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Six medical groups and a pregnant physician have sued Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his principal deputies over changes made to federal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations.
Fiiled Monday, the lawsuit argues that Kennedy’s directive, which removed guidelines recommending COVID vaccination for pregnant people and healthy children, is unlawful and “a pressing public health emergency that demands immediate legal action and correction.”
“The Directive is but one example of the Secretary’s agenda to dismantle the longstanding, Congressionally-authorized, science- and evidence-based vaccine infrastructure that has prevented the deaths of untold millions of Americans,” the suit states.
Plaintiffs include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and several other groups.
In May, Kennedy unilaterally announced on the social media site X the COVID vaccine would be removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary and the National Institute of Health’s Director Jay Bhattacharya, who are named defendants in the suit, appeared alongside Kennedy in the video.
The CDC did not entirely withdraw the shots from its immunization framework, but instead adopted what’s known as a shared clinical decision-making recommendation for healthy children. This advises patients or, in the case of children, their guardians to discuss vaccination with their doctor, as opposed to a blanket recommendation. CDC guidelines affect insurance coverage as well as accessibility to vaccines more broadly.
“We have seen health insurance companies very inappropriately interpret shared clinical decision-making recommendations as not requiring them to cover those vaccines,” said Richard Hughes, partner for Epstein Becker Green firm and counsel for the plaintiffs during a press briefing Monday.
The physician in the suit, who is anonymous, says they have been blocked from getting a COVID booster since Kennedy’s directive, despite being at high risk of exposure to disease due to their work.
Kennedy has for years promoted misinformation surrounding vaccines. Since becoming HHS secretary, he’s taken major steps to bring some of those views into federal decisionmaking. Last month, Kennedy fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and installed eight hand-picked members, some of whom have controversial backgrounds.
Seven of those members recently met for the first time to discuss vaccine changes. Members aggressively questioned data supporting vaccine use, particularly for COVID shots, and voted that the preservative thimerosal should not be used in influenza shots. The meeting’s vote elevated a topic that’s long been a target for activists, who claim, against evidence, that thimerosal leads to autism and cognitive diabilities.
“It was clear that there was an agenda with disinformation and misinformation,” said Jason Goldman of the American College of Physicians, another plaintiff in the suit, during the press meeting.
“They did a presentation on thimerosal that did not need to be done without proper vetting or information,” Goldman added. “So it was critical at this time to take this action, because it is clearly an attack on public health.”
Hughes said he expects the new committee, with Kennedy’s support, to remove vaccines from the immunization schedule or undermine vaccines in other ways, and will amend the complaint to reflect any decisions in the future.
Hughes said he hopes for a court order in September. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of of Massachusetts.
