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RFK Jr. Links His Vocal Issues to Flu Shots
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes his spasmodic dysphonia could be due to taking flu shots, he told USA Today. In an interview with the outlet, Kennedy said he took annual flu shots until the mid-1990s, then stopped in 2005 “when I began looking at the side effects.”
“I was preparing litigation against some of the flu shots several years ago and one of the entries that was listed on a lot of them was spasmodic dysphonia, which is an injury I have to my voice. That’s why my voice is so screwed up,” Kennedy said. “That turns out to be a vaccine injury,” he continued. “Do I know it was caused by the annual flu shot? I have no idea.”
When pressed by the interviewer, who asked if he suspected it was caused by the vaccine, he said it’s “a possibility.” “It’s a potential culprit that I cannot rule out, but I can’t prove it,” he said. “I’d like to know. We should have that data but we don’t.” Kennedy has spoken publicly about his vocal condition for a long time, but never before has he linked it to flu shots.
AstraZeneca’s COVID Vaccine: Safety Signals, Silence, and the Cost of Managing Public Confidence
Previously undisclosed Freedom of Information (FOI) documents reported by GB News have revived scrutiny of how safety concerns surrounding the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were handled during the UK’s mass rollout. The reporting does not establish causation between the vaccine and cardiac injury. Rather, it raises a narrower but consequential question: whether regulators communicated emerging safety signals with sufficient clarity and timeliness while the vaccine remained in widespread use.
According to the FOI materials, the UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, received 48,472 reports of heart-related adverse events associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in 2021. The MHRA later stated that the number of spontaneous cardiac reports plausibly attributable to the vaccine was closer to 13,010, nearly four times lower, and acknowledged it is reviewing historical figures to reconcile the discrepancy. While adverse-event reporting systems are designed to detect signals rather than prove causation, large unexplained gaps weaken confidence in risk communication.
Internal regulatory discussions show that clotting and cardiac risks were actively debated within the Commission on Human Medicines COVID-19 Vaccines Benefit–Risk Working Group as early as April 2021. The minutes indicate regulators weighed emerging safety data against fears of increasing vaccine hesitancy, opting against early public alerts. Several European countries nonetheless paused or restricted AstraZeneca’s use by March 2021, while the UK waited until April 7, 2021, when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisationadvised offering alternatives to adults under 30.
Novavax Licenses Rights to Key Vaccine Component to Pfizer
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Novavax, the Covid-19 vaccine maker, has licensed the rights for a vaccine-enhancing component to Pfizer. Pfizer agreed to pay $30 million upfront, and could pay up to $500 million more if development and sales milestones are reached, plus royalties, Novavax said. Pfizer, which makes an mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, is licensing Novavax’s adjuvant, called “Matrix-M,” which is a substance that can enhance the potency of a vaccine.
Novavax uses Matrix-M, which is derived from a type of tree bark, in its own protein-based Covid vaccine. The deal will allow Pfizer to use the Matrix-M adjuvant in its own vaccines under development, for no more than two disease areas, which Novavax didn’t specify.
Sales of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine have been underwhelming, but the Pfizer deal shows it can generate revenue by licensing technology to other companies. And it shows that Pfizer isn’t shying away from vaccines despite declining sales of its Covid-19 vaccines and scrutiny of many vaccines by the Trump administration. Novavax stock recently stood 2% higher.
Valneva to Withdraw Chikungunya Vaccine From US Amid Safety Woes
French vaccine developer Valneva said it is voluntarily pulling the paperwork underlying the approval of its chikungunya virus shot in the U.S., ending a short-lived marketing run marred by safety concerns. In a Monday statement, Valneva said it recently learned that the Food and Drug Administraiton placed a clinical hold on the vaccine, Ixchiq, pending an investigation of a newly reported serious adverse event that occurred outside the U.S. The company has responded by withdrawing its FDA applications altogether.
Ixchiq was awarded an accelerated approval in November 2023. That clearance made Ixchiq the first shot in the U.S. cleared to prevent illness caused by the chikungunya virus, a pathogen typically spread through infected mosquitoes. Infections can cause fever and severe joint pain that, in some cases, may be persistent and debilitating.
Ixchiq, however, has come under heavy scrutiny over the last year amid mounting concerns about its safety.
The European Medicines Agency temporarily suspended use of the vaccine for older adults last May following reports of severe adverse events, including multiple hospitalizations and a few deaths, in vaccine recipients. The FDA quickly followed suit, added new warnings to the shot’s labeling and narrowed its use. The agency then suspended Valneva’s U.S. license in August.
Researchers Link Obesity, Estrogen Use, and Increased Blood-Clotting Risk
A research team led by Dr. Rinku Majumder from LSU Health New Orleans has published a groundbreaking study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation showing how obesity and estrogen-based medications (including hormonal therapies and oral contraceptives) act together to dramatically increase the thrombotic risk in premenopausal women.
The study helps explain how obesity and estrogen collaborate and amplify thrombotic risk and offers new insight that could improve care for people who already face higher thrombotic risk, including patients with cancer.
Researchers discovered that the risk of thrombosis increases dramatically in premenopausal women with obesity who are taking estrogen-based medications, due to a substantial reduction in Protein S, a natural anticoagulant that helps prevent harmful blood clots. When Protein S levels fall, thrombotic risk rises.
Study Suggests Vaccine Trials Should Include Care Homes
Research led by the University of Aberdeen into whether future vaccine trials should be conducted in care homes has suggested it is crucial for residents to take part. It said those residents who were particularly vulnerable to infection due to their age and communal living were usually prioritised in vaccine roll-out programmes.
However, a university research team, which is part of the Moderna-funded Widening Access to Trials in Care Homes (WATCH) consortium, said people who live in care homes were not currently adequately represented in trials. Public health minister Jenni Minto said it was “vital” that older care home residents were involved in testing vaccines and their voices heard.
