--- description: The decision blocks HHS from removing previously recommended vaccines from childhood and adult immunization schedules. title: A Judge Declared the Vaccine Rollbacks Invalid. What Happens Now? image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1dcb33b8b81205ca/69bc00366b1df244fa75e04f/GettyImages-2249518549.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Vaccines](/tag/vaccines/) ## Vaccines Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A Judge Declared the Government's Vaccine Rollbacks Invalid. What Happens Now?  by [Alice Park](/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 20, 2026 5:09 PM CUT  Megan Varner/Bloomberg—Getty Images  by [Alice Park](/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 20, 2026 5:09 PM CUT Since becoming Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), [Robert F. Kennedy Jr](https://time.com/collections/time100-health-2026/7362481/robert-f-kennedy-jr-health/ "undefined"). has [targeted national vaccine policies](https://time.com/7343388/vaccine-schedule-children-cdc-rfk-influenza/ "undefined") and attempted to [reshape federal health recommendations](https://time.com/7345057/new-childhood-vaccine-schedule-cdc-what-it-means/ "undefined") to reflect more [skeptical and anti-vaccine views](https://time.com/7344423/dangers-rfk-jr-vaccine-schedule/ "undefined"). On March 16, a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked some of those changes and reversed dramatic alternations to the [country’s main advisory committee of experts](https://time.com/7339072/cdc-committee-acip-hepatitis-b-vaccine/ "undefined") on vaccines that makes national immunization recommendations. So what happens next? Here’s what you need to know. ## What changes to vaccines has Kennedy made since he took office? As HHS Secretary, Kennedy oversees the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which approves vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which reviews scientific data to make recommendations about which vaccines should be given to people at various points in their lives. His recent changes include yanking the recommendation of [annual flu and COVID shots ](https://time.com/7345057/new-childhood-vaccine-schedule-cdc-what-it-means/ "undefined")for most children and adults, including pregnant women. He also [removed](https://time.com/7292553/rfk-jr-removes-cdc-vaccine-committee-experts/ "undefined") all members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a panel of independent vaccine experts that makes recommendations about vaccine schedules, and replaced them with people who have less or no expertise in vaccines—and who hold more skeptical views on immunizations. That committee recently decided to [remove](https://time.com/7339072/cdc-committee-acip-hepatitis-b-vaccine/ "undefined") the long-held recommendation for the hepatitis B shot that newborns receive. ## How did doctors respond to Kennedy’s changes to vaccine policy? Last July, several professional medical organizations—including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics—sued HHS and Kennedy over the changes, saying that deviating from established vaccine policies would put more Americans, particularly children, at risk of preventable diseases. The groups also said the decisions made by HHS were not based on scientific evidence and that Kennedy acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by changing COVID vaccine policies. In firing and replacing ACIP members, the medical experts said Kennedy acted unlawfully and failed to follow proper procedures for appointing members of that committee. Other groups, like America’s Physician Groups, which represents more than 340 physician groups including 260,000 doctors, filed briefs in support of the suit, adding concerns about how the vaccine-policy changes undermine the push toward value-based care that focuses on prevention to avoid costly illnesses that burden the health care system. “We know effective prevention strategies are key to value-based health care and that vaccines are key to prevention,” says Susan Dentzer, president and CEO of the group. “If you monkey with that proposition, we are going to have more avoidable illness, more avoidable health care utilization, and also some serious harm to individuals up to the point of avoidable deaths.” Dentzer says the amicus brief could be useful in the appeals process, since appeals courts often seek to understand the broader context of lawsuits beyond just the plaintiff and defendant. HHS spokespeople have said they plan to appeal the judge’s ruling. ## What does the judge’s decision mean? U.S. District Court judge Brian Murphy declared decisions made by Kennedy’s reconstituted CDC committee invalid and ordered a stay on changes to vaccine policies that Kennedy and HHS have announced so far. “Essentially the court has nullified everything that \[Kennedy and the CDC committee\] have done,” says Sara Rosenbaum, professor emerita of health law and policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. “Your doctor is now guided once again by the routine CDC schedule before they started to screw with it. It all goes back to where things were in January 2025, as if the past year didn’t happen.” This also means that Kennedy's new ACIP is invalid and therefore not allowed to meet. Planned meetings scheduled for March 18 and 19 were postponed. The judge’s ruling means that “for the time being we are functioning without an ACIP,” says Rosenbaum, “which is going to be a problem the moment a new vaccine has to be considered or a change in the existing vaccine schedule is needed.” ## How does the judge’s ruling affect the vaccines my family or I can receive? Despite the changes Kennedy made to the annual flu and COVID vaccination recommendations and to the childhood vaccination schedule, professional medical organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued [recommendations continuing to advise people to get these shots](https://www.ama-assn.org/public-health/prevention-wellness/open-letter-american-public-respiratory-virus-vaccines "undefined"). Many doctors have followed these guidelines since they are rooted in scientific evidence, and the changes Kennedy made were not prompted by any new evidence. Since the changes, many states have also ensured that doctors would not be penalized for providing the shots, and insurers have continued to cover them—so for many, the judge’s ruling doesn’t materially change their access to vaccines, but provides more legal support behind the previous, decades-long and scientifically backed policies. Some experts see the ruling as the first conflict in a long battle over re-establishing trust in science and public-health systems that have long struggled to implement programs like vaccinations for children. “The short version is that I don’t think this amounts to much,” says Dr. Tyler Evans, CEO and co-founder of Wellness Equity Alliance and former chief medical officer of the New York City Emergency Management System. “This is just a stay, not a final decision. The jury is still out on this situation. From a material standpoint, it’s not going to change how the current system is set." But with the weakening of ACIP and vaccine recommendations, "we are basically increasingly seeing the destruction of any uniform public health system.” ACIP's immunization recommendations are important because they provide a uniform framework that states, cities, insurers, and individual doctors then followed, leading to a consistent and effective way to respond to disease. “While states aren’t required to follow them, they often did, because they followed the science,” says Evans. “Now we are destroying confidence in science and increasingly seeing more fiefdoms of public health with states having their own policies, and groups like the [Governors Public Health Alliance](https://govsforhealth.org/ "undefined") of more than a dozen governors trying to be a part of the solution to the destruction at the national level. But the reality is that not a lot of people know which direction we’re going to go.” Still, Evans agrees that the lawsuit—should it become mired in extended appeals proceedings—was a reasonable response to the dramatic changes occurring in U.S. vaccine policy. “We do need to fight back on the changes because they are dangerous,” he says. “And legal action right now is one of the many steps we need to work through. I am an optimist. I think history has demonstrated that a lot of positive and successful outcomes have come from turbulent circumstances. I think we will come together with a healthier, strong public health and health care infrastructure.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/19/hhs-vaccine-changes-invalid-judge/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/03/19/hhs-vaccine-changes-invalid-judge/"},"headline":"A Judge Declared the Government's Vaccine Rollbacks Invalid. 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