Wisconsin is joining a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s major changes to the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule.
The lawsuit, filed Feb. 24 in a California district court, argues the changes will “make children sicker and strain state resources.” It names U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya, as defendants.
CDC leadership announced Jan. 5 that the agency would dramatically reduce the number of vaccines recommended for all American children. Per that announcement, the CDC is no longer universally recommending vaccines for the flu, COVID-19, meningococcal disease, RSV, hepatitis A and B, and rotavirus for children, instead recommending them only for high-risk groups or leaving the decision up to parents and doctors.
In a Feb. 25 news release announcing Wisconsin would join the lawsuit, Attorney General Josh Kaul said the vaccine changes are “dangerous.”
Attorneys general in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Rhode Island are also part of the lawsuit, as well as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
The lawsuit challenges a number of moves by the CDC under Kennedy, a longtime skeptic of vaccines, beginning with his June 2025 decision to dismiss all members of a committee that advises the federal government on vaccine safety. Kennedy, who said the move was necessary to restore trust in vaccine science, later appointed his own chosen members, departing from a decades-long process for choosing new members.
In December, the committee voted to stop universally recommending hepatitis B vaccines for newborns, upending a more than 30-year recommendation from doctors and public health officials. CDC leadership bypassed the committee entirely in its January announcement reducing the number of vaccines recommended for all children.
The Trump administration has said the childhood vaccine schedule changes were made to align the U.S. with other countries’ vaccine schedules. Critics have argued that different countries have different challenges when it comes to keeping their citizens healthy and do not need to have similar vaccination schedules.
The changes have alarmed doctors and public health experts, particularly amid the nation’s worst measles outbreak in more than three decades. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has also criticized the changes and is maintaining vaccine recommendations that align with the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Although vaccine uptake has been slipping statewide and across the nation, most Wisconsin children are receiving recommended vaccines, data from the state health department show.
The lawsuit alleges that Kennedy violated the procedure in which vaccine committee members are appointed and that Health and Human Services Department leadership broke federal law that requires potential changes to the vaccine schedule to come from those committee members. Plaintiffs also argue that no changes to the science occurred to prompt vaccine schedule changes.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the new schedule, as well as Kennedy’s committee appointments, “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law” and to vacate both the implementation of the new schedule and the committee appointments.
Madeline Heim covers health and the environment for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at 920-996-7266 or mheim@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin joins lawsuit challenging CDC child vaccine schedule changes
Reporting by Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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