By Nate Raymond
BOSTON, April 29 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday appealed a federal judge's ruling blocking key elements of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s push to reshape U.S.
vaccine policy, including reducing the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccinations.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a notice of its plans to appeal Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy's March 16 ruling, which also found that a vaccine advisory panel whose members were handpicked by Kennedy was unlawfully constituted.
That ruling forced the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to postpone a meeting scheduled to begin two days later, after Murphy concluded that 13 members had been selected through a "tainted" appointment process and barred them from serving.
The ruling dealt a significant setback for the reduced childhood vaccination schedule championed by Kennedy.
Administration officials indicated at the time that they planned to appeal, with now-Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche taking to social media to describe Murphy's order as "lawless" and an "activist decision."
Murphy has earned the scorn of President Donald Trump and his allies for repeatedly blocking administration initiatives, including core parts of the Republican president's hard-line immigration agenda.
Any appeal would be heard by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is dominated by judges appointed by Democratic presidents. Any appellate court ruling could later be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
MEDICAL GROUPS CHALLENGE KENNEDY MOVES, JUDGE AGREES
The lawsuit was filed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups, which said public health was at risk due to policies adopted under Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist picked by Trump to head the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that oversees various agencies including the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
The plaintiffs alleged that the CDC acted unlawfully on January 5, when it cut the number of routinely recommended childhood vaccinations to 11 and downgraded the immunization recommendations for six diseases, including rotavirus, influenza and hepatitis A.
Lawyers with the U.S. Department of Justice had argued that while HHS welcomes debate about vaccine policy, Kennedy and officials under him have broad authority to change it to address what they said was a decline in public trust in vaccines following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Murphy agreed with the plaintiffs, saying the CDC lacked authority to unilaterally change the immunization schedule in January without consulting the advisory committee, which makes recommendations that shape U.S. vaccine practices and insurance coverage.
The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden, said the committee itself had been unlawfully reconstituted after Kennedy last year removed and replaced all 17 independent experts who previously served on the panel with people the plaintiffs said shared his vaccine skepticism.
Murphy said Kennedy, in picking new members, paid little to no attention to a federal law that requires such panels to be balanced, and picked "distinctly unqualified" individuals to serve on the committee that is supposed to be composed of experts on vaccines and immunization.
Murphy blocked 13 of its 15 members from continuing to serve and set aside earlier votes the panel took, including to downgrade recommendations for hepatitis B vaccines for newborns and COVID-19 shots broadly.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
