Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in several articles related to his role as lead counsel in the case American Academy of Pediatrics v. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Excerpts from five select articles are included below.
The New York Times
"Medical Societies Sue Kennedy and H.H.S. Over Vaccine Advice"
Six leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and the federal Department of Health and Human Services, charging that recent decisions limiting access to vaccines were unscientific and harmful to the public.
The suit, filed in federal court in western Massachusetts, seeks to restore Covid vaccines to the list of recommended immunizations for healthy children and pregnant women.
Mr. Kennedy has been on a “decades-long mission” to undermine vaccines and to portray them as more dangerous than the illnesses they are designed to prevent, said Richard H. Hughes IV, a lawyer who teaches vaccine law at George Washington University and is leading the effort.
“The secretary’s intentions are clear,” Mr. Hughes said: “He aims to destroy vaccines.” …
NBC News
"Major Medical Groups Sue Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Over Vaccines"
Several major medical organizations are suing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services over actions they call a “public health emergency that demands immediate legal action and correction.” …
It was Kennedy’s late May post on X negating recommendations that kids and pregnant women should get the Covid shot that served as a final straw prompting legal action, said Richard Hughes, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs.
They are “asking the court to order the secretary to announce on X that those immunization recommendations are now reinstated to the CDC immunization schedules,” Hughes said in a media briefing Monday. …
ABC News
"Medical Groups Sue HHS, RFK Jr. Over 'Unlawful' Vaccine Changes"
Several major medical organizations filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday over what they are calling "unlawful, unilateral vaccine changes." …
The lawsuit seeks preliminary and permanent injunctions to enjoin Kennedy's new COVID vaccine recommendations and a declaratory judgment pronouncing the change as unlawful.
Kennedy "has been on a warpath. It's gotten to the point that we are going to ... ask the court to put a stop to it," Richard H. Hughes IV, a partner at Epstein Becker Green and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, told ABC News. "This decision to unilaterally overturn the COVID recommendation based on a history of bias -- it was an arbitrary, capricious decision. They didn't make any effort to follow any ordinary processes."
Hughes said the HHS violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a U.S. federal law that establishes procedures federal agencies must follow when making rules.
In response to a request for comment, an HHS spokesperson told ABC News, "The Secretary stands by his CDC reforms." …
POLITICO
"Doctors’ Groups Sue Kennedy Over Covid Shot Changes for Kids, Pregnant People"
A coalition of doctors’ groups led by the American Academy of Pediatrics filed a lawsuit Monday against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that his May announcement that the government would no longer recommend Covid-19 vaccines for healthy pregnant people and children violated longstanding norms governing U.S. immunization policy. …
Monday’s lawsuit doesn’t directly challenge Kennedy’s decision last month to fire all 17 ACIP members and replace them with several vaccine skeptics. But Richard Hughes, an Epstein Becker Green attorney representing the plaintiffs, told reporters he expects future HHS decisions finalizing recommendations by the new panel will spur them to “amend our complaint to reflect those injuries.” …
If Kennedy is “not relying on sound science — if we’re seeing pretext and bias running roughshod over really important, longstanding processes and procedures — that’s arbitrary and capricious, and that is unlawful,” Hughes added. …
Many states, such as Massachusetts, also tie their legal scopes of practice for pharmacists to prescribe and administer vaccines to ACIP’s recommendations, Hughes said.
“It is an immediate disconnect, it’s an immediate disintegration of laws that rely on ACIP recommendations, and that is what is causing the injury,” he said. “There’s a whole chain reaction to the secretary’s actions.” …
USA Today
"Leading Doctors Sue RFK Jr. Over COVID-19 Vaccines. Here's Why."
America’s top medical organizations are suing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the agency’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant people. …
Lead counsel for the plaintiffs Richard Hughes, a partner at law firm Epstein Becker Green, said he hopes to expedite the case, with a hearing in the next few weeks and a permanent order in the case entered by September.