NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A coalition of doctors\u2019 groups and public health organizations sued the U.S. government on Monday over the decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for most children and pregnant women.<\/p>\n
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association and four other groups \u2014 along with an unnamed pregnant doctor who works in a hospital \u2014 filed the lawsuit<\/a> in federal court in Boston.<\/p>\n U.S. health officials, following infectious disease experts\u2019 guidance, previously had urged annual COVID-19 shots for all Americans ages 6 months and older. But in late May, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced<\/a> he was removing COVID-19 shots from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women.<\/p>\n Many health experts decried the move as confusing and accused Kennedy of disregarding the scientific review process that has been in place for decades \u2014 in which experts publicly review current medical evidence and hash out the pros and cons of policy changes.<\/p>\n The new lawsuit repeats those concerns, alleging that Kennedy and other political appointees at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have flouted federal procedures and systematically attempted to mislead the public.<\/p>\n The lawsuit also notes recent changes to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Kennedy, a leading antivaccine activist before becoming the nation\u2019s top health official, fired<\/a> the entire 17-member panel this month and replaced it<\/a> with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices.<\/p>\n Doctors say Kennedy\u2019s actions are making their jobs harder \u2014 with some patients raising doubts about all kinds of vaccines and others worried they will lose access to shots for themselves and their children.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is causing uncertainty and anxiety at almost every pediatric visit that involves vaccines,\u201d said Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s happening after U.S. pediatric flu deaths hit their highest mark<\/a> in 15 years and as the nation is poised to have its worst year of measles<\/a> in more than three decades, she added.<\/p>\n HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said Kennedy \u201cstands by his CDC reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n Also joining the suit are the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.<\/p>\n The pregnant doctor, who is listed in the lawsuit as \u201cJane Doe,\u201d works at a Massachusetts hospital. She wants a COVID-19 booster to protect her unborn child and argues Kennedy\u2019s decision is making it harder to get the shot, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n In a press call, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs said the woman had difficulty getting a COVID-19 vaccination at a pharmacy and other sites, but issued a correction later in the day to say has not yet tried to get the shot.<\/p>\n The suit was filed in Boston because the unnamed doctor and some others in Massachusetts are among those have been affected by Kennedy\u2019s change, attorney Richard H. Hughes IV said.<\/p>\n The state has figured repeatedly in U.S. public health history. <\/p>\n In 1721, some Boston leaders advocated for an early version of inoculation during a smallpox outbreak. Paul Revere was the first leader of Boston\u2019s health commission. And a legal dispute in Cambridge led to a landmark 1905 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld states\u2019 rights to compel vaccinations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think it is significant and very meaningful\u201d that the case is happening there, Hughes said.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n This story has been corrected to show that the pregnant woman in the lawsuit has not yet tried to get a COVID-19 vaccination. The plaintiffs\u2019 legal team issued a correction on Monday evening after an earlier news conference and news release. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A coalition of doctors\u2019 groups and public health organizations sued the U.S. government on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[36786,26147,2731,17993,245,7824,4140,57,210,15006,336,362,2736,2739,1060,50,36787,80,24131,881,36788,15010,36785,67,132,68,93,15649],"class_list":{"0":"post-47834","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-american-academy-of-pediatrics","10":"tag-andrew-nixon","11":"tag-boston","12":"tag-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention","13":"tag-children","14":"tag-coronavirus","15":"tag-covid-19","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-immunizations","19":"tag-lawsuits","20":"tag-legal-proceedings","21":"tag-ma-state-wire","22":"tag-massachusetts","23":"tag-medication","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-paul-revere","26":"tag-politics","27":"tag-pregnancy-and-childbirth","28":"tag-public-health","29":"tag-richard-h-hughes-iv","30":"tag-robert-f-kennedy-jr","31":"tag-susan-kressly","32":"tag-united-states","33":"tag-unitedstates","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-washington-news","36":"tag-womens-health"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}