RFK Jr. – The Highwayman of Public Health – Is Thwarted by the Courts

by Ambassador Thomas Graham (Retired) and David Bernell

The Secretary of the US Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been waging a campaign against vaccines, using his position to dismantle the nationwide system that has been extraordinarily successful in bringing life-saving immunizations to hundreds of millions of people for decades. Maintaining good public health is one of the vital interests of a country, and this country’s leaders are threatening it.

On March 16, Judge Brian Murphy put a stop to the wrecking ball that is RFK Jr. The judge issued a preliminary injunction that blocked HHS from implementing changes to the nation’s immunization schedule, saying that the Secretary unlawfully altered vaccine policy. What’s more, he ruled that RFK Jr. improperly reconstituted the federal vaccine advisory panel that makes recommendations on vaccines. Therefore, he said, the decisions that have been made thus far by the new panel members are invalidated.

The Judicial Ruling

Judge Murphy’s ruling pertained to Kennedy’s move in June 2025 to fire all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). This is the panel at the US Centers for Disease Control that reviews all the scientific data on vaccine efficacy and safety; develops recommendations on which vaccines to recommend for infants, kids and adults; establishes immunization schedules for when different vaccines should be administered; and during emergencies like COVID-19 recommends vaccine priority groups and schedules for immunization. The CDC has been one of the gold stars in the American medical system, and its decisions and policies – particularly with regard to vaccines – are respected around the world. ACIP had been comprised of members who were highly regarded scientific experts with medical, public health, and research experience in the field of vaccines and immunizations. They were also vetted and reviewed before being appointed to ensure not only their capabilities and expertise, but also that they had no conflicts of interest or potential financial benefits from any matter coming before the panel.

Because one of Kennedy’s early targets was childhood vaccines, he wanted to insert new people into the decision making processes at ACIP and CDC so his views about vaccines and disease could be legitimized. Thus, in his effort to establish an anti-vaccine bureaucracy within HHS, Kennedy summarily fired all of ACIP’s members, saying that they were no more than a “rubber stamp” for the pharmaceutical industry, with “persistent” conflicts of interests that prompted them to approve any vaccine the industry developed.

Kennedy then appointed new members to ACIP to replace those he fired. This group consists of people who are medical professionals, but who largely lack expertise in vaccines. Their numbers are dominated by vaccine skeptics and extremists who question the value of vaccines, and several of them have been tied to groups spreading vaccine misinformation. In other words, Kennedy appointed people he knew would attack vaccines and carry out his objectives. And they began to do this. “Starting in 2025, changes by HHS to routine vaccine recommendations for children have reduced the number of diseases targeted from 17 to 11 and the number of routine vaccines from 13 to 7…there are now six vaccines no longer recommended for routine use by all children in the United States: rotavirus, COVID-19, influenza, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and meningococcal vaccines.”

However, in making these changes to ACIP, Secretary Kennedy was found by Judge Murphy to have likely violated both the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) and the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). The APA requires certain steps be taken to ensure that federal agencies consider and implement changes transparently and fairly, following clear procedures to ensure that the public and experts are heard, and that agencies adhere to well-established practices. The ruling stated that there is an established method involving how decisions about vaccines have historically been made. This is “a method scientific in nature and codified into law through procedural requirements.” However, “the government has disregarded those methods,” in issuing new recommendations and schedules for vaccines. This not only ran afoul of the APA, it also “undermined the integrity of its [the government’s] actions.

Beyond the problem of not following proper administrative procedures, the ruling also found that the appointments of the new ACIP members were themselves likely unlawful. FACA requires that governmental advisory committees be constituted with people who have appropriate expertise in the fields they are advising, and that such committees have a “fair balance” in their membership to ensure a variety of independent views. However, “the Government removed all duly appointed members of ACIP and summarily replaced them without undertaking any of the rigorous screening that had been the hallmark of ACIP member selection for decades.” Thus, it appears that “the reconstitution of ACIP violated FACA and was therefore not in accordance with law under the APA.”

In conclusion, the judge stated that the changes in both the ACIP membership and the immunization recommendations and schedules constituted not only “a technical, procedural failure,” they were also “a strong indication of something more fundamentally problematic: an abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise embodied by [ACIP].”

The upshot of this decision is that the vaccination recommendations and schedules issued in January 2026 are invalid, and the older recommendations that existed before ACIP members were fired are back in force. The ruling invalidated all votes taken by the reconstituted panel, not just those on children’s vaccines, and it suspends the appointment of 13 current members of the panel. The decision is not final. It is a temporary one that will provide time for an analysis of the situation. The government will appeal the decision, so the issue will remain in the courts for now. Meanwhile, the large number of states, private medical groups, and foundations that support the injunctions will also gear up for the court battles ahead.

The Anti-Vaccine Huckster

Donald Trump enthusiastically nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. In introducing him at a Madison Square Garden rally near the the end of 2024 election campaign, Trump said, “I’m going to let him go wild on health. I am going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.” That was all the encouragement needed. RFK’s policies have been extreme, they have been misguided, and they indeed have become “wild.”

