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Banning mRNA COVID Vaccine Is ‘the Goal,’ Florida Surgeon General Says
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo says he does not want mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to be available in Florida. In a podcast interview published Sunday, Ladapo was asked about the state’s announcement this month that officials intended to end all vaccine mandates. He said the controversy over the announcement was overblown because vaccines would continue to be available to those who want them — with one potential exception.
“The goal with the mRNA is for that not to be available to anyone, because no one should be using that one,” Ladapo said, in an apparent reference to the COVID-19 shots.
The statement is the latest in a series of harsh criticisms of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from Florida’s top medical official. In January 2024, the Florida Department of Health recommended against the use of those vaccines, saying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had not proven them to be safe.
Five New Members Named to Influential CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee Days Ahead of Key Meeting
Five new members have been named to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) vaccine advisory committee, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Monday, just days ahead of a key meeting about vaccines for COVID-19 and other diseases.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been preparing to appoint as many as seven new members for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which is tasked with reviewing the latest science on vaccines and then making recommendations to the CDC on how they should be used.
The new members are Dr. Catherine Stein, an epidemiologist and professor at Case Western Reserve University; Dr. Evelyn Griffin, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Dr. Hillary Blackburn, director of medication access and affordability at AscensionRx and the daughter-in-law of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee; Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist with For Hearts and Souls Free Medical Clinic in Hawaii; and Dr. Raymond Pollak, a surgeon and transplant immunobiologist.
RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel Expected to Recommend Delaying Hepatitis B Shot for Children
A key federal vaccine advisory panel whose members were recently replaced by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to vote to recommend delaying until age four the hepatitis B vaccine that’s currently given to newborns, according to two former senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials.
“There is going to likely be a discussion about hepatitis B vaccine, very specifically trying to dislodge the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and to push it later in life,” said Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “Apparently this is a priority of the secretary’s.” The vote is expected to take place during the next meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, scheduled for Sept. 18-19.
For more than 30 years, the first of three shots of hepatitis B vaccine has been recommended for infants shortly after birth. In that time, the potentially fatal disease has been virtually eradicated among American children. Pediatricians warn that waiting four years for the vaccine opens the door to more children contracting the virus.
Evers Orders Wisconsin-Only COVID Vaccination Rules; DHS Issues Recommendation
Wisconsin’s governor is ordering the state’s public health managers to come up with state-specific rules for the COVID-19 vaccine. Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to “use every lever and take every action available to ensure Wisconsinites can access safe, effective vaccines.”
“RFK and the Trump Administration are inserting partisan politics into health care and the science-based decisions of medical professionals and are putting the health and lives of kids, families, and folks across our state at risk in the process,’ the governor said in a statement. “Here in Wisconsin, we will continue to follow the science to ensure Wisconsinites have access to the health care they need when and where they need it to make their own health care decisions that are right for them.”
The Department of Health Services followed through on Evers’ order Tuesday, issuing a recommendation for all Wisconsinites over six months old to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
DHS issued a statewide standing medical order hat allows most Wisconsinites who want the vaccine to get it at pharmacies across the state without a prescription.
The department said its recommendation follows science-based recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has changed the recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine, but he has said he has not restricted their access.
After Losing Their Son, Parents Urge Senate to Take Action on AI Chatbots
“You cannot imagine what it was like to read a conversation with a chatbot that groomed your child to take his own life,” Matthew Raine, father of Adam Raine, said to a room of assembled congressional leaders that gathered today to discuss the harms of AI chatbots on teens around the country.
Raine and his wife Maria are suing OpenAI in what is the company’s first wrongful death case, following a series of alleged reports that the company’s flagship product, ChatGPT, has played a role in the deaths of people in mental duress, including teens. The lawsuit claims that ChatGPT repeatedly validated their son’s harmful and self-destructive thoughts, including suicidal ideation and planning, despite the company claiming its safety protocols should have prevented such interactions.
The bipartisan Senate hearing, titled “Examining the Harm of AI Chatbots,” is being held by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism. It saw both Raine’s testimony and that of Megan Garcia, mother of Sewell Setzer III, a Florida teen who died by suicide after forming a relationship with an AI companion on platform Character.AI.
