Latest news with #vaccineSafety
CBC
10 hours ago
- Health
- CBC
U.S. vaccine panel rejects flu shots with a specific preservative, despite safety data
The Trump administration's new vaccine advisers on Thursday endorsed this fall's flu vaccinations for just about every American — but only if they use certain shots free of a preservative that has been safely used in vaccines for decades. What is normally a routine step in preparing for the upcoming flu season drew intense scrutiny after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the influential 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)and handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics. The seven-member panel bucked another norm Thursday as it discussed the safety of a preservative used in less than five per cent of U.S. flu vaccinations: It deliberated based only on a presentation from an anti-vaccine group's former leader — without allowing the usual public airing of scientific data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The preservative, thimerosal, has been used for decades in certain vaccines that come in multi-dose vials, to prevent contamination as each dose is withdrawn. Its controversy stems from containing a small amount of a particular type of mercury. However, the CDC's own data shows it is safe, and on Friday the World Health Organization stated in a press briefing that there was no evidence of risk. "Thimerosal has been reviewed multiple times by multiple agencies, including WHO, and it's clear from the evidence that there is no evidence of harm from the use of thimerosal," Dr. Katherine O'Brien from WHO told reporters in reaction to the U.S. panel decision. Thimerosal contains a minute amount of ethyl mercury, which breaks down quickly in the body and is swiftly removed, unlike methyl mercury, the type of mercury found in the environment which can build up in the body and cause harm. In Canada, a handful of multi-dose influenza vaccines approved for use by Health Canada contain thimerosal, but the vast majority of routine childhood vaccines do not. Single-dose flu shots unaffected Study after study has found no evidence that thimerosal causes autism, a myth long pushed by anti-vaccine groups, or poses any safety risks. Yet since 2001, all vaccines routinely used for U.S. children age 6 years or younger have already come in thimerosal-free formulas. The advisory panel voted to back the usual U.S. recommendation that nearly everyone age six months and older get an annual flu vaccination, but then voted 5-1 with one abstention that these had to be thimerosal-free formulations. This would include single-dose shots that already are the most common type of flu vaccination, and would rule out the subset of flu vaccine dispensed in multi-dose vials. "There is still no demonstrable evidence of harm," one panelist, Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a psychiatrist formerly with the National Institutes of Health, said in acknowledging the committee wasn't following its usual practice of acting on evidence. But he argued that "we have to respect the fear of mercury" that he said might dissuade some people from getting vaccinated. Panel blocked CDC's analysis Lyn Redwood, formerly of the Kennedy-founded anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, gave the presentation on thimerosal in front of the panel, arguing that it was a neurotoxin. The version of Redwood's presentation posted to the CDC's website earlier this week initially included a reference to a study that does not exist. The report she gave to the committee was significantly shorter, removing a reference to that study and another slide saying she did not have any conflicts of interest. "With the vote on thimerosal this afternoon, the new committee has turned the ACIP process into a farce," said former CDC vaccine adviser Dr. Fiona Havers, who resigned last week over Kennedy's changes to vaccine policy. Medical groups decried the panel's lack of transparency in blocking a CDC analysis of thimerosal that concluded there was no link between the preservative and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism. The data had been posted on the committee's website Tuesday, but was later removed — because, according to ACIP member Dr. Robert Malone, the report hadn't been authorized by Kennedy's office. Panel members said they had read it. The ACIP helps the CDC determine who should be vaccinated against a long list of diseases, and when, and its recommendations have a big impact on availability and insurance coverage of vaccines in the U.S. Normally the CDC's director would decide whether to accept ACIP's recommendation, but the Senate has not yet confirmed nominee Susan Monarez. Administration officials said Kennedy would make that decision. While Thursday's debate involved only a small fraction of flu vaccines, some public health experts contend the discussion unnecessarily raised doubt about vaccine safety. Already, fewer than half of Americans get their yearly flu vaccinations, and mistrust in vaccines overall is growing. "Selective use of data and omission of established science undermines public trust and fuels misinformation," said Dr. Sean O'Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). He said of the new panelists, "Nothing about their recent actions have been science-based or transparent." WATCH: Misinformation one of the factors behind decline in childhood vaccination globally: Decline in childhood vaccination fuelled by global conflicts, misinformation: Lancet 3 days ago Duration 2:01 A new study published in the Lancet medical journal suggests childhood vaccinations have stagnated or declined since 2010. The authors say geopolitical instability is fuelling the drop in some countries, but misinformation is largely driving the decline in high-income countries. The pediatrics group announced Wednesday that it would no longer be participating in the ACIP meetings, with president Sue Kressly saying in a video statement that "with the committee dismissals, it is no longer a credible process." The AAP will continue publishing its own vaccination recommendations. The flu votes marked the final step of a two-day meeting that alarmed pediatricians and other doctors' groups, who pointed to new panelists' lack of expertise in how to properly track vaccine safety — and a shift in focus which appears to boost anti-vaccine messaging. Of special concern was the announcement by panel chairman Martin Kulldorff to reevaluate the "cumulative effect" of the children's vaccine schedule — the list of immunizations given at different times throughout childhood. That reflects the scientifically debunked notion that children today get too many vaccinations for their immune systems.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Experts say halting U.S. funds for Gavi vaccine alliance will cost lives
Johannesburg — Every four years, representatives to the global alliance of governments, pharmaceutical makers, United Nations agencies and philanthropic organizations known as Gavi, which helps get vaccines to people who need them, meet to lock in new funding pledges. Just as this year's meeting in Brussels was drawing to a close on Wednesday, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that all funding from Washington would cease. In a three-and-a-half-minute video message that Kennedy shared on social media, he said the Trump administration was halting funding to the organization because it had "neglected the key issue of vaccine safety." Kennedy, who has sought to distance himself from the "anti-vaccine" label, has a history of making misleading statements about vaccine safety and has been tied to anti-vaccine activism groups. Gavi says it has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in 78 low income countries and prevented more than 18.8 million deaths since its creation 25 years ago. Its focus is getting vaccines, especially new vaccines, to populations that would struggle to afford them or access them otherwise. Kennedy argued in the video that GAVI "has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety," and that "when vaccine safety issues have come before Gavi, Gavi has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem." Kennedy accused GAVI of ignoring the science and said the alliance must "justify the $8 billion the U.S. has given it since 2001." The U.S. has long been among the top government contributors to Gavi's funding, which also comes from private organizations. The Biden administration had committed to $1.6 billion in funding for the organization from 2026 through 2030 — an amount roughly equal to the funding pledged by the private Gates Foundation — and shock and outrage reverberated across the conference in Brussels after Kennedy's announcement. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, said on social media that the move would have "devastating consequences." He called on the U.S. Congress to keep funding Gavi, warning that if it did not, "more sick kids will fall behind in school," and there would be "more overcrowded hospital wards and eventually more grieving parents." "If Congress allows this to happen, the consequences will be devastating," Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said. "Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of preventable deaths will occur, especially among mothers and children." Dr. Atul Gawande, a public health researcher and surgeon at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who previously held a seat on the Gavi board, said Kennedy would be held personally responsible for the results of halted U.S. government funding, which he called a "travesty and a nightmare." "I would expect to see significant changes and reductions in access to safe and effective vaccines to children, in the poorest and most vulnerable countries of the world," one U.S. official with decades of experience in global health and vaccination programs told CBS News on the condition of anonymity. "Kennedy's rhetoric on vaccine safety is not helpful and is likely to fuel vaccine hesitancy in the minds of people across the world, where we will surely now see more uncontrolled outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. This is very unfortunate." The U.N.'s World Health Organization has warned since 2019 that vaccine hesitancy and mistrust is one of the leading threats to global public health. The goal of this year's conference was to secure funding to reach the organization's target of over 90% global coverage with essential vaccines for a wide range of diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and measles. Gavi received more than $9 billion in funding commitments on Wednesday, but it had hoped to garner $11.9 billion for the next five years, with the goal of immunizing 500 million children globally. Other countries acknowledged Gavi's importance, and increased their contributions at the conference on Wednesday. Topping that list was the U.K. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced $1.7 billion for the coming five years, making the U.K. Gavi's new largest donor. Ghana's President John Darami Mahama, addressing the Gavi conference on Wednesday, began by detailing his younger brother's struggle with polio, and the stigma associated with the disease, which has been virtually eradicated worldwide thanks to vaccination programs launched in the late 1980s. "I understand the importance of vaccines," Mahama told the delegations. When his brother was diagnosed, vaccine access in Ghana was close to zero, but the president said that, through partnership with Gavi, 97% of the population was now vaccinated. He said officials were still working to reach the last 3% — about "65,000 children who are in remote areas, difficult to reach for life saving vaccines" — and that Ghana planned to no longer need Gavi's support by 2030. Mahama concluded his remarks with a topical comparison, saying: "One B-2 Spirit Bomber that dropped bombs on Iran cost $2.13 billion," and that he had done the math, adding: "Surely the world can afford the value of four B-2 bombers to save 500 million children. It's a choice we have to make." Young Cuban girl asks Trump to lift travel ban stopping her from joining mom in U.S. Images of newly-discovered exoplanet captured by James Webb Telescope RFK Jr.'s CDC vaccine panel recommends against flu vaccines containing thimerosal
