Judge Murphy wrote, “All this is to say that historically there has been a method for how these decisions have been made – a method of a scientific nature and codified in law through procedural requirements.”
“Unfortunately, the government has neglected those practices and thereby undermined the integrity of its actions,” he wrote. “First, the government bypassed ACIP to change the vaccination program, which is itself a technical, procedural failure and a strong indication of something more fundamentally problematic: the abandonment of the technical knowledge and expertise embodied by that committee. Second, the government removed all of ACIP’s duly appointed members and replaced them summarily without any of the rigorous screening that had been the hallmark of ACIP member selection for decades. Again, this procedural failure sheds light on those reasons. sets out why the procedures exist and why there is a substantial likelihood that the newly appointed ACIP fails to comply with governing law.”
ACIP members rebuke
The judge also cited the dismissal of previous ACIP members, the apparent lack of vetting of new members, and the lack of qualifications of members, naming names.
“First, of the fifteen members currently on ACIP, even under the most generous study, only six have any meaningful experience in vaccines – ACIP’s very focus,” he wrote (emphasis on them).
“At least six ACIP members—Dr. Hillary Blackburn, Dr. Evelyn Griffin, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, Dr. Kirk Milhoan, Dr. James Pagano, Dr. Raymond Pollack—lack any expertise or professional qualifications related to vaccines or vaccination in accordance with ACIP’s charter,” they wrote. “Three additions to the existing ACIP members—Dr. Retzef Levy, Dr. Robert Malone, and Dr. Katherine Stein—although they have some experience arguably relevant to the work of ACIP, appear to lack the qualifications and experience to constitute expertise in vaccines and immunizations.”
Overall, Judge Murphy argued that Kennedy’s hand-picked consultants fail to meet the requirements of ACIP’s charter, which states that members must be knowledgeable in relevant fields. They also fail to meet federal rules that require advisory boards to be “substantially balanced” in representing the views of those relevant sectors.
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