Overview: A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s recommendation to eliminate several vaccines for children, including some strains of meningitis, flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and RSV. The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed against the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC by the American Academy of Pediatrics and several other health-related organizations. The judge’s action was welcomed as an “historic and welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere.” Meningitis is a serious illness that can result in severe complications including death, and vaccinations are crucial in preventing the disease.
S.E. Williams
Nearly 112, 000 children worldwide die from meningitis each year—about 50% of those who die are less than five years old according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Fortunately, here in the U.S., the number of cases and loss of life have continued to decline in recent decades largely due to this nation’s successful vaccination program. However, all of that is now at risk.
Last year, the Trump administration recommended the elimination of several vaccines for children including some strains of meningitis, in addition to vaccines for other illnesses like the flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and RSV.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports about 3,000 people are still diagnosed with bacterial meningitis in America each year even with vaccines being available. Most of these 3,000 cases affect babies and young children. In addition, the number of cases are highest among children under the age of one year.
For me, this issue is personal. I lost my older sister to meningitis when she was only four years old… long before the availability of bacterial meningitis vaccines. Nearly 40 years later, my younger sister and her children were visiting in rural Mississippi when my niece, who was barely a year old at the time, contracted meningitis. Again, this was before the implementation of bacterial meningitis vaccines.
Had it not been for a life flight and the amazing medical team on board, my niece might have died. Data shows that between 10% and 15% of those who contract the illness do not survive. And among those who do, about one in five live with some form of permanent disability which can include brain damage, hearing loss, loss of kidney function and/or the loss of limb(s).
There is no question that meningitis is a very serious illness that can result in severe complications and vaccinations are crucial to preventing the disease. The National Meningitis Association noted that “historically, the number of meningococcal disease cases went up and down over time.” Now, however, the number of cases is at the lowest level in this country than it has ever been. Health officials believe this is due, in part, to the increased use of meningococcal vaccines.”
“There is nothing biologically wrong with Black people … but there is something very wrong with the social institutions, not just healthcare, within our country that are deeply embedded with bias and racism.”
Dr. Dr. Uché Blackstock, Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
A federal judge recently blocked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommendations to reduce vaccines for bacterial meningitis among other illnesses including flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and RSV for children—it was good news for parents across the country.
The federal ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed against HHS by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and several other health related organizations.
In response to the judge’s action, the president of AAP, Dr. Andrew Racine, in a written statement called the ruling, “a[n] historic and welcome outcome for children, communities, and pediatricians everywhere. When Secretary Kennedy made unsupported and unscientific changes to pediatric immunization recommendations last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was mission-bound to step up and push back against these dangerous actions that have sown chaos and confusion for parents and pediatricians across the country.”
Additionally, the federal judge who initiated the temporary hold also placed a hold on the Secretary of HHSRobert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recently appointed members to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee. Kennedy abruptly fired all 17 existing members of the committee when he took control of the CDC last year.
Kennedy’s actions make it clear he places zero value on a demographic and regional trends report released by his CDC in April 2025, that assessed meningitis-related mortality in the U.S. for the period 1999 to 2020. Although it revealed an overall decline in meningitis rates, there was an important revelation that “Non-Hispanic Black individuals had the highest age adjusted mortality rate (AAMR) [from this disease].” In addition to Blacks having the highest AAMR, mortality rates for this disease were also high for males, older adults and rural populations.
Although the report stressed how these results highlight the need for “targeted interventions,” what the nation received instead from Trump’s CDC, was an attempt to reduce the types of vaccines among children thus creating potential opportunities for even more preventable deaths.
In today’s America with so much coming at us from every direction, we must be grateful for those standing at the forefront of the battles for equity, sanity and affordability as it relates to healthcare.
In 2024, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine noted how America’s health care system, “by its very design, delivers different outcomes for different populations.” The report further noted how those racial and ethnic inequities “also contribute to millions of premature deaths, resulting in loss of years of life and economic productivity.”
KFF Health News not only highlighted this information, it further stressed how this is just a sliver of broader health related concerns in the nation’s Black community. Over a period of 20 years, research accumulated by KFF Health News as revealed in a 2024 report, showed the U.S. has hardly made any progress relative to the elimination of racial disparities in key health indicators despite promises from both political and public health officials.
Academic researchers, doctors, politicians, community leaders, and others indicated that this outcome was no accident. “Federal, state, and local governments have put systems in place that maintain the status quo and leave the well-being of Black people at the mercy of powerful business and political interests,” they declared.
Kaiser completed a yearlong study of how decisions at the federal level tend to undermine Black health. They reviewed court and inspection records, in addition to government reports. They also interviewed dozens of academic researchers, doctors, politicians, community leaders, patients and grieving mothers.
Their conclusion, “From the cradle to the grave, Black Americans suffer worse health outcomes than white people. They endure greater exposure to toxic industrial pollution, dangerously dilapidated housing, gun violence, and other social conditions linked to higher incidence of cancer, asthma, chronic stress, maternal and infant mortality, and myriad other health problems. They die at younger ages, and Covid shortened lives even more.”
To me, this is just another classic example of the nation’s continuing legacy of structural and institutional racism.
Yes, the attempted elimination of childhood vaccines fits this narrative well.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.