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CDC Recommends Covid Vaccines for Babies in New Guidance That Could Anger Health Chief RFK Jr
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today doubled down on its recommendation that babies should get the Covid vaccine. In a new analysis on 137,000 Americans, agency researchers found this year’s COVID-19 vaccine lowered the risk of being hospitalized with the virus by 33%. The report also found that the shot was 45% effective among vulnerable adults and 40% effective among those aged 65 years or older.
The team of 55 scientists concluded: “This supports current CDC… recommendations that all persons aged six months and over receive a 2024 to 2025 COVID-19 vaccine dose.” In a separate report also published today, the agency found the flu vaccine was up to 78% effective against hospitalization in children and up to 55% effective among adults.
Flu is particularly deadly for children and infants but COVID-19 vaccination for children has been more controversial because this group faces such a vanishingly low risk of hospitalization and death from that virus. CDC data shows just 12.1% of children under 18 received the updated COVID-19 vaccine in 2024/25.
Moderna Stock Falls on Report HHS Is Reviewing Bird Flu Vaccine Contract
Shares of vaccine maker Moderna dropped more than 4% early Thursday after reports that the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) was re-evaluating its $590 million contract to develop a bird flu vaccine.
The contract awarded to Moderna in the final days of the Biden administration was to accelerate the development of potential messenger RNA-based vaccines in case of a H5N1 avian influenza pandemic. Moderna is one of the pharmaceutical companies best known for developing the messenger RNA vaccine against COVID-19.
“While it is crucial that the U.S. Department and Health and Human Services support pandemic preparedness, four years of the Biden administration’s failed oversight have made it necessary to review agreements for vaccine production,” HHS communications director Andrew Nixon told Barron’s in an email.
FDA Committee Meeting Scrapped, Reports Say, in 2nd Vaccine-Related Scheduling Disruption in as Many Weeks
Disruptions to government-sanctioned advisory committee meetings on vaccines are becoming increasingly common after the recent confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., noted vaccine skeptic, as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Reports surfaced Wednesday that a meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) — previously scheduled for March 13 — had been canceled.
Reuters, CNN and CNBC, citing VRBPAC member Paul Offit, M.D., said the meeting wouldn’t go on as planned. A cancellation email went out to committee members Monday afternoon, The New York Times reported, citing a senior official familiar with the decision.
The meeting had been planned to discuss flu strain recommendations for the upcoming season, according to the reports. Because egg-based flu vaccines take months to produce, strain recommendations are typically given to vaccine manufacturers well in advance of the actual flu season.
CDC Investigating Hospitalizations of Five People Who Recently Received Chikungunya Vaccine
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently investigating five hospitalizations that occurred in people who had recently received a vaccine that prevents disease caused by the chikungunya virus. In a notice posted Tuesday on a vaccine information page for health-care providers, the CDC said that the people, all 65 and older, were hospitalized for cardiac or neurologic events following vaccination with IXCHIQ, the only chikungunya vaccine currently licensed in the U.S. CNN has reached out to the CDC for comment.
Chikungunya virus is typically spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. Most adults don’t receive the vaccine; it is sometimes recommended for certain travelers at an increased risk of being exposed to the mosquito-borne disease. “This topic will be discussed at an upcoming meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Healthcare providers should discuss the benefits and risks of vaccination with individual travelers based on their age, destination, trip duration, and planned activities,” the CDC’s online notice said in part. The chikungunya vaccine and surveillance for adverse events originally were scheduled to be discussed in an ACIP meeting Wednesday, according to a draft meeting agenda, but that meeting has been postponed.
WHO Decides Mpox Epidemic Still Global Health Emergency
Mpox remains an international public health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday after deciding the epidemic still merits the highest level of alert, with cases rising and its geographic spread widening. “The mpox upsurge continues to meet the criteria of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC),” said a WHO statement.
The emergency committee on mpox met for the third time on Tuesday and advised WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that the situation still constituted a PHEIC.
The decision was “based on the continuing rise in numbers and geographic spread, the violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo —- which hampers the response — as well as a lack of funding to implement the response plan,” said the brief statement.
Tedros concurred with the committee’s advice, extending the PHEIC first declared on Aug. 14 last year. A PHEIC is the highest level of alarm under the International Health Regulations, which are legally binding on 196 countries.
Pfizer’s Bet on Gene Therapies in Haemophilia Has Been a Bust
Pharmaceutical Technology reported:
Pfizer has ended the global commercialisation of its hemophilia B (factor IX deficiency) gene therapy Beqvez, citing soft demand for gene therapies among hemophilia patients and physicians.
This announcement comes after other news that Pfizer ended its partnership with Sangamo Therapeutics for the hemophilia A (factor XIII deficiency) gene therapy giroctocogen fitelparvovec in Dec. 2024. The therapy had received positive Phase III results and was likely to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.
However, Pfizer determined that the cost of launching and commercializing the drug would exceed its anticipated sales. Both Biomarin, which markets the hemophilia A gene therapy Roctavian, and CSL Behring, which markets the hemophilia B gene therapy Hemgenix, have announced that the uptake and sales for their respective therapies have been below expectations.
