Sanity Restored for Now as Federal Judge Blocks RFK Jr.’s War on Vaccines
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A U.S. District Court in Massachusetts today blocked the federal government from making changes to the childhood immunization schedule and restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines, halting key elements of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda. Although the ruling by Judge Brian Murphy likely will be appealed, the decision reversed prior rulings made by the members that Kennedy appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and prevented the committee from meeting later this week. Murphy found that many of Kennedy’s actions were likely illegal, including the mass firing and replacement of ACIP members.
Dr. Robert Steinbrook, Health Research Group Director at Public Citizen, issued the following statement:
“Judge Murphy’s decision is a much-needed victory for a sane approach to federal vaccine policy that relies on science, not misinformation and conspiracy theories. Kennedy’s hand-picked ACIP has been a national embarrassment, thoroughly lacking in the ability to make careful fact-based decisions. Kennedy has repeatedly bypassed the ACIP entirely, such as when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unilaterally changed the childhood immunization schedule to recommend that all children be vaccinated against 11 diseases, not 17 as previously recommended. The judge’s ruling offers a responsible path forward for public health and evidence-based federal vaccine policy.”