Slashing of U.S. vaccine schedule creates new uncertainty on manufacturers’ legal protections

WASHINGTON — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s allies are hopeful that his agency’s move this week to reduce the number of recommended pediatric vaccines opens the door to stripping vaccine makers of the liability shields afforded to them by a landmark 40-year-old law. 

Doing so would achieve a longtime aim of Kennedy’s and other vaccine critics who claim the protections disincentivize manufacturers from making vaccines safe and limit the ability of people who claim injuries from vaccines to pursue damages. 

Some legal experts aren’t so sure that there’s an immediate opening to strip away liability shields, but see the changes by Kennedy and his aides as a step in that direction, making it easier to sue vaccine manufacturers over injuries believed to be caused by the shots. 

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