Medical associations representing hundreds of thousands of doctors, medical professionals and scientists in the United States are suing the leaders of US health agencies for limiting who can get Covid-19 vaccines and for undermining overall vaccine confidence.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in US District Court in Massachusetts, was brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Association D/B/A the Massachusetts Public Health Alliance, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and an unnamed doctor who is pregnant and fears that she will be unable to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
“Our clients are not litigious organizations. They don’t want to be in court, and certainly we do not like that we’re in the position of having to sue the secretary of Health and Human Services, our nation’s chief health officer. So this is a position that I don’t think they want to be in, but it’s necessary,” Richard Hughes, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said at a news conference Monday, calling the lawsuit “unprecedented.”
The groups are suing US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Matthew Buzzelli, chief of staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who is serving as its acting director.
“This step is not one we take lightly,” Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said at the news conference Monday. “It’s not one we ever wanted to take at all, but we can no longer wait for government officials to sort this out. Pediatricians cannot stay silent as the system we rely on to support lifesaving vaccines is chiseled away, piece by piece.”
In May, Kennedy took the highly unusual step of announcing in a video on social media that the Covid-19 vaccine would no longer be recommended for pregnant people and healthy children on the CDC’s immunization schedule.
Experts immediately warned that these changes could create new barriers to vaccines for those who want them, including confusion around who is eligible and higher costs for patients if insurance no longer covers them.
Kennedy, who has a long history of anti-vaccine actions, also fired 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with seven new members, some of whom have raised questions about safety and efficacy of vaccines. The committee members serve as outside experts who help the CDC make informed decisions about vaccines.
Last month, in the first meeting of the newly appointed committee, its chair said it would study well-established vaccines and guidelines, the childhood and adolescent immunization schedules and the vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
The lawsuit argues that Kennedy and the Trump administration acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by changing the Covid-19 vaccine recommendations. The lawsuit asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions to enjoin, or legally prohibit, Kennedy’s Covid vaccine recommendation changes and a declaratory judgment pronouncing the change in recommendations as unlawful.
Dr. Sindhu Srinivas, president of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, said the decision about the Covid vaccine is dangerous for her patients. Pregnancy is on the CDC’s list of conditions that can raise a person’s risk of severe illness.
“The federal directive has no evidentiary basis in obstetrics or infectious disease,” Srinivas said. “Maternal immunization is really the best way to reduce maternal, fetal and infant complications, particularly Covid-19 but also from other illnesses, other infections.”
Kressly, of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that the immunization system has been a cornerstone of US public health but that she and several members of her association have been alarmed by recent actions by HHS to alter the routine childhood immunization schedule. She said the moves are “jeopardizing its success” and will make children and communities more vulnerable to infectious disease.
Kressly cited the high number of measles cases this year as an example: There have been more measles cases in the US in 2025 than in any other year since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago.
Anti-vaccine actions are not just rhetoric or politics, she said, they put people at risk.
“Every child’s health is at stake,” Kressly said.
Several doctors whose organizations are plaintiffs in the lawsuit said Kennedy’s actions have led people to question the safety and effectiveness of all vaccines, not just the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Jason Goldman, president of the American College of Physicians, said some of his patients have been “confused and scared.”
“This doesn’t just impact one vaccine. It is impacting the entire adult and pediatric vaccine schedule and putting our patients at risk,” he said at Monday’s news conference.
Goldman added that changes to CDC guidance about the Covid-19 vaccine may mean his patients’ insurance will not cover the cost of the shots, and without coverage, those vaccines would be too expensive, limiting access to good protection.
Dr. Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Disease Society of America, said that some people may argue that Covid-19 is not a serious disease for children but that “those of us who have dedicated our lives to caring for children know that is not the case.”
“Some people say that only a small number of children die from Covid, but the only acceptable number of dead children from Covid is zero, especially when we have the means to prevent their deaths and the vaccines that we have available are safe and very effective and can protect these children from getting severe disease and from dying,” Tan said at the news conference. “It is really unconscionable to take away a parent’s ability and choice to protect their children through vaccination.”
Correction: A lawyer for the plaintiffs mischaracterized the anonymous doctor’s situation; this story has been updated to reflect the change.