Since then, Kennedy has appointed a number of new members to the panel. California alleges that, of the 13 current members, at least nine lack the qualifications and required experience necessary for their positions. A majority have also expressed anti-vaccine views that broadly align with Kennedy’s.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, claiming that recent changes to the childhood vaccine schedule will likely make people sicker and lead to greater strain on the state’s own resources.
The lawsuit, which names Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes as a co-plaintiff, lists defendants including U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Jay Bhattacharya, and each of their respective agencies as defendants.
In a press release, Bonta’s office said that Robert F. Kennedy, the controversial director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has made a series of changes that will lead to fewer people receiving necessary vaccinations. Earlier this year, for instance, Kennedy issued a “Decision Memo” that stripped seven childhood vaccines of their universally recommended status. These vaccines include inoculations against rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and RSV.
The lawsuit also questions Kennedy’s replacement of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP.
“California is going back to court because the Trump Administration is violating federal law and pushing a reckless, unscientific childhood vaccine schedule that puts kids’ lives at risk. These changes ignore decades of medical evidence and will lead to outbreaks of diseases we’ve already beaten,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “We will not stand by while politics overrides science and endangers our children. Just as we’ve done before, we’re standing up — alongside 14 other states — to defend the law, protect public health, and keep our kids safe.”
Newsom’s office notes that Kennedy, a notorious “anti-vaxxer,” has repeatedly promised not to limit or otherwise interfere with guidance pertaining to most medically-recognized vaccines. Among other things, Kennedy also said that he would not seek to alter the composition of the ACIP, a 17-member board that must, under federal law, be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed,” and not be “inappropriately influenced by the appointing authority or by any special interest.”
Last June, though, Kennedy announced that he was dismissing all 17 members of ACIP.
Since then, Kennedy has appointed a number of new members to the panel. California alleges that, of the 13 current members, at least nine lack the qualifications and required experience necessary for their positions. A majority have also expressed anti-vaccine views that broadly align with Kennedy’s.
Later in the year, in December 2025, the ACIP members appointed by Kennedy voted 8-to-3 to reverse nearly 30 years of CDC policy recommending that children receive hepatitis B vaccines at birth.
“Last month, then-Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill — who has no medical or scientific background — signed off on a “Decision Memo” that demoted seven vaccines from the universally recommended childhood vaccination schedule to a lesser status that invites confusion and uncertainty,” Newsom’s office said. “The Decision Memo was not based on any new scientific evidence, any recommendation by a lawfully constituted ACIP, or any systematic review of the available data. Instead, it relied primarily on superficial comparisons to purported “peer countries” — particularly Denmark, which has universal healthcare and a small, homogenous population — while ignoring the fundamental differences between those nations and the United States, as well as the overwhelming evidence supporting the effectiveness of the CDC’s pre-Kennedy childhood immunization schedule.”
Sources
15 States Sue H.H.S. Over Revisions to Vaccine Schedule
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