KEY POINTS:

• Children’s Health Defense and five other plaintiffs sued the American Academy of Pediatrics on Jan. 21, 2026, alleging a decades-long racketeering scheme to defraud families about the childhood vaccine schedule, according to CHD’s own account and Health Exec.

• The AAP filed a motion to dismiss on April 3, Bloomberg Law reported. CHD’s case page said the motion was brought on several grounds, including standing.

• Lead plaintiff Andrea Shaw, whose twins’ deaths are described in the complaint, was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder and pleaded not guilty on Aug. 18, Idaho News 6 reported. Her trial is set for Jan. 11, 2027.

• CIDRAP reported that the lawsuit mischaracterizes two Institute of Medicine reviews, quoting the 2013 review’s conclusion that the recommended schedule is safe.

• ABC News reported that routine childhood vaccines have been examined in hundreds of large studies and are considered safe.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked a federal judge to throw out a racketeering lawsuit accusing it of defrauding American families about childhood vaccine safety, Bloomberg Law reported on April 6. The woman named first among the plaintiffs is now awaiting trial on charges that she murdered the children whose deaths the complaint describes.

Children’s Health Defense, the group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., filed the suit on Jan. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to CHD and Health Exec. Court records listed by CourtListener show the case docketed as 1:26-cv-00171 and assigned to Judge Timothy J. Kelly.

What the complaint alleges

CHD said the suit accuses the AAP of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by making “false and fraudulent” claims about the safety of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s childhood immunization schedule while taking funding from vaccine manufacturers and rewarding pediatricians who reach high vaccination rates.

According to Law.com Radar, the complaint alleges that the AAP substituted theoretical immunology arguments for actual safety evidence and used its institutional influence over pediatricians to keep uptake high.

CHD reported that the complaint rests on what it calls a “foundational fraud” — a 2002 article in Pediatrics by Dr. Paul Offit stating that infants could theoretically receive 10,000 vaccines at once without harm — and alleges the AAP embedded that claim in its Red Book clinical guide.

“For too long, the AAP has been held up on a pedestal,” CHD CEO Mary Holland said, according to CHD and CIDRAP. Holland called the group a front operation in a scheme involving pharmaceutical and media interests.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Rick Jaffe told The Defender the case follows “the playbook that took down Big Tobacco,” CHD reported. The complaint seeks damages for the individual plaintiffs and asks the court to bar the AAP from making further unqualified safety claims, CHD said.

The other plaintiffs include Drs. Paul Thomas and Kenneth Stoller, physicians who lost licensure or faced discipline after departing from AAP guidance, and parents of four children who died or were injured after routine vaccination, according to CHD. CHD reported that Thomas’s 2020 study comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children has since been retracted.

The lead plaintiff’s criminal case

The complaint states that Andrea Shaw’s 18-month-old twins, Dallas and Tyson, died eight days after vaccination and that their physician dismissed warnings about a family history of adverse reactions, according to CHD.

Idaho prosecutors say otherwise. ABC News reported that a Payette County grand jury indicted Shaw, 23, on charges of suffocating the children in an act that was either premeditated or committed during aggravated battery, and that police attributed the deaths to suffocation by their mother. ABC News reported that Shaw had claimed, without evidence, that vaccines caused the deaths, including on a CHD-produced program.

Shaw pleaded not guilty on Aug. 18 and requested a jury trial, Idaho News 6 reported. Judge Kiley Stuchlik set trial for Jan. 11, 2027, with a status conference in October. Court TV reported the same trial date.

Defense attorney Joe Filicetti told Idaho News 6 he believes Shaw is innocent, and said the defense is not arguing that vaccines alone explain the deaths. Idaho News 6 reported that the defense has filed an affidavit from a physician questioning whether the twins were smothered. Shaw is being held without bond. ABC News reported that Holland said in a video posted after the indictment that there was no evidence Shaw killed her children.

The AAP’s response

In its motion to dismiss, the AAP described the lawsuit as the latest step in a campaign against the organization and its use of evidence-backed vaccine policy, KTVB reported.

CIDRAP reported that CHD’s characterization of the Institute of Medicine reviews is inaccurate. CHD said the 2002 and 2013 reviews found no studies comparing outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated children and called for more research. CIDRAP reported that the reviews instead advised continuing current policy absent adverse safety signals, quoting the 2013 review’s finding that the lack of conclusive evidence linking adverse events to the schedule “suggests that the recommended schedule is safe.”

The suit landed amid an escalating fight over federal vaccine policy. Health Exec reported that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into vaccine-related financial incentives the same day the complaint was filed. CIDRAP reported that the AAP has stopped endorsing the CDC schedule and now publishes its own, covering 18 diseases.

This is a developing story. Information may be incomplete and will be updated as more details become available.