Leading Public Health Groups Seek Expedited Injunctive Relief Against Immunization Schedule Changes, Upcoming ACIP Meeting; Hearing Scheduled Friday, February 13

BOSTON, Jan. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of medical professional societies, led by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and including the American Public Health Association (APHA), seek to enjoin the upcoming February 25-26 ACIP meeting and vacate recent changes to the pediatric immunization schedule. A hearing on plaintiffs' preliminary injunction is scheduled for Friday, February 13.

On January 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced sweeping changes to the childhood vaccine schedule without involving the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and without following the scientific, evidence-based standard process, necessitating immediate legal action.

Plaintiffs will seek an expedited injunction to vacate the changes to the childhood schedule announced on January 5 to prevent further harm and protect evidence-based public health.

Plaintiffs also argue that the current ACIP has repeatedly and consistently relied upon spurious evidence when making vaccine recommendations and, therefore, plaintiffs will seek an injunction to stop the ACIP from meeting and issuing further recommendations based on problematic or misconstrued evidence. 

Plaintiffs will continue to challenge any additional final agency actions that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) takes to damage public health through unnecessary, unsupported, and ill-advised changes to the CDC's immunization schedules.

In a January 6, 2026, ruling, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts denied the government's motion to dismiss and ruled that the Plaintiffs had standing to challenge final agency actions that predated the January 5 schedule change.

Plaintiff and Attorney Statements

Statement from Richard Hughes IV, Epstein Becker Green, Attorney for Plaintiffs: "Court intervention is now essential to prevent further harm, protect evidence-based recommendations, and ensure that critical decisions affecting children's health are made transparently and guided by evidence, not ideology. We are confident that we will demonstrate for the court that this administration has acted arbitrarily and capriciously in revisions to the childhood immunization schedule and, furthermore, that the current ACIP will continue this destructive pattern if allowed to continue meeting. The integrity of the vaccine policymaking process is not a technical detail: it's what maintains public trust in vaccination and protects communities across the country."

Andrew D. Racine, MD, PhD, FAAP, President, American Academy of Pediatrics (Lead Plaintiff): "Children's health depends on vaccine recommendations based on rigorous, transparent science. Unfortunately, recent decisions by federal officials have abandoned this standard, causing unnecessary confusion for families, compromising access to lifesaving vaccines and weakening community protection.

The American Academy of Pediatrics will continue to champion an evidence-based schedule that protects every child, just like we always have. We ask the Department of Health and Human Services to do the same."

Georges C. Benjamin, MD, Executive Director, American Public Health Association: "The ACIP committee is tasked with providing evidence-based guidance to practitioners on the front lines of improving the health of all communities. Disregarding the scientific process to fast-track partisan policy changes through a new vaccine schedule will lead to increased illness and suffering by children and their families. We ask the courts to require the Secretary and the Department of Health and Human Services to adhere to the law and follow the administrative and scientific process that was in place before Secretary Kennedy replaced the qualified ACIP members with conflicted and less qualified people, weakened the national vaccine policy making infrastructure, and radically changed the vaccine schedule for children without evidence for change."

Ronald G. Nahass, MD, MHCM, FIDSA, President, Infectious Diseases Society of America: "Drastic changes to the vaccine schedule made without clear scientific justification and a transparent public process are already causing significant confusion for families and clinicians, likely leading to lower vaccination rates and putting children and adults at risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death. Making these changes during a flu season that is already taking the lives of children and many others and has not yet peaked is particularly reckless. America's infectious diseases physicians will continue to stand up for our patients and communities as we fight to stop the Secretary's treacherous march to dismantle the vaccine infrastructure that has kept people healthy for decades." 

Carlene Pavlos, Executive Director, Massachusetts Public Health Alliance: "The Massachusetts Public Health Alliance joins our sister plaintiffs in expressing outrage and frustration at the most recent actions of the Department of Health and Human Services in changing the childhood immunization schedule without any of the transparent and scientifically sound process that has been used in the past. Make no mistake, this decision, and the chaos and confusion of the last six months of ongoing attacks on vaccinations, will result in more cases of preventable childhood disease and will cost some children their lives."

Jason M. Goldman, MD, MACP, President, ACP:  "The American College of Physicians is vehemently opposed to the actions the administration has taken to undermine the scientific integrity of the U.S. vaccine schedule. Their most recent action unilaterally substitutes guidance from other countries that was developed without taking into consideration how those countries' health care systems, social structures, and disease patterns differ from those of the U.S. Abandoning the U.S. evidence-based process is a dangerous and potentially deadly decision for Americans that will lead to preventable morbidity. The U.S. vaccine recommendations should be developed, as they have been for decades, using a rigorous, transparent process and an evidence-to-recommendation framework that examines the best available scientific evidence, and is designed to prevent illness, hospitalizations, outbreaks, and death in this country's large, diverse population with uneven access to care. My patients, and everyone in America, deserve vaccine recommendations that are designed to best meet the needs of our country's population and protect our health."

Sindhu K. Srinivas, MD, MSCE, President, Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine: "SMFM members rely on vaccine recommendations based on rigorous, transparent, evidence-based review by qualified experts. The recent changes to the schedule of recommended childhood vaccinations by HHS and the CDC do not meet this standard and will cause more unnecessary confusion among our patients and the general public. These misguided changes will lead to an increase in the number of preventable illnesses and deaths, not only among children but also among other populations at increased susceptibility, including pregnant people, the elderly, and the immunocompromised. SMFM remains committed to providing our patients with trustworthy vaccination guidance based on objective scientific evidence."

MEDIA CONTACT: Annalise Carol, [email protected]

SOURCE American Academy of Pediatrics; Infectious Diseases Society of America; Massachusetts Public Health Alliance; American Public Health Association; American College of Physicians; Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine