January 15, 2026
3 min read
Key takeaways:
- A group of medical societies filed a lawsuit against HHS last year over changes to vaccine recommendations.
- The physicians amended their suit to challenge recent changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and five other medical professional societies are asking a court to undo HHS’s recent overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule.
The AAP, American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and a pregnant physician previously filed a lawsuit in July against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and HHS over changes to the CDC’s recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines. Last week, a judge denied a motion from HHS to dismiss the suit.
The AAP and five other medical professional organizations are seeking to restore the childhood immunization schedule and postpone the upcoming ACIP meeting. Image: Adobe Stock.
The AAP announced this week that the existing lawsuit was being amended to ask the court to undo HHS’s changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, which reduced the number of immunizations recommended for all children, and to stop the next meeting of the CDC’s vaccine advisors.
The groups are asking HHS to restore the immunization schedule that was in place before April 15, 2025, arguing that the recent overhaul of the childhood immunization schedule “is the most egregious of the Defendants’ actions to date, is a continuation of their bad faith conduct, has not been reasonably explained, and, therefore, must be enjoined,” according to court documents.
“Children’s health depends on vaccine recommendations based on rigorous, transparent science,” AAP President Andrew D. Racine, MD, PhD, FAAP, said in a press release. “Unfortunately, recent decisions by federal officials have abandoned this standard, causing unnecessary confusion for families, compromising access to lifesaving vaccines and weakening community protection.”
The group is also asking the court to postpone the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting scheduled for Feb. 25 and 26, citing “so many instances of misinformation disseminated at the December 4-5, 2025 ACIP meeting and prior meetings of this ACIP that it would be harmful to the public if the next ACIP meeting went ahead as scheduled at which more misinformation could be disseminated.”
Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, professor and founding director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown, offered a mixed outlook on their chances of success.
“In the trial court, the litigation has a reasonable chance to succeed, including putting a pause on the change to the vaccine schedule. The postponement of the next ACIP meeting will be harder to win but still possible,” Gostin told Healio. “But in the long run, the chances of prevailing before the Supreme Court are slimmer, especially with its conservative super majority.”
The AAP claimed a legal victory this week when a court ordered the federal government to restore $12 million in grant funding for child health programs that was cut in December while the case proceeds. The AAP alleged that the funding cuts were in retaliation for its outspoken opposition to policy changes enacted under Kennedy.
“The AAP’s case is strong,” Gostin said. “First, there is a compelling First Amendment claim because the government can’t determine which speech or policies that the AAP wants to advocate for. Second, funding is a congressional function and can’t simply be decided unilaterally by HHS without any deliberative process.”
For more information:
Lawrence O. Gostin, JD, can be reached at gostin@georgetown.edu or on X.
Sources/Disclosures
Source:
Press Release
References:
Disclosures:
Gostin reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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