#vaccine-policy

#vaccine-policy

I think the American Academy of Pediatrics is gravely conflicted. They get their biggest contributors are the four largest vaccine makers. They run a journal, Pediatrix, which they make a lot of money on, that is completely dependent on pharmaceutical companies. So I don't think I wouldn't put a big stake in what they say that benefits pharmaceutical interests. Senator, I didn't politicize it, but I de-politicize it, Kennedy argued.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert. F. Kennedy, Jr. will face intense questioning before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday morning. His appearance comes nearly one week after he forced the ouster of Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, after the two clashed over vaccine policy. Several top officials at the CDC also resigned following her firing, leaving the nation's most powerful public health agency in crisis.

A West Coast versus Southeast vaccine divide took shape on Wednesday as Pacific Coast states formed a compact to bulwark their vaccine recommendationswhile Florida moved to drop school shot requirements entirely. The moves come amid concern about changing vaccine recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ahead of flu season because influenza viruses often spread severely in schools. Last week the White House last week fired the CDC's newly installed director, Susan Monarez, prompting the resignation of other senior agency staff.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to testify in the Senate this morning. The hearing comes a week after he pressured Susan Monarez to resign from her position as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When she refused, the White House fired her. Three top CDC officials then resigned in protest.

Children in Florida will no longer be required to receive vaccines against preventable diseases including measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio and hepatitis said Joseph Ladapo, the state's surgeon general, on Wednesday in a speech during which he likened vaccine mandates to slavery. Ladapo, hand-picked for the role by Ron DeSantis, Florida's Republican governor, is a long-time skeptic of the benefit of vaccines, and has previously been accused of peddling scientific nonsense by public health advocates.

The western states envision issuing guidelines they said would be driven by evidence-based recommendations from national medical organizations. The effort also includes releasing shared principles on how to build public trust in vaccines, they said. The move comes after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. effectively restricted COVID-19 vaccines to high-risk groups, limiting access for healthy children or healthy pregnant women.

So, if we're headed now in a direction where we can't trust these agencies as they're being dismantled and, you know, we have these reports that by next month there is going to be some kind of report that attempts to tie vaccines to autism, for example, and stuff that isn't actually based in science, who should Americans then rely on for health guidance?

Daskalakis posted his blistering resignation letter on X and Instagram on Wednesday evening. In it, he said he would step down as director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on Thursday, citing irreconcilable ethical and scientific concerns. "I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public's health," Daskalakis wrote.

Perhaps most damningly, the younger Kennedy has elected to " wind down" the development of mRNA vaccines and cancel $500 million in research contracts because of his vaccine skepticism, particularly as it relates to COVID-19 vaccines. Along with its incredible efficacy at staving off further death from the coronavirus pandemic, researchers working with mRNA believe they may be close to achieving a monumental milestone: creating a universal cancer vaccine using the promising biotechnology.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is strongly recommending COVID vaccinations for children ages 6 months to 2 years old.