Judge Blocks New CDC Vaccine Schedule: What to Know

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine schedule for children.

The judge also stayed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointments to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee.

Here is what to know.

Stay of Vaccine Schedule Update

The CDC, with backing from Kennedy, in January stopped broadly recommending six vaccines for children, including shots against rotavirus, hepatitis A, and influenza. The move did not involve the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Officials took the step in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump that directed them to review vaccine recommendations in peer countries and, if appropriate, revise the U.S. recommendations.

Department of Health and Human Services officials said that just one of 20 countries they studied recommended hepatitis A vaccination for children. They also found that most countries did not recommend influenza vaccination for children and that a handful did not recommend the rotavirus vaccine for kids.

Officials said the health officials’ authority over vaccines is not subject to judicial review, but Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts disagreed.

“Congress has required ACIP’s involvement in the issuance of the immunization schedules,” he said in a 45-page ruling on March 16. “The CDC must, at least, consider ACIP’s recommendations before adopting an immunization schedule, and following or failing to follow that requirement is reviewable by this Court.”

Murphy determined that the update was arbitrary and capricious because it “abandoned the agency’s longstanding practice of getting recommendations from ACIP before changing the immunization schedules without sufficient explanation.”

The judge entered a preliminary injunction staying the update to the vaccine schedule. A preliminary injunction remains in place as a case proceeds, unless withdrawn by the judge who imposed it or overturned by a higher court.

ACIP Appointments Blocked

Murphy also sided with the American Public Health Association and other plaintiffs against Kennedy’s remaking of ACIP, which provides advice to the CDC on immunization practices.

Kennedy removed all ACIP members in 2025, citing conflicts of interest, and has, over several rounds, named new members to the panel.

Plaintiffs said the appointments violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act in part because the remade committee is unfairly balanced, as some new members do not have experience in vaccine-related fields.

Government lawyers said the new members “have a wide variety of employment histories and backgrounds, satisfying the fair balance requirement.”

Murphy said that many of the individuals Kennedy selected have extensive expertise but that not all of them have expertise related to vaccines.

“ACIP is not just a committee of doctors, or even a committee of public health experts; it is a committee specifically dedicated to the ‘use of vaccines and related agents for effective control of vaccine-preventable diseases,'” Murphy said. “As to that specific function, the newly appointed members appear distinctly unqualified.”

Dr. Robert Malone, one of the new members, who helped invent the technology used in some COVID-19 vaccines, wrote on his blog that the court was “substituting its own definition of relevant expertise for the Secretary’s.” He said the panel considers a number of issues, such as public health policy, in which members criticized by the judge have valuable expertise.

Murphy stayed Kennedy’s appointments, prompting the CDC to cancel an ACIP meeting that had been scheduled to begin on March 18.

Because the appointments were illegally carried out, votes by the remade ACIP must also be blocked, the judge decided.

Among other things, the remade ACIP voted to advise the CDC to recommend stand-alone chickenpox vaccination for young children, to recommend people receive a COVID-19 vaccine after consulting with a health care professional, and to stop recommending hepatitis B vaccination at birth for children born to mothers who have tested negative for the disease.

Officials Expect Decision to Be Overturned

Murphy has issued a number of decisions against the Trump administration, including an injunction preventing the government from deporting illegal immigrants to countries other than their home country, that have been overturned by higher courts.

Just hours before Murphy issued his ruling on ACIP and the vaccine schedule, a federal appeals court lifted that deportation injunction.

Officials said they expect the same with the latest ruling.

“How many times can Judge Murphy get reversed in one year?” Todd Blanche, deputy attorney general, wrote in a post on X. “The same day he is stayed for repeatedly refusing to follow the law, he issues another activist decision. We will keep appealing these lawless decisions, and we will keep winning.”

Andrew Nixon, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a post on X that the administration looks forward to the overturning of the judge’s decision.

The plaintiffs welcomed the ruling.

“We are thrilled that the court has discarded the baseless vaccine schedule changes made by Secretary Kennedy and is blocking the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from doing further damage to vaccine policy,” Richard Hughes IV, an attorney representing the organizations and a former Moderna executive, said in a statement.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, CEO of the American Public Health Association and a former consultant to GlaxoSmithKline, said the injunction “underscores the need for using science in public health decision-making and using a process that engages qualified experts when it comes to recommending interventions that impact human health.”