A federal lawsuit filed by multiple major medical groups is challenging vaccination guideline changes initiated by Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, several other medical organizations, and an anonymous physician filed the suit on July 7 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The suit claims Kennedy and other government leaders overstepped their authority in altering recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines.
Kennedy Decides
Traditionally, the CDC publishes guidelines on the age and frequency at which vaccines should be administered in cooperation with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an HHS-appointed panel of medical and health experts.
Kennedy announced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would no longer be recommending in COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and pregnant women, bypassing an ACIP meeting on the topic, under his authority as HHS Secretary.
In June, HHS updated the guidance further, recommending receiving a COVID-19 vaccine “should be a shared clinical decision-making process between a patient and his or her doctor, or a doctor and the child’s parents.”
‘Baseless and Uninformed’
Calling the HHS decision “baseless and uninformed,” the plaintiffs claim “pregnant women, their unborn children, and, in fact, all children remain at grave and immediate risk of contracting a preventable disease” if left unvaccinated. The suit also argues the directive “is contrary to the wealth of data and peer-reviewed studies that demonstrate the safety and efficacy of Covid vaccines for children and pregnant women.”
A January 28 report in the Public Health Policy Journal cited extensive support for the vaccination reforms Kennedy implemented in May.
“More than 81,000 physicians, scientists, researchers, and concerned citizens, 240 elected government officials, 17 professional public health and physician organizations, 2 State Republican Parties, 17 Republican Party County Committees, and 6 scientific studies from across the world have called for the market withdrawal of COVID-19 vaccines,” write authors Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, Mary T. Bowden, M.D., and Peter A. McCullough, M.D.
The report cites 37,544 COVID-19 vaccine deaths around the world reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, and how that number has exceeded past vaccine withdrawals for problems by up to 374,340 percent. Multiple studies have found the shots to be contraindicated for pregnant women and their unborn children, say the authors.
“The COVID-19 vaccines have failed: they have not prevented infection, they have not stopped transmission according to the admission of our CDC, and they do not reduce mortality—they do not save lives,” McCullough, an internationally-recognized cardiologist and chief scientific officer for The Wellness Company, told Health Care News. “It was always seniors who were at risk from COVID-19, not pregnant women and children.
“This lawsuit is astonishing, said McCullough. “It’s grossly out of touch with reality.”
‘Irreparable Harm’
The suit claims Kennedy’s directive “has caused irreparable harm” to the plaintiffs. Traditionally, physicians and insurers adhere to the CDC-recommended vaccine schedule, almost unilaterally guaranteeing access and coverage. Removal of the CDC’s stamp of approval could reduce use of the highly contested vaccine, the suit argues.
“Putting the shots on the schedule is strongly reassuring to people who still trust the government, thinking it wouldn’t be on the schedule or even permitted, if it wasn’t safe,” said Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Regulators are supposed to protect people from dangerous products. They should at least be sure there are very strong warnings.”
‘Stupid Recommendation’
The COVID-19 shot policies caused Americans to lose trust in vaccinations.“We forced a COVID-19 vaccine on kids without any proof that it worked, was safe, or necessary,” Chad Savage, M.D., an internist, told Health Care News in January. “Now, parents understandably are questioning everything recommended about vaccines. And since people don’t see polio anymore, they think, rightly or wrongly, ‘What’s the point?”
American parents have rejected COVID-19 vaccines for their children, says McCullough. “The lawsuits and statements by these companies do not acknowledge willingness to participate or the risks associated with the vaccines.”
Complete vaccination rates for children within the first 35 months of life dropped by 1.6 percent between 2020-2021 and 2013-2014, according to USA Facts.
VaxCalc, a website offering alternative and detailed vaccine information, has grown in popularity because many parents no longer trust the CDC’s recommendations, says the site’s founder, Chris Downey.
“It’s the stupid recommendation that reduces trust,” says Downey. “I do use the word ‘stupid’ intentionally. When a doctor recommends COVID-19 [injection] to a pregnant woman or child, we view them as not really a doctor but a vaccine salesman pretending to be a doctor.”
‘Big Moneymakers’
Clinics throw away unused COVID-19 vaccines because they can expire. Sometimes vaccine makers take back overages, and other times they do not. COVID-19 shots cost $150, reports Marketplace.org. These and other factors give physician offices and medical organizations incentives to push the shots, says Orient.
“I believe that vaccines are not only big moneymakers for practitioners, who get big ‘quality’ bonuses for getting most of their patients ‘fully’ vaccinated, but for organizations that get big grants from manufacturers and their leaders who may get consulting fees or research grants,” said Orient. “There are huge conflicts of interest.”
In his new book, Vaccines: Mythology, Ideology, and Reality, McCullough says the demand for vaccine approval in the medical community goes much deeper than mere concern for protecting public health.
“Doctors consider vaccines as religious articles of faith, and they feel very strongly about it,” said McCullough. “It’s not based on money. It’s in the form of a delusional, faith-based acceptance of vaccines as talismans.”
Ashley Bateman ([email protected]) writes from Virginia.
