A federal judge on Monday blocked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, delivering a major blow to his vaccine agenda.
District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts temporarily blocked changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that were made at the beginning of this year, where Kennedy reduced the number of recommended shots from 17 to 11.
The change dropped recommendations that all babies should be protected against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, RSV, dengue and two types of bacterial meningitis.
The ruling arises from a lawsuit filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical organizations against the Department of Health and Human Services. The lawsuit contends that Kennedy’s modifications to vaccine recommendations and the influential vaccine advisory committee violated federal law.
The judge also suspended the appointments of the 13 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, who were all appointed by Kennedy after he fired all the preceding members.
“[T]here is a method to how these decisions historically have been made — a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements,” Murphy wrote in his opinion. “Unfortunately, the Government has disregarded those methods and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions.”
The ruling was anticipated this week, as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the vaccine committee, was scheduled to convene this Wednesday and Thursday.
“ACIP as currently constituted cannot meet, for how can a committee meet without nearly the entirety of its membership?” Murphy wrote.
An HHS official confirmed that the meeting had been postponed.
The decision is a setback for Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who promised to restore trust in the public health agencies, but his controversial policies have created confusion among pediatricians and contributed to more distrust of childhood vaccination, experts say. A recent survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that trust in public health agencies has fallen in President Donald Trump’s second term.
