15 states sue HHS over revisions to vaccine schedule

By APOORVA MANDAVILLI

Aiming to reverse recent changes to federal vaccine recommendations, 15 states led by Democrats announced earlier this week that they were suing the Trump administration.

The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of 14 attorneys general and the governor of Pennsylvania, asks the courts to nullify the administration’s decision in January to reduce the number of diseases children are routinely immunized against to 11 from 17.

It also challenges “the unlawful replacement” of members of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, who recommend vaccines for Americans.

The suit names the Department of Health and Human Services and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as defendants. It also names the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

“HHS Secretary RFK Jr. and his CDC are flouting decades of scientific research, ignoring credible medical experts, and threatening to strain state resources and make America’s children sicker,” Rob Bonta, attorney general of California, said at a news briefing Tuesday.

“The fact is, vaccines save lives and save our state’s money,” he added.

HHS officials did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit contends that the administration’s new vaccination schedule was not based on any scientific evidence, relying instead on comparisons to countries that are significantly different from the United States.

The new schedule most closely resembles the recommendations made in Denmark, a country with nationalized health care and a population that is a fraction of that of the United States.

“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.

The schedule’s announcement bypassed ACIP, the advisory panel that recommends which shots Americans should receive and when. The committee’s decisions have typically guided states in determining the vaccines they require for entry into day care and elementary school. And insurance companies are required to cover the shots the members recommend.

Kennedy fired all 17 previous panelists in June. The new members he has appointed since share his skepticism of vaccines and mandates.

They have rescinded several recommendations for childhood shots, including immunization of all newborns against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that can severely damage the liver.

The lawsuit by Democratic states is similar to one filed in July by six medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. The organizations sued the Health Department after Kennedy announced on social media that COVID vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy children or pregnant women.

They, too, argued that Kennedy and his appointees have made “arbitrary and capricious” changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, bypassing the usual practice of carefully reviewing evidence over months or years before making new recommendations.

More than 100 public health experts and organizations this month have filed an amicus brief in support of that lawsuit, which also seeks to reverse the new schedule and to stop the new advisers from meeting.

A federal court in Massachusetts heard arguments in that case this month and is expected to rule in the coming days.

The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit include the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania.