Federal Judge Halts RFK Jr.’s Controversial CDC Vaccine Reforms

A federal judge has temporarily blocked key anti-vaccine initiatives by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., delivering a major setback to his efforts to reshape federal immunization policy. In a 45-page ruling that opens with a quote from science communicator Carl Sagan, US District Judge Brian Murphy issued a temporary injunction halting most of Kennedy’s recent changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine guidance. The injunction specifically blocks Kennedy’s appointment of new members to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) after he fired all 17 previous expert members—most of whom hold anti-vaccine views and lacked standard vetting. It also nullifies every vote those new ACIP members have made to alter federal vaccine guidance and reverses Kennedy’s dramatic January overhaul of the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule, which reduced recommended immunizations from 17 to 11 without consulting the committee. The legal challenge was brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups questioning the legality and scientific basis of these unprecedented moves.