RFK Jr. Warns Vaccine Committee Not 'Functioning', Asks Court To Accelerate Decision

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines has been paralyzed by a March ruling by a federal judge, leaving it unable to carry out work ahead of the upcoming respiratory virus season, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has warned.

"The court's order has left ACIP unable to carry out its core responsibilities," Kennedy said in a June 12 post on X, referring to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). "As a result, the committee cannot issue new recommendations, review newly approved vaccines, or complete important work ahead of the fall flu season."

Influenza and other viruses typically circulate each year in the fall and winter.

The ruling in question was released on March 16 by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who concluded that Kennedy and other officials did not take necessary steps when making changes to federal vaccine guidance and the composition of ACIP.

Murphy stayed the changes the CDC issued in January, the appointments of new ACIP members by Kennedy, and the votes that were taken by those members.

The Trump administration appealed the ruling on April 29.

Government lawyers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on June 12 to speed up its consideration of the matter.

"A single district judge has frozen the architecture of the national immunization system," they said, adding that Murphy's order means "the committee cannot supply, change, or withdraw a vaccine recommendation - for any vaccine or population - until the stay is lifted."

A similar panel that advises the Food and Drug Administration is slated to meet on June 18 to consider clearing a new influenza vaccine, and if officials end up clearing it, then ACIP would need to issue a recommendation on which populations should receive it, the motion to expedite noted. ACIP also usually provides recommendations on seasonal influenza vaccination before the fall.

The CDC typically accepts ACIP's advice.

The administration also pointed to Trump's June 3 executive order, which directs the CDC and ACIP to update the childhood vaccination schedule. Currently, the committee cannot carry out the order, lawyers said.

Under the proposed briefing schedule, briefs would be filed in June and July, the appeals court would hear oral argument in August, and the court would issue a decision "as soon as practicable" after that.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups that sued over the vaccine guidance changes oppose speeding up the appeal, according to the motion. They have said the judge ruled correctly in deciding that Kennedy's remade ACIP was unbalanced and that the January changes should not have been made absent advice from ACIP.

"A functioning ACIP is essential to ensuring that vaccine recommendations remain grounded in evidence and available to the families and providers who rely on them," Kennedy added in the post on X.