A handful of leading medical organizations are suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over recent changes to federal COVID-19 vaccine recommendations — part of what they characterize as a larger effort to undermine trust in vaccines among the American public.
The groups behind the complaint, filed on Monday in federal district court, include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association.
The lawsuit centers on Kennedy's decision to remove pregnant women and healthy children from the COVID-19 vaccine schedule in late May. The suit alleges this was "arbitrary" and "capricious" and in violation of federal law that governs how these decisions are made.
The complaint asks for the court to reverse the changes to the vaccine recommendations and declare them unlawful.
"Over the past several months, experts have been sidelined, evidence has been undermined and our nation's vaccine infrastructure is now threatened," Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told reporters on Monday.
"Every child's health is at stake," she said.
In a statement to NPR, Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said, "The Secretary stands by his CDC reforms."
The lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts because several of the plaintiffs who've been affected were there, said Richard H. Hughes IV, the lead counsel for the medical groups that are suing the federal government.
For example, one of the plaintiffs, identified only as "Jane Doe" in the complaint, is a pregnant physician who works in a hospital in Massachusetts and says she fears she won't be able to get a COVID vaccine.
The 42-page complaint catalogues many of Kennedy's actions on vaccine policy since assuming leadership at HHS, including removing the entire roster of experts from a federal vaccine advisory committee and replacing them with his own choices.
James Hodge is the director of the Center for Public Health Law and Policy at Arizona State University and is not involved in the lawsuit. Hodge said the case ultimately hinges on the allegations that Kennedy and other leaders of federal health agencies under his purview violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which stipulates how changes in vaccine recommendations should be made. Those changes include a process that involves the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, the panel whose original members Kennedy booted.
"The complaint makes a plausible case here that they did not follow proper procedures at all, related to ACIP recommendations," says Hodge. "That's where the court has to take this case seriously."
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