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U.S. Rejects U.N. Declaration on Preparing for Future Pandemics
The United States on Friday rejected a declaration by member countries of the United Nations that pledged international collaboration and solidarity in preparing for and responding to pandemics. The European Union also expressed strong objections to parts of the statement.
The declaration, the product of a high-level U.N. meeting on pandemic preparedness, is largely ceremonial. It is not legally binding, and does not set rules for what countries should do during pandemics. But its universal endorsement would have signaled a powerful expression of global political commitment to the issue.
The criticism by some of the wealthiest countries sharpened the divide that became apparent during the coronavirus pandemic, when low-income nations lagged richer countries by more than a year in being able to provide vaccines to citizens. The declaration will now be considered at a future meeting of the General Assembly, where it is still likely to garner enough votes to be adopted.
‘Never Should Have Been Done’: Dr. Anthony Fauci Diary Reveals Alarm That US Had Aerosolised Ebola
The International Business Times reported:
Dr Anthony Fauci raised concerns in March 2016 after learning that the U.S. Army had conducted tests exposing vaccinated animals to aerosolised Ebola virus, according to diary entries obtained by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul. Fauci wrote that the experiment should have been classified and ‘never should have been done in the first place’.
The records show that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, or NIAID, funded the aerosol studies and helped design the Ebola research conducted at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, known as USAMRIID. A Senate fact sheet accompanying the documents said four vaccines were tested in groups of four monkeys exposed to aerosolised Ebola.
The exposure was engineered to drive the virus deep into the lung rather than replicate natural infection, according to the fact sheet. Almost all of the aerosol-challenged animals died, while Fauci later recorded that vaccinated animals showed greater levels of inflammation than those that were unvaccinated.
‘What idiots those guys at USAMRIID are,’ Fauci wrote in a March 2016 diary entry. ‘This should have been a classified experiment that never should have been done in the first place.’
White House Has Not Acted on RFK Jr.’s Push for Proof Ultra-Processed Foods Are Safe
Earlier this year, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seemed poised to challenge the powerful food industry.
The Department of Health and Human Services had concluded that food companies should produce “any detailed safety studies” showing that certain ingredients common in ultra-processed foods are generally safe and aren’t contributing to chronic health conditions, according to a March draft of a letter that the secretary sent to the White House for review, and that was obtained by The Washington Post. In the draft, Kennedy praised a citizen petition by David Kessler, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration, who asked the agency to scrutinize some of the core ingredients used in industrial processing.
But for months, the potential push has been slow-walked at the White House, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private details.
Senators Give Little Time to Food During Hearing for FDA Chief
A Senate committee spent two hours questioning President Trump’s nominee to be commissioner of the FDA, but only about 10 minutes of the session touched on food.
A New Mexico doctor, Heidi Overton, is Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
Overton is currently Deputy Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. Previously she was chief policy officer and vice chair for the Center for a Healthy America at the conservative think tank America First Policy Institute. She will succeed acting chief Kyle Diamantas who was appointed to the post on an interim basis following Marty Makary’s resignation.
Recently, Overton served as a White House Fellow in 2019-2020 in both the Office of American Innovation and the Domestic Policy Council. She is board-certified in public health and general preventive medicine. Overton does not have any experience with food policy or the food industry.
The lion’s share of Overton’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee involved prescription drugs, flavored vapes, vaccinations and mifepristone. Some of the senators used the bulk of their time making statements rather than asking questions. Of the 16 senators on the committee, 10 did not mention food at all. The FDA has the responsibility to oversee 80 percent of the nation’s food supply.
Chris Klomp Clears Senate Finance 15 to 12, Moving Closer to Overseeing Daily HHS Vaccine and Medicare Work
The Senate Finance Committee voted 15 to 12 on Sept. 24 to advance Chris Klomp’s nomination as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services, sending him to the full Senate for a final vote, STAT reported. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island was the only Democrat to join all Republicans in supporting him. A date for the floor vote has not been announced.
If confirmed, Klomp would become the department’s second-highest official. The deputy helps run daily operations across agencies including Medicare, Medicaid, the CDC, the FDA, and the National Institutes of Health. That puts the job close to decisions families feel directly, from how quickly vaccines reach pediatricians to how drug pricing deals are carried out.
The vote came as the committee’s top Democrat pointed to a month-long disruption in the federal program that supplies free vaccines to nearly half of the nation’s children. That program has since resumed, but the episode shaped how senators framed the vote.
EPA Announces $93.4M Plan to Rid California Superfund Site of Dangerous Chemicals
The EPA has released a 53-page, $93.4 million plan to remove dangerous chemicals from Richmond’s Heckathorn Superfund site, but community members who’ve long advocated for a more extensive cleanup aren’t impressed.
While there may be some aspects of the EPA’s United Heckathorn Superfund Site plan that the Richmond Shoreline Alliance (RSA) might agree with, said coordinator Janet Johnson, they don’t consider it a complete cleanup. The RSA and its partner agencies became so frustrated with the EPA last year that they wrote their own cleanup plan, one that has been endorsed by the city of Richmond and Sen. Jesse Arreguín. The EPA never acknowledged their proposal, Johnson said.
“Because they failed to engage the public in a two-way dialogue, it’s unclear whether they even addressed the (community’s) plan, because our plan calls for a complete cleanup and their proposal doesn’t,” Johnson told Richmondside. The EPA is holding an open house on Oct. 21 to present the plan and hear public comments.
Hassan Revives Bill to Strip PFAS Chemicals From New Hampshire Food Wrappers
U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan has reintroduced bipartisan legislation aimed at banning PFAS chemicals from food wrappers and packaging, reviving a fight she first waged nearly five years ago against the so-called forever chemicals lining fast-food bags, popcorn sleeves and takeout boxes across New Hampshire and the country.
Hassan, a U.S. senator representing New Hampshire, announced the reintroduction from Manchester, according to WMUR. Per the station’s report, PFAS chemicals are used in food wrappers specifically to repel grease, oil and water. PFAS can also persist once they end up in the environment or the human body. WMUR also reports that PFAS chemicals have been linked to serious health issues, including cancer.
This is not Hassan’s first attempt at the fix. She proposed similar legislation in 2021, a bill identified in congressional records as the Keep Food Containers Safe from PFAS Act of 2021, sponsored by Hassan and introduced that November, according to congress.gov. That earlier push stalled without becoming law, setting up this week’s renewed effort.
