Illinois-based American Academy of Pediatrics sues Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine changes
The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleges that a decision in May to remove COVID-19 vaccines from the federal list of recommended vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women was unlawful and 'endangering the lives of patients.'
'The Directive has put all (American Academy of Pediatrics) members (and, indeed, all other physicians in this country) in the untenable position of telling their patients that the country's top-ranking government health official's advice and recommendations are wrong and that we are right,' according to the lawsuit. 'This erodes trust, which is the foundation of a healthy physician-patient relationship and vital to the success of AAP members' medical practices.'
Now, instead of recommending the vaccine for healthy children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says healthy children may receive the vaccine after 'a decision process between the health care provider and the patient or parent/guardian.'
The medical groups want the court to bar the federal government from enforcing and publicizing the new recommendations, and they want the court to declare the change unlawful and restore the previous recommendations.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon. But in a video posted to X in May announcing the change, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, said of the change, 'It's common sense, and it's good science.'
In that same video, U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said, 'There's no evidence healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.'
Bhattacharya, Makary, the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the head of the CDC are also named as defendants in the lawsuit. Other plaintiffs in the case include the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and an unnamed pregnant doctor.
The medical groups allege in the lawsuit that the change was against the law partly because Kennedy bypassed the usual process for making changes to the list of recommended vaccines. Normally, a committee called the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations to the CDC about vaccines. Kennedy has also faced criticism in recent weeks for firing all the members of ACIP and replacing them with others.
'This wasn't just sidelining science,' said Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the Itasca-based American Academy of Pediatrics, in a video posted to the group's website. 'It's an attack on the very foundation of how we protect families and children's health. And the consequences could be dangerous.'
Since the change to the COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, pediatricians have had to spend more time talking with distressed parents about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit describes one pediatrician's struggle, saying: 'The CDC's current emphasis on 'shared decision-making' for the Covid vaccine for children has put a chilling effect on her practice. Shared decision-making implies that the Covid vaccine is optional or suspect, making it harder to hold Covid vaccine clinics, limiting her practice's ability to order vaccines in bulk, and creating reimbursement challenges.'
Because of the 'confusion and lack of evidence-based data' supporting the changes, the American Academy of Pediatrics has chosen not to endorse the CDC's current child and adolescent vaccination schedule and is instead endorsing the schedule as it stood before the changes, according to the lawsuit.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
Major medical associations sue Kennedy, Trump administration health leaders for Covid-19 vaccine changes
Source: CNN Medical associations representing hundreds of thousands of doctors, medical professionals and scientists in the United States are suing the leaders of US health agencies for limiting who can get Covid-19 vaccines and for undermining overall vaccine confidence. The lawsuit, filed Monday in US District Court in Massachusetts, was brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Association D/B/A the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and an unnamed doctor who is pregnant and fears that she will be unable to get the Covid-19 vaccine. 'Our clients are not litigious organizations. They don't want to be in court, and certainly we do not like that we're in the position of having to sue the secretary of Health and Human Services, our nation's chief health officer. So this is a position that I don't think they want to be in, but it's necessary,' Richard Hughes, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said at a news conference Monday, calling the lawsuit 'unprecedented.' The groups are suing US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew Buzzelli, chief of staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who is serving as its acting director. 'This step is not one we take lightly,' Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said at the news conference Monday. 'It's not one we ever wanted to take at all, but we can no longer wait for government officials to sort this out. Pediatricians cannot stay silent as the system we rely on to support lifesaving vaccines is chiseled away, piece by piece.' HHS did not respond to CNN's request for comment about the lawsuit. In May, Kennedy took the highly unusual step of announcing in a video on social media that the Covid-19 vaccine would no longer be recommended for pregnant people and healthy children on the CDC's immunization schedule. Experts immediately warned that these changes could create new barriers to vaccines for those who want them, including confusion around who is eligible and higher costs for patients if insurance no longer covers them. Kennedy, who has a long history of anti-vaccine actions, also fired 17 members of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with seven new members, some of whom have raised questions about safety and efficacy of vaccines. The committee members serve as outside experts who help the CDC make informed decisions about vaccines. Last month, in the first meeting of the newly appointed committee, its chair said it would study well-established vaccines and guidelines, the childhood and adolescent immunization schedules and the vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. The lawsuit argues that Kennedy and the Trump administration acted 'arbitrarily and capriciously' by changing the Covid-19 vaccine recommendations. The lawsuit asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions to enjoin, or legally prohibit, Kennedy's Covid vaccine recommendation changes and a declaratory judgment pronouncing the change in recommendations as unlawful. Dr. Sindhu Srinivas, president of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, said the decision about the Covid vaccine is dangerous for her patients. Pregnancy is on the CDC's list of conditions that can raise a person's risk of severe illness. 