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Politico
2 days ago
- Health
- Politico
A glimpse into the new ACIP
Presented by Driving the Day ACIP TAKEAWAYS — ATLANTA — The first meeting of the newly appointed CDC vaccine panel concluded Thursday, offering a glimpse into how federal vaccine policy could begin to reflect Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s personal views, Sophie reports with POLITICO's Lauren Gardner. During the two-day meeting at the CDC headquarters, Kennedy's hand-picked advisers on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices set the stage to revise the childhood vaccine schedule and voted to stop recommending flu shots with an additive that has long been a target of the anti-vaccine movement. Earlier this month, Kennedy fired 17 members of the panel and replaced them with eight members — including several with a history of vaccine skepticism. One member resigned before the meeting began, leaving seven. Here are three takeaways from the meeting: 1. Kennedy's agenda was front and center The panel voted to no longer recommend thimerosal-containing flu vaccines for all ages, a measure Kennedy has pushed for. In 2014, he wrote a book about thimerosal, arguing that it likely causes autism and should be banned. But many public health agencies have long considered the preservative to be safe — including the CDC, according to its website. What it means: If endorsed by the CDC director, the new recommendations would mark one of the most prominent examples of Kennedy's views reflected in U.S. vaccine policy since becoming HHS secretary. With no CDC director or acting director in place, however, Kennedy is expected to make the final endorsement. 2. One member pushed back The panel's lone pediatrician, Dartmouth's Dr. Cody Meissner, was the only voting member to push back on views presented that contradicted scientific consensus, a development that encouraged some public health experts otherwise troubled by the meeting. 'He's dealt with vaccine-preventable diseases. He's talked to parents about vaccines, so I thought he was generally a voice of reason,' said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician who serves on the FDA's external vaccine panel. 3. More vaccine scrutiny looms The committee's agenda items in the months ahead signal that Thursday's thimerosal votes were just the beginning of policy shifts that could affect vaccine access in the U.S. ACIP Chair Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist and a former Harvard Medical School professor, said Wednesday the panel would review childhood vaccines and shots not studied in more than seven years, opening up the possibility of significant changes to the pediatric schedule. And he said Thursday that, at its next meeting, the panel might consider advising against the use of a combination shot known as MMRV, which protects against measles and chickenpox, in children under 4 years old. WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE. Did anything else stand out to you from the ACIP meeting? Let us know, and send your tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and sgardner@ and follow along @kelhoops and @sophie_gardnerj. In Congress CUTS IN QUESTION — The Senate parliamentarian dealt a blow to Senate Republicans' plans for the GOP megabill Thursday, sending lawmakers back to the drawing board as several of their health-related provisions won't be able to pass along party lines, POLITICO's Meredith Lee Hill, Robert King and Jordain Carney report. Those provisions include a politically explosive plan to hold down Medicaid costs by cracking down on a state provider tax, as well as proposals to exclude undocumented residents from Medicaid and to prohibit plans that cover abortion from receiving certain Obamacare payments. The decisions, detailed in a Thursday morning memo, come at a critical time for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who's already facing a revolt inside his conference as members are wary of the practical and political impacts of the Medicaid changes. Thune said Thursday the Senate would not move to overrule its parliamentarian despite prodding from multiple conservatives. When asked by POLITICO about overruling her, Thune said, 'No, that would not be a good option for getting a bill done.' Pressure is on: Despite the setback, the White House still expects lawmakers to meet President Donald Trump's fast-approaching July 4 deadline for passage of the bill, which would enact his domestic agenda of tax cuts and energy and border policy. FIRST IN PULSE: CURES CAMPAIGN — Advocacy group UsAgainstAlzheimer's today launched a seven-figure campaign to fight back against the Trump administration's massive funding cuts to health agencies and medical research. The campaign, called United for Cures, is pushing to restore funding that the Trump administration has cut at the National Institutes of Health and the FDA that went toward developing life-saving treatments and cures for diseases like Alzheimer's, cancer and diabetes. The group will release digital and social media ads today that will run through September, targeting Republican lawmakers in vulnerable seats and urging them to preserve medical research funding. The digital ads call out Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), as well as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). 