{"id":124110,"date":"2026-02-26T13:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124110\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T13:48:14","slug":"pa-joins-lawsuit-against-cdc-over-childhood-vaccine-recommendation-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/124110\/","title":{"rendered":"PA Joins Lawsuit Against CDC Over Childhood Vaccine Recommendation Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Ian Karbal\u00a0|\u00a0Pennsylvania Capital-Star<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>Penny Fiebiger, LPN at Pediatrics of Northeastern Pennsylvania, prepares the arm of a 7-year-old for a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccination, in Dickson City on Thursday, November 4, 2021.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro joined a multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) decision to overhaul the national childhood immunization schedule.<\/p>\n

The suit is led by Democratic attorneys general from Arizona and California. They\u2019re joined by Democratic attorneys general from 12 other states, as well as by Shapiro in his capacity as governor.<\/p>\n

It names the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and their respective leaders, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CDC director Jay Bhattacharya.<\/p>\n

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Last year, Kennedy, a longtime and outspoken vaccine skeptic, removed and replaced all 17 members of the CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Then in January, the CDC\u00a0issued a new childhood immunization schedule<\/a>\u00a0that rescinded the universal recommendations for vaccination against hepatitis A, influenza, meningococcal disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rotavirus. The move followed its dropping of universal recommendations for childhood COVID-19 and hepatitis B vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Vaccines the CDC previously recommended universally for children are now recommended for children with underlying conditions, or as options parents can discuss with doctors.<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit alleges the CDC\u2019s vaccine panel was unlawfully replaced, and that the new recommendations were illegal, unscientific, and \u201cposed an immediate threat to public health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical organizations\u00a0filed a lawsuit seeking to block the new recommendations<\/a>\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n

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A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement, \u201cThis is a publicity stunt dressed up as a lawsuit. By law, the health secretary has clear authority to make determinations on the CDC immunization schedule and the composition of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The CDC immunization schedule reforms reflect common-sense public health policy shared by peer, developed countries.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the 20 identified peer countries recommended fewer than the 18 childhood immunizations<\/a>\u00a0previously advocated for by the CDC. But the U.S. now recommends fewer vaccines than all but Denmark,\u00a0which is itself an outlier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s common for Democratic attorneys general to be more litigious against Republican presidential administrations \u2014 and vice versa \u2014 Shapiro has signed on to multiple lawsuits led by Democratic attorneys general in his capacity as governor.<\/p>\n

Prior to his election as governor, he served as Pennsylvania\u2019s Attorney General.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Republican state Attorney General Dave Sunday has largely remained quiet on the matters. When asked about the lawsuit by the Capital-Star, a spokesperson for his office said, \u201cGenerally speaking, the governor\u2019s office has the ability to represent their executive agencies under the Commonwealth Attorneys Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Capital-Star<\/a>\u00a0is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions:\u00a0info@penncapital-star.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Pennsylvania\"Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania Capital-Star<\/a><\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania Capital-Star is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site dedicated to honest and aggressive coverage of state government, politics and policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By\u00a0Ian Karbal\u00a0|\u00a0Pennsylvania Capital-Star Penny Fiebiger, LPN at Pediatrics of Northeastern Pennsylvania, prepares the arm of a 7-year-old for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-124110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}