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Top Vaccine Regulator Quits, but Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy Says RFK Jr. Hasn’t Broken Promises
U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said Tuesday the abrupt resignation of the nation’s chief vaccines regulator did not violate his pact with health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known skeptic of vaccinations. “There’s nothing in that action that violates the commitment I received from Bobby Kennedy,” Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, told local reporters in a phone press conference.
Cassidy played a key role in Kennedy’s confirmation. Some fellow Republicans had been wary of confirming President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to run the Department of Health & Human Services and they looked for Cassidy’s lead as chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee before backing Kennedy.
For years Kennedy fueled widespread suspicion, despite scientific consensus to the contrary, that childhood vaccines cause autism, prompting many in the Senate and the health community to oppose his nomination.
A physician and strong supporter of vaccinations, Cassidy said he was persuaded to support Kennedy by promises of “an unprecedented close collaborative working relationship,” including consultation and input in the agency’s personnel decisions. He also said Kennedy told him he would maintain the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention immunization practices, recommendations and published statements that vaccines do not cause autism, he said.
RFK Jr. Lays off Staffers Who Run FDA’s Vaccine Expert Panel
The Food and Drug Administration laid off staffers who run an expert panel that advises the agency on vaccines, according to people familiar with the situation.
The responsibilities of the four employees included monitoring conflicts of interest and overseeing meetings, according to the people who asked not to be named because the moves aren’t public.
As part of his first remarks to staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he would work to remove conflicts of interest on HHS advisory committees in order to reestablish the public’s trust.
Democrats Investigating RFK Jr. Bird Flu Response
Several House Democrats are investigating Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his bird flu response, which they called “dangerous and reckless.” In a Tuesday letter addressed to Kennedy, the Democrats said they were “troubled to hear” he considers “the ‘possibility of letting [avian flu] run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,’ to be a potentially effective strategy to end the bird flu epidemic.”
“Allowing avian flu to ravage flocks across the country is dangerous and reckless, and is an approach unsupported by scientists, public health officials, and veterinarians,” the group continued. “This ‘strategy’ also coincides with the emergence of a new strain of a highly pathogenic bird flu known as H7N9, which surfaced at a poultry farm in Mississippi earlier this month and led to the deaths of 46,000 birds.”
Those who signed the letter were Democratic Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), Emily Randall (Wash.), Wesley Bell (Mo.), Lateefah Simon (Calif.) and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.).
Since last year, there have been 70 American cases of bird flu and one death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Who Is RFK Jr.’s Special Adviser Calley Means?
Calley Means and Casey Means, MD, have leveraged their entrepreneurial and medical backgrounds to launch themselves into HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s orbit and hold increasing influence in Washington. The sibling pair are vocal proponents of Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda, and Bloomberg recently reported that Calley will hold a role in government as Kennedy’s special advisor.
STAT reported that he had donated to Kennedy’s presidential campaign prior to him dropping out of the race and becoming a Trump surrogate. As of press time, Calley Means did not respond to MedPage Today’s questions about his role and goals in the White House.
While relatively new to Washington, the Means siblings have been making names for themselves in various health and media ventures for over a decade and share Kennedy’s focus on chronic illness and nutrition.
Calley, a Harvard business school graduate, founded the startup TrueMed in 2022. The company helps patients get “letters of medical necessity” from TrueMed clinicians, which enable them to use health savings account and flexible spending account funds on certain health and wellness supplies, ranging from new mattresses and fitness equipment to supplements and saunas.
Wife of Dr. Anthony Fauci Reassigned From NIH to Indian Health Service’s Regional Posts
The Washington Times reported:
Christine Grady, the wife of Dr. Anthony Fauci, was among several top officials who were notified they were being reassigned from the National Institutes of Health to regional offices of the Indian Health Service.
Dr. Fauci, former President Biden’s chief medical adviser, was a key figure during the COVID-19 pandemic who pushed for nationwide school closures, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, social distancing policies and other COVID-19 policies that became the center of political fights.
Ms. Grady served as chief of the Clinical Center’s Department of Bioethics in Bethesda, and like many of her colleagues, were given until Wednesday to decide whether to accept their new assignment, which is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives, or quit their jobs, The New York Times reported.
The turn of events within Dr. Fauci’s world is a somersault from where things once stood. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who now leads the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as its director, was once condemned in an October 2020 email to Dr. Fauci by Dr. Francis Collins, then NIH director, as a “fringe epidemiologist” for co-authoring a public declaration questioning the efficacy of COVID-19 lockdowns.
Doctor with wish list for more vaccine scrutiny named assistant to new FDA chief, sources say
Tracy Beth Hoeg, a sports medicine physician and epidemiologist who opposed key U.S. health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic and questioned the use of some childhood vaccines, was named a special assistant to new FDA chief Martin Makary, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Hoeg’s position was announced on Wednesday during President Donald Trump appointee Makary’s first speech to staff at FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, the two FDA sources said.
Both Hoeg and Makary espoused contrarian views on U.S. COVID-19 policies, including opposition to mask requirements for children and universal vaccine mandates for the public, while supporting vaccination in general as a key public health measure.
Hoeg previously worked as an epidemiologist for Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, who has repeatedly cast doubt on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. She has questioned why the U.S. pediatric vaccine schedule includes several more shots than in Denmark, including immunizations against flu, rotavirus and varicella, for children not known to be at high-risk for severe illness.
Former U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra Enters California Governor’s Race
Former Biden administration Health Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday became the latest Democrat to join the crowded field seeking to become California’s next governor, a contest that could be dramatically reshaped if former Vice President Kamala Harris becomes a candidate.
The Stanford Law School graduate enters the race with a lengthy resume of government service, including stints as California attorney general, a U.S. House member and a state legislator. In December 2020, then-President-elect Joe Biden picked Becerra to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration’s coronavirus response.
In a heavily Democratic state with punishing housing and grocery prices and some of the nation’s highest gas and utility costs, Becerra said working families are facing an affordability crisis. “The California Dream is slipping away,” he said in a statement announcing his run.
Pet Owners Urged to Avoid Bait Packets: USDA Airdropping Rabies Vaccine
Various government departments plan to distribute rabies vaccine baits for wild animals this week in Tennessee, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The oral rabies vaccine (ORV) baits have a smell designed to attract certain wild animals who eat them and become vaccinated against rabies. This helps prevent the disease from spreading to humans. Airplanes, helicopters and ground vehicles will distribute about 400,000 baits in Tennessee beginning this week, the USDA said.
The program includes distribution to Monroe, Cocke and Greene Counties as well as other parts of Tennessee.
“The ORV bait distribution program is part of management activities to prevent the westward movement of the rabies virus most often spread by raccoons,” the USDA wrote. “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 90 percent of reported rabies cases in the U.S. are in wildlife. People are urged not to make contact with or feed wildlife and to keep their pets’ rabies vaccinations current.”
