Federal court stays 2026 vaccine-schedule changes and post-June 2025 ACIP votes
Why it matters
The reform movement's biggest structural wins of 2026, the rewritten schedule and the hepatitis B birth-dose change, are on hold, not repealed. Tracking what is actually in force, versus what is contested in court, is central to reporting this moment honestly.
On March 16, 2026, a U.S. District Court issued an order staying all Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) votes taken after June 11, 2025, and postponing the effective date of the 2026 childhood immunization schedule.
The practical effect is that the schedule reverts largely to its 2025 version while the litigation proceeds: the reduction of routine recommendations from 18 to 11, the move of six vaccines to “shared clinical decision-making,” and the ACIP vote ending the universal hepatitis B birth dose are stayed and, for now, carry no legal force. HHS and the administration have said they will appeal.
That distinction matters: a policy the administration announces is not the same as a policy in force. Several of the reforms cataloged in this feed are now paused pending appeal, and the site notes that status wherever it applies.
Update: the district court paused further proceedings on September 11, 2026 pending appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit hears oral argument on October 6, 2026. The stay remains in effect until then.
Related coverage
New McCullough Foundation study: COVID-vaccinated children show higher odds of autism and ADHD in federal survey data
This is the McCullough Foundation’s newest paper, posted today, and it uses the federal government’s own National Health Interview Survey rather than a private dataset. That makes it easy for anyone, including HHS, to check. It is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed yet.
NIH finalizes its $51 million autism research initiative: 13 projects, none on vaccines
The administration promised a hard look at what causes autism. The money is now committed, and it is worth being precise about where it went: the largest federal award pool of the year funds thirteen projects, and not one of them studies vaccines. The vaccine question sits with a separate, much smaller contract that has yet to report anything.
Post“Kennedy is the saving grace”: Trump moves to remake the childhood schedule, and what is actually in force
In the span of six weeks the President signed an order cutting routine childhood vaccines from 18 diseases to 11, then stood beside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and proposed splitting shots into five smaller doses. A viral clip called it a schedule of 72 shots reduced to 11 “by the stroke of a pen.” That is the biggest shift in federal vaccine posture in a generation, and it is also not yet law. Here is the record, and the reaction, side by side.