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Meeting of Key CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel, Under Scrutiny by RFK Jr., Is Postponed
A committee of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy — a group believed to be in the crosshairs of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — will not meet for its regularly scheduled February meeting, a senior HHS official confirmed Thursday.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was to meet from Feb. 26 to 28, its first gathering since the Trump administration took office. That will not happen, Andrew Nixon, the HHS director of communications, told STAT in an email.
Nixon did not directly answer STAT’s query of when the meeting would be held instead, saying only that it is “upcoming.” Kennedy, whose first day at HHS was Tuesday, has denounced the ACIP in the past. During his Senate confirmation process, he told the
Finance Committee that 97% of ACIP members had conflicts of interest — a claim that people familiar with the rigorous vetting process ACIP members undergo have refuted.
House Oversight Committee: $241 Million Spent on Transgender Surgeries and Treatments on Animals
Millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on transgender surgeries and treatments on animals, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) confirmed yet again this week.
According to reports, the committee revealed that $241 million in taxpayer dollars were used to study transgender surgeries and treatments on animals. What is perhaps more, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Anthony Fauci gave the green light to the bulk of these cruel and unusual experiments.
The confirmation is welcomed but the news is not new, as taxpayer watchdog White Coat Waste Project has continued to bring these realities to light. Testifying at an Oversight hearing earlier this month, Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy at WCW Project Justin Goodman testified that the $241 million spent on transgender animal testing is merely the “floor” of this so-called research.
Trump Administration Yanks CDC Flu Vaccine Campaign
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is stopping a successful flu vaccination campaign that juxtaposed images of wild animals, such as a lion, with cute counterparts, like a kitten, as an analogy for how immunization can help tame the flu.
The news was shared with staff during a meeting on Wednesday, according to two CDC staffers who spoke with NPR on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, and a recording reviewed by NPR.
During the meeting, leadership at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases told CDC staff that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had reviewed the campaign and advised that it would not continue. The move comes during Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s first full week on the job as head of HHS.
North Dakota House Rejects Bills to Increase Vaccine Exemptions, Ban Fluoride in Public Water
Distrust in medical institutions and research dominated discussions in the North Dakota House of Representatives on Feb. 19, before lawmakers struck down two bills related to public health — one that would have banned fluoride treatments in public water supplies and another aiming to expand vaccination exemptions.
Denied by a vote of 40-53, House Bill 1605 sought to criminalize the use of fluoride in any public water supply and would have made the act punishable by a $500 fine.
“The fluoridation of our water is a serious health risk and not only endangers our communities, it makes them dumber,” Rep. Nico Rios, R-Williston, said, calling fluoride treatments “unethical” for forcing people to “take a medicine irrespective of their consent.”
“Does a voter have a right to require that their neighbor ingest a certain medication, even if it’s against their neighbor’s will?” he said. Fluoride treatments are based on “questionable” science, Rios said, posing more health detriments than benefits — from weakened bone density to reproductive impairments. There was no further discussion on the floor.
House Kills Bill to Ban mRNA Vaccines in Montana
The state House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon voted down a bill that would have banned the use of mRNA vaccines in Montana. Sponsored by Greg Kmetz, R-Miles City, House Bill 371 would have prohibited COVID-19 vaccines and boosters by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, the only mRNA vaccines currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration while placing a moratorium on further research into mRNA vaccines for other diseases.
The bill went down with 66 representatives voting against and 34 in favor. Local representatives who opposed the measure included Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell; Rep. Terry Falk, R-Kalispell; Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell; Rep. Lyn Bennett, R-Columbia Falls; Rep. Debo Powers, D-Whitefish; and Rep. Tracy Sharp, R-Polson; however, both Regier and Sharp supported the measure during its original passage out of the House Judiciary Committee.
Proponents of the bill argued that mRNA vaccines have resulted in fatalities and an uptick in cancer rates, citing personal experiences and studies presented during the committee hearing.
Opponents highlighted medical freedom, “thousands of people in Montana with compromised immune systems” who cannot afford to travel out of state for vaccinations, and the millions of lives they credited mRNA vaccines with saving during the pandemic due to mRNA vaccines. Both sides included depictions of personal experiences with the vaccine and its side effects.
The bill would have made Montana the first state to prohibit the administration of any mRNA vaccines. Idaho is the only other state to have introduced legislation to ban mRNA vaccines, with a contingency of 10 years, as reported by the Idaho Statesman.
Trump Admin Plans New Strategy to Fight Bird Flu as Egg Prices Soar
With egg prices soaring, the Trump administration is planning a new strategy for fighting bird flu that stresses vaccinations and tighter biosecurity instead of killing off millions of chickens when the disease strikes a flock.
The federal government will seek “better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on” rather than the current standard practice of destroying all the birds on a farm when an infection is detected, Kevin Hassett, PhD, director of the National Economic Council, said Sunday on the CBS program “Face the Nation.”
Hassett said the administration planned to announce further details this week. He said they were “working with all the best people in government, including academics around the country and around the world,” to get the plan ready. Spokespeople for the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not immediately respond to messages Tuesday seeking more information.
Trump’s Dismantling of USAID Raises Risk of Mpox Global Emergency, Experts Warn
As the Trump administration dismantles the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and retreats from funding global public health efforts, mpox — formerly known as monkeypox – is at greater risk of becoming a wider global emergency, according to aid workers and global health experts.
“It’s a real mistake not to be doing everything we can to control this while we’re still able to,” said Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University focusing on risk assessment of infectious diseases. “Taking huge steps backwards is only going to make everything worse.”
The World Health Organization declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern last August as cases rose in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spread to neighboring countries in Africa. USAID has been working to contain the virus through vaccination, testing and surveillance efforts on the ground. Last year, USAID and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contributed $55m in emergency assistance.
