The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) sued US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for unlawfully attempting to anti-vaxxify the recommended vaccine schedule via exploiting bureaucratic and administrative loopholes and ignoring rules and laws he doesn’t like. Recently, Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS and I worked with Defend Public Health to submit an amicus brief in support of AAP.
On Monday, Judge Brian Murphy ruled in AAP vs. Kennedy to stay the appointments of all 13 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, for being mostly unqualified anti-vax charlatans. This negates all their prior decisions and reverses all of the recommendations against vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal, the combined measles-mumps-rubella-varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, and for “shared clinical decision making.” Shared clinical decision making effectively removed six vaccines from the schedule by creating an unnecessary barrier to access. It’s a lot easier to just get a recommended vaccine on schedule than it is to make a doctor’s appointment to get individual recommendations, which are going to be “get this vaccine” most of the time.
Great news! Judge Murphy’s ruling reversed all of the All-Villain ACIP’s recommendations, since their appointments are stayed. Murphy went to great lengths to call out individual ACIP members’ lack of qualification, and his ruling made it clear that ACIP cannot convene without a cohort of voting members who are actually competent for the role.
Of course, there are other vaccines that are recommended more specifically, which is why ACIP’s role is extremely important. As we continue to get data about different vaccines, ACIP updates its data and reevaluates benefits and risks constantly. Despite claims to the contrary, people who study vaccines look for adverse events all the time. ACIP recommendations are extremely important, because they determine insurance coverage and inclusion in vaccination programs for low-income or uninsured kids.
But there are consequences to not having a functional ACIP as well. In the future, new vaccines (like updated flu or COVID shots, newly licensed vaccines, or existing vaccines with new data) will need to undergo ACIP review for voting recommendations. If there is no ACIP to vote, then there will be no more recommendations.
Although Kennedy has been reportedly directed by the White House to rein in the crazy leading up to the midterm elections, he will merely tone it down in terms of visibility. He’s clearly not discouraged from continuing to brand himself as America’s first AI-enhanced, cold-plunging, methylene blue-swigging, mitochondrial dysfunction-detecting, sperm-obsessed wellness quack to serve as HHS Secretary.
Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS and I are proud to partner with The Save America Movement to keep you informed about your health. This is a victorious battle in an ongoing war. Although it is encouraging, there is still a long road ahead. Kennedy has very successfully driven vaccination rates down through targeted propaganda. He is very, very skilled at exploiting public health emergencies and weaponizing scientific uncertainty. The reason measles is exploding now is not because of people losing access to vaccines, but to people being discouraged from taking them altogether. This ruling does reduce the harm of ACIP contributing to anti-vax propaganda, but it does nothing to address the massively degraded information landscape.
On Friday, I will be hosting the first and hopefully only NIH Freedom from Science Lecture, with The Save America Movement, Science Fight Club (Stand Up for Science), and 27 UNIHTED. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya has invited lab leak conspiracy theorist Matt Ridley to deliver a lecture at NIH in which he will allege that SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab that was funded by Tony Fauci through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He will present no evidence to support this, because no evidence exists. It will be entirely based on “what if” scenarios that were entirely imagined to sell Ridley’s book, and have now been appropriated by Bhattacharya to justify the obliteration of the NIAID research portfolio. And every other institute within NIH, because research in general is always risky. Better not do ANY of it. Better siphon as much of that money for politically motivated projects as possible and give the rest of it to President Trump.
The lab leak is being used to justify the continued theft of the Congressionally appropriated NIH budget by the Executive Branch. Join me and an incredible lineup of expert panelists (Kristian Andersen, Gigi Gronvall, and special guests from your favorite disintegrating national biomedical research agency). We are going to explain how we know that Bhattacharya and Ridley are wrong about where SARS-CoV-2 came from, and we are going to explain why Bhattacharya and Ridley are promoting conspiracy theories from within the government. SPOILER ALERT: the destruction of science in support of authoritarianism at the expense of our health, freedom, and liberty. Join us in getting the festivities started at 2 pm ET!
Resources:
Refreshed evidence-based vaccine schedules
Repository of ACIP recommendations circa June 2025
Thank you Tom Kudla, Marg KJ, Joe White, Lynn L, Linda Hinckley, and many others for tuning into our video! Join us Friday for the NIH Freedom From Science Lecture!
