The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) pushed back on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s claims that the CDC’s vaccine panel is unable to meet due to a recent ruling in a lawsuit challenging changes to the U.S. childhood immunization schedule.
On June 12, Kennedy took to X to announce the filing of a motion asking the First Circuit Court of Appeals to expedite an appeal of the district court’s order that he contended left the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) “without a quorum.”
The AAP rebuffed this claim.
“Contrary to the arguments in HHS’s recent legal action, the federal government has had and continues to have the power to restore a lawful ACIP and schedule a meeting at any time,” AAP President Andrew Racine, MD, PhD, said in a statement. “In fact, this is what AAP has long urged: a functioning ACIP led by experts who have the specialized knowledge to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations.”
“ACIP’s guidance impacts whether parents can easily access vaccines that keep their children healthy and thriving,” he continued. “When guidance shifts based on politics, it forfeits credibility and the public stops following it. The consequences are real. Vaccination rates decline, measles continues to spread, and children suffer needlessly from other vaccine-preventable diseases like whooping cough and flu.”
In March, a federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked health officials from cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every child, and said that Kennedy likely violated federal procedures in revamping ACIP last year.
Kennedy’s newly formed ACIP, which includes a number of anti-vaccine voices, had next been scheduled to meet June 24-26, but it doesn’t appear a meeting will occur at that time. MedPage Today previously reached out to HHS for a comment on whether the meeting would occur, but the request went unreturned.
“I’ve been consistent from day one: I do not want to take vaccines away from anyone,” Kennedy noted in his post on X. “Our policy changes preserved access and coverage.”
“But the court’s order has left ACIP unable to carry out its core responsibilities,” he added. “As a result, the committee cannot issue new recommendations, review newly approved vaccines, or complete important work ahead of the fall flu season.”
In an email, legal counsel for the AAP, Richard Hughes IV, MPH, said that Kennedy’s “purported concern that the upcoming respiratory virus season warrants expedition is a red herring.”
“Vaccine manufacturers have already prepared updated versions of the annual flu shot, as they normally do,” Hughes noted. “Insurers have promised that they ‘will continue covering all ACIP-recommended immunizations with no cost-sharing through the end of 2027.'”
Furthermore, the recent ruling “did not prohibit a lawfully constituted ACIP from meeting,” he pointed out. “The Secretary has lawful ways to restore ACIP. He wants only the unlawful one and is using a self-created crisis to rush reinstatement of those unlawful appointments. We’re not going to enable him.”
Source link : https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/washington-watch/121790
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Publish date : 2026-06-16 19:54:00
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