U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. leaves the stage after discussing the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network survey, at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 16, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
Several leading medical organizations on Monday filed a suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that current policies on COVID-19 vaccine pose an imminent threat to public health.
The plaintiffs, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association and Infectious Diseases Society of America, have asked the court to vacate Kennedy’s recent directive removing the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s childhood and pregnant-women immunization schedules.
Representatives for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic whose department oversees the CDC, has been remaking the U.S. health system to align with President Donald Trump’s goal of dramatically shrinking the federal government.
He signed a directive in May delisting the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women.
The complainants alleged that such “baseless and uninformed policy” decisions place critical populations at “grave and immediate risk” of preventable illness, long-term harm, or death.
Kennedy also fired all 17 members of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, the independent committee of experts that advises the CDC on vaccine policy, and replaced them with seven new members, including several who have advocated against vaccines.
