Pediatricians Sue RFK Jr Over Vaccine Schedule
One more reason to love the American Academy of Pediatrics
On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with other influential health organizations, made it clear they have had enough of RFK Jr’s attacks on access to vaccines.
The lawsuit comes as the US measles outbreak swells to the highest numbers in 33 years. The outbreak, fueled by low vaccination rates in West Texas, has been worsened by RFK Jr’s slow and waffling response. While eventually admitting vaccination is effective, he simultaneously pushed for unproven use of vitamin A and praised physicians using unproven interventions on kids. Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine organization founded by RFK Jr, capitalized on the deaths of two young children to maximize their media outreach undermining vaccination.
At the center of the AAP’s lawsuit is Jane Doe, a pregnant physician who has been advised to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but who has had difficulty accessing the vaccine due to RFK Jr’s Secretarial Directive. The Directive suddenly removed access to COVID-19 vaccines for children and pregnant people.
The lawsuit alleges that HHS violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act, a U.S. law that establishes procedures for agencies to use when making rules. They aim to show that the changes to vaccine recommendations is unlawful.
Here’s a message from the president of the AAP, Dr. Susan J. Kressly: Protecting Kids: Why Pediatricians Are Suing the Government
Summary of the Case
The case was filed in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Read the filing here.
Plaintiffs:
American Academy of Pediatrics
American College of Physicians, Inc.
American Public Health Association
Infectious Diseases Society of America
Massachusetts Public Health Association D/B/A Massachusetts Public Health Alliance
Society For Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Jane Doe: “Plaintiff, Jane Doe, is a physician working in a hospital where she puts herself at risk of infectious diseases every day to care for patients and save lives. Jane Doe is also more than 20 weeks pregnant. Although she was vaccinated against Covid before becoming pregnant, her doctors have advised her to get another dose of the vaccine later in pregnancy to better protect herself and her baby from contracting this deadly disease. Pregnancy increases the risk of severe illness and complications from infectious disease, including preterm birth and stillbirth. However, the Directive creates barriers to access to the vaccine and has left Jane and her husband overwhelmed with stress and uncertainty. Her worries are not just for herself, but also for the health and safety of her unborn child.”
Vs.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in His Official Capacity as Secretary of the Department Of Health and Human Services; United States Department of Health And Human Services; Marty Makary, in his Official Capacity as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Food And Drug Administration
Jay Bhattacharya, in his Official Capacity as Director of The National Institutes of Health; National Institutes of Health
Matthew Buzzelli, in His Official Capacity As Acting Director of Centers For Disease Control and Prevention; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Why the AAP Is Suing RFK Jr.
Key Issues from the Filing
On May 27, 2025, Defendant, the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (the “Secretary” or “Mr. Kennedy”), announced in a post on social media site X that he “couldn’t be more pleased that, as of today, the Covid vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedules.” Unless the Secretary's baseless and uninformed policy decision is vacated, pregnant women, their unborn children, and, in fact, all children remain at grave and immediate risk of contracting a preventable disease. This decision immediately exposes these vulnerable populations to a serious illness with potentially irreversible long-term effects and, in some cases, death. This is not a hypothetical concern, but a pressing public health emergency that demands immediate legal action and correction.
This announcement, from the person who leads the agency charged with “enhanc[ing] the health and well-being of all Americans,” stands in stark contrast to his sworn testimony only two weeks prior before Congress that “I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” and “what I would say is my opinions about vaccines are irrelevant.”
The Secretary promised multiple times during his Senate confirmation process that: “If confirmed, I will do nothing as HHS Secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.” The final agency action that he announced on X on May 27 is documented in a “Secretarial Directive” that bears the Secretary’s signature and is dated May 19, 2025 (the “Directive”). The Directive breaks the promise that the Secretary made to the Senate and the American people not to make it difficult to get vaccines or discourage them. The Directive, unless vacated, will result in preventable deaths, including the unborn and newborns under six months old.
The Directive is but one example of the Secretary’s agenda to dismantle the longstanding, Congressionally-authorized, science- and evidence-based vaccine infrastructure that has prevented the deaths of untold millions of Americans.
The Secretary’s dismantling of the vaccine infrastructure must end, and halting this effort begins with vacating the Directive.
The Directive was a final agency action justiciable under the Administrative Procedure Act, was arbitrary and capricious, and has caused irreparable harm to the Plaintiffs in this action. That final agency action must be vacated.
The Filing Lays Out Why this Case is Needed
The Secretary’s Actions To Undermine Trust In Vaccines
The Secretary’s Stacking Of The ACIP: The sudden restructuring of the ACIP with people sympathetic to RFK Jr’s views.
“Only one of the eight met the qualifications for ACIP membership articulated in the ACIP Charter… The other seven do not possess the required scientific and medical expertise to serve on ACIP… None of the new ACIP members were required to follow the rigorous application process to become an ACIP member. Historically, the application process to become a voting ACIP member has taken up to two years. The Secretary filled ACIP with new members in two days.”
The Secretary’s Arbitrary and Capricious Directive
No representative of the CDC or ACIP appears in the video, even though CDC and ACIP, not the FDA or NIH, have responsibility for making recommendations as to which vaccines are added to or removed from the CDC’s immunization schedules.
Injury To The Plaintiffs
Pages 28-36 lay out how all of the plaintiffs in the case have reason to bring this complaint.
The Directive has adversely affected the physician-patient relationship because, inter alia, it has injected mistrust, misinformation, uncertainty, and confusion into that relationship, putting physicians in the conflict position of either advising patients on what they believe is the proper standard of care or adhering to conflicting federal guidance. The Directive will also result in decreased rates of vaccination, increased rates of transmission, long-lasting illness, and ultimately deaths among pregnant women, unborn children, and all children – deaths that could have been prevented.
Causes of Action
Violation of the Administrative Procedure Act – Arbitrary & Capricious
Violation of the Administrative Procedure Act – Not In Accordance With Law
What’s at Stake: Vaccine Access and Public Trust
I hope this suit is successful as soon as possible. Without access to vaccines, we are going to see even worse outcomes from vaccine-preventable diseases - COVID, influenza, measles, RSV, pertussis, and more. But it won’t be because those diseases have become more virulent, but because our government denied us access to effective medicine. Despite RFK Jr’s claim to want to restore public trust in public health, he has instead rapidly dismantled some of the government’s core prevention tools to keep America healthy, by literally preventing the prevention of diseases.
By allowing these diseases to multiply unchecked in an under-vaccinated population, in addition to seeing more morbidity and mortality from these diseases, the diseases will mutate and may become harder to control.
These are not risks we can tolerate.