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A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent overhaul of the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule — a major blow to the secretary’s vaccine agenda.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical groups against the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that Kennedy’s changes to vaccine recommendations and to an influential vaccine advisory committee violated federal law.
In January, Kennedy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made sweeping changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, reducing the number of recommended shots from 18 to 11. The CDC’s change in guidance dropped recommendations that all babies should be protected against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, RSV, dengue and two types of bacterial meningitis.
In response, more than 200 groups, including the American Medical Association, March of Dimes and the Autism Science Foundation, announced they would disregard those changes and follow AAP’s immunization schedule instead.
The judge also put on hold the new members Kennedy appointed to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee since last June. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices helps shape U.S. vaccine policy, including recommendations that influence the childhood vaccine schedule and which shots must be covered by insurance.
The panel was scheduled to meet on Wednesday and Thursday. According to the AAP’s attorney, Richard Hughes, the judge’s decision essentially stops that meeting from happening.
A Department of Health and Human Services official confirmed that the ACIP meeting had been postponed.
The ruling also stayed any of the votes Kennedy’s ACIP took since last June, including a vote to no longer recommend the hepatitis B vaccine to all newborns.
The judge’s decision is a setback for Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who promised to restore trust in the public health agencies, but whose 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.
“Today is a day to celebrate the triumph of science over misinformation,” said Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “This is a huge blow to Kennedy’s vaccine policies.”
Dr. Andrew Racine, AAP’s president, said the ruling “re-established a degree of clarity” about childhood vaccinations. “If anyone has any questions about what’s the appropriate vaccine schedule for their children, the best thing to do is to talk to their pediatricians.”
The ruling could still be appealed and potentially make its way to the Supreme Court, Hughes said.
In a statement, Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for HHS, said the agency “looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing.”
Kennedy has made a series of moves to reshape federal vaccine policy since taking office.
Last June, Kennedy fired all 17 members of ACIP and replaced them with his own appointees, many of whom are critical of vaccines.
He also issued new rules for how vaccines are tested, a move experts said would make it harder for new shots to be approved. Kennedy has also moved to limit the use of Covid vaccines — making them harder to get for people under 65 — and removed a recommendation that healthy kids and pregnant women get the shots. He’s also taken a harder line on shots that use mRNA technology.
