HHS, RFK sued by medical associations over COVID policy shift
Seven major healthcare organizations and one physician have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. over recent changes to COVID vaccine recommendations, which advise providers to end pandemic-era policies that routinely inoculated children and pregnant women to protect them from the virus.
Plaintiffs include the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Joining them are the Massachusetts Public Health Association, the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance—and an unnamed pregnant doctor who said she was denied the vaccine in Massachusetts as a result of the new HHS policy.
The course change comes after new guidance was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, authored by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, and hematologist-oncologist and health researcher Vinay Prasad, MD. The duo called for federal healthcare agencies to stop providing COVID boosters to pregnant women and healthy people under 18, citing insufficient evidence for long-term safety and efficacy.
In the paper, Prasad and Makary outlined how the FDA would require new COVID vaccines to undergo clinical and safety testing, effectively ending the rapid approval process established during the pandemic. Additionally, boosters will no longer be approved for pregnant women and minors, unless they were considered high-risk for serious complications from COVID due to a medical condition.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which issues guidelines for the use of approved vaccines and other public health interventions, ultimately followed the FDA's advice.
The lawsuit challenges these shifts, accusing Kennedy and HHS of dismantling “longstanding, Congressionally-authorized, science- and evidence-based vaccine infrastructure that has prevented the deaths of untold millions of Americans,” by exceeding its authority in making the recommendations.
"This step is not one we take lightly," American Academy of Pediatrics President Susan Kressly, MD, said during a press conference. "It's not one we ever want to take at all, but we can no longer wait for government officials to sort this out. Pediatricians cannot stay silent as the system we rely on to support life-saving vaccines is chiseled away piece by piece.
The lawsuit contends that HHS and Kennedy, by aligning with the FDA, are not basing their decision on sound science.
“With Secretary Kennedy leading efforts to sow doubt and distrust in the American success story of vaccines, we are on a dangerous path,” Kressly added.
HHS has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
A hearing is expected this summer, which may lead to a federal court issuing a temporary stay while the full issue is adjudicated. The case will be heard by a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts.
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.