The Trump administration has appealed a Massachusetts federal judge’s ruling that blocked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent overhaul of the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule.
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A filing Wednesday evening in the District of Massachusetts indicates the administration is appealing Judge Brian Murphy’s order from March 16. Murphy put on hold any decisions made by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee, ruling that Kennedy replaced the committee “unlawfully.”
The appeal was signed by assistant attorney general Brett Shumate.
In January, Kennedy and the CDC made sweeping changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, reducing the number of recommended diseases to be vaccinated against from 18 to 11. The change dropped recommendations that all babies should be protected against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, RSV, dengue and two types of bacterial meningitis.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical groups sued the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that the changes to the schedule and Kennedy’s overhaul of the CDC’s influential Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices violated federal law.
What happens next?
The Department of Justice could file a motion for emergency relief to get the court to act on its appeal immediately. That would require the First Circuit Court of Appeals to act quickly in deciding whether to stay, or pause, the March 16 ruling.
Kennedy’s appointment of 13 committee members was stayed, per the ruling, nullifying their positions and any of their votes.
It’s likely that the next steps will occur over a matter of months, however, and will include oral arguments ahead of any new decision.
In a statement Wednesday, the AAP’s attorney, Richard Hughes, said his team “will, in due course, respond to the government’s appeal and we expect to prevail.”
Hughes previously suggested the case could eventually reach the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the status of the advisory panel — a key group meant to be composed of vaccine experts independent of government influence — is in limbo.
A meeting that had been scheduled for March during which members were expected to discuss Covid shots has been postponed indefinitely. The committee is supposed to meet again in late June. There is no agenda yet for that meeting.
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