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Louisiana to End Mass Vaccine Promotion, State’s Top Health Official Says
The Louisiana Department of Health “will no longer promote mass vaccination” according to a Thursday memo written by the state’s top health official and obtained by the Associated Press.
A department spokesperson confirmed Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, M.D., had ordered his staff to stop engaging in media campaigns and community health fairs to encourage vaccinations, even as the state has experienced a surge in influenza.
Abraham’s announcement occurred the same day vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in by the U.S. Senate to serve as President Trump’s health secretary.
In a separate letter posted on the department’s website, Louisiana’s surgeon general decried “blanket government mandates” for vaccines and criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 vaccination push. Individuals should make their own decisions about vaccinations, Abraham said.
“Government should admit the limitations of its role in people’s lives and pull back its tentacles from the practice of medicine,” said Abraham, a Republican.
The department will still “stock and provide vaccines,” according to Abraham’s memo.
Moderna’s Norovirus Vaccine Trial Placed on FDA Hold Over Reported Case of Guillain-Barré Syndrome
A trial of Moderna’s norovirus vaccine in the U.S. has been put on hold by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over a reported case of neurological disorder.
The phase 3 study is evaluating the candidate, dubbed mRNA-1403, across two norovirus seasons. The trial is already fully enrolled in the Northern Hemisphere — with the first patient dosed last September — and Moderna is preparing for enrollment for the other norovirus season in the Southern Hemisphere.
The goal is to recruit around 20,000 participants aged 60 years and older as well as 5,000 participants between the ages of 18 and 59. The trial’s aim is to assess mRNA-1403’s ability to protect against moderate to severe norovirus acute gastroenteritis in adults, with “a focus on the older age group that is at greatest risk of severe outcomes including hospitalization,” Moderna has previously said.
Panel Consolidates Pfizer Depo-Provera Lawsuits in Florida
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated more than 70 lawsuits filed against Pfizer Inc. over its Depo-Provera hormonal contraceptive in the Northern District of Florida. The lawsuits argue Pfizer failed to adequately warn patients and doctors about the risk of brain tumors associated with Depo-Provera, Law360 reports.
They also claim Depo-Provera users developed intracranial meningiomas caused by using the drug or its generic form. The JPML determined the complaints share common questions of fact warranting consolidation.
Pfizer and Prasco Laboratories, a generic drug maker, argued for consolidation in New York while the majority of plaintiffs pushed for one of the three districts in California, where they filed most of the suits, Law360 reports.
Uncertainty Surrounds US Participation in WHO Flu Strain Selection Meeting
A World Health Organization (WHO)-led advisory committee meeting to recommend the seasonal flu strains to include in the Northern Hemisphere’s 2025-2026 flu season is slated to meet on Feb. 28, but it’s unclear if U.S. members will participate following an executive order from President Trump that withdraws the country from the WHO, a top WHO official said yesterday during a WHO briefing on global health issues.
The consultation for the Northern Hemisphere takes place every February, and in the weeks leading up to the main strain-selection meeting, the committee pores over flu virus data from a network of 130 national flu centers, including those in the U.S.
Country regulatory agencies use the recommendations in weighing their own vaccine strain choices, and flu vaccine manufacturers use them to begin the process of making vaccine for the upcoming flu season.
The advisory committee also recommends any new candidate zoonotic flu virus vaccine strains needed for pandemic preparedness, a process they repeat in September when making recommendations for Southern Hemisphere seasonal flu vaccines.
