In one fell swoop March 16, a federal judge stayed all the votes taken by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy’s reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), along with 13 appointments to the committee and the CDC’s January memo that revised the U.S. childhood immunization schedule.

The immediate result of the order issued by Judge Brian Murphy, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, is that the ACIP meeting that was to be held March 18-19 will have to be canceled. “While the appointments of the challenged members of ACIP are stayed, ACIP as currently constituted cannot meet, for how can a committee meet without nearly the entirety of its membership?” Murphy said in his order in the American Academy of Pediatrics v. Kennedy.

Although the CDC had not yet posted an agenda for the March ACIP meeting, which had been postponed from February, the panel was expected to discuss COVID-19 vaccine injuries, long-COVID and the committee’s recommendation methodology – and possibly vote on related recommendations.

“This is a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law and the American people,” said Richard Hughes, of Epstein Becker & Green PC, the firm representing the medical groups. 

Hughes noted that the government could appeal the decision, “but for now, we get to celebrate a rare bit of good news,” he added.