Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and five other plaintiffs on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court accusing the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) of operating what they describe as a decades-long racketeering scheme to mislead families about the safety of the childhood immunization schedule.
The suit, filed at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the AAP violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) by making “false and fraudulent” claims regarding the safety of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) childhood vaccine schedule.
According to the plaintiffs, these claims were made while the organization allegedly maintained financial relationships with vaccine manufacturers and offered incentives to pediatricians who met high vaccination targets.
CHD Chief Executive Officer Mary Holland said the lawsuit seeks to challenge what she described as the long-standing public image of the AAP as an impartial scientific authority.
“For too long, the AAP has been held up on a pedestal, as if it were a font of science and integrity,” Holland said, adding that the organization allegedly prioritised profit over children’s health.
The complaint claims that the AAP worked to conceal or downplay findings from studies published in 2002 and 2013 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), now known as the National Academy of Medicine.
Those reports, according to the lawsuit, concluded that no studies had comprehensively compared the health outcomes of vaccinated and unvaccinated children and called for further research.
Rick Jaffe, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the alleged conduct constitutes a “pattern of fraud” under RICO, a statute often associated with organized crime cases.
He described the lawsuit as fundamentally different from previous legal actions related to vaccines, noting that earlier cases focused on individual vaccines or compensation claims. “This is a fraud case following the playbook that took down Big Tobacco,” Jaffe said.
The lawsuit draws explicit comparisons between the AAP and the tobacco industry, arguing that while tobacco companies allegedly created doubt about known risks, the AAP allegedly created “false certainty” about vaccine safety, thereby discouraging further scientific inquiry.
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CHD General Counsel Kim Mack Rosenberg said the case highlights what she described as close ties among organizations and individuals who allegedly support and profit from the vaccine industry. The AAP is the largest pediatric professional association in the United States, representing approximately 67,000 members.
The plaintiffs are seeking financial damages for individual harms, as well as court orders compelling the AAP to disclose what they describe as a lack of comprehensive safety testing for vaccines. They are also asking the court to bar the organization from making what the suit terms “unqualified safety claims” about vaccines.
Among the plaintiffs are Dr. Paul Thomas and Dr. Kenneth Stoller, pediatricians who say they suffered professional and economic harm after questioning AAP vaccine guidelines, as well as parents of children who allegedly died or were injured following routine childhood vaccinations.
According to the complaint, the AAP’s vaccine safety assurances are based on what it calls a “foundational fraud,” centering on a 2002 article by pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit published in the journal Pediatrics.
The article suggested that infants could theoretically receive up to 10,000 vaccines at once without harm. Plaintiffs argue that this claim was used by the AAP to reassure parents and policymakers despite the absence of studies examining the cumulative effects of the full vaccine schedule.
The lawsuit further alleges that the AAP incorporated this claim into its influential Red Book, a key reference used by pediatricians nationwide, and that doctors who deviated from AAP guidelines faced professional sanctions.
Dr. Thomas said he suffered millions of dollars in economic losses and severe emotional distress after the Oregon Medical Board suspended him in 2020 following the publication of a now-retracted study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Dr. Stoller, the complaint states, lost his medical licenses in California and New Mexico after granting medical exemptions from vaccine mandates.
The lawsuit also details several cases involving children whose parents allege they suffered fatal or severe adverse reactions following vaccinations administered under AAP guidelines.
These include the deaths of fraternal twins in Idaho, the death of a one-year-old child in New York following “catch-up” vaccinations, and severe allergic reactions suffered by a New York high school student whose prior medical exemptions were later revoked.
The complaint further alleges that the AAP maintains undisclosed financial relationships with major vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, as well as with federal agencies. According to the plaintiffs, these ties constitute conflicts of interest and form part of an “association-in-fact enterprise” designed to protect the vaccine industry.
The lawsuit also references ongoing legal and policy disputes between the AAP and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), particularly following changes to the childhood immunization schedule under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plaintiffs allege that the AAP has consistently opposed reforms and sought to preserve previous vaccine recommendations through litigation and policy advocacy.