Associated Press
a day ago
- Health
- Associated Press
Kennedy says US is pulling funding from global vaccine group Gavi
LONDON (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the country is pulling its support from the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the organization has 'ignored the science' and 'lost the public trust.' A video of Kennedy's short speech was shown to a Gavi meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, where the organization that has paid for more than 1 billion children to be vaccinated through routine immunization programs was hoping to raise at least $9 billion for the next five years. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, mentioned Gavi's partnership with the World Health Organization during COVID-19, accusing them of silencing 'dissenting views' and 'legitimate questions' about vaccine safety. His speech also cast doubt on the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine — which WHO and other health agencies have long deemed to be safe and effective. Gavi said in a statement Thursday that its 'utmost concern is the health and safety of children,' adding that any decision it makes on vaccines to buy is done in accordance with recommendations issued by WHO's expert vaccine group. Some doctors in the United States criticized the decision. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said it was 'incredibly dangerous' and warned that defunding immunization would put millions of children at risk. Gavi is a public-private partnership including WHO, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation and the World Bank, and it is estimated that the vaccination programs have saved 18 million lives. The United States has long been one of its biggest supporters; before President Donald Trump's re-election, the country had pledged $1 billion through 2030. In just under four minutes, Kennedy called on Gavi 'to justify the $8 billion America has provided in funding since 2001,' saying officials must 'consider the best science available, even when that science contradicts established paradigms.' Kennedy said until that happens, the U.S. won't contribute further to Gavi. The health secretary zeroed in on the COVID-19 vaccine, which WHO, Gavi and other health authorities have recommended for pregnant women, saying they are at higher risk of severe disease. Kennedy called that a 'questionable' recommendation; his U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently stopped recommending it. He also criticized Gavi for funding of a rollout a vaccine to prevent diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in poorer countries, saying he'd seen research that concluded that young girls who got the vaccine were more likely to die from all other causes than children who weren't immunized. Gavi said scientists had reviewed all available data, including any studies that raised concerns, and that the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine has 'played a key role in helping halve childhood mortality.' Some observational studies have shown that vaccinated girls do have a higher death rate compared to unvaccinated children, but there is no evidence the deaths are caused by the vaccine. But Offit said the studies cited by Kennedy were not convincing and that research examining links between vaccinations and deaths did not prove a causal connection. 'There's no mechanism here which makes biological sense for why the (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine) might result in more children dying,' Offit said. Doctors Without Borders on Thursday predicted 'countless children will die from vaccine-preventable diseases' as a result of the U.S. withdrawing support for Gavi. 'To invoke misleading and inaccurate claims about vaccine safety as the pretext for cutting all global vaccine funding is cruel and reckless,' said Mihir Mankad, the charity's global health advocacy and policy director in the U.S. 'When we vaccinate in the community, parents line up for hours to give their children a chance to be protected from these deadly diseases. 'For these children, vaccination programs ... are a matter of life and death.' ___
CBS News
2 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
RFK Jr.'s halt to U.S. funding for Gavi vaccine alliance a "travesty and a nightmare," experts warn
Johannesburg — Every four years, representatives to the global alliance of governments, pharmaceutical makers, United Nations agencies and philanthropic organizations known as Gavi, which helps get vaccines to people who need them, meet to lock in new funding pledges. Just as this year's meeting in Brussels was drawing to a close on Wednesday, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that all funding from Washington would cease. In a three-and-a-half-minute video message that Kennedy shared on social media, he said the Trump administration was halting funding to the organization because it had "neglected the key issue of vaccine safety." Kennedy, who has sought to distance himself from the "anti-vaccine" label, has a history of making misleading statements about vaccine safety and has been tied to anti-vaccine activism groups. Gavi says it has helped vaccinate more than 1.1 billion children in 78 low income countries and prevented more than 18.8 million deaths since its creation 25 years ago. Its focus is getting vaccines, especially new vaccines, to populations that would struggle to afford them or access them otherwise. Kennedy argued in the video that GAVI "has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety," and that "when vaccine safety issues have come before Gavi, Gavi has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem." Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks in Washington, D.C., June 23, 2025. Kevin Mohatt/REUTERS Kennedy accused GAVI of ignoring the science and said the alliance must "justify the $8 billion the U.S. has given it since 2001." The U.S. has long been among the top government contributors to Gavi's funding, which also comes from private organizations. The Biden administration had committed to $1.6 billion in funding for the organization from 2026 through 2030 — an amount roughly equal to the funding pledged by the private Gates Foundation — and shock and outrage reverberated across the conference in Brussels after Kennedy's announcement. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and the Gates Foundation, said on social media that the move would have "devastating consequences." He called on the U.S. Congress to keep funding Gavi, warning that if it did not, "more sick kids will fall behind in school," and there would be "more overcrowded hospital wards and eventually more grieving parents." "If Congress allows this to happen, the consequences will be devastating," Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said. "Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of preventable deaths will occur, especially among mothers and children." Dr. Atul Gawande, a public health researcher and surgeon at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston who previously held a seat on the Gavi board, said Kennedy would be held personally responsible for the results of halted U.S. government funding, which he called a "travesty and a nightmare." "I would expect to see significant changes and reductions in access to safe and effective vaccines to children, in the poorest and most vulnerable countries of the world," one U.S. official with decades of experience in global health and vaccination programs told CBS News on the condition of anonymity. "Kennedy's rhetoric on vaccine safety is not helpful and is likely to fuel vaccine hesitancy in the minds of people across the world, where we will surely now see more uncontrolled outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. This is very unfortunate." The U.N.'s World Health Organization has warned since 2019 that vaccine hesitancy and mistrust is one of the leading threats to global public health. The goal of this year's conference was to secure funding to reach the organization's target of over 90% global coverage with essential vaccines for a wide range of diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus and measles. Gavi received more than $9 billion in funding commitments on Wednesday, but it had hoped to garner $11.9 billion for the next five years, with the goal of immunizing 500 million children globally. Other countries acknowledged Gavi's importance, and increased their contributions at the conference on Wednesday. Topping that list was the U.K. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced $1.7 billion for the coming five years, making the U.K. Gavi's new largest donor. Ghana's President John Darami Mahama, addressing the Gavi conference on Wednesday, began by detailing his younger brother's struggle with polio, and the stigma associated with the disease, which has been virtually eradicated worldwide thanks to vaccination programs launched in the late 1980s. "I understand the importance of vaccines," Mahama told the delegations. When his brother was diagnosed, vaccine access in Ghana was close to zero, but the president said that, through partnership with Gavi, 97% of the population was now vaccinated. He said officials were still working to reach the last 3% — about "65,000 children who are in remote areas, difficult to reach for life saving vaccines" — and that Ghana planned to no longer need Gavi's support by 2030. Mahama concluded his remarks with a topical comparison, saying: "One B-2 Spirit Bomber that dropped bombs on Iran cost $2.13 billion," and that he had done the math, adding: "Surely the world can afford the value of four B-2 bombers to save 500 million children. It's a choice we have to make."
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
RFK Jr. fact checked: Physician reveals what Kennedy gets wrong on vaccine safety
In the four months since he began serving as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made many public statements about vaccines that have cast doubt on their safety and on the objectivity of long-standing processes established to evaluate them. Many of these statements are factually incorrect. For example, in a newscast aired on June 12, 2025, Kennedy told Fox News viewers that 97% of federal vaccine advisers are on the take. In the same interview, he also claimed that children receive 92 mandatory shots. He has also widely claimed that only COVID-19 vaccines, not other vaccines in use by both children and adults, were ever tested against placebos and that 'nobody has any idea' how safe routine immunizations are. As an infectious disease physician who curates an open database of hundreds of controlled vaccine trials involving over 6 million participants, I am intimately familiar with the decades of research on vaccine safety. I believe it is important to correct the record – especially because these statements come from the official who now oversees the agencies charged with protecting Americans' health. Do children really receive 92 mandatory shots? In 1986, the childhood vaccine schedule contained about 11 doses protecting against seven diseases. Today, it includes roughly 50 injections covering 16 diseases. State school entry laws typically require 30 to 32 shots across 10 to 12 diseases. No state mandates COVID-19 vaccination. Where Kennedy's '92 mandatory shots' figure comes from is unclear, but the actual number is significantly lower. From a safety standpoint, the more important question is whether today's schedule with additional vaccines might be too taxing for children's immune systems. It isn't, because as vaccine technology improved over the past several decades, the number of antigens in each vaccine dose is much lower than before. Antigens are the molecules in vaccines that trigger a response from