15 states, mostly led by Democrats, are suing the Trump administration, seeking judicial intervention to reverse recent changes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) introduced to the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule.
The California and Arizona attorneys general announced that 14 states and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro teamed up to file the lawsuit on Tuesday, which challenges the CDC’s move to recommend fewer shots for most American children earlier this year.
“Undermining confidence in vaccines will lead to lower vaccination rates and more infectious disease,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “It will also drive up costs for states, including increased Medicaid spending and new expenses to combat misinformation and revise public health guidance.”
In addition to the California and Arizona attorneys general, plaintiffs in the suit include AGs in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit filed in a Northern California federal court named the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as defendants. It also named the CDC and its acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
The lawsuit also challenges RFK Jr.’s decision to dismiss all members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) last year and replace them with his handpicked experts, some of whom have a history of criticizing messenger RNA-based COVID-19 shots.
The case is similar to another lawsuit filed by some of the leading medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Association, against the Trump administration in a federal court in Massachusetts earlier this month.
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