'United for Cures is launching at a critical moment — when life-saving biomedical research is under attack,' said Russ Paulsen, chief operating officer of UsAgainstAlzheimer's. 'Deep cuts to federal health agencies, especially the NIH, are jeopardizing future breakthroughs that give Americans a fighting chance against deadly diseases.' Background: President Donald Trump wants Congress to codify spending cuts he's clawed back from the NIH. The Trump administration also wants Congress to slash the NIH's budget by more than 40 percent in fiscal 2026, from roughly $47 billion to $27 billion. The proposed budget cements a controversial plan to impose a 15 percent cap on the indirect costs that the NIH pays to aid research at universities — a cut that university presidents have warned would decimate their ability to conduct critical laboratory work. That plan was later halted in court. Key context: Researchers and universities have said that the deep cuts would put the U.S. at risk of losing its edge to China as the world's leader in biomedical research. At the Courts GRANT FUNDING STAYS ON PAUSE — A federal judge on Thursday declined to immediately restore federal grants to Planned Parenthood affiliates participating in HHS's teen pregnancy prevention program. Five Planned Parenthood affiliates sued the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in May after HHS ordered the groups to align with executive orders from President Donald Trump to keep receiving grant funding for the program. The executive orders aim to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at federal agencies and affirm the definition of biological sex as either male or female, among other ideology-focused guidance. The groups argue the Trump administration's mandate is 'impossibly vague' and would impede Planned Parenthood from implementing the teen pregnancy prevention program's mandate from Congress: to implement 'medically accurate' programs that effectively reduce teenage pregnancy and associated risk factors. The Planned Parenthood groups sought both a preliminary and permanent injunction against the new funding requirements, but Trump-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly rejected the preliminary request Thursday, saying the groups failed to demonstrate that Planned Parenthood will imminently suffer irreparable harm. Planned Parenthood didn't immediately return a request for comment. Background: The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program is a national, evidence-based program that provides grant funding to organizations like Planned Parenthood to educate teens and their guardians on sexual and reproductive health and improve health outcomes — including decreasing sexually transmitted infections and unintended teen pregnancy. The program is administered by HHS's Office of Population Affairs, with an annual budget of about $101 million. Medicaid SMALL-BUSINESS IMPACT — Republicans' Medicaid cut proposals could be devastating for small business owners and workers who rely on the so-called safety-net health insurance program, according to an analysis from the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy. About one-third of all Medicaid enrollees — including owners and employees and their family members — are connected to small businesses, according to the report. About 11 million children whose parents are self-employed or work for small businesses are enrolled in Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program that covers more than 70 million low-income Americans. Why it matters: Providing private health insurance can be costly for small businesses because of high administrative costs and a smaller pool of people in the market compared to larger businesses. That's why many small businesses don't offer health insurance plans to workers, and a large share instead rely on the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid. But the proposals in the House-passed GOP megabill threaten to kick millions of people off both Medicaid and the ACA, heightening concerns for small business owners about fueling job growth at their companies. 'Most notably, we would expect to see many small business workers have to leave their jobs, and even some small business owners close their firms, and go work for someone else in part because they will have lost their health benefits through Medicaid,' said David Chase, vice president of policy and advocacy at the Small Business Majority, in a statement. Names in the News Jonathan Kupperman has been promoted to legislative director for Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas). He most recently was health policy adviser for Arrington. WHAT WE'RE READING POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein, Josh Gerstein and Lauren Gardner report on the Supreme Court clearing the way for states to kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid. KFF Health News' Jordan Rau reports on a double whammy of threats facing the long-term health care industry.
