Several medical organizations have asked a judge to declare the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision this month to narrow the list of vaccines recommended for children unlawful, calling the move “egregious, reckless, and dangerous.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics and a coalition of other medical groups on Monday moved to expand a lawsuit, opens new tab they filed last year in Boston federal court that challenges policies adopted under U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that they say will lower vaccination rates.
The CDC’s Jan. 5 decision furthered a long-running effort by Kennedy, who founded the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense before becoming the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to pare back childhood vaccinations.
The CDC’s move cut the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccinations to 11 from 17, advising that immunizations for six diseases including rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A instead be given only after consultation with a healthcare provider.
The plaintiffs called the changes to the childhood vaccination schedule the “most expansive and far-reaching” of a series of vaccine policies adopted since President Donald Trump took office and appointed Kennedy as the head of HHS.
They said the CDC violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to consider whether those changes would lead to increases in serious illness and death due to vaccine-preventable illnesses or new burdens for the healthcare system.
The plaintiffs say downgrading the shots’ status resulted in recommendations that essentially call for patients to consult their doctors first, a process the medical groups say is time-consuming and has already led patients to decline or delay vaccination.
The Trump administration is opposing the plaintiffs’ request to amend their previously filed complaint to cover the CDC’s Jan. 5 action, according to court papers. HHS did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
The plaintiffs’ move to expand their lawsuit came ahead of a Feb. 13 hearing where they plan to ask U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy to block a key vaccine advisory panel from holding its next meeting on Feb. 25–26.
The plaintiffs are seeking to invalidate all votes cast since June by that panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, whose members were selected by Kennedy after he fired all 17 independent experts in June, who had previously served on the committee, which advises CDC on vaccine policy.
Murphy, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, declined to dismiss the case on Jan. 6, saying the plaintiffs raised a plausible claim the panel’s makeup is now skewed to vaccine skeptics who were appointed solely because their views aligned with Kennedy’s.
Should Murphy ultimately rule in the plaintiffs’ favor on the merits, it could lead to an invalidation of the panel’s September vote in favor of COVID-19 shots being administered only through shared decision-making with a healthcare provider.
The CDC adopted that as a recommendation for pediatric and adult patients in October, effectively withdrawing its previous broad guidance that COVID vaccines be available to anyone in the U.S. who wanted one.
The panel had also voted in December to remove the broad recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine.
The case is American Academy of Pediatrics et al v. Kennedy, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 1:25-cv-11916.
For the plaintiffs: James Oh of Epstein Becker & Green
For the United States: Isaac Belfer of the U.S. Department of Justice