the immune system, training it to identify the specific pathogen. Some vaccines contain a minute amount of aluminum salt that serves as an adjuvant – a helper ingredient that improves the quality and staying power of the immune response, so each dose can protect with less antigen. Those 11 doses in 1986 delivered more than 3,000 antigens and 1.5 milligrams of aluminum over 18 years. Today's complete schedule delivers roughly 165 antigens – which is a 95% reduction – and 5-6 milligrams of aluminum in the same time frame. A single smallpox inoculation in 1900 exposed a child to more antigens than today's complete series. Since 1986, the United States has introduced vaccines against Haemophilus influenzae type b, hepatitis A and B, chickenpox, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus and human papillomavirus. Each addition represents a life-saving advance. The incidence of Haemophilus influenzae type b, a bacterial infection that can cause pneumonia, meningitis and other severe diseases, has dropped by 99% in infants. Pediatric hepatitis infections are down more than 90%, and chickenpox hospitalizations are down about 90%. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that vaccinating children born from 1994 to 2023 will avert 508 million illnesses and 1,129,000 premature deaths. Placebo testing for vaccines Kennedy has asserted that only COVID-19 vaccines have undergone rigorous safety trials in which they were tested against placebos. This is categorically wrong. Of the 378 controlled trials in our database, 195 compared volunteers' response to a vaccine with their response to a placebo. Of those, 159 gave volunteers only a salt water solution or another inert substance. Another 36 gave them just the adjuvant without any viral or bacterial material, as a way to see whether there were side effects from the antigen itself or the injection. Every routine childhood vaccine antigen appears in at least one such study. The 1954 Salk polio trial, one of the largest clinical trials in medical history, enrolled more than 600,000 children and tested the vaccine by comparing it with a saltwater control. Similar trials, which used a substance that has no biological effect as a control, were used to test Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcal, rotavirus, influenza and HPV vaccines. Once an effective vaccine exists, ethics boards require new versions to be compared against the licensed standard because withholding proven protection from children would be unethical. How unknown is the safety of widely used vaccines? Kennedy has insisted on multiple occasions that 'nobody has any idea' about vaccine safety profiles. Of the 378 trials in our database, the vast majority published detailed safety outcomes. Beyond trials, the U.S. operates the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, the Vaccine Safety Datalink and the PRISM network to monitor hundreds of millions of doses for rare problems. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System works like an open mailbox where anyone – patients, parents, clinicians – can report a post-shot problem; the Vaccine Safety Datalink analyzes anonymized electronic health records from large health care systems to spot patterns; and PRISM scans billions of insurance claims in near-real time to confirm or rule out rare safety signals. These systems led health officials to pull the first rotavirus vaccine in 1999 after it was linked to bowel obstruction, and to restrict the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 after rare clotting events. Few drug classes undergo such continuous surveillance and are subject to such swift corrective action when genuine risks emerge. The conflicts of interest claim On June 9, Kennedy took the unprecedented step of dissolving vetted members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the expert body that advises the CDC on national vaccine policy. He has claimed repeatedly that the vast majority of serving members of the committee – 97% – had extensive conflicts of interest because of their entanglements with the pharmaceutical industry. Kennedy bases that number on a 2009 federal audit of conflict-of-interest paperwork, but that report looked at 17 CDC advisory committees, not specifically this vaccine committee. And it found no pervasive wrongdoing – 97% of disclosure forms only contained routine paperwork mistakes, such as information in the wrong box or a missing initial, and not hidden financial ties. Reuters examined data from Open Payments, a government website that discloses health care providers' relationships with industry, for all 17 voting members of the committee who were dismissed. Six received no more than US$80 from drugmakers over seven years, and four had no payments at all. The remaining seven members accepted between $4,000 and $55,000 over seven years, mostly for modest consulting or travel. In other words, just 41% of the committee received anything more than pocket change from drugmakers. Committee members must divest vaccine company stock and recuse themselves from votes involving conflicts. A term without a meaning Kennedy has warned that vaccines cause 'immune deregulation,' a term that has no basis in immunology. Vaccines train the immune system, and the diseases they prevent are the real threats to immune function. Measles can wipe out immune memory, leaving children vulnerable to other infections for years. COVID-19 can trigger multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Chronic hepatitis B can cause immune-mediated organ damage. Preventing these conditions protects people from immune system damage. Today's vaccine panel doesn't just prevent infections; it deters doctor visits and thereby reduces unnecessary prescriptions for 'just-in-case' antibiotics. It's one of the rare places in medicine where physicians like me now do more good with less biological burden than we did 40 years ago. The evidence is clear and publicly available: Vaccines have dramatically reduced childhood illness, disability and death on a historic scale.
