Governor Josh Shapiro of Abington Township joined a multistate lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Trump administration’s scaling back of recommended childhood vaccines.
In December, the Trump administration directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct a review of childhood vaccines and examine childhood vaccination requirements in other countries. The review stripped seven vaccines—rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus—of their recommended status.
The lawsuit, led by Arizona and California and joined by Governor Shapiro and 12 other states, challenges a Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “Decision Memo” released on January 5. It also challenges the “unlawful replacement of many members of ACIP, the expert federal panel that has guided U.S. vaccine policy for decades”, a Shapiro press release said.
“The Trump Administration’s Decision Memo unlawfully circumvented the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and stripped seven childhood vaccines — rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — of their universally recommended status,” the release said.
“Revoking this status flies in the face of longstanding, science-backed guidance that has prevented childhood illness and death,” the release said. “Now, providers, insurers, and public health systems are left to navigate important health decisions while the federal government creates an environment of chaos and confusion, threatening community health.”
“The Trump Administration and RFK Jr. are once again ignoring decades of science and evidence, pushing slop research that isn’t based in reality and actively imposing new policies that will lead to more children getting sick from preventable diseases,” Shapiro said in the release. “I’m going to court to ensure doctors and qualified experts are making vaccine recommendations; not conspiracy theorists. Every Pennsylvanian deserves accurate information to make their own health care decisions when consulting with their doctors — and science, not politics, will continue to guide our health care decisions here in the Commonwealth.”
Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, called the lawsuit “a publicity stunt.”
“By law, the health secretary has clear authority to make determinations on the CDC immunization schedule and the composition of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices,” Hilliard said. “The CDC immunization schedule reforms reflect common-sense public health policy shared by peer, developed countries.”
The lawsuit is below:
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