Kennedy vaccine agenda, stalled by judge, now a political test for Trump

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials are weighing how to respond to a court ruling that stalled major parts of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine agenda, a decision that could shed light on the Trump administration’s willingness to continue to reshape vaccine policies, despite political risks.  

A person familiar with the situation, asked whether the administration would appeal the ruling issued earlier this week, said no decisions have been made. Options could include filing an appeal or entirely reconstituting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a panel whose current members were handpicked by Kennedy.   

The preliminary ruling reversed a year of the committee’s work, which the judge concluded had been carried out improperly. Federal judge Brian E. Murphy also ruled that a unilateral decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to reduce the number of recommended pediatric vaccines was illegal, ultimately restoring the childhood vaccine schedule to its previous version. 

Nearly 30 states, as well as the District of Columbia, have already announced they will not follow the new pediatric vaccine schedule, according to KFF, a health policy nonprofit. 

Health officials’ decision on what to do next could be delicate. The White House has largely stood by efforts led by Kennedy to overhaul U.S. vaccine policies. But its own pollsters have said the initiative has been unpopular among a large percentage of voters. More recently, White House officials have attempted to steer HHS away from the issue entirely as midterms approach, preferring to focus on more politically popular issues like food policy.

Prominent figures in the Make America Healthy Again movement as well as some of the members of ACIP impacted by the ruling have tried to draw officials back in.