America’s top medical organizations are suing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the agency’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant people.
On May 27, Kennedy said the shot would no longer be included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women, a move that broke with previous expert guidance and bypassed the normal scientific review process.
The health secretary also fired all 17 original members of a federal vaccine panel June 9 and quickly appointed eight new members, including some vaccine skeptics. The panel met for the first time on June 25 but did not make COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for the fall.
The plaintiffs, which include the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, claim Kennedy’s recent decisions were designed to mislead, confuse and desensitize the public to anti-vaccine and anti-science rhetoric. In the July 7 lawsuit filed in Massachusetts, they ask the judge to halt changes made to the COVID-19 vaccine policy. The lawsuit doesn’t address Kennedy’s overhaul of the vaccine committee.
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“This wasn’t just sidelining science,” said AAP President Dr. Susan Kressly. “It’s an attack on the very foundation of how we protect families and children’s health. And the consequences could be dangerous.”
Lead counsel for the plaintiffs Richard Hughes, a partner at law firm Epstein Becker Green, said he hopes to expedite the case, with a hearing in the next few weeks and a permanent order in the case entered by September.
The American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Massachusetts Public Health Alliance and an anonymous pregnant physician were also listed as plaintiffs.
HHS’ changes to the COVID vaccine recommendations have led pregnant women and parents to question the value of other recommended vaccines, representatives of the medical societies said. They urge parents and patients to follow medical advice published on their websites.
“We will not stand by while a single federal official unilaterally and effectively strips Americans of their choice to vaccinate with actions that thoroughly disregard overwhelming scientific evidence and decades of established federal processes,” said IDSA President Dr. Tina Tan. “As a community of clinicians, public health officials and scientists, our focus remains the protection of patients and public health.”
USA TODAY reached out to HHS for comment.
Contributing: Reuters.
Adrianna Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK, Jr. faces lawsuit from doctors over COVID vaccines: Here’s why
