By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that several major medical organizations can move forward with their lawsuit challenging policies adopted under U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy that they say will lower vaccination rates.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston rejected arguments by lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration that the groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, lack legal standing to pursue the case because they could not show they were harmed by the policies.
The lawsuit seeks to invalidate all votes cast since June by a key vaccine advisory panel whose members were hand-picked by Kennedy, who previously founded the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense before becoming the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy has long promoted the view, contrary to scientific evidence, that many vaccines routinely administered to children cause grave harm, and public health experts have warned his efforts in government are likely to expose a growing number of youth to preventable diseases.
The medical groups’ lawsuit argues that Kennedy in May unlawfully directed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to remove its recommendation for COVID-19 shots for pregnant women and children from its vaccination schedules.
In June, Kennedy fired 17 independent experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the CDC on vaccine policies, and replaced them with members who largely support his views.
That committee in September voted in favor of COVID-19 shots being administered only through shared decision-making with a healthcare provider, essentially calling for patients to consult their doctors first, a process the medical groups say is time consuming and can lead to lower vaccination rates.
The CDC adopted that as a recommendation for pediatric and adult patients in October, effectively withdrawing its previous broad guidance that the COVID vaccines be available to anyone in the U.S. who wanted one.
The medical groups say that the advisory panel was unlawfully reconstituted in violation of a federal law that requires such committees to be “fairly balanced” and not “inappropriately influenced” by the appointing official.
As a result, they argue that all the votes that the panel has taken since the shake-up should be voided, including more recent ones such as its vote in December to remove the broad recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine.
The plaintiffs also include the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. They first sued in July and have expanded their lawsuit since then.
During a December 17 hearing, a lawyer for the groups told Murphy that if he allowed the case to proceed, the plaintiffs planned to seek expedited relief from him ahead of the vaccine panel’s next meeting, which is set for February 25-26.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Stephen Coates)
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