Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jun 15

Trump Administration Seeks Fast Appeal to Revive 6 Blocked Vaccine Policies Before Fall Flu Season

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jun 15

Trump Administration Seeks Fast Appeal to Revive 6 Blocked Vaccine Policies Before Fall Flu Season

Q: As states create their own vaccine rules, which immunization schedule is now the official one for American children?

The official federal schedule right now is the childhood immunization schedule that was in place before June 2025. That is because the Massachusetts federal court ruling temporarily blocked the vaccine-policy changes made under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., froze actions by his reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and effectively restored the earlier CDC/ACIP recommendations. In practical terms, the pre-June 2025 federal schedule remains the national baseline for programs tied to ACIP recommendations, including insurance coverage, Medicaid, the Vaccines for Children program and vaccine-injury compensation rules. At the same time, there is no longer one uniformly followed schedule for every child in the country. A growing number of states have moved to set their own vaccine rules or to rely on other medical authorities, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, rather than waiting on federal guidance. That means school-entry requirements and state recommendations can now differ from the federal schedule in some places. So the answer depends on what “official” means. Nationally, the operative federal standard is the pre-June 2025 CDC/ACIP childhood schedule. But at the state level, many children may now be governed by state-specific rules or schedules linked to other professional medical groups. For families and clinicians, the controlling schedule is therefore often both the restored federal schedule and whatever their state has adopted.

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 15

A federal appeals push filed Friday aims to lift a Massachusetts judge’s order that froze Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine actions and halted the CDC advisory panel he remade.
Kennedy said the administration wants a faster ruling so federal vaccine advisers can meet in time to decide whether to recommend shots before the fall flu season.
Six medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, sued after Kennedy rescinded routine recommendations covering a half-dozen childhood diseases and installed advisers they said were unqualified.
The March 16 ruling temporarily blocked those policies during the trial, while the administration has since moved to restore the panel through a new charter and a Trump order pressing CDC guidance to match peer countries.