Kennedy to appeal judge's ruling on national childhood vaccine policy

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(The Center Square) – The Department of Health and Human Services plans to appeal a judge's temporary injunction to change the national childhood vaccine policy.

On Monday, Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts temporarily blocked Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to change federal vaccination policies regarding childhood vaccine recommendations and paused the replacement of Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members.

Kennedy’s proposed changes included reducing portions of the childhood vaccine schedule and making COVID-19 vaccines optional.

“Today, a compliant child must take between 69 and 92 vaccines to stay in school in some states, and not one of them has been safety tested in a pre-licensing placebo-controlled trial, and that is just malpractice,” Kennedy said.

The 17 ACIP members Kennedy attempted to replace were appointed by former President Joe Biden. Thirteen of those appointments were made in 2024 and would have prevented the Trump administration from selecting a committee majority until 2028.

“Congress said that 97% of the people in ACIP have had undisclosed conflicts. People have known about this for years,” Kennedy said. “We're bringing people on who are credentialed scientists, who are highly credentialed physicians, who are going to do evidence-based medicine, who are going to be objective, and we're going to follow the science that made critical public health determinations for our children.”

The judge halted the appointment of Kennedy’s chosen ACIP members due to concerns that the replacements were appointed too quickly, did not follow proper procedures and may not be sufficiently qualified in vaccine expertise.

With Murphy’s temporary preliminary injunction, decisions on childhood vaccines are in limbo and medical guidelines are unclear.

HHS said that it plans to appeal the judge’s order.

"We look forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing," Andrew Nixon, HHS spokesman and deputy assistant secretary for media relations, said on social media.

Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said Kennedy’s changes were unscientific.

"When Secretary Kennedy made unsupported and unscientific changes to pediatric immunization recommendations last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics was mission-bound to step up and push back against these dangerous actions that have sown chaos and confusion for parents and pediatricians across the country," he 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."