BOSTON, Massachusetts: Ruling that U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee, a federal judge on March 16 temporarily blocked federal health officials from cutting the number of vaccines recommended for every child.

The ruling effectively stalled an order that Kennedy announced in January to end broad recommendations for all children to be vaccinated against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis, and RSV.

A meeting of a Kennedy-appointed vaccine advisory committee, to convene this week in Atlanta, was also stopped by the court.

The judge's order is not final. The blocks are only temporary until there is a trial or a summary judgment.

Federal health officials said they plan to appeal the ruling. Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the agency expects the decision to be overturned, just as it believes earlier rulings against the Trump administration were.

The order issued on Monday is the latest step in a lawsuit filed last July by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups. The case was filed in federal court in Boston and first focused on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for most children and pregnant women.

The lawsuit was later expanded as Kennedy made more policy changes that worried medical groups. The groups asked Judge Brian E. Murphy to review those actions.

For example, the plaintiffs asked the court to stop changes that reduced the country's childhood vaccination schedule. They also asked the judge to examine Kennedy's actions involving the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises public health officials about which vaccines doctors and patients should use.

Kennedy, who was a well-known anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation's top health official, dismissed the committee's 17 members last year and replaced them with a new group that includes several critics of vaccines.

The committee had planned to meet this week to discuss the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and other issues, but officials postponed the meeting.

Richard Hughes IV, a lawyer for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the committee could not meet in its current form and questioned how it could operate without most of its members.

Jason Schwartz, a vaccine policy expert at Yale University who has studied the committee, said stopping one of its meetings for legal reasons was unprecedented in its 62-year history.

Hughes said the judge's order was an important step toward restoring vaccine policy based on scientific evidence. Leaders of several medical and public health organizations shared the same view.

When Trump administration officials changed the childhood vaccine schedule, they said families would still be able to access vaccines and that insurance companies would continue to cover them.

However, the changes confused many people because doctors' groups, public health organizations, and many states continued recommending the earlier guidelines, according to Dr. Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Several medical organizations said the changes were not supported by strong evidence and advised doctors and patients to keep following the previous recommendations. Health officials in 30 states rejected at least some of the new guidance.

Racine said the judge's order should help clear up the confusion. He advised parents who have questions about vaccines for their children to speak with their pediatricians.