Madison Area Lyme Support Group

Something happened on March 16 that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s people need to understand.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction in AAP v. Kennedy that freezes the federal childhood vaccine schedule and strips the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director of the authority to change who gets which vaccines.

Not for a week. Not until the next hearing — but for the duration of this case, which could be years.

Let me explain what Judge Murphy actually did, because I don’t think the people advising Kennedy understand it.

The two holdings that shut down everything

The order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts does two things.

First, Murphy held that the CDC director cannot change the immunization schedule unless the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) originates the change.

Murphy ruled that the changes to the CDC’s vaccine recommendations, approved by the CDC’s then-acting director, Jim O’Neill, were invalid because the changes didn’t come through ACIP. (See Preliminary Injunction Opinion, page 21: “The CDC cannot simply bypass ACIP in altering the immunization schedules.”)

In other words, the CDC director can’t initiate. He can only accept or reject what ACIP gives him.

Second, Murphy’s decision stayed the appointments of all 13 ACIP members that Murphy ruled were improperly appointed (Opinion, pages 43-44). He found Kennedy violated “balance” requirements.

Therefore, ACIP cannot meet. Cannot deliberate. Cannot vote.

Read those two holdings together. The director can’t act because the District Court says only ACIP can originate. ACIP can’t act because the court shut it down.

Here is the District Court’s opinion. I’ll say it plainly:

The CDC director cannot, right now, today, change a single vaccine recommendation on the childhood schedule. Cannot reclassify a vaccine. Cannot act on new safety data about an existing vaccine. Cannot recommend a new vaccine the FDA authorizes.

The CDC’s scientists can still track diseases, run laboratories, investigate outbreaks. What they cannot do is watch their Director act on their work. If the science changes on any of the seventeen currently recommended vaccines, the director can’t respond.

If the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorizes a new vaccine tomorrow, the director can’t recommend it. The recommendation apparatus is frozen, and it stays frozen until this case is resolved or ACIP is reconstituted to Murphy’s satisfaction.

(See link for article)