BOSTON: A federal judge on Monday blocked key parts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s effort to reshape US vaccine policy, including a move to reduce the number of shots routinely recommended for children, and revamp a federal advisory committee on inoculations.
US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston sided with the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups, which said health regulators had acted unlawfully to carry out Kennedy’s agenda of upending immunization policies and warned the changes will reduce vaccination rates and harm public health.
Murphy’s ruling forced the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to postpone a meeting set to begin on Wednesday, after he concluded it was not lawfully constituted and blocked Kennedy’s 13 appointees to it.
The ruling dealt a significant setback for the reduced childhood vaccination schedule championed by Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist appointed last year by President Donald Trump to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The Trump administration will likely appeal the decision.
Murphy said that for decades, the US had been focused on the eradication and reduction of diseases using vaccines, which were developed through “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.”
