U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants more time to respond to a lawsuit that alleges he failed to set up a task force dedicated to making childhood vaccines safer.
Ray Flores, an attorney, filed the lawsuit in May alleging that Kennedy is violating the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. That law requires the HHS secretary to create a task force that includes the director of the National Institutes of Health, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The law also requires the HHS secretary provide Congress with progress reports every two years.
That never happened, according to the lawsuit.
Kennedy, for years, sought the same records. Kennedy sued the government for records in 2018 related to the task force prior to running for president as an independent. Kennedy later dismissed the case after HHS said it couldn’t find reports submitted to Congress.
Kennedy dropped his presidential bid before the election and campaigned for President Donald Trump. Trump later picked Kennedy to lead the Health and Human Services department.
Kennedy has not created such a task since taking office. Flores alleged in his lawsuit that the federal government has failed to follow a law passed by Congress for decades.
“In over 35 years, all ten of Secretary Kennedy’s predecessors failed to report to Congress the steps taken towards making safety improvements in childhood vaccines as required by the [19]86 Act,” Flores wrote in the initial suit. “Over 100 days have passed since President Trump formed the Make America Healthy Again Commission chaired by Secretary Kennedy, and no statutorily required Task Force on childhood vaccine safety has been established. Therefore, any grace period for Mr. Kennedy to rectify the failure of his predecessors has ended.”
Summer A. Johnson, an assistant federal attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas, asked the judge in the case for additional time to respond.
Court records show Johnson sought to “explore the potential for early resolution of this matter before engaging in further litigation.”
Flores lawsuit sought to compel Kennedy to create a task force and submit reports required by law. It did not request damages.
“By not following the law for nearly four decades, the HHS Secretary has led an increasing number of Americans (including Plaintiff and his family) to distrust vaccines due to the inaction of the leaders of the very agency that is charged with the duty to protect children’s safety,” Flores wrote in the lawsuit. “Without adequate assurances and efforts of safety measures to make side effects more avoidable, Mr. Flores and his family can’t make informed decisions in light of the onslaught of current and seemingly never-ending outbreaks.”
Flores agreed to the 14-day extension, which runs through Aug. 15.
