NEW YORK — The Trump administration on Wednesday appealed a federal judge's order that blocked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plan to scale back the number of vaccines recommended for every child in the United States. The government's one-sentence filing did not explain why the block should be lifted.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy issued the order on March 16, halting Kennedy's decision to end broad recommendations for all children to be vaccinated against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis, and respiratory syncytial virus. The order also stopped a meeting of the vaccine advisory committee appointed by Kennedy. The court's stay remains in effect while the appeal is considered. U.S. health officials did not immediately comment on the appeal filing and did not respond to a question about why they waited six weeks to file it.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups filed the underlying lawsuit in federal court in Boston in July. The case originally focused on Kennedy's decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccinations for most children and pregnant women. Richard Hughes IV is a lawyer representing the pediatric medical groups in the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs later updated the lawsuit after Kennedy took further policy actions concerning vaccination recommendations and asked the court to address those changes. The amended complaint sought to stop the scaling back of the nation's childhood vaccination schedule and asked the court to review Kennedy's actions concerning the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises public health officials on vaccine recommendations.

Kennedy fired the entire 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel last year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices. Murphy said that Kennedy's reconstitution of the panel likely violated federal law and ordered that the appointments and all decisions made by the reformulated committee be put on hold. Earlier this month, the administration updated the committee's charter to broaden qualifications for panel members in ways that would allow the inclusion of allies of Kennedy.