More than a dozen US states have sued the Trump administration in a bid to reverse recent changes to childhood immunisation schedules that are alleged to be “unlawful” and “unscientific”.
In total, 14 attorney generals of states, along with the governor of Pennsylvania, issued the lawsuit, asking courts to dismiss both the new recommendations to childhood vaccinations and appointments to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP).
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HHS and CDC are named as defendants, along with their respective heads, Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr) and acting director Jay Bhattacharya.
While coming exclusively from Democrat-led states, the lawsuit marks the largest challenge HHS has faced to date amid a significantly changed vaccine landscape in the past year.
The 15 states take issue with the CDC’s decision to slash the number of diseases American children are routinely immunised against. In January 2026, the agency issued new guidelines that saw 11 diseases protected against, down from 17 previously. Key changes included limiting routine recommendations for Covid-19, influenza, rotavirus, Hepatitis A/B, and meningococcal vaccines.
The lawsuit contends that the new vaccination schedule was not established on any scientific evidence, relying instead on comparisons to peer countries. The new framework closely aligns with that of Denmark, but population homogeneity and healthcare coverage significantly differ between the two countries, the 15 states highlight.
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By GlobalDataThe lawsuit also seeks to reverse the sweeping changes RFK Jr has made over the past year to the CDC’s ACIP, the panel responsible for greenlighting any changes to vaccine recommendations. In gradual stages, the health secretary has replaced the entirety of the previous slate with new members, including well-known vaccine sceptics and individuals who were critical of both the Covid-19 vaccines and related countermeasures such as lockdowns. In a joint statement soon after the change, the fired ACIP members warned that the US vaccine programme was left “critically weakened”.
In December 2025, RFK Jr’s ACIP panel scrapped broad hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for newborns. The change drew widespread condemnation from medical bodies and experts in the US. It is worth noting that the updated January 2026 immunisation schedule bypassed ACIP, a major deviation from the usual voting process.
The attorney generals claim that the new immunisation landscape will damage public health by decreasing vaccine uptake and increasing the spread of diseases. They also say that the Trump administration has created confusion by spreading vaccine misinformation contrary to scientific evidence.
California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, said: “The Trump administration’s attacks on science are irresponsible and dangerous. Undermining confidence in vaccines will lead to lower vaccination rates and more infectious disease. It will also drive-up costs for states, including increased Medicaid spending and new expenses to combat misinformation and revise public health guidance.”
Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, commented: “Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration have thrown science out the window. They fired qualified experts, replaced them with unqualified ideologues, and then concocted a dangerous new vaccine schedule that will put Arizona’s children—and children across the country—at risk of contracting diseases that are preventable.”
The lawsuit by California, Arizona, and others follows one filed by leading medical organisations in July 2025, who took aim at “hostile” changes to vaccine policies made by HHS. Among the organisations that sued RFK Jr and the HHS included the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM).
