New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the federal government’s revised childhood vaccine schedule, arguing that officials removed seven vaccines from routine recommendations without the scientific review or public process required by law.
James announced New York’s participation Monday. The amended federal complaint, filed Oct. 2, names Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its director as defendants. The allegations are the states’ claims; no court ruling on their merits was identified in the announcement.
The January schedule moved vaccines for rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus out of the category recommended for every child. Several were placed in a “shared clinical decision-making” category. That change in federal guidance does not mean the vaccines are unavailable or that every child should stop receiving them; families should discuss individual vaccination decisions with a qualified clinician.
What the states challenge
The coalition argues that federal officials bypassed established expert review when they adopted the new schedule. Its complaint says three officials from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Food and Drug Administration sent a memo to the acting CDC director, who signed it the same day without public notice or comment. The states contend the action was arbitrary and capricious under the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
The lawsuit also challenges Kennedy’s replacement of all 17 voting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in 2025. The states say the new membership was not fairly balanced and that the panel’s subsequent vote to change the longstanding hepatitis B birth-dose recommendation lacked adequate scientific support and proper process. Those assertions remain contested allegations in the case.
In their filing, the states ask a federal court to set aside the January schedule, Kennedy’s committee appointments and the hepatitis B decision. They also seek an order requiring a more balanced advisory committee. Filing the case does not itself restore the previous recommendations or change current federal guidance.
New York’s stated concern
James said the schedule change could confuse parents and reduce protection against preventable diseases. The attorney general’s office cited research estimating that routine childhood vaccination prevented hundreds of millions of illnesses among U.S. children born from 1994 through 2023. Those historical estimates are not a forecast of illness caused by the January policy.
The states also say their school immunization, Medicaid and insurance systems have long relied on federal recommendations. James’s office said New York has enacted laws to keep its insurance coverage, school requirements, Medicaid rules and pharmacists’ vaccination authority from automatically following changes made by the federal advisory committee. The lawsuit’s outcome could still affect the guidance providers and families use, but the release did not identify an immediate change to New York’s own requirements as a result of the filing.
New York is part of a coalition of states and Pennsylvania’s governor seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The federal defendants’ response and any hearing schedule were not included in the attorney general’s announcement. Parents seeking advice about a child’s vaccinations should consult their health care provider and current New York guidance rather than treat the lawsuit as a medical recommendation.
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