Mint
2 days ago
- Health
- Mint
Robert F. Kennedy Jr-revamped vaccine panel to re-examine childhood immunization schedule, raising alarm
A federal vaccine advisory committee is preparing to re-evaluate the childhood vaccination schedule and reexamine long-standing immunizations, a move that has triggered alarm over concerns about potential changes to established vaccine recommendations. On Wednesday (June 25), the newly appointed Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met for the first time under its new chair, Martin Kulldorff. Kulldorff announced the creation of two new work groups: one to scrutinize the cumulative effects of all recommended vaccines in children and adolescents, and another to review vaccines that have not been evaluated in more than seven years. 'The number of vaccines that our children and adolescents receive today exceeds what children in most other developed nations receive and what most of us in this room received when we were children,' Kulldorff said during the meeting. He added: 'In addition to studying and evaluating individual vaccines, it is important to evaluate the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule. This includes interaction effects between different vaccines, the total number of vaccines, cumulative amount of vaccine ingredients, and relative timing.' Kulldorff explained that among the topics the committee could consider is whether hepatitis B shots should continue to be administered to newborns before hospital discharge. The group may also weigh the possibility of recommending separate measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and varicella vaccines instead of the combined MMRV shot, and look at adjusting the timing of MMR doses to address certain religious objections. 'This was supposed to be a regular practice of the ACIP, but it has not been done in a thorough and systematic way,' Kulldorff said. 'We are learning more about vaccines over time, and to stay true to evidence-based medicine, we have a duty and a responsibility to keep up to date with scientific research.' Earlier this month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all 17 members of the previous ACIP and appointed eight new members, many of whom have voiced skepticism about childhood vaccines. 'When I was a kid I got three vaccines,' Kennedy said. 'Today they get 69 to 92 jabs of vaccines between conception and when they are 18 years old.' Kennedy has frequently claimed that today's vaccination schedule is excessive and not sufficiently scrutinised. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) swiftly condemned the developments. In a video statement, the AAP said: 'Immunization policy through ACIP is no longer a credible process.' The group pledged to continue publishing its own independent vaccine recommendations for children, regardless of ACIP deliberations.
Newsweek
3 days ago
- Health
- Newsweek
RFK Jr.'s Panel Gives Update on Reviewing Childhood Vaccine Schedule
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A newly restructured panel of vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans to launch new work groups tasked with evaluating the effects of the childhood and adolescent immunization schedules, the first hepatitis B dose administered at birth, and the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccine. The newly appointed chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Dr. Martin Kulldorff, made the announcement during Wednesday's meeting in Atlanta, according to CNN. This marked the first gathering of the revised ACIP since U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the previous 17-member panel earlier this month, citing alleged conflicts of interest. He swiftly replaced them with eight new members, though one later withdrew during a financial disclosure review, according to the Associated Press, leaving seven individuals now responsible for advising the nation on vaccine recommendations. The American Academy of Pediatrics announced at the meeting that it will continue publishing its own vaccine schedule for children but now will do so independently of the ACIP, calling it "no longer a credible process." This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
UPI
3 days ago
- Health
- UPI
CDC vaccine committee meets despite bipartisan criticism
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Dirksen Senate office building in Washington, D.C. in May. Photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI | License Photo June 25 (UPI) -- A key vaccine-focused committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met Wednesday despite bipartisan protestations and controversy that surrounds the group's membership. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, began at 10 a.m. EDT to discuss vaccination policy in regard to COVID-19 and RSV before its adjournment at 5:30 p.m. The panel will reconvene Thursday to discuss vaccines and vaccination recommendations for flu, chikungunya, anthrax, MMRV and the use of thimerosal in inoculations. The panel had consisted of eight members, who replaced the 17 people who were terminated by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this month, but Dr. Michael Ross stepped down Tuesday night as two United States senators recently suggested the ACIP meeting be postponed. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a physician and chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Monday that the new members of the panel selected by Kennedy "lack experience studying new technologies such as mRNA vaccines, and may even have a preconceived bias against them," and declared that Wednesday's meeting should not happen. "The meeting should be delayed until the panel is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation-as required by law-including those with more direct relevant expertise, Cassidy wrote. "Otherwise, ACIP's recommendations could be viewed with skepticism, which will work against the success of this administration's efforts." Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., put out an X post late Tuesday that also took umbrage with the new ACIP panel. "RFK Jr. fired all of the experts at CDC's vaccine advisory committee," Murray said. "He installed [eight] unvetted people, including anti-vaxxers who should have zero role in deciding which vaccines insurance should cover." "The committee's next meeting must be postponed," she added. The American Academy of Pediatrics also spoke against the ACIP meeting in an announcement on its social media platform Wednesday. "Today's ACIP meeting is usually a time where experts come together to inform the future of vaccines," the post stated. "That is not what today will be. That is not what we can stand behind." The AAP concluded its post by sharing that it "will continue to recommend its own childhood vaccine schedule." Wednesday's ACIP meeting, which can be viewed online, opened with a preamble from the ACIP chair Dr. Martin Kulldorff, in which he stated that "Secretary Kennedy has given this committee a clear mandate to use evidence-based medicine when making vaccine recommendations. And that is what we will do."
