Weeks after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the CDC would stop recommending healthy children and pregnant women receive routine COVID-19 vaccinations, national healthcare groups filed a lawsuit July 7 seeking to reverse the order.
Here are 10 key details:
1. On May 27, Mr. Kennedy said on X, “Today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from @CDCgov recommended immunization schedule. Bottom line: it’s common sense and it’s good science. We are now one step closer to realizing @POTUS’s promise to Make America Healthy Again.”
2. The directive was signed May 19. Several healthcare industry groups challenged the decision, arguing that it conflicts with standard public health practices.
3. Decisions to alter the CDC’s immunization recommendations typically come from an independent panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, according to Bloomberg. Mr. Kennedy bypassed consulting with the committee before HHS then fired all existing members June 9 and re-constituted the committee with new members.
4. The plaintiffs are the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine and an unnamed pregnant woman who has been denied a COVID-19 shot, according to court documents accessed by Becker’s.
5. The lawsuit names Mr. Kennedy; FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, MD; National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD; and CDC Acting Director Matthew Buzzelli as defendants.
6. In the lawsuit, the organizations said Mr. Kennedy’s unilateral decision was “arbitrary, capricious [and] an abuse of discretion.”
“The directive is but one example of the secretary’s agenda to dismantle the longstanding, Congressionally authorized, science- and evidence-based vaccine infrastructure that has prevented the deaths of untold millions of Americans,” according to the lawsuit.
7. More than two dozen medical groups have publicly urged payers to continue covering COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant patients without cost-sharing or burdensome utilization management requirements.
8. The plaintiffs asked the court to declare the directive as illegal, restore COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children older than 6 months, and order Mr. Kennedy to announce the change on X.
9. They also asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction to halt the CDC and other defendants from encouraging people to adhere to the directive.
10. Becker’s has reached out to HHS for comment and will update this article should more information become available.
