Login
US Senate Confirms Schwartz as CDC Director
The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as director of the U.S. CDC, handing the Trump administration a rare win after repeated failed attempts to fill top health posts.
Schwartz, U.S. President Donald Trump’s third pick to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was confirmed 51-44. She will be the first permanent CDC director since Susan Monarez, Trump’s second pick, was fired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year after less than a month over a clash on vaccine policy.
Her confirmation follows months of leadership turmoil at the CDC, which has lacked a permanent leader for all but a month of Trump’s second term.
Schwartz inherits an agency confronting the worst U.S. measles resurgence in three decades, driven by falling childhood immunization rates, an international Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, and the largest U.S. foodborne illness outbreak in recent years.
Trump nominated Schwartz, his first-term deputy surgeon general, in April. The 54-year-old is a board-certified preventive medicine physician who served as the U.S. Coast Guard’s chief medical officer from 2015 to 2019. She holds a medical degree from Brown University and a law degree from the University of Maryland.
Rand Paul Sets Thursday Vote on Whether Fauci Was in Contempt of Congress
A committee led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) plans to hold a vote Thursday morning on whether Anthony S. Fauci was in contempt of Congress when the scientist refused to answer questions in a hearing last week, Paul’s office announced. Paul’s office also released text of the contempt resolution, which alleges that Fauci was in contempt by giving an opening statement before invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions about the coronavirus pandemic and other matters.
“I ordered him to answer and warned him about contempt, yet he still refused. That is obstruction of a congressional investigation,” Paul said in a statement. Paul has alleged that Fauci sought to cover up a possible laboratory origin of the coronavirus pandemic and called for the scientist to be in prison, part of a broader GOP backlash against the 85-year-old doctor.
Fauci, who has denied Paul’s claims, has said that Paul was wrongly seeking to entrap him last week. Republicans on the committee are expected to vote to approve the contempt resolution, which Paul has said he will refer directly to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.
Fauci’s Diary Shows That Israeli Data Indicated Waning Covid Vaccine Efficiency
Jerusalem News Syndicate reported:
Newly released records from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s personal diary suggest Israel played a far more influential role in shaping U.S. COVID-19 booster policy than was publicly understood, providing early evidence that vaccine protection was waning months before comparable American data emerged. The documents, released on July 26 by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ahead of Fauci’s appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, repeatedly cite Israeli studies, health officials and vaccination data as the Biden administration debated whether to recommend a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
When Fauci later appeared before the committee on July 29, he declined to answer lawmakers’ questions, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times, leaving the diary as the most detailed public account of the administration’s internal deliberations.
Far from appearing only in passing, Israel features prominently throughout the more than 1,100 pages. The country is referenced dozens of times, reflecting how frequently American officials looked to Israeli data as they tried to understand the rapidly evolving pandemic.
FDA’s Moderna Flu Shot Call
The FDA’s deadline to decide on Moderna’s seasonal flu vaccine application is Wednesday — a major federal health agency milestone ahead of the midterms.
Moderna is seeking full approval for the vaccine’s use in 50- to 64-year-olds and accelerated approval for individuals 65 and older, with a post-marketing study requirement for the latter group. It proposed the staggered approval in a meeting with regulators after they initially refused to accept the company’s application for review.
Background: The FDA told Moderna in a Feb. 3 letter signed by then-director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Vinay Prasad that it wouldn’t consider the application. In the letter, which Moderna made public, Prasad said the center took issue with the company’s clinical trial design because it didn’t compare the candidate to one of the high-dose flu shots the U.S. preferentially recommends for people over 65.
Moderna said that contradicted the agency’s prior communications that using “a licensed standard dose influenza vaccine” as the control in its late-stage trial “would be acceptable.” Federal officials then publicly rebuked Moderna and defended the decision, with one unnamed official suggesting the company gamed the trial to make its vaccine look better to regulators.
IAOMT Supports HHS Directive to Phase out Mercury Dental Fillings in Medicaid
The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) strongly endorses a historic directive from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calling on every State Medicaid Director to restrict or end coverage for mercury-containing dental fillings, also known as dental amalgams.
IAOMT President Douglas Green, DDS, stated: “We urge every State Medicaid Director to fully embrace this historic announcement and implement the phase-out without delay, as it will have a positive impact on the health of millions of Americans.” Dr. Green continued: “Mercury levels generated during both amalgam placement and removal routinely exceed occupational safety limits. If the goal of the government is to reduce mercury exposure, then the safe removal of existing amalgam fillings must also be considered whenever removal is needed.”
The HHS directive marks a complete about-face from prior government policy. For the first time, the federal government has openly acknowledged that mercury fillings should not be placed in people’s mouths and that taxpayer dollars should no longer support this outdated and hazardous material.