NDTV
4 days ago
- Health
- NDTV
RFK Jr's Medical Panel To Review Contested Vaccine Claims
A vaccine panel appointed by US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will revisit long-settled science and spotlight rare risks linked to childhood immunizations in a meeting beginning Wednesday, raising fears that fringe theories could seep into national policy. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent body that reviews scientific evidence to recommend which groups should receive vaccines and when, rarely makes headlines. But these are no ordinary times. Kennedy, who spent two decades spreading vaccine misinformation before becoming President Donald Trump's top health official, has brought that skepticism into the federal government. Earlier this month he abruptly dismissed all 17 ACIP members before their terms had expired, accusing them of financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry -- despite a vetting process meant to minimize conflicts of interest. He then appointed eight new members, including scientist Robert Malone, widely known for spreading false claims during the Covid-19 pandemic and promoting the deworming drug ivermectin. The posted agenda includes standard topics like influenza and Covid-19 vaccines -- but the addition, on the second day of discussions, of measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) vaccines for young children, along with thimerosal-containing flu shots, has alarmed experts. Ahead of the meeting, US senator and physician Bill Cassidy -- a Republican whose reluctant support was key to Kennedy's confirmation -- called for a delay, citing the panelists' inexperience and bias. Debunked autism connection Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative long used in medicines, with no evidence of harm at low doses. "Study after study showed that the ethylmercury in those vaccines never contributed in any important way to the burden of mercury that one is exposed to, living on this planet," vaccine expert Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia told AFP. Still, vaccine makers agreed to remove it from pediatric vaccines in 1999 in response to public concern. It remains in some flu shots. The presenter arguing against thimerosal is Lyn Redwood, a nurse and former leader of Children's Health Defense - an anti-vaccine nonprofit once chaired by RFK Jr. According to her biography page, Redwood blames her son's autism on vaccines -- a link that has never been proven. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is overseeing the meeting, will argue thimerosal is safe and has no effect on neurodevelopment, based on a thorough review of the evidence. Rampant measles outbreak For childhood vaccines, US parents can choose a combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) shot or two separate injections -- one for MMR, the other for varicella. The combination spares an extra jab but carries a slightly higher risk of febrile seizures, a rare and typically harmless side effect. Separating the shots is already recommended for infants' first dose at age 12-47 months, leaving experts puzzled as to why the issue is being revisited. Notably, there's no planned discussion on the benefits of measles vaccines, which have prevented millions of hospitalizations. "The discussion of MMRV vaccines, critical tools in preventing measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella, must be rooted in science, not ideology," said Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at NYC Health + Hospitals. The United States, which declared measles eliminated in 2000, is currently experiencing its worst measles outbreak of the disease in decades, with more than 1,200 cases and three confirmed deaths. "ACIP is going to become an outlet for anti-vaccine propaganda and increasingly irrelevant to the practice of medicine," warned Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. Still, the panel's recommendations could have broad consequences, shaping school vaccine mandates and insurance coverage.
