(Washington) A federal judge on Monday suspended the overhaul of American vaccine policy initiated by Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health, vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr, according to a decision consulted by AFP.
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Believing that the American government “disregarded” the science-based methods normally used to justify such decisions, this judge from Massachusetts, a state in the northeastern United States, blocked, at least temporarily, several changes made last year by the Trump administration to vaccination recommendations and schedules.
This suspension is a hard blow to the overhaul of the vaccination policy promoted by the Secretary of Health and strongly criticized by a number of doctors.
Asked by AFP, a spokesperson for the American Department of Health said he was waiting “impatiently for this judge’s decision to be overturned”.
The latter followed a complaint filed last July by several healthcare associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Infectious Disease Society (IDSA), which accused the secretary, known for his long-standing positions against vaccines, of having broken the law by unilaterally changing vaccine recommendations on COVID-19.
In May 2025, Robert Kennedy Jr announced on his social networks that federal authorities would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines to children and pregnant women.
Experts dismissed
The organizations also denounced the dismissal by RFK Jr of all the experts from an eminent group responsible for issuing vaccine recommendations in the United States known as ACIP and their replacement by personalities many of whom were contested for their lack of expertise or their relaying of false information on vaccines.
In his decision, the judge notes that of the current “fifteen members” of the committee “only six seem to have significant experience in the field of vaccines” even though this is the heart of their mission.
Since their appointment, the latter have in fact disrupted American vaccination recommendations, in particular by ceasing to recommend the hepatitis B vaccine to all newborns and by changing the vaccination recommendations on COVID-19 and measles, always against the advice of many caregivers.
So many decisions suspended until further notice by the judge.
The committee, which was also due to meet later this week to issue further recommendations, has also seen its activities suspended.
“Victory for public health”
For Jason Goldman of the American College of Physicians, this decision constitutes a “victory for public health and reaffirms that national vaccination policy must be based on rigorous and evidence-based science, not on political considerations”.
“Scientific consensus and mountains of data show that vaccines are safe and effective,” he recalled in a press release.
Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr has regularly questioned the safety of vaccines since taking office and has initiated a profound overhaul of vaccine policy, but also of American health agencies with major layoffs and massive budget cuts.
He “has sowed unnecessary confusion and distrust around vaccination recommendations,” blasted Ronald Nahass, president of the American Society of Infectious Diseases, welcoming this setback imposed on the Trump administration.
The American government should, however, appeal this decision, which should pave the way for a long legal drama.
