ACIP meeting postponed after judge pauses RFK’s new vaccine recommendations
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to change the vaccine schedule for pediatric vaccines has hit a roadblock in court, with a federal judge blocking the move, ruling that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) may have overstepped its authority under federal law.
For now, the vision Kennedy had of making sweeping changes to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine recommendations is on hold. Those changes, revealed in January 2026, included removing seven illnesses from the typical schedule of 18 inoculations, specifically dengue fever, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), two types of bacterial meningitis, and hepatitis A and B.
In a 45-page ruling outlining the temporary injunction, Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts sided with the numerous medical organizations who filed their lawsuit against Kennedy and the CDC, led by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
The organizations initially sued before HHS and the CDC announced the new pediatric vaccine schedule. Initially, federal policy shifted only to eliminate the recommendation that pregnant women and young children get the jab to protect against COVID-19. Those early decisions, announced in September 2025, also downgraded recommendations for when flu vaccines should be administered.
ACIP process bypassed
Murphy provided an overview of the full policy shift in his ruling, as AAP and the other plaintiffs were effectively challenging all of it. They argued that the current recommendations are not based on scientific rigor and failed to follow typical protocols for making changes to CDC vaccine recommendations, a claim the court ultimately agreed with.
That process, Murphy pointed out, involves the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting and making formal decisions based on available research. In this case, ACIP was not responsible for making the above changes to vaccine recommendations. Further, experts who served on the committee were unceremoniously fired in June 2025, with Kennedy appointing a new panel days later, made up in part of some controversial skeptics.
“Since its founding in 1964, ACIP has aided this endeavor by providing expert guidance on the clinical use of vaccines. HHS, which indirectly oversees ACIP, formalized ACIP’s non-partisan, science-backed nature through ACIP’s governance documents. And Congress has, in turn, recognized the importance and value of having such independent experts involved in setting our national public health agenda by cementing ACIP’s role in the CDC’s issuance of immunization schedules, which—among other things—determines which vaccines are available to patients through insurers and government healthcare programs,” Murphy wrote.
“This is all to say that there is a method to how these decisions historically have been made—a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements,” he added.
Murphy went on to write that he believed plaintiffs would “succeed in showing that the reconstitution of ACIP and the January 2026 changes to the childhood immunization schedule violate the Administrative Procedure Act.”
It will ultimately be up to a higher court to decide if that’s the case, but for now the district court ruling will press pause on all changes. It will also delay a meeting of the new ACIP panel, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday this week.
HHS confirmed that it intends to appeal Murphy’s ruling.
“HHS looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned just like his other attempts to keep the Trump administration from governing,” a spokesperson from the agency told Politico.
This is a developing story.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.