'The federal directive has no evidentiary basis in obstetrics or infectious disease,' Srinivas said. 'Maternal immunization is really the best way to reduce maternal, fetal and infant complications, particularly Covid-19 but also from other illnesses, other infections.' Kressly, of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that the immunization system has been a cornerstone of US public health but that she and several members of her association have been alarmed by recent actions by HHS to alter the routine childhood immunization schedule. She said the moves are 'jeopardizing its success' and will make children and communities more vulnerable to infectious disease. Kressly cited the high number of measles cases this year as an example: There have been more measles cases in the US in 2025 than in any other year since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago. Anti-vaccine actions are not just rhetoric or politics, she said, they put people at risk. 'Every child's health is at stake,' Kressly said. Several doctors whose organizations are plaintiffs in the lawsuit said Kennedy's actions have led people to question the safety and effectiveness of all vaccines, not just the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, said some of his patients have been 'confused and scared.' 'This doesn't just impact one vaccine. It is impacting the entire adult and pediatric vaccine schedule and putting our patients at risk,' he said at Monday's news conference. Goldman added that changes to CDC guidance about the Covid-19 vaccine may mean his patients' insurance will not cover the cost of the shots, and without coverage, those vaccines would be too expensive, limiting access to good protection. Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, said that some people may argue that Covid-19 is not a serious disease for children but that 'those of us who have dedicated our lives to caring for children know that is not the case.' 'Some people say that only a small number of children die from Covid, but the only acceptable number of dead children from Covid is zero, especially when we have the means to prevent their deaths and the vaccines that we have available are safe and very effective and can protect these children from getting severe disease and from dying,' Tan said at the news conference. 'It is really unconscionable to take away a parent's ability and choice to protect their children through vaccination.' CNN's Asuka Koda contributed to this report. Correction: A lawyer for the plaintiffs mischaracterized the anonymous doctor's situation; this story has been updated to reflect the change. See Full Web Article
Axios
7 hours ago
- Axios
CDC winds down emergency response to bird flu
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ended its emergency response to the H5N1 bird flu and said Monday it will streamline future updates on the virus with routine reports on seasonal influenza. The big picture: A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the response was "deactivated to transition back to regular program activity" last Wednesday due to animal infections with the H5N1 strain declining and no human cases being reported since February. CDC data shows 70 bird flu cases were reported in the U.S., but there are no known person-to-person exposures in the U.S. right now, eliminating the need for the virus' emergency declaration. The agency will continue to monitor the situation and report data on the number of people monitored and tested for bird flu monthly. Detections in animals will no longer be reported on the CDC's website, but can be found on the USDA's website. State of play: There has only been one fatality from H5N1 in the U.S. since the CDC H5N1 Bird Flu Response was activated in April last year, which was reported earlier this year in Louisiana. The highest concentration of cases on the West Coast in California and Washington, according to CDC data. The most affected states have either ended or are winding down their responses. The HHS spokesperson said in their email statement that although the current public health risk from H5N1 bird flu is low, the CDC will continue to monitor the situation and scale up activities as needed.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pediatricians and other major health groups are suing RFK Jr. over vaccines
Several major medical organizations are suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services over actions they call a 'public health emergency that demands immediate legal action and correction.' The lawsuit was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The move follows several recent high-profile anti-vaccine actions by Kennedy, including firing all members of a key vaccine panel of experts and removing a recommendation that children and pregnant women get a Covid shot. 'He's doing everything he possibly can to undermine vaccine confidence,' said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, one of the organizations joining the lawsuit. 'Quite frankly, we've had enough.' It was Kennedy's late May post on X negating recommendations that kids and pregnant women should get the Covid shot that served as a final straw prompting legal action, said Richard Hughes, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. They are 'asking the court to order the secretary to announce on X that those immunization recommendations are now reinstated to the CDC immunization schedules,' Hughes said in a media briefing Monday. An HHS spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement, American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Susan Kressly said that 'our immunization system has long been a cornerstone of U.S. public health, but actions by the current administration are jeopardizing its success.' According to the AAP, at least 183 children have died of Covid since the pandemic began. 'The only acceptable number of dead children from Covid is zero,' Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said during the briefing. IDSA is another plaintiff in the lawsuit. Also involved are the American College of Physicians, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance. An anonymous pregnant woman who lives in Massachusetts is also listed as a plaintiff. She said she was unable to get a Covid vaccination after Kennedy changed the recommendations. Pregnancy is a known risk for complications of Covid. Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, said that adults who come to his practice are 'hesitant' about vaccines. 'They are not trusting the system anymore, and this is a direct impact on the health of our patients, because if they don't get vaccinated, they can get sicker, they can end up hospitalized or even die,' Goldman said during the briefing. This article was originally published on
