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RFK Jr ousts entire US vaccine panel over alleged conflicts

RFK Jr ousts entire US vaccine panel over alleged conflicts

News.com.aua day ago

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced he was dismissing all current members of a key federal vaccine advisory panel, accusing them of conflicts of interest -- his latest salvo against the nation's immunization policies.
The removal of all 17 experts of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was revealed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and an official press release.
Kennedy, who has spent two decades promoting vaccine misinformation, cast the move as essential to restoring public trust, claiming the committee had been compromised by financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.
"Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda," he said in a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services.
"The public must know that unbiased science -- evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest — guides the recommendations of our health agencies."
In his op-ed, Kennedy claimed the panel was "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest" and had become "little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine."
He added that new members were being considered to replace those ousted -- all of whom were appointed under former president Joe Biden.
ACIP members are chosen for their recognized expertise and are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest.
"RFK Jr. and the Trump administration are taking a wrecking ball to the programs that keep Americans safe and healthy," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in response.
"Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion," Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who expressed concern about Kennedy's track record during his Senate nomination but ultimately voted in his favor, wrote on X.
"I've just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I'll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case."
- 'Silencing expertise' -
The decision drew sharp criticism from Paul Offit, a pediatrician and leading expert on virology and immunology who served on the panel from 1998 to 2003.
"He believes that anybody who speaks well of vaccines, or recommends vaccines, must be deeply in the pocket of industry," Offit told AFP. "He's fixing a problem that doesn't exist."
"We are witnessing an escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines," added Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement.
Once a celebrated environmental lawyer, Kennedy pivoted from the mid-2000s to public health -- chairing a nonprofit that discouraged routine childhood immunizations and amplified false claims, including the long-debunked theory that the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism.
Since taking office, he has curtailed access to Covid-19 shots and continued to raise fears around the MMR vaccine -- even as the United States faces its worst measles outbreak in years, with three reported deaths and more than 1,100 confirmed cases.
Experts warn the true case count is likely far higher.
"How can this country have confidence that the people RFK Jr. wants on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices are people we can trust?" Offit asked.
He recalled that during US President Donald Trump's first term, several states formed independent vaccine advisory panels after the administration pressured federal health agencies to prematurely approve Covid-19 vaccines ahead of the 2020 election.
That kind of fragmentation, Offit warned, could happen again.
ACIP is scheduled to hold its next meeting at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta from June 25 to June 27.
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Biocurious: Clever Culture Systems has a lot on its ‘plate' as it revolutionises quality control in drug making
Biocurious: Clever Culture Systems has a lot on its ‘plate' as it revolutionises quality control in drug making

News.com.au

time36 minutes ago

  • News.com.au

Biocurious: Clever Culture Systems has a lot on its ‘plate' as it revolutionises quality control in drug making

