Judge temporarily blocks RFK Jr.'s efforts to reshape childhood vaccine policy
A Massachusetts judge ruled on Monday in favor of medical organizations in their litigation against Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over several of his changes to federal vaccine policy.
District Judge Brian Murphy temporarily blocked changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that were made at the beginning of this year, in which Kennedy reduced the number of recommended shots from 17 to 11.
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 unilaterally by Kennedy after he fired all the preceding members.
Finally, the judge stayed all votes taken by the Kennedy-nominated members, which included the removal of the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B shot at birth and to narrow existing recommendations for the combined MMRV shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
"[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."
Murphy did not grant the preliminary injunction in full but temporarily stayed the policy changes. The Trump administration can appeal the decision.
The ruling was expected this week as the vaccine committee, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), was scheduled to meet this Wednesday and Thursday. The judge ruled that the meeting would still be allowed to move forward, with legal counsel for the plaintiffs saying it would be "improper."
"ACIP as currently constituted cannot meet, for how can a committee meet without nearly the entirety of its membership?" Murphy wrote.
However, an HHS official confirmed to ABC News that the ACIP meeting has been postponed.
"HHS looks forward to this judge's decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing," HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement.
Last summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), along with organizations including the American College of Physicians and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, filed a lawsuit over what they called "unlawful, unilateral vaccine changes."
The lawsuit claimed HHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), a U.S. federal law that establishes procedures federal agencies must follow when making rules.
ABC News has reached out to HHS for comment on the claim that it did not follow the APA.
"Today's ruling is a historic and welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere," Dr. Andrew Racine, AAP president, said in a statement. "This decision effectively means that a science-based process for developing immunization recommendations is not to be trifled with and represents a critical step to restoring scientific decision-making to federal vaccine policy that has kept children healthy for years."
Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC during the Obama administration, called the ruling "a great day for children's health."
"This ruling says that science matters and that the health of our children matters," he told ABC News. "What has taken place over the past year just defies imagination. The idea that our Secretary of Health could be someone who is a leading anti-vaccine advocate and to put in place at the federal level an advisory committee stacked with anti-vaccine advocates endangered the health of children in America."
Besser said the ruling doesn't eliminate that confusion that parents might have, but encouraged them to talk to their pediatrician or their family health care provider about what vaccines their children should be receiving.
