HERE. WE. GO.

After a year of chaos around vaccines in the United States, a federal judge just slammed the brakes.

In a lawsuit brought by the American Academy of Pediatrics against RFK Jr., a federal court ruled that the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee cannot move forward under the changes he imposed and reversed every action the committee had taken since summer 2025.

This is an incredible victory for kids who deserve barrier-free access to vaccines, for clinicians who need clear guidance and the autonomy to do what’s best for their patients, and for a country that deserves leadership capable of making both possible.

What happened?

ACIP is an external advisory committee to the CDC. It has an enormous influence on who should get which vaccines and when. Its recommendations shape what insurance covers, what physicians can routinely offer, and how easily families can access vaccines if they choose them.

Because of that influence, ACIP has traditionally relied on a few core principles:

• Transparent meetings
• Honest presentation of data
• Rigorous review of safety and effectiveness
• Flexibility when new evidence emerges

This process isn’t perfect, and there’s real room for improvement. But it works when evidence is weighed carefully, openly, and fairly.

That same influence also made ACIP a powerful lever. And RFK Jr., who has spent more than two decades publicly questioning vaccines and amplifying falsehoods about their safety and value, was well positioned to pull it.

Last June, after becoming HHS Secretary, he removed the entire existing committee and replaced it with new members whose expertise and interpretation of evidence raised serious concerns. The meetings that followed reflected those concerns:

• Evidence was often presented selectively
• Important context was missing
• CDC scientists weren’t allowed to present their own data
• Claims were made that didn’t align with the broader body of evidence on vaccine safety and effectiveness. The Evidence Collective’s endless documentation of fact-checking helped the case.

Science should include disagreement and hard questions, which is healthy. The concern is that a process designed to rigorously evaluate evidence instead becomes a platform for ideological beliefs.

Then, in January 2026, RFK Jr. bypassed his own ACIP committee, the CDC Director, and every scientific and clinical process we have, including rejecting public comment, to unilaterally make sweeping changes to the routine vaccination schedule for children in the United States. This change wasn’t based on new data or new evidence, but rather on political and ideological reasons.

What did the judge say?

The judge temporarily ruled that the decisions made over the past year are invalid, because the process itself broke the law in three ways:

1. The CDC bypassed ACIP, which Congress requires. Multiple federal laws covering insurance coverage, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, and the Vaccines for Children program explicitly tie benefits and obligations to ACIP’s recommendations. The HHS Secretary) cannot simply change the immunization schedule without ACIP’s involvement.
2. The new ACIP was not “fairly balanced” as required by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Of the 15 members, the court found only about 6 had meaningful vaccine-related expertise. ACIP’s own charter requires members to be knowledgeable in immunization practices, vaccine use, or vaccine safety research. The rushed appointment process (replacing all 17 members in roughly two days, without normal outreach or vetting) further undermined the committee’s legitimacy.
3. Changes were arbitrary and capricious. The government gave no real explanation for departing from decades of established process, other than that it was following a presidential memo. That’s not enough under the Administrative Procedure Act.

The judge had some pretty incredible remarks in his ruling:

What’s next?

This ruling is a temporary hold on ACIP while the case moves through the courts.

A much-anticipated ACIP meeting this week was expected to include several votes, including on Covid-19 vaccines. ACIP meetings cannot proceed with the current members, so the meeting is cancelled.

Now, technically, this group of advisors handpicked by RFK Jr. could still gather informally. Anyone can meet anytime. They could hold a book club, a coffee chat, or a knitting circle. And they could find ways to megaphone their ideologies and cherry-pick studies. Many of them have very big online platforms.

But what they can’t do is operate as an official federal advisory committee: using government meeting rooms, staff support, travel funding, and government levers to shape your access to vaccines, like through insurance coverage or physician liability threats.

The real question now is what comes next:

• Will RFK Jr. follow proper procedure in appointing a new set of ACIP members?
• What will happen with the fall vaccines? (We still have some time for this one; June is typically the deadline.)
• Will professional organizations, like the AAP, take the lead, and will they remain accountable through truly public meetings? So far, all deliberations have been behind closed doors.

While this pause is important, the medical decisions Americans make every day do not stop. Neither does the accumulation of new evidence, nor the development of innovative vaccines that are hopefully coming down the pipeline. It’s time to figure out what that next step is before this is clogged up too long.

What does this mean for you right now?

You can get the vaccines you want, for free, based on the best available evidence, and with the same trusted conversations with your doctor. All of the vaccine policy changes RFK Jr. put in place have now been reversed to their pre-June 2025 state.

• This ruling is a temporary hold, and things could still change as the case moves through the courts.
• To avoid policy whiplash, continue to rely on the vaccine schedules from specialty medical societies like AAP, AAFP, and ACOG as a steady guide through this storm.

The past year of shifting vaccine policy has left many people with questions and concerns. This ruling does not erase that confusion or immediately reach every family that fell through the cracks and remains unprotected against diseases. We have our work cut out for us.

It also cannot undo the enormous cost of countless hours spent responding to sudden policy changes, correcting falsehoods, and stabilizing guidance for patients and clinicians. This time, energy, and taxpayer dollars could have been used to solve real health problems.

Bottom line

This is a huge win. It restores access to vaccines (for now) and puts the process that determines who can access them back on track. That accountability matters. It protects Americans’ ability to make informed medical decisions and gives people a fair shot at the best possible health, even when so much in this country works against it. It’s a principle countless people have been fighting for, again and again, over the past year. And now, the federal court has confirmed that cutting corners and carelessly removing protections for Americans is not just bad public health policy. It’s illegal.

Love, YLE

Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) is founded and operated by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, wife. YLE reaches more than 425,000 people in over 132 countries with one goal: “Translate” ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: