A federal judge blocked a set of changes to the childhood vaccine schedule recommended by allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, dealing a setback to the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul federal vaccine policy.
In an opinion issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Boston sided with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other plaintiffs who challenged Kennedy and HHS’s efforts to cut the number of recommended childhood vaccines.
The lawsuit, brought last year by a coalition of medical groups and doctors, sought to block mass policy changes at HHS, arguing the agency’s decisions were arbitrary and capricious.
Months after he was confirmed, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which has recommended vaccine schedules to the Centers for Disease Control since 1964. Several of the newest members, picked by Kennedy and his allies, have questioned established medical research on vaccines.
Then, earlier this year, HHS significantly scaled back the recommended childhood vaccine schedule. The number of recommended immunizations was cut from 17 to 11, with several other vaccines — including for hepatitis A and hepatitis B — recommended primarily for children in high-risk categories. The new guidance drew criticism from health groups, which argued the decision could sow confusion and leave children vulnerable to serious disease.
Murphy’s ruling on Monday halted a government memo enacting the new vaccine schedule, and halted the appointments of 13 new ACIP members and all votes taken by them.
In his ruling, Murphy, a Biden appointee, found that Kennedy’s moves violated federal law and granted an injunction sought by the medical organizations, who argued that Kennedy and his hand-picked appointees to the vaccine committee bypassed evidence-based recommendations.
“There is a method to how these decisions historically have been made—a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, the Government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”
The judge said the government had “bypassed” ACIP when it updated the vaccine schedule earlier this year, disregarding the committee’s “technical knowledge and expertise,” and he wrote that the new members of ACIP were appointed without a rigorous screening process.
Of the new members to the vaccine panel appointed by Kennedy, “even under the most generous reading, only six appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines,” Murphy said.
In a statement, Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, celebrated the decision.
“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,” Racine said.
An HHS spokesman said the department “looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.”
After Murphy’s ruling, the upcoming ACIP meeting set for later this week was postponed, an HHS official told CBS News.
