A number of medical organizations want a judge to intervene and reverse the recent childhood vaccine recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC announced changes to the vaccine schedule including a change in recommendation for Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and some meningitis vaccines to only be given to a child if the child is at higher risk of infection. Also amended were recommendations for COVID-19, flu, and rotavirus, which now recommend consultation with a doctor on a case by case basis.
The suit was formally filed against Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Acting Director of the CDC Jim O’Neill, and Jane Does 1-50 and asserts that the listed defendants “arbitrarily—and illegally—revised the existing childhood and adolescent immunization schedule through a “Decision Memorandum” to downgrade six different vaccines without following the evidentiary-driven, and legally required processes for issuing recommended vaccine schedules in the United States.”
The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services oversees the CDC.
Among those asking for a court to intervene:
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American College of Physicians
- American Public Health Association
- Infectious Diseases Society of America
- Massachusetts Public Health Alliance
- Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
- Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
- Jane Doe #1
- Jane Doe #2
- Jane Does #3
As a remedy, the organizations are asking the schedule to be reversed to what it reflected in April 2025.
The organizations also claim:
“This drastic overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule is but one in a series of arbitrary and harmful actions taken by the Defendants since Plaintiffs filed the Third Amended Complaint alleging Defendants violated the Administrative Procedures Act through a series of unlawful agency actions.”
The most recent complaint is an amended complaint filed in regard to a larger suit against the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
The Atlanta-based CDC made changes to the vaccine schedule for children earlier this month.
