A leading group of pediatricians is seeking a federal judge’s order to halt the Trump administration’s planned termination of nearly $12 million in long-running federal grants for research and treatments of H.I.V. and cancer.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is saying that the US Department of Health and Human Services retaliated against them last week by terminating seven grants to the academy after it had spoken out against administration actions it believes threaten children’s health, such as advancing scientifically un-based vaccine policy. The Academy’s efforts were “smeared by targeted attacks from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other high-ranking officials seeking to discredit one of the agency’s loudest critics,” the complaint, filed Wednesday at the US District Court for the District of Columbia, read.
The suit is seeking an immediate halt to the funding cuts, and that the grants be restored as proceedings unfold.
Pediatrics group sues HHS for cutting funds for children’s health programs https://t.co/uxyoORaTsd pic.twitter.com/WaEWtTKEzK
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“In this case, HHS’s actions not only do actual, irreparable harm to AAP, but do it at the expense of the health and safety of all Americans by senselessly cutting programs that help pediatricians identify, prevent, and manage fatal and disabling illnesses and conditions,” the complaint reads.
The funding is for “training and technical assistance to pediatricians in rural communities, the decrease of sudden unexpected infant death, prevention of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and universal newborn hearing screenings,” the complaint said.
“Without immediate court intervention to lift the overbroad preliminary injunction, these programs will end in a matter of weeks, staff will be laid off and children and families nationwide will lose access to critical child health programs,” the Academy said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Academy has 67,000 members, primary care pediatricians and pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists. The Academy is being represented in the case by Democracy Forward, which has been instrumental in filing a number of lawsuits against Trump administration this year.
An HHS spokesman told CNN last week that the grants issued to the Academy and a handful of other organizations were rescinded “because they no longer align with the Department’s priorities or mission.”
The AAP and Kennedy have been at odds — both in the courtroom and out — over some public health policy, notably childhood vaccines.
Earlier this year, the AAP took the unusual step of parting ways with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over its guidance that vaccination against Covid-19 in children should be “based on shared clinical decision-making.” The AAP guidelines were more specific, stating that all children 6 months to 23 months should get vaccinated against Covid-19 unless they have known allergies to the vaccine or its components.
The A.A.P. also condemned the C.D.C last week for following the lead of its vaccine advisers in deciding it would no longer recommend that newborns be given the universal birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.
In a federal court filing last week, a coalition of medical groups that include the AAP contended that recent alterations to guidance by the CDC’s vaccine advisers and some actions by Kennedy run afoul of both the Administrative Procedure Act and Federal Advisory Committee Act.
The hearing, in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, was about whether or not the government had a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the AAP against Kennedy (Civil Action 1:19-cv-11632) alleging that both the Administrative Procedures Act and Federal Advisory Committee Act has been violated when changes were made to immunization schedules and if plaintiffs have standing.
