Health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and other entities, have filed a joint status report detailing their intent to sue the CDC.
“Plaintiffs have provided Defendants notice of their intention to seek leave to amend the Third Amended Complaint to challenge a new final agency action—Defendants’ recent actions to revise the childhood and adolescent immunization schedule,” the filing reads.
“Plaintiffs contend that injunctive relief is necessary at this point in time because Defendants have demonstrated a pattern and practice of actions intended to fundamentally change United States vaccine policy that, up until this Secretary took office, was to encourage vaccine access and uptake,” it adds. “The Defendants ongoing actions to discourage vaccine access and uptake have been justified by pretextual, conclusory, non-scientific reasons.”
The organizations further argue that the decision to change the childhood immunization schedule is the “most egregious of the Defendants’ actions to date” and is a “continuation of their bad faith conduct,” as well as not being “reasonably explained.”
Under the updated immunization schedule, ten vaccines are considered to be of international consensus and include 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 the assessment document, the United States 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.”
