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Trump Rattles Vaccine Experts Over Aluminum
The president’s call for removal of the metal from childhood inoculations set off alarms. About half of shots for polio, whooping cough and other diseases would be affected.
Federal health officials are examining the feasibility of taking aluminum salts out of vaccines, a prospect that vaccine experts said would wipe out about half of the nation’s supply of childhood inoculations and affect shots that protect against whooping cough, polio and deadly flu.
The review at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began after President Trump listed aluminum in vaccines as harmful during a press briefing about the unproven link between Tylenol and autism. Aluminum salts have been in vaccines since the 1920s and are added to enhance the immune-stimulating effect against the virus or bacteria covered by the inoculation. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, has been a longtime critic of aluminum in vaccines, which he has suggested is linked to autism.
Vaccine experts said the tiny amount of aluminum salts in vaccines — often measured in the one-millionth of a gram — has a long track record of safety and is essential to generating lasting immunity from disease. Developing vaccines without aluminum salts, they said, would require an entirely new formulation from scratch.
Such efforts take years of careful safety tests, cost hundreds of millions of dollars and could potentially expose thousands of infants to deadly diseases, given Mr. Kennedy’s insistence that new vaccines should be tested in humans against placebos. Mr. Trump acknowledged that like mercury, which was removed from childhood vaccines more than 20 years ago, the case against aluminum is limited.
Blue States Are Setting up a Shadow Public-Health Alliance to Counter RFK Jr.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
The public-health resistance to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is growing. Governors across 15 states including New York, California and North Carolina are forming a new public-health alliance to detect and respond to disease threats, saying federal-funding cuts and policy changes by the Trump administration are putting their citizens at risk and forcing them to find alternatives.
The state leaders, all Democrats, will join forces to help one another prepare for pandemics, track infectious diseases, write public-health guidelines, share expertise on preventive care and buy vaccines and supplies in bulk. “In light of the assaults on science and medicine coming out of Washington, governors have to step up and lead,” said Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York. “We really have no choice.”
The Governors Public Health Alliance is the latest and so far the largest move to create an alternative public-health universe outside the federal government. More doctors, policymakers and state leaders are alarmed by cuts in federal funding for global and domestic health programs, as well as public-health expertise at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many have grown wary of changes to federal health guidance since Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, became Health and Human Services secretary.
USDA Is Airdropping Rabies Vaccines in 6 States This Month
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is airdropping oral rabies vaccines in six states in October in a bid to stop the spread of the potentially deadly virus. Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia be the recipients of the airdropped vaccines in October, according to a statement from the agency. The USDA did not provide a starting date for the process.
One project will cover areas in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and a small area in West Virginia to distribute 634,000 oral rabies vaccine baits via vehicles, airplanes, and helicopters, the USDA said. Another 410,000 of the baits will be distributed in western North Carolina and northern Georgia; 690,000 baits will be dropped in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee; and 718,000 baits will be distributed in parts of northeast and central Alabama.
Don’t Judge a Label by Its Cover: The FDA Eyes Clearer Nutrition Info
What’s on your label? It may be changing soon. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is going after some of the world’s most valuable real estate — the front of food and beverage (F&B) packaging — by eyeing new labels that would generate additional costs and potentially lead to other packaging and ingredient changes, impacting some sales positively and others negatively.
The agency argues that nutrition labels contain valuable information, which is often lost to consumers because it is hidden or at least not immediately apparent. By creating a new, simple nutrition label that goes on the front-of-package (FOP), they believe they can make nutrition information more prominent.
The FDA is also considering defining “ultra-processed foods” in ways that could lead to mandated changes on some F&B labeling. The agency recently redefined “healthy” foods and beverages that voluntarily make such claims. Many of these claims have already led to litigation and serious damages. Now, more changes could open the door to a new wave of lawsuits. The idea behind these changes is that health information should be a larger factor in consumer decision-making.
The FDA aims to encourage the F&B industry to provide more information in simpler, easily understandable forms that consumers can readily use. As part of a global movement to boost health by helping consumers evaluate foods, the FDA says the new FOP label would provide “consumers a simple aid to provide additional context for making informed food selections.” The comment period for that proposal ended on July 15, 2025.
Poll Shows Who Supports RFK Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Movement
Support for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement is polarized with Republicans more likely than Democrats and independents to favor it. But MAHA food policy priorities are broadly popular. While American parents overwhelmingly back cracking down on highly processed foods, dyes and added sugars in food, about 4 in 10 support the “Make America Healthy Again” movement that targets them, a Washington Post-KFF poll finds.
While American parents overwhelmingly back cracking down on highly processed foods, dyes and added sugars in food, about 4 in 10 support the “Make America Healthy Again” movement that targets them, a Washington Post-KFF poll finds. The poll of parents this summer found broad bipartisan support for much of U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s concerns about the food supply. But support for the MAHA movement he started skews along partisan lines, with Republican parents far more likely to identify with the cause championed by a scion of one of the most famous Democratic families.
Sixty-two percent of Republican parents consider themselves a MAHA supporter, including more than 8 in 10 parents who identify as “Make America Great Again” Republicans. In contrast, about one-third of independent parents and 17% of Democrats said they identify with the movement, as did 30 percent of non-MAGA Republicans.
