Attor­ney Gen­er­al Ken Pax­ton Inves­ti­gates the Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics for Decep­tive­ly Pro­mot­ing Child­hood Vac­cines for Finan­cial Gain

Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”) over concerns that the organization may be promoting and recommending childhood vaccines for financial gain.

The AAP is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It has been issuing informal vaccine recommendations since the early 1930s. Since 1995, to allegedly maintain a “unified” schedule that simplified recommendations for providers, the AAP has participated in the development of the CDC's Childhood Vaccine Schedule in collaboration with other groups. For decades, it has consistently promoted the schedule’s recommendations to providers and the public.

In 2025, after U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in, HHS began making changes to the CDC Childhood Vaccine Schedule. Secretary Kennedy reconstituted the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (“ACIP”), which is a committee of scientific and immunization experts that has historically made vaccine recommendations to HHS. Outspokenly opposed to the changes being made within HHS, the AAP filed suit against HHS in July 2025, alleging that Secretary Kennedy’s modifications to the CDC schedule lacked a scientific basis and that his reconstitution of ACIP was unlawful. Then, on August 19, 2025, for the first time in its history, the AAP published its own “evidence-based immunization schedule for infants, children, and adolescents” and urged insurers to cover all vaccines recommended therein. Additionally, the AAP’s top corporate donors are pharmaceutical companies that would suffer financially from a reduced number of vaccines being recommended on the CDC’s revised schedule.

Attorney General Paxton has issued a Civil Investigative Demand (“CID”) to the AAP to determine the basis of AAP’s vaccine recommendations and how that affects the broader landscape of childhood vaccine recommendations.

“Parents deserve vaccine recommendations that are driven by science and the best interests of their children, not by financial gains or bribes from Big Pharma,” said Attorney General Paxton. “My office will fight to protect kids’ health and uphold transparency in the medical industry alongside President Trump and Secretary Kennedy. If the American Academy of Pediatrics is giving medical guidance that is fueled by financial incentives, we will expose and put an end to this unlawful behavior.”

In January 2026, Attorney General Paxton launched a wide sweeping investigation into pediatric medical providers, insurance companies, vaccine manufacturers, and other entities for deceptive recommendations of childhood vaccines. While conducting this initial investigation, the amount of influence that the AAP has over the entire childhood medical industry has become undeniable. Further, if the only time in history that the AAP has broken with the CDC on childhood vaccine recommendations is when its top donors would be subject to a substantial financial loss, that is a fact that simply cannot be overlooked.