hughes called the judge’s order “a momentous step toward restoring science-based vaccine policy,” and it was echoed by leaders of several physician groups and public health organizations.

When Trump administration officials overhauled the childhood vaccination schedule, they said it would not cause families to lose access to these vaccines or shut down insurers. But that left many Americans confused, as doctor groups, public health agencies and many states continued to recommend approved vaccines, said Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Several doctors’ groups said the changes were not based on solid evidence and advised doctors and patients to follow previously-in-place guidelines. Health officials in 30 states have rejected at least some of the new recommendations.

The judge’s order should provide clarity, Racine said.

“If anyone has questions about the appropriate vaccination schedule for their children, the best thing to do is talk to their pediatrician,” he said.

Schwartz said he expected federal health officials to continue to express “deep skepticism about the importance of vaccination” and continue to accept “unsubstantiated claims about vaccine safety.”

After the decision, one of the Kennedy-appointed committee members, Dr. Robert Malone, urged the Trump administration to continue Kennedy’s vaccine policy changes.

“A district court order is a delay, not a defeat,” he wrote on Substack on Monday.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.