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A federal judge recently halted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposed changes to vaccine policies, which included cutting back on recommended childhood vaccinations and reorganizing an influential vaccine advisory committee.
U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy, appointed by President Biden, approved a request from the American Academy of Pediatrics for a preliminary injunction. This legal action blocks the implementation of the reduced childhood immunization schedule and the restructuring of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, effectively nullifying all decisions made by the committee since the changes were introduced.
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A federal judge on Monday blocked Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to vaccine policy, including the reduction of the recommended childhood immunizations and his remaking of a key vaccine advisory panel.
U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy, a Biden appointee, granted a motion by the American Academy of Pediatrics for a preliminary injunction against the reduced childhood immunization schedule earlier this year, along with the remaking of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, invalidating all votes made by the committee since.
Murphy found that the reconstitution of the ACIP last year failed to abide by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. He also found that the CDC bypassing the ACIP when changing the childhood immunization schedule was both a “technical, procedural failure” and “an abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise embodied by that committee.”
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