Harrisburg, PA — Today, Governor Josh Shapiro filed a multistate lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration's unlawful and dangerous overhaul of the national childhood immunization schedule. Following an executive order he signed in October 2025, Governor Shapiro is once again taking action to safeguard vaccine access for Pennsylvanians and protect families’ freedom to make informed health care decisions.
The lawsuit, led by Arizona and California and joined by Governor Shapiro and 12 other states, challenges a Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "Decision Memo" released on January 5, 2026, that ignores overwhelming evidence supporting the effectiveness of the CDC’s previous childhood immunization schedule.
The Trump Administration’s Decision Memo unlawfully circumvented the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and stripped seven childhood vaccines — rotavirus, meningococcal disease, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — of their universally recommended status.
Revoking this status flies in the face of longstanding, science-backed guidance that has prevented childhood illness and death. Now, providers, insurers, and public health systems are left to navigate important health decisions while the federal government creates an environment of chaos and confusion, threatening community health.
“The Trump Administration and RFK Jr. are once again ignoring decades of science and evidence, pushing slop research that isn't based in reality and actively imposing new policies that will lead to more children getting sick from preventable diseases,” said Governor Shapiro. “I’m going to court to ensure doctors and qualified experts are making vaccine recommendations; not conspiracy theorists. Every Pennsylvanian deserves accurate information to make their own health care decisions when consulting with their doctors — and science, not politics, will continue to guide our health care decisions here in the Commonwealth.”
The lawsuit also challenges the unlawful replacement of many members of ACIP, the expert federal panel that has guided U.S. vaccine policy for decades. While ACIP is supposed to be led by qualified medical experts, in June 2025, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed its qualified members and replaced them with vaccine skeptics who lack the expertise required to lead the nation’s vaccine policy.
Governor Shapiro’s legal action seeks a declaration that Secretary Kennedy’s childhood vaccine schedule and ACIP appointments are unlawful. With his lawsuit, Governor Shapiro is combating federal attempts to confuse Pennsylvania’s parents, health providers, insurers, and schools — and fighting to ensure every Pennsylvanian has access to safe, effective vaccines and the freedom to make informed health care decisions with their doctors, not politicians.
Shapiro Administration’s Actions to Protect Health Care Freedoms
For decades, federal agencies, states, and parents have confidently relied on the qualified medical scholars and public health experts who have served on ACIP and established a science-based childhood vaccination schedule. In the absence of qualified experts and science-based decision making, Pennsylvania has been forced to decouple state laws, regulations, and public guidance from ACIP’s and CDC’s now-untrustworthy recommendations.
In August 2025, after the Trump Administration forced major pharmacies to halt COVID vaccinations, Governor Shapiro took action to ensure those pharmacies had other reputable sources to look to for approval and asked that the State Board of Pharmacy convene to address the disruptions in vaccine access. The Board subsequently voted to permit pharmacists to follow guidance from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, and U.S. Food & Drug Administration, instead of waiting on politically-influenced recommendations from ACIP.
In September 2025, the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) created Pennsylvania’s own vaccination guidance, which relied on those same expert organizations. Pennsylvania’s State Board of Medicine, State Board of Nursing, and State Board of Osteopathic Medicine formally endorsed DOH’s guidance, providing clarity to doctors and the public, reinforcing patient protections, and ensuring continued access to vaccines across the Commonwealth.
In October 2025, Governor Shapiro also signed Executive Order 2025-02, which directed the DOH to establish a state-based safety net to protect children’s access to vaccines, required all state agencies to align policies with trusted medical experts, launched a central online vaccine portal, and created a Vaccine Education Workgroup to strengthen public communication and combat misinformation. It also ensured continued coverage of recommended vaccines for all Pennsylvanians through Medicaid and private insurance, and directed the Department of Aging and the Department of Education to support older adults and schools in following evidence-based guidance.
This lawsuit is led by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, and joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.