Fifteen states, led by California, filed a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s revised childhood vaccine schedule. According to the filing, which involves Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, the updated schedule “will damage public health.”
The lawsuit asserts that the CDC’s updated schedule “will damage public health by decreasing vaccine uptake and increasing rates of vaccine-preventable diseases, including by creating confusion, spreading misinformation contrary to established scientific evidence, and increasing vaccine hesitancy.”
The Trump administration appointed “unqualified” Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) members who “issued a dangerous hepatitis B recommendation without requisite deliberation, analysis, or process,” and then bypassed the advisory team entirely to pass by vaccine shifts, the states argue.
States further claim that the schedule undermines their “immunization, public health, and Medicaid programs and will cause them to incur substantial costs in preparing for, responding to, and treating higher incidences of vaccine-preventable illnesses and disease outbreaks.”
Under new guidance, ten vaccines are considered to be of international consensus: diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis (whooping cough), Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Pneumococcal conjugate, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, and human papillomavirus (HPV). HHS also recommends that children receive the chickenpox vaccine. High-risk groups are recommended to receive the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), hepatitis A, hepatitis B, dengue, meningococcal ACWY, and meningococcal B vaccines.
According to an assessment document, the analysis “compares the U.S. with peer nations, examines vaccine uptake and trust, addresses clinical and epidemiological considerations and knowledge gaps, analyzes vaccine mandates, and outlines recommendations and next steps for immediate and long-term action.”
“The U.S. is a global outlier among peer nations in the number of target diseases included in its childhood vaccination schedule and in the total number of recommended vaccine doses,” the document adds.
