U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued a preliminary injunction Monday halting significant portions of Kennedy's vaccine policy restructuring, according to reports from CNBC. The Boston-based judge sided with the American Academy of Pediatrics and allied medical organizations who argued that health regulators acted unlawfully in pushing through Kennedy's agenda.
The lawsuit challenged Kennedy's wholesale replacement of the vaccine advisory panel—all 17 previous members were removed—as well as his proposed reduction in routinely recommended childhood vaccines. Medical groups warned these changes would decrease vaccination rates and endanger public health.
Kennedy's revised framework, announced in January by the Department of Health and Human Services, would have limited universal recommendations to 11 "consensus vaccines" common across developed nations. These include shots for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hib, pneumococcal disease, HPV, and varicella. Vaccines for influenza, COVID-19, rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, and meningococcal disease would have shifted to risk-based or consultation-dependent recommendations rather than universal guidance.
The policy shift originated from a December directive by President Trump, who ordered federal health agencies to examine how peer nations structure their immunization schedules and assess whether U.S. practices had diverged from international standards.
The legal battle comes as pediatricians nationwide report growing vaccine skepticism among parents, while nearly a dozen states consider relaxing vaccine requirements for school enrollment. Major vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, Sanofi, and GSK, have expressed increasing concern about the direction of U.S. vaccine policy under Kennedy's leadership.
