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US Military Races to Vaccinate New Recruits Before Flu Shots Expire
The US military is racing to vaccinate new recruits after a two-month halt on mandatory flu shots — but it’s a temporary reprieve, as the shots will soon expire and new doses will not be available for months. Officials will need to lean on other prevention measures to contain the growing flu outbreak at Lackland air force base in San Antonio, Texas, experts say.
The flu vaccines now being deployed across military basic training camps are set to expire on 30 June, and new doses will not arrive until August or later. It’s possible military leaders will extend use of the vaccines beyond their expiration date, but that’s “unlikely”, said Toti Sanchez, the former deputy chief at the armed forces health surveillance division of the US Defense Health Agency. And stock of the vaccine is typically low at this time of year as manufacturers switch to making the next season’s doses.
“The earliest that we’ve been able to vaccinate historically has been late August or early September — certainly by the end of September — but I don’t think you can count on them being available before maybe the fourth week of August,” Sanchez said.
Here’s Why Your Health Insurer Is Sounding More Like RFK Jr.
Insurers and doctors’ groups, often divided over how to rein in health care costs, are now facing off over the Make America Healthy Again movement. The insurance industry is embracing MAHA, while the doctors’ lobby is pushing against the movement’s leader, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who many physicians see as a danger to public health.
The opposing forces could shape Kennedy’s policy decisions on issues ranging from how much doctors earn to treat Medicare patients to how the government regulates medical services.
At the five-star Wynn Las Vegas hotel and casino this month, insurers curried favor with the administration, touting all the ways they’re prioritizing the health secretary’s big issue, combatting chronic diseases. Meanwhile, members of the doctors’ leading lobby, the American Medical Association, voted at their home base in Chicago this month for an uncompromising Kennedy critic as president-elect.
Three Finalists Emerge to Lead FDA
White House aide Heidi Overton, oncologist Jeffrey Vacirca and senior Pentagon health official Stephen Ferrara are all in the running to be the next FDA commissioner, sources tell Axios.
Why it matters: The agency is moving to repair its relationship with industry and rehire critical staff since the departure of former commissioner Marty Makary. But a full-time political leader will ultimately decide the agency’s direction.
Driving the news: The three finalists are now being vetted. Overton and Vacirca were first reported as possible nominees by Bloomberg. Ferrara, now the Pentagon’s principal deputy assistant secretary for health affairs, has not been previously reported.
Trump Issues Order to Reduce Pesticides in Food as Kennedy Allies Fume
President Trump, facing a backlash from supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for allying himself with the chemical industry, issued an executive order on Thursday aimed at reducing pesticides in the food supply and studying the health risks they pose.
The order does not involve new federal funding, and does not call for new regulations or legislation. Critics contended that it did little to meaningfully address the consequences of pesticide use. Two White House officials, speaking anonymously to preview the order before it was announced, said it was timed to coincide with a dinner Mr. Trump was hosting for farmers.
Titled “Advancing Regenerative Agriculture and Strengthening American Farm Resilience,” the president’s action amplifies an earlier order, issued in February, that committed $1 billion to invest in farm modernization and “regenerative,” or pesticide-free, agriculture.
It instructs the Environmental Protection Agency to “prioritize” the approval of alternatives to pesticides, and asks the Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a “research and evaluation framework” to study chemicals in the food supply.
Senators Call for Military Healthcare Program to Cover Autism Therapy as a Basic Benefit
Less than 24 hours after NBC News reported on members of the military and retirees facing roadblocks in getting coverage for critical therapies for children with autism, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., issued a letter Friday to Pentagon leadership calling for changes. Gillibrand and Schmitt are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Defense Health Agency and TRICARE.
The letter calls on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to get rid of rules in the TRICARE program that are causing parents to be denied some applied behavior analysis, or ABA, therapies that are typically covered by most private and public insurance. ABA therapy is used to help children communicate and learn daily life skills.
In the NBC News report, the military’s healthcare program restricted coverage for the behavioral therapy for a 10-year-old boy with a severe form of autism. The boy, Logan Cabiao, who is nonverbal and needs round-the-clock supervision and care, gets TRICARE through his father, Mario Cabiao, a retired Air Force pilot. Logan had been receiving ABA therapy for several years, which had been “life-changing” for the family, his mother, Kristi Cabiao, said.