Clever Culture's AI-enabled APAS Independence device automates the arduous process of agar plate reading at large drug facilities Having attracted Astrazeneca as a foundation client, the company is talking to at least 14 more Big Pharma players The company will expand APAS usage from so-called 'settled' agar plates to 'contact' plates Reports of big pharmaceutical companies expanding their manufacturing footprint are music to the ears of Clever Culture Systems' (ASX:CC5) CEO Brent Barnes. That's because the agar plate reading device maker's business is leveraged to Big Pharma's drug making volumes, at ultra-clean 'aseptic' facilities. 'There are many examples of pharmaceutical companies investing hundreds and millions of dollars in greenfield facilities or expanding and modernising existing ones,' he says. Not surprisingly the activity centres in the US, given Donald Trump's decree of a yet-to-be quantified tariff on offshore drugs. But much of the activity precedes the Trumpian Era Mark Two. For instance, Novo Nordisk is investing more than US$4 billion on a new facility in Clayton, North Carolina. The site will produce Novo's obesity and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic. 'It's a great industry to be in, because potentially there will be a huge shortage of capacity,' Barnes says. A clean room is a joyful room Barnes' joy has been sparked by the Adelaide-based Clever Culture's role in ensuring the aseptic facilities are kept cleaner than a rumpus room after a Marie Kondo blitz. In this case, 'clean' means free of pathogens rather than clutter. The company's AI-enabled device APAS Independence automatically reads the hundreds of agar plates required to ensure such quality control. Short for 'Automated Plate Assessment System', APAS can manage 200 plates per hour without a tea break or whingeing. The facilities need to install and read culture plates as part of mandated environmental monitoring processes. Now, the microbiologists can focus only on the plates that read positive. 'The plate is clean 99% of the time but if there are bacteria the process can flag a quality event that could halt production,' Barnes say. 'The results are critical in terms of releasing drugs that are safe and effective.' The US Food and Drug Administration approved APAS Independence in May 2019 and European regulators followed suit in September 2021. Strategy U-turn gains traction Formerly known as LBT and then LBT Innovations, Clever Culture focused initially on the clinical microbiology market: hospitals and pathology labs. But the company discovered that while the tech was proven, these potential clients viewed the device as a 'nice to have' rather than a 'must have'. Clever Culture turned to the Big Pharma market, attracting Astrazeneca as a cornerstone customer. Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) followed suit. Customers use the units - made in Melbourne by the renowned contract manufacturer by Planet Innovation - in the US, Singapore, China, the UK, Sweden and locally. 'We are focused on the largest pharmaceutical companies,' Barnes says. 'We do that by getting into their 'centre of excellence' facilities – every pharma has one – in the expectation the client will standardise APAS across all its facilities.' Tests by the plateload The quality control process involves 90 millimetre 'settled' plates being left open, to absorb any pathogens in the room. The plates are then sealed and removed every four hours, to be read after a five-day incubation period. A large facility will produce a steady stream of hundreds of plates. The rooms also use a second type of agar test – a 'contact' plate about 55-60mm in diameter. Assistants dab the plate's contents on to surfaces, such as a gown or gloved fingertips. The plates are cultured and read in a similar way to the settled plates. APAS simply doesn't do false negatives – if a bacterial colony is present, the algo will detect it 100% of the time. But there's more leeway with false positives. As a result, about 10% of plates are checked by two real-life microbiologists. Expanding the market To date, the APAS units have only been able to process the settled plates. But Clever Culture is tweaking the physical configuration of the units – as well as the algos – to process these smaller plates. The company aims for a mid-year launch. Given quality control is split roughly half between settled and contact plates, catering for the latter would seem to double the market for APAS. It doesn't quite work like that: the contact plate modality is more about enabling clients to automate 100% of their plate reading. Thus, Clever Culture hopes the device will appeal to smaller customers who otherwise could not justify the cost. 'It's great value add for the customer because they only invest once in the hardware, which can now operate both types of plates,' Barnes says. Clever Culture is also mulling a cheaper desktop version, APAS Compact, which similarly would expand the market to the smaller facilities. Revenue model Clever Culture currently has 13 APAS devices in the field, having launched the units last year. Astrazeneca accounts for nine of them, having started with one. BMS started with one site – its centre of excellence – and now has expanded usage to a second facility under a 'sequential rollout'. Barnes says the company is holding discussions with 14 of the 40 biggest pharma companies. One of them is completing an expanded 6000 plate evaluation, potentially enabling Clever Culture to hold procurement discussions directly with the manufacturing sites. More broadly the company cites a 'pipeline' of 40 customers, representing upfront revenue of about $75 million and $15 million of recurring revenue. The APAS units sells for US$350,000, but Clever Culture then derives ongoing income from an annual software licence of US$30,000 (rising to US$50,000 with the contact plate modality). There's also an annual hardware maintenance fee of $US15,000-25,000. In the black Clever Culture reported $500,000 of net cash inflows in the March (third) quarter, its second successive quarter in the black. The company recorded receipts of $2.3 million, $2 million attributable to sales to Astrazenca. The board expects the company to have 'breakeven or better' cashflow in the current half. Clever Culture ended the quarter with cash of $2.2 million. The company expects to bank $3.6 million of outstanding receivables in the current half. 'We don't need to raise capital to keep the lights on,' Barnes says. Furthermore, the company has issued in-the-money options, exercisable at 0.8 cents by November this year. This compares with yesterday's close of 1.8 cents. If investors exercise all of them - a reasonable assumption - they would generate other $3.2 million. Clever Culture has earmarked $1 million to pay off a $1 million, low-interest loan from the South Australian Government. But some of the funds could support developing APAS Compact. Leveraging a decade's work 'This company has completely turned around over the last 12 months because of its successful launch into pharma,' Barnes says. Since the then LBT listed in mid 2006, the company has spent at least $60 million developing APAS. The company's initial misstep into the laboratory sector shows that even if a device is clinically validated, the market needs compelling cost reasons to switch. 'Infectious diseases are not usually life threatening, so a delay in getting a result back or mistake is simply inconvenient,' Barnes says. 'They may pay microbiologists overtime to repeat the test, but there are no real consequences.' It's a different story for aseptic drug production at a massive scale. 'The consequence of getting it wrong literally is life-threatening,' Barnes says. 'The cost of a product recall and the reputation damage would be in the hundreds of millions. 'In the worst-case scenario, a patient could die.'

