CDC’s ‘Aggressive’ Child Vaccine Program Targeted in Lawsuit

The Trump administration’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is facing a lawsuit that claims the agency’s childhood immunization schedule is “the most aggressive vaccination program in the world.”

The lawsuit, filed Friday, comes on behalf of two physicians, backed by the nonprofit Stand for Health Freedom, who claim they had their medical licenses suspended and revoked for resisting CDC recommendations on childhood vaccination.

They’re urging the US District Court for the District of Columbia to declare CDC vaccine practices unconstitutional, loosen vaccine requirements for US children, and force the agency to undertake “rigorous studies” of the shots administered to children.

The “vaccine framework” adopted by the CDC “is only based on an evaluation of short-term individual vaccine risks,” the lawsuit said. “The CDC has never studied the combined effects and the accumulating dangers of administering all of the vaccines on the CDC’s recommended childhood vaccination schedule.”

The legal attack appears in line with vaccine efforts undertaken by US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Known for his skepticism of vaccines, Kennedy has moved quickly to overhaul federal health agencies’ approach to vaccinations. This week, Kennedy revived a decades-old Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines that was disbanded in the 1990s.

Friday’s lawsuit references a separate legal challenge in a Nevada federal court alleging that the lack of use of that task force by HHS over nearly three decades was an “abandonment of statutory duty.”

“During this silence, the schedule ballooned from 24 to 72+ doses, autism went from 1 in 150 to 1 in 31, and chronic disease consumed over half of American children,” the Nevada lawsuit said.

Since taking the helm at HHS, Kennedy has also announced funding cuts for immunization projects, and made changes to Covid-19 vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children.

Friday’s lawsuit is the latest in recent months over CDC childhood vaccine practices. Another case, brought in a California federal court by a physician over practices in the CDC’s Vaccine for Children Program, was ultimately dropped after Kennedy loosed some measures around Covid-19 vaccinations.

The plaintiffs behind the new lawsuit are framing it as an effort “to restore scientific integrity and medical freedom.”

They take issue with how the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—which Kennedy recently overhauled with new members that include vaccine skeptics—categorizes childhood vaccine recommendations. Category A recommendations apply to all children within an age group and account for nearly all childhood shots. Meanwhile, Category B jabs involve decision-making between parents and physicians on an individual basis.

“The Court should vacate the Category A recommendations and require reclassification of all childhood vaccines as Category B shared clinical decision-making until CDC completes scientifically rigorous studies proving the cumulative schedule is safe,” the lawsuit said.

The CDC ignores “the cumulative safety of administering 72+ vaccine doses to children. While the agency recommends this aggressive schedule as universal Category A policy, it has never studied whether the combination causes more harm than benefit,” the lawsuit said.

Oregon’s Paul Thomas, one of the plainitiffs, had his medical license suspended days after publishing a study stating vaccinated kids have higher rates of chronic illness. Fellow plaintiff Kenneth Stoller, of Montana, had his medical license revoked after using genetic testing to see what kids were at risk for vaccine injuries and using the information to issue medical exemptions.

The case is Thomas v. Monarez, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-02685, complaint 8/15/25.