#vaccination-policy

#vaccination-policy

But Kennedy's summertime purge of the committee - and the lack of a full-time political leader at the agency - has many in the scientific community convinced that the new appointees will rubber-stamp more limits on who can get routine shots. What they're saying: "ACIP has quite literally been the north star of America's approach to vaccination for decades,"Jason Schwartz, a vaccine policy expert and associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health, told Axios. "That's why it was so often the focus of criticism by critics of vaccines, and I think that's why we're seeing such attention on the part of the administration."

Soon, though, Florida's policy may change. Earlier this month, the state's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, announced his intention to end all vaccine mandates: "Every last one of them is wrong," he said. Some vaccine rules-including the one applying to the meningococcal vaccine -are written into the state's laws, but Ladapo has said his office will partner with Governor Ron DeSantis's to push for necessary changes.

IN LOCAL NEWS: In 2002, when the city of Portland initially granted Zenith Energy permission to continue operating its fuel transport and storage facility in Northwest Portland, it did so with a number of conditions-in an attempt to limit further potential for local pollution. Environmental advocates who disagreed with the permit subsequently sued, and now a city attorney has admitted that the city does not believe it can enforce those compromise conditions at all. For the Mercury, Abe Asher has more.

The anti-vaccine policies of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy have rightfully caused great distress among many parents, public health professionals and primary care physicians, given the efficacy of vaccines in preventing measles, mumps, polio, influenza, and COVID-19, among many debilitating infectious diseases. In contrast to these policies, Kennedy's apparent aim of reducing exposure to toxic pesticides, herbicides and food additives has been treated, even by some public health advocates, as a positive turn toward regulation.

"This is all about one simple decision," Osterholm said during a long interview with . "Are we going to base what we do for the health of our population on science, or are we going to go with magic smoke and mirrors? And this would be OK if it was just an academic debate. But the fact of the matter is, this is life and death."

So over the last 50 years, vaccines are estimated to have saved 154 million lives worldwide. I support vaccines. I'm a doctor. Vaccines work. Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks; leadership of the National Institute of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines; the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don't know who to rely on.

Florida's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, has announced plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including for children to attend schools, likening the mandates to slavery. Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery, Ladapo said at a news conference in Tampa on Wednesday. Who am I as a government or anyone else, or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what to do with your body?

The recent upheaval in vaccine policy, with the firing of CDC's ACIP members by Health Secretary Kennedy, marks a significant shift in America’s vaccination landscape.