How to tell law enforcement apart from soldiers inside the LA protests
How to tell law enforcement apart from soldiers inside the LA protests

ABC News

time2 hours ago

  • ABC News

How to tell law enforcement apart from soldiers inside the LA protests

Local law enforcement is now on the ground in Los Angeles, as well as state and federal troops, as the city braces for fresh waves of demonstrations against immigration enforcement. The unrest in the United States' second largest city was sparked after agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, made arrests related to alleged illegal immigrants. Local law enforcement, the California National Guard, and US Marines, who arrived in the greater LA area overnight, are now trying to manage the demonstrations. But if you're watching the protests happen in real time, how do you tell which is which? ABC NEWS Verify spoke with Brendan Kearney, a retired colonel in the US Marine Corps, who has decades of experience working with law enforcement, and military forces, in the US, and around the world. The two largest local agencies on the ground are the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD). Colonel Kearney said the LAPD will usually wear a variation of a blue uniform, and those from the LASD traditionally wear green. "The police normally wear blue. The sheriff in the tradition of California is in green uniforms," he said. "Then you will have the California Highway Patrol, which is anything from blue to grey uniforms. "To add complexity to this, we can have local jurisdictions that are adjacent to both Los Angeles County and Los Angeles … that will show up in uniforms that could defy colour description right now — but usually those will be in smaller numbers, and a little bit in the background," he said. Colonel Kearney said to try and look for prominently displayed badges, camera devices, and shields — which are usually transparent, and should say "police". "The military personnel that you may eventually see will not have those type of differentiators on them," he said. Video and images have flooded the internet of some local law enforcement officers holding so-called less lethal weapons systems. These weapons can shoot kinetic-impact projectiles – which can include so-called "rubber bullets". "We've tried to make things very simple as years have gone by through some sad experience," Colonel Kearney said. "Most of the time, you'll find that these weapon systems, the less lethal systems, have all got different highlighted colours on the barrels, have got highlighted colours throughout the system itself. "It's all designed for the purpose of easy identification for the use of the item at the time," he said. In a video, which has been widely shared, 9News US correspondent Lauren Tomasi was shot in the leg with a so-called rubber bullet likely by an LAPD officer. Frame-by-frame analysis shows the officer in a blue uniform, carrying an item labelled police, and holding a less lethal weapon — which is mostly black with a small green highlight. The video shows the officer turning to aim and firing in the reporter's direction before she yells out in pain. She later said on X she was "a bit sore" but "OK". US Northern Command on June 9 said approximately 1,700 soldiers from the California National Guard were in the greater Los Angeles area. "National Guard in American history goes back to the American Revolution," Colonel Kearney said. "Each state and territory of the United States has an obligation to maintain a quasi-military force, or military force. "These guys are professionals. In a state like California, you have not only infantry, a ground-related National Guard, but you also have an air-related National Guard," he said. He said they are usually controlled by the state's governor — which is the leader of a state in the US — and are mostly seen in the aftermath of events like natural disasters. "Here's the qualifier … the president of the United States has the option of going ahead and federalising. "Once he does that, the governor has no say," he said. Colonel Kearney said to identify the National Guard, look for camouflage clothing, a name tag, and in California, sometimes a grizzly bear patch on one shoulder. "We call it golden bear, although, it's not gold — it's the grizzly bear that used to live here … but normally they wear that type of identification," he said. He said the other shoulder will usually have a patch featuring a unit insignia, and the soldier may be carrying a shield, and in some cases a weapon. "It would not surprise me at all if the National Guard personnel out there have all been issued a small amount, five to 10 rounds of ammunition — that would only be used under very significant circumstances," he said. Colonel Kearney added that he had not seen any published "rules of engagement" for the National Guard deployed in LA, and that some local police units may be wearing similar camouflage fatigues. Hundreds of members of the United States Marine Corps — a highly skilled branch of the US military — have been deployed to LA from the nearby Twentynine Palms base. The US Northern Command said the soldiers will "seamlessly integrate" with already active soldiers to protect federal property and personnel. This is significant — the military is rarely used for direct police action within the US. The last notable deployment was under George HW Bush during the LA race riots 30 years ago. "Marines were used specifically in counter sniper operations where unfortunately, some of the rioters were taking shots at police and Marines and other law enforcement personnel up there," Colonel Kearney, who was stationed in Japan at the time, said. The military has been deployed domestically for major disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and after the September 11 attacks. He said the marines in LA now will be seen in "very tight formations" working "in the background", wearing green or desert camouflage. "They normally will only have a couple of law enforcement personnel at the far left or the far right of their formation, where the National Guard likes to have the law enforcement embedded with them," Colonel Kearney said. "They'll have three things on the uniform that make them readily identifiable. "Over their right breast, they will have their name. Over their left breast, there will be a scripture that says, "US Marines". And there will be an eagle, globe, and anchor (official emblem) emblazoned on their left-breast pocket." He added the marines will likely be armed and deployed in regular tactical gear — though they have been trained in, and could use, less lethal weapons systems. Colonel Kearney said there may be other US agencies on the ground in LA — and the uniforms of all may vary. For example, ICE agents may be in plain clothes, but "they'll always have some type of identification on, and oftentimes, it'll be on the flak jacket", or a tactical vest which provides some protection from projectiles. He said an LAPD officer could also be part of a team that wears camouflage — like a member of the National Guard or the Marines.

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