Exclusive — U.S. CDC Plans Study Into Vaccines and Autism, Sources Say
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning a large study into potential connections between vaccines and autism, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, despite extensive scientific research that has disproven or failed to find evidence of such links.
It is unclear whether U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has long promoted anti-vaccine views, is involved in the planned CDC study or how it would be carried out. The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services were not immediately available for comment.
Many researchers attribute the rise in diagnoses to more widespread screening and the inclusion of a broader range of behaviors to describe the condition. But some public figures have popularized the idea that vaccines are to blame, an idea stemming from a since-debunked study from British researcher Andrew Wakefield in the late 1990s that connected a rise in autism diagnoses with widespread use of the MMR shot.
The causes of autism are unclear. No rigorous studies have found links between autism and vaccines or medications, or their components such as thimerosal or formaldehyde.
RFK Jr. Warns Vaccinating Poultry for Bird Flu Could Backfire
Federal health agencies oppose the use of bird flu vaccines in poultry right now, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, weighing in publicly on it for the first time in his new role. The Trump administration has been considering poultry vaccination as it seeks to combat the outbreak that is fueling a record surge in egg prices.
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said last month that they were ramping up planning on potentially deploying a vaccine for poultry, with the hopes of putting a draft of the plan before trading partners “as quickly as possible,” since it could affect billions of dollars in exports.
“There’s no indication that those vaccines actually provide sterilizing immunity and all three of my health agencies, NIH, CDC and FDA, the acting heads of those agencies have all recommended against the use of the bird flu vaccine,” Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News published this week.
Trump FDA Nominee Turns Vaccine Question on Dem, Recalling Controversial Biden Decision
President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) flipped a question about vaccine processes around on a top Democratic senator during his confirmation hearing on Thursday, advising them to ask former President Joe Biden why he skipped a key step when it came to the COVID-19 booster.
Dr. Marty Makary, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor and former Fox News medical contributor, went before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, during which he answered questions regarding vaccines, chronic illness, food safety and abortion.
“So if you are confirmed, will you commit to immediately reschedule that FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting to get the expert views?” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Trump’s FDA pick.
US Government Sues Pharmacy Chains CVS and Walgreens for Their Alleged Role in the Opioid Epidemic
In the span of 30 days, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued both CVS and Walgreens, along with dozens of their state subsidiaries. The country’s largest pharmacy chains — which collectively operate more than 17 000 storefronts — aided and abetted the opioid epidemic, the federal lawsuits — filed last December and this January, respectively — allege.
The civil lawsuits by the DOJ rest on the allegation that the pharmacy chains violated both the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and the False Claims Act (FCA).
The CSA states that narcotics can only be used for “a useful and legitimate medical purpose.” By filling prescriptions that were invalid, the pharmacies “made choices that caused these millions of violations of federal law,” the DOJ alleged in the Walgreens lawsuit.
The FCA, for its part, states that entities cannot knowingly present a “false or fraudulent claim” for government payment — either due to “deliberate ignorance” or “reckless disregard” of the claim’s falsehood. The DOJ alleged that by requesting reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for illegitimate prescriptions, the pharmacies broke the law. They unlawfully dispensed “massive quantities of opioids and other controlled substances to fuel its own profits at the expense of public health and safety,” the lawsuit against CVS stated.
Will RFK Jr. Make America Healthy Again?
Social determinants of health, or SDOH — nonmedical factors that influence a person’s health and risk of disease — received much attention since the COVID-19 pandemic. Could SDOH continue to draw attention as part of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again commission? Some health care observers believe it will.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is only a few weeks into his job as secretary of Health and Human Services. A panel of health care observers discussed how Kennedy might make America healthy again during a recent webinar by the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism.
“At its core, MAHA has a lot of overlap with SDOH — this idea that health care really is about the life that you live. I think MAHA is somewhat consistent with that,” said Dan Gorenstein, executive editor of Tradeoffs.
“Are you going to have a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that is open to thinking about ways to improve health beyond traditional health care delivery reforms and insurance reforms? If we take Kennedy and the MAHA movement, then I would say we’ll continue to see efforts around SDOH initiatives. In the past decade and because of COVID-19, there is a lot more recognition that health care is much bigger and broader than the hospital or the doctor’s office. Under Kennedy, we are more likely to see a continuation of SDOH work than we are to see it shut down.”
Trump’s E.P.A. to Rewrite Rules Aimed at Averting Chemical Disasters
The Trump administration has moved to rewrite rules designed to prevent disasters at thousands of chemical facilities across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency filed a motion in federal court on Thursday saying it was pulling back the safety regulations, introduced last year under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The rules, which took effect in May, require sites that handle hazardous chemicals to adopt new safeguards including explicit measures to prepare for storms, floods and other climate-related risks.
They also require some facilities to scrutinize their use of particularly dangerous chemicals and switch to safer alternatives as well as to share more information with neighbors and emergency responders. In addition, facilities that have suffered prior accidents also must undergo independent audits.
