15 states sue Trump administration over childhood vaccines | CIDRAP

Attorneys general from 14 states led by Democrats and the governor of Pennsylvania sued the Trump administration today over recent changes to the recommended childhood vaccine schedule.

The lawsuit names Health and Human Services and Health (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD as defendants, and asks the courts to nullify the administration’s decision to reduce the childhood vaccine schedule. The vaccine schedule previously recommended immunizing against 17 diseases, but in January the CDC moved to recommending against only 11.

Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, as well as Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, are the plaintiffs.

Second major lawsuit against HHS

The stated goal of HHS’s changes is to move the United States toward Denmark’s model of childhood immunization.

“Copying Denmark’s vaccine schedule without copying Denmark’s health care system doesn’t give families more options — it just leaves kids unprotected from serious diseases,” said Kris Mayes, attorney general of Arizona, at a press conference yesterday.

This is the second major lawsuit against Kennedy in the past year. In July six medical societies sued HHS after the agency said it was no longer recommending routine COVID-19 vaccines for many groups, including pregnant woman.