By Jennifer Calfas and Liz Essley Whyte

Days after a federal judge said the Department of Health and Human Services' vaccine committee members were improperly appointed, the agency is now considering whether to find a new slate of members for the panel or appeal the court's ruling, panel members said.

The future of the committee was thrown into question after one key member of the panel on Thursday announced that the committee would be dismantled, but hours later he said his earlier conclusion was based on miscommunication. The panel is charged with making vaccine recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Robert Malone, vice chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal Thursday that he and other members of the committee were told it would be disbanded and remade. In a post on X later Thursday night, Malone said: "Regarding dissolving the ACIP- I have now been told that this was a miscommunication, and in fact the decision about how to proceed has not been made."

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said assertions about the department's decisions are speculation until they are announced.

Earlier on Thursday, Malone texted other ACIP members, "I am so, so tired of the HHS incompetence," he wrote, adding that the department was trying to throw him "under the bus" over his earlier statements. Malone confirmed the text message.

Judge Brian E. Murphy, a Biden administration appointee, in Massachusetts on Monday effectively halted the group from convening this week for its first meeting of the year. The 15 members of the committee were scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday in Atlanta to discuss topics related to alleged Covid-19 vaccine injuries and long Covid, according to a Federal Register notice.

In his ruling, Murphy blocked the Trump administration from implementing a pared-down list of recommended childhood vaccinations and determined new members weren't properly screened when HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed them last year.

Murphy said only a fraction of the new committee members "appear to have any meaningful experience in vaccines."

Kennedy abruptly removed all previous members of the advisory committee last June, all of whom were appointed during the Biden administration, and replaced them with new appointees that included vaccine skeptics.

"Thousands of hours of labor from a variety of professionals have just been made moot because of Judge Murphy's decision," said Malone, who was appointed by Kennedy in June.

Kennedy's handpicked panel voted last year to drop a recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B vaccine dose, along with recommendations for Covid shots and a combined shot targeting both measles and chickenpox. Their meetings in 2025 were marked by confusion and skepticism of vaccines.

Monday's court ruling came after a group of medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, asked Murphy to block new CDC recommendations on childhood vaccinations and challenged Kennedy's appointments of the advisory panel as part of ongoing litigation.

Write to Jennifer Calfas at jennifer.calfas@wsj.com and Liz Essley Whyte at liz.whyte@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 19, 2026 23:28 ET (03:28 GMT)

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