Prior to his nomination, Kennedy had been best known for endorsing conspiracy theories about vaccines that have no relationship to sound medical practice or science. Moreover, he has no scientific, medical, or public health training or expertise. For years he has attacked a number of vaccines for causing autism in children, without proof. He has promoted cod liver oil and vitamin A as viable and safe alternatives to the measles vaccine. He has also argued that the polio shot is unsafe, the Covid-19 shot is dangerous, and the hepatitis-B shot is unfit for children. He has grudgingly admitted that the measles vaccine is the most effective mean to counter to the disease, but he is always quick to pair that statement with comments that doctors should not be central in determining vaccinations for kids, just parents. It’s the only politically safe argument he can find refuge in – arguing that parents must be trusted to look out for their kids – because his advice otherwise leads to more childhood illnesses and deaths.

Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate only a few weeks after Trump took office, but many Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, were very suspicious of his record as a vaccine sceptic and his ability to be a reliable leader of HHS. (His own cousin, Caroline Kennedy, wrote a public letter to the Senate opposing his confirmation. She described him unqualified and unfit to lead the agency, saying he is “dangerous and willfully misinformed,” “addicted to attention and power,” a “predator” who “preys on the parents of sick children,” and someone who profits financially from his anti-vaccine advocacy.) The Senate Health Committee asked him many questions and extracted many promises from him – including a promise not to change ACIP – were he to take office, every one of which he has violated. Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and chair of the committee, cast the deciding vote in confirming Kennedy. A former doctor, Cassidy is a strong proponent of vaccinations and had even organized vaccination efforts himself. Naturally, he was suspicious of Kennedy but deferred (or caved) to President Trump’s wishes. Since this time, he has unsurprisingly been critical of the changes being implemented at HHS. However, he has been unwilling to publicly criticize Secretary Kennedy or President Trump for making these policy changes, leading to charges that Cassidy is both cowardly and easily duped.

RFK’s tenure at HHS over the past year has been both tumultuous and bad for public health. The United States has seen multiple outbreaks of measles, which is highly contagious and is most lethal to young children. There were 2,260 cases reported in the US in 2025, and already in 2026 there are another 1,566 cases. This is a direct effect of the anti-vax movement in which Kennedy has been central for years, and the elevation of his voice to a position of national leadership. Prior to the depredations of Kennedy and others sowing doubts about vaccines, measles had been considered largely eliminated in the United States. Until recently it was rare for a doctor in the US to ever see a case. This is no longer true. The choices that people have made to not vaccinate their children are now driving these outbreaks.

Kennedy has also given strength to the unproven idea that Tylenol causes autism in children if women take the painkiller while pregnant. He even got President Trump to hold a press conference, calling on women to “tough it out” while advising that, “Taking Tylenol is not good — I’ll say it: It’s not good.” While this is not nearly as consequential as thousands of cases of measles, it has been reported that “emergency room orders for Tylenol for pregnant patients went down 10 percent in the months that followed” Trump and Kennedy’s press conference.

In the midst of Kennedy’s work trying to embed his anti-vaccine views in the federal government, these same efforts continue to line his pockets. The Secretary, who had founded a private anti-vaccine group and served as its chairman for many years, no longer engages in his paid anti-vaccine advocacy, but he is still due to receive millions of dollars from the company that has published his books challenging vaccines, including an advance for a forthcoming book titled “Unsettled Science.”

The continual press attention – most of it highly critical – surrounding Kennedy, HHS, ACIP and vaccines has led the White House to assert more control over both policy and messaging at HHS. RFK’s continual focus on vaccines and his moves to further limit their usage are very unpopular according to polling, and there are political concerns that this will adversely affect Trump and the Republican party in the midterm elections in November. While downplaying the anti-vax efforts of Kennedy and HHS is certainly welcome, it is motivated not by protecting public health, just protecting Congressional seats.

The Messy Fight Ahead

The ongoing battle over vaccines – and the accompanying turmoil – will now transpire on several fronts, and this will include political and social struggles too. There are dozens of states that have said they will no longer follow the Trump administration’s CDC guidance on vaccines. Instead, they have issued their own recommendations and schedules. This advice is supported by a number of professional medical societies, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, which have rejected CDC vaccine advice. As Katherine Wu reported in The Atlantic, one former ACIP member told her that, “No serious health care provider looks to ACIP anymore for advice.” These conflicting recommendations mean that the public has been left with “all too many options for whom to listen to about vaccines” and less faith in government policy. This will not be easy to remedy. Wu observed that, “Vaccination depends not just on the governing bodies that issue recommendations about shots, but also about Americans’ willingness to heed that advice—a far harder shift to reset.” There will be plenty of confusion ahead for parents deciding what is best for their children.

This chaos will ensue while the battle continues on the legal front. The judicial ruling does not settle the legal issue – the temporary injunction is far from the final decision on this matter. ACIP is effectively on hold while the courts sort out the law’s requirements, and it can be expected that “lawyers and judges could be arguing for months over who has the authority to set U.S. vaccine policy.”

This is not some minor bureaucratic struggle within the government. Rather, this is one of the more important legal decisions being considered since Trump returned to office. A court has blocked RFK Jr.’s project to undo the vast and very successful system in the United States by which vaccines are developed, evaluated, recommended, scheduled, and provided to Americans. Judge Murphy is offering a chance for the law itself to challenge the ill-informed policies coming out of Kennedy’s HHS, which would be highly damaging to the country if fully implemented.

Perhaps the rule of law dies hard in the United States of America. At the very least, it’s fighting back.