A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from overhauling the childhood vaccination schedule.
Newsweek reached out to HHS for comment via the agency’s press contact form.
Why It Matters
The ruling has significant implications for parents who may be planning vaccinations for their children. Kennedy has sought to loosen the requirements, arguing in January the changes would better align “the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent.” However, those changes drew swift backlash from medical experts who say they lack scientific merit and have been critical of Kennedy’s approach to vaccines.
What to Know
District Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston granted a temporary pause in the changes, writing that vaccine decisions have historically been made by a “method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.” The government under President Donald Trump, however, has “disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions,” he wrote.
“First, the Government bypassed ACIP [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] to change the immunization schedules, which is both a technical, procedural failure itself and a strong indication of something more fundamentally problematic: an abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise embodied by that committee. Second, the Government removed all duly appointed members of ACIP and summarily replaced them without undertaking any of the rigorous screening that had been the hallmark of ACIP member selection for decades,” Murphy said in the ruling.
The “procedural failure” highlights “why procedures exist and raises a substantial likelihood that the newly appointed ACIP fails to comport with governing law,” he wrote.
Murphy was appointed to his position by former President Joe Biden. He also blocked 13 ACIP appointees Kennedy made in June 2025, September 2025 and January 2026, according to the ruling.
The vaccine schedule changes Kennedy ordered in January will not be enacted—at least for now.
Which Vaccines Did RFK Jr. Try to Drop?
Under Kennedy’s proposed change, HHS would recommend immunizations for 11 diseases—measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus (HPV) and varicella (chickenpox).
It no longer recommended vaccines for protection against the flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis and RSV. Those protections were recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, according to the Associated Press (AP). Insurance companies would still have been required to pay for those vaccines, HHS said in a statement at the time.
“After an exhaustive review of the evidence, we are aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with international consensus while strengthening transparency and informed consent. This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in January.
Plaintiffs in the case include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and other medical groups. It was first filed in July 2025 but later amended to include the January vaccine changes.
In a February 17 filing, they described the changes as the “most expansive and far-reaching, and thus the most egregious, reckless, and dangerous of the action” taken by Kennedy.
“This action should be set aside, enjoined, and declared unlawful because Defendants failed to consider important factors such as whether the changes to the Childhood Schedule would lead to increases in serious illness and death due to vaccine-preventable illnesses, or increased burden on the American healthcare system, or increased financial burden on American families,” they wrote.
What People Are Saying
Plaintiffs, in the February 17 filing: “The Final Agency Actions have adversely affected the physician-patient relationship because, inter alia, they have injected mistrust, misinformation, uncertainty, and confusion into that relationship, putting physicians in the conflicting position of either advising patients on what they believe is the proper standard of care or adhering to inconsistent federal guidance. The Final Agency Actions will also result in decreased rates of vaccination, increased rates of transmission, long-lasting illness, and ultimately preventable deaths. The Final Agency Actions have and will put more stress on an already taxed healthcare system in this country at a time when many are uninsured, under-insured, or who may lose their health insurance coverage.”
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon, to the AP: “HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.”
Dr. Ryan Cole, head of medical and scientific affairs at the Independent Medical Alliance, in a statement responding to the ruling: “This ruling is judicial overreach to the extreme. The law is absolutely clear that the Secretary has complete control over FACA [Federal Advisory Committee Act] board membership, and yet this partisan judge arbitrarily changed the rules without legal precedent.”
What Happens Next
Nixon has signaled that HHS plans to appeal the ruling, so another court will hear the argument and decide whether to overturn Monday’s decision.
