Several medical organizations have filed suit against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, requesting a judge declare its new vaccine recommendations unlawful.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups originally filed suit last summer against policies enacted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. they warn will lower vaccination rates.
In an expanded version of their lawsuit, the medical groups call the CDC's decision to narrow the list of vaccines recommended for children "egregious, reckless, and dangerous."
The CDC's decision cut the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccinations to 11 from 17, advising that immunizations for six diseases including rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A instead be given only after consultation with a healthcare provider.
In its suit, the plaintiffs argued that the CDC violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to consider whether those changes would lead to increases in serious illness and death due to vaccine-preventable illnesses or new burdens for the healthcare system.
The new vaccine recommendations will be time consuming for patients, causing them to decline or delay vaccinations, the plaintiffs charged in the lawsuit.
A hearing has been scheduled for next month where the plaintiffs plan to ask a judge to block a key vaccine advisory panel from holding its next meeting at the end of February.
The plaintiffs are seeking to invalidate all votes cast since June by that panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, whose members were selected by Kennedy after he fired all 17 independent experts in June.
The panel advises CDC on vaccine policy.
"Court intervention is now essential to prevent further harm, protect evidence-based recommendations, and ensure that critical decisions affecting children's health are made transparently and guided by evidence, not ideology," Richard Hughes IV, an attorney for the plaintiffs said in a statement.
"The integrity of the vaccine policymaking process is not a technical detail: it's what maintains public trust in vaccination and protects communities across the country," Hughes added.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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