California, 14 states sue HHS over changes to vaccine recommendations

Lia Russell, The Sacramento Bee on Feb 24, 2026

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California and 14 other states are suing the federal government to reverse a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that reduced the number of diseases children should be inoculated against from 17 to 11, calling it a departure from standard medical advice that ignored federal laws.

In January, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a memo overhauling childhood vaccine suggestions that said it would only recommend that children be vaccinated against six illnesses — hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, influenza, and COVID-19 — if considered high risk or per the advice of a medical provider.

The Jan. 5 memo, addressed to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Acting CDC director Jim O’Neill, was written by National Institute of Health director and COVID skeptic Jay Bhattacharya; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, whom Gov. Gavin Newsom recently accused of anti-Armenian discrimination; and Food and Drugs Administrator Marty Makary.

“This decision was made circumventing federal laws and without solid scientific supporting evidence, and will certainly result in more kids contracting preventable diseases,” Newsom said in a press release on Tuesday announcing the lawsuit. “These changes ignore decades of medical evidence and will lead to outbreaks of diseases we’ve already beaten. We will not stand by while politics overrides science and endangers our children.”

Cases of childhood illnesses previously thought to be nearly eradicated, like whooping cough and measles, have reemerged as public trust in medical institutions has eroded.

Bonta said the lawsuit, which was not immediately available, named Kennedy, O’Neill, HHS and CDC as defendants. Neither Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, nor O’Neill, a hedge fund investor, has medical expertise. O’Neill previously served in former President George W. Bush’s Cabinet as a deputy HHS secretary.

In addition to California, the coalition of states who are suing include the Attorneys General of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.

The suit also seeks to reverse Kennedy’s firing last year of all 17 members of an advisory vaccine panel, whom he replaced with new picks who share his vaccine skepticism and voted to rescind a recommendation that babies be inoculated against hepatitis B.

“Undermining confidence in vaccines will lead to lower vaccination rates and more infectious disease. It will also drive up costs for states, including increased Medicaid spending and new expenses to combat misinformation and revise public health guidance,” Bonta said in a statement. “Public health decisions must remain grounded in truth and facts.”

This is the 59th lawsuit in 57 weeks Bonta has filed against the federal government since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

Newsom has since begun shoring up California’s public health infrastructure by hiring fired federal medical experts and forming alliances with other Western states to coordinate their own vaccine recommendations and public health strategies.

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