Doctors, Parents Sue HHS Over COVID-19 Vaccine Emergency Use Authorization in Children Under 16

Max Zito, age 13, is inoculated by Nurse Karen Pagliaro at Hartford Healthcares mass vaccination center at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn. on May 13, 2021. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

A number of doctors and parents have sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its secretary, Xavier Becerra, in a federal court, seeking to prevent the expansion of the emergency use authorization (EUA) of COVID-19 vaccines from including children under 16 years old.

America’s Frontline Doctors—a nonprofit organization—and parents filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on May 19, saying “every plaintiff with children or patients in the target age group stands to be immediately and irreparably harmed by the extension.”