Judge’s Ruling Blocking RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Changes Is Headed for Higher Court

The Trump administration plans to appeal a federal judge’s order that is temporarily blocking a new recommended childhood vaccination schedule announced in January by the Robert F. Kennedy Jr.-run Department of Health and Human Services.The President Biden-appointed judge also said that federal rules may have been broken in assembling Mr. Kennedy’s hand-picked advisory committee that recommended cutting the number of vaccines that children should receive.District Judge Brian Murphy said the panel was “tainted” because it did not follow requirements that its members be “fairly balanced” and because many of the new members appeared to be “distinctly unqualified” for the role.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended the number of routinely recommended vaccines drop from 17 to 11. The vaccines that were taken off of the list included shots for hepatitis A and B, Covid-19, influenza, rotavirus, and meningococcal disease.Judge Murphy said the plaintiffs had demonstrated that there is “substantial risk to public health” from the actions.Judge Murphy’s order also pauses the work of the 13 committee members that Mr. Kennedy appointed after firing all 17 previous members of the panel in June. Several of the appointees have a history of vaccine skepticism.The advisory committee was scheduled to meet this week to discuss alleged Covid vaccine injuries but the meeting is now postponed. Delving into possible vaccine injuries is not a normal function of the panel, and is traditionally handled by other boards.The American Academy of Pediatrics filed the lawsuit — along with other medical associations — in the United States District Court of Massachusetts. The academy celebrated the ruling, calling it a critical step toward restoring scientific decision-making to federal vaccine policy.The group — which represents thousands of pediatric doctors — had already announced it was ignoring the recommendations but it worried that the new federal policy would cause parents to question what advice to follow.“Today’s ruling is a historic and welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere,” the group’s president, Dr. Andrew Racine, said in a statement.“When Secretary Kennedy made unsupported and unscientific changes to pediatric immunization recommendations last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was mission-bound to step up and push back against these dangerous actions that have sown chaos and confusion for parents and pediatricians across the country.”The stay could be short-lived as the case moves to an appeals process.“We look forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing,” a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, Andrew Nixon, said.

Judge’s Ruling Blocking RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Changes Is Headed for Higher Court

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