Federal Judge Puts Rfk Jr.’s New Vaccine Schedule, Advisers On Ice

A federal judge Monday granted public health groups’ request to stay Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointments to a federal advisory panel on vaccines while their challenge to vaccine policy changes moves through the courts.

While Boston-based Judge Brian Murphy stopped short of formally blocking the panel from convening, his opinion effectively halted the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' scheduled meeting this week at the CDC from moving forward. HHS confirmed the two-day meeting in Atlanta is postponed.

"While the appointments of the challenged members of ACIP are stayed, ACIP as currently constituted cannot meet, for how can a committee meet without nearly the entirety of its membership?" Murphy said in the opinion.

Murphy also granted the American Academy of Pediatrics’ motion to block HHS from implementing its Jan. 5 decision downgrading some childhood vaccines from “routine” recommendations to “shared clinical decision-making.” Many public health experts say the latter category downplays the benefits of those immunizations without any scientific basis.

Both presidentially-appointed officials and Congress have “formalized” the ACIP's evidence-backed approach to vaccine recommendations in agency documents and in law by determining which shots are covered by insurers, Murphy wrote in his opinion. That means, he said, “there is a method to how these decisions historically have been made.”

In not following that process, the federal government has “undermined the integrity of its actions,” he added.

HHS could appeal Monday's ruling to the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

“HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing," department spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in an email.

President Donald Trump has directly targeted Murphy in social media posts; the Biden-appointed judge has drawn the administration's ire for ruling against its immigration priorities.

The decision came days after the parties met for a second time in Murphy’s courtroom. The judge heard arguments March 4 on the remainder of the doctors’ case, which challenges the validity of the committee’s new membership under Kennedy.

In February, Murphy held a hearing on the groups' bid to enjoin the new vaccine schedule and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting after the judge opted to split the proceedings to focus on the most time-sensitive requests first. At that point, the panel was expected to meet in February, but the meeting was postponed after the CDC missed legal deadlines to solicit public comment.