A coalition of leading Massachusetts and national health organizations sued Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Monday, for “arbitrarily and capriciously” scrapping COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for children and pregnant women and for dismantling an influential expert panel that advises the government on immunizations.
The coalition filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts to “defend vaccine policy, and to put an end to the Secretary’s assault on science, public health and evidence-based medicine.”
The lawsuit asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions to enjoin Secretary Kennedy’s cancellation of COVID vaccine recommendations and a declaratory judgment pronouncing the change in recommendations as unlawful.
The plaintiffs include: the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and a pregnant physician.
The lawsuit was filed against Kennedy in his official capacity as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; HHS; Marty Makary in his official capacity as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; the FDA; Jay Battacharya in his official capacity as Director of the National Institutes of Health; the NIH; Matthew Buzzelli in his official capacity as Acting Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the CDC, and others.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
Kay Lazar can be reached at kay.lazar@globe.com Follow her @GlobeKayLazar.
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