Kennedy could soon reconstruct US preventive care panel, STAT News reports
Federal health officials are vetting new members for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the report said. It also cited David Mansdoerfer, who advises a group allied with Kennedy, as saying he knew people being considered for the panel but that he declined to name them.
Mansdoerfer, who served during President Donald Trump's first administration as deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, later told Reuters that he knew "a couple" of those being considered. He added that he was not actively involved in the process, which he said could take from a few weeks to two or three months.
The Office of the White House Liaison at HHS is in charge of the vetting, said Mansdoerfer, now the chief strategy adviser to the Independent Medical Alliance, a group of physicians allied with Kennedy. This was also the case with candidates for advisory committees during his time at the department, he said.
Asked if the people he knew of who were under consideration were physicians, Mansdoerfer said they were all clinical health professionals. He had earlier told STAT that the existing panel was "MD heavy" and that the reorganized one was likely to include other kinds of healthcare providers.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Kennedy planned to remove all of the panel's 16 members. An HHS spokesperson said Kennedy had not yet made a decision.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force includes medical experts serving staggered four-year terms on a volunteer basis. Its role in choosing what services will be covered by insurers was established under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The 40-year-old group, whose recommendations provide guidance to doctors, looks at everything from routine screenings for breast cancer to drugs to prevent HIV infection.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
40 minutes ago
- Reuters
Hiroshima warns against nuclear weapons as it marks 80 years since A-bomb
HIROSHIMA, Japan, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Exactly 80 years since an atomic bomb was used in war for the first time, thousands bowed their heads in prayer in Hiroshima on Wednesday, as the city's mayor warned world leaders about the nuclear warheads that still exist today. The western Japanese city of Hiroshima was levelled on Aug. 6, 1945, when the United States dropped a uranium bomb nicknamed "Little Boy", killing about 78,000 people instantly. Hiroshima was the headquarters of some military units and a major supply base during World War Two. U.S. war planners calculated that the surrounding mountains would concentrate the force of the bomb and enhance its destructiveness. "Little Boy" unleashed a surge of heat reaching 4,000 degrees Celsius (7,200 Fahrenheit) and radiation that killed tens of thousands more by the end of the year. It was followed by a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki three days later, and Japan's surrender on Aug. 15. Representatives from a record 120 countries and territories including nuclear superpower the United States, and Israel, which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weaponry, attended the annual ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the milestone year. After a moment of silence observed at 8:15 a.m., the exact time of the blast, mayor Kazumi Matsui called on leaders to heed the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and warned of the consequences of the global trend towards a military buildup. "Among the world's political leaders, there is a growing belief that possessing nuclear weapons is unavoidable in order to protect their own countries," he said, noting that the U.S. and Russia possessed 90% of the world's nuclear warheads. "This situation not only nullifies the lessons the international community has learned from the tragic history of the past, but also seriously undermines the frameworks that have been built for peace-building. "To all the leaders around the world: Please visit Hiroshima and witness for yourselves the reality of the atomic bombing." Yoshikazu Horie, a 71-year-old tourist, expressed a similar sentiment. "It feels more and more like history is repeating itself. Terrible things are happening in Europe ... Even in Japan, in Asia, it's going the same way, it's very scary," he said. "I've got grandchildren and I want peace so they can live their lives happily." In the decades following the attacks, those who survived, called "hibakusha", often faced discrimination as rumours spread that they carried diseases and their offspring could be tainted. Their numbers fell below 100,000 for the first time this year. Japan, the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, has stated its commitment to nuclear disarmament but is not a signatory or observer of the U.N. treaty to ban nuclear weapons.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
RFK Jr's health department to halt $500m in mRNA vaccine research
The US Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday it would terminate 22 federal contracts for mRNA-based vaccines, questioning the safety of a technology credited with helping end the Covid pandemic and saving millions of lives. The unit, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, helps companies develop medical supplies to address public health threats, and had provided billions of dollars for development of vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic. HHS said the wind-down includes cancellation of a contract awarded to Moderna for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans and the right to purchase the shots, as previously reported in May. The US health agency said it was also rejecting or canceling multiple pre-award solicitations, including proposals from Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, CSL Seqirus, Gritstone and others. In total, the affected projects are worth 'nearly $500 million', the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said. Certain late-stage projects were excluded from the move 'to preserve prior taxpayer investment'. This is the latest development under US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine skeptic who has been making sweeping changes to reshape vaccines, food and medicine policies. 'We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,' Kennedy said in a statement. Kennedy said the HHS is terminating these programs because data show these vaccines 'fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu', but did not offer scientific evidence. 'We're shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate,' Kennedy said. HHS said the decision follows a comprehensive review of mRNA-related investments initiated during the Covid-19 public health emergency. Since taking office, Kennedy, who spent two decades sowing misinformation around immunization, has overseen a major overhaul of US health policy – firing, for example, a panel of vaccine experts that advise the government and replacing them with his own appointees. In its first meeting, the new panel promptly voted to ban a longstanding vaccine preservative targeted by the anti-vaccine movement, despite its strong safety record. He has also ordered a sweeping new study on the long-debunked link between vaccines and autism. Unlike traditional vaccines, which often use weakened or inactivated forms of the target virus or bacteria, mRNA shots deliver genetic instructions into the host's cells, prompting them to produce a harmless decoy of the pathogen and train the immune system to fight the real thing. Though in development for decades, mRNA vaccines were propelled from lab benches to widespread use through Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed – a public-private partnership led by Barda that poured billions into companies to accelerate development. The technology's pioneers, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, were awarded the 2023 Nobel prize in medicine for their work contributing 'to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times'.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Russia nuclear submarine base damaged after earthquake
A nuclear submarine base in Russia's remote far east region was damaged last week after one of the most powerful earthquakes to hit the area in decades, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing satellite images. Photos captured by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite imaging firm, show damage to a floating pier at the Rybachiy submarine base on the Kamchatka Peninsula. One section of the pier appears to have broken away from its anchor point. Aside from the damaged pier, the satellite imagery does not show any other major destruction. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A powerful magnitude-8.8 earthquake off Russia's far eastern Kamchatka coast on Wednesday triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of the most active volcano on the peninsula. The earthquake was one of the most powerful ever recorded but resulted in relatively small amounts of damage thanks to a global and highly successful disaster response effort. The worst damage was seen in Russia, where a tsunami crashed through the port of Severo-Kurilsk and submerged the local fishing plant, officials said. Russian state television footage showed buildings and debris swept into the sea. The surge of water reached as far as the town's second world war monument about 400 meters from the shoreline. The initial quake also caused limited damage and only light injuries, despite being the strongest since 2011, when 15,000 people were killed in Japan. The Rybachiy nuclear submarine base – a strategic hub for Russia's Pacific fleet – serves as a facility for the maintenance, deployment and operations of the country's nuclear-powered submarines in the Pacific region.
