Latest news with #Offit
Time Magazine
a day ago
- Health
- Time Magazine
Texas Declares End to Its Measles Outbreak
Texas health officials declared on Monday that the measles outbreak that has sickened more than 700 people in the state and killed two children is over—though they warned that the threat posed by the disease is not. It's been more than 42 days since a new measles case has been reported in the West Texas outbreak that began in late January, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). Public health experts generally consider that to be the marker of the end of a measles outbreak, DSHS said, because 42 days is double the maximum amount of time it can take for a person to show symptoms of measles after being exposed to the virus. There have been 762 confirmed measles cases in the state this year, as of Monday, according to DSHS. The outbreak began in undervaccinated Mennonite communities in Gaines County, and was later linked to measles cases in other states, including New Mexico and Kansas. Two unvaccinated girls in Texas died of measles-related causes earlier this year. In announcing the end of the Texas outbreak, DSHS applauded the state's health care professionals, many of whom had never seen a measles case before this year, for their work. But the department also warned: 'The end of this outbreak does not mean the threat of measles is over.' Measles is highly contagious and can be fatal, though it is vaccine preventable through the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The disease was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000, an achievement public health experts largely attributed to a successful vaccination program. But MMR vaccination rates have declined in recent years, and measles cases have increased. This year, largely due to the Texas outbreak, the number of measles cases hit a 33-year record high in the U.S. Read More: Do You Need a Measles Vaccine Booster? As of Aug. 5, there have been 1,356 confirmed measles cases across the country this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Of those, 92% were people who were either unvaccinated or their vaccination status was unknown. In total, there have been three confirmed measles deaths this year: the two unvaccinated children in Texas, and one unvaccinated adult in New Mexico. Before this year, the last time a person was known to have died of measles-related causes in the U.S. was in 2015. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says that it's reasonable to say that the current Texas outbreak has subsided based on the available data. But he also expresses concern that the official figures are undercounts. Many people in the Mennonite community typically don't seek medical care, he says, so it's possible that some people contracted measles who public health officials weren't aware of. Offit also criticizes the Trump Administration's cuts to the CDC, which he worries could have affected the agency's ability to track cases. Historically, Offit says, measles cases have peaked in the winter months and abated in the spring and summer months, so he fears that the numbers will increase again in a few months. 'I don't think this is the end at all,' Offit says. 'This should be a warning to parents that, if they haven't vaccinated their children, that now's the time.' Concerns about the potential consequences of declining vaccination rates extend beyond measles, as well. Because measles is one of the most contagious viruses, it's often the first to experience a resurgence when vaccination rates fall, public health experts have told TIME, cautioning that the rise in cases could be a sign that other diseases may become more prevalent too. Offit also says that getting measles causes 'immune amnesia,' meaning that after being infected with the disease, a person is more susceptible to other pathogens—even ones that the person's immune system was able to fight off before. Offit calls the Texas outbreak 'a warning shot.' The outbreak, he says, showed that many parents have chosen not to vaccinate their children against measles—and the consequences of that. 'On the one hand it's fine to say that the fear that we all have now can be relaxed by the fact that the virus doesn't appear to be spreading now [in Texas],' Offit says. 'But really, I think the messaging should be one of: that was a warning shot, and several people, including two little girls, paid the price.' 'We can't let that happen again,' he continues. 'It's unconscionable to have a child die of something that is entirely preventable.'
Saudi Gazette
06-08-2025
- Health
- Saudi Gazette
RFK Jr cancels $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines for diseases like Covid
WASHINGTON — The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to counter viruses that cause diseases such as the flu and Covid-19. That will impact 22 projects being led by major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses, HHS said. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, announced he was pulling the funding over claims that "mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses". Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy's longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and his views on health policies. The development of mRNA vaccines to target Covid-19 was critical in helping slow down the pandemic and saving millions of lives, said Peter Lurie, a former US Food and Drug Administration official. He told the BBC that the change was the US "turning its back on one of the most promising tools to fight the next pandemic". In a statement, Kennedy said his team had "reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted". "[T]he data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu," he said. He said the department was shifting the funding toward "safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate". Kennedy also claimed that mRNA vaccines can help "encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine". Health experts have said that viruses mutate regardless of whether vaccines exist for them. This was true every year for the flu virus, for example, said Dr Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr Offit said mRNA vaccines were "remarkably safe" and a key to helping prevent against severe infections from viruses like Covid-19. HHS said the department that runs the vaccine projects, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), would focus on "platforms with stronger safety records and transparent clinical and manufacturing data practices". While some vaccines use an inactivated virus to trigger an immune response, mRNA vaccines work by teaching cells how to make proteins that can trigger an immune response. Moderna and Pfizer's mRNA vaccines were tested in thousands of people before being rolled out and were found to be safe and effective. Dr Offit, who invented the rotavirus vaccine, said the funding cancellation could put the US in a "more dangerous" position to respond to any potential future pandemic. He noted mRNA vaccines have a shorter development cycle, which is why they were crucial to responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since taking office, Kennedy has taken a number of steps to transform how the nation's health department develops and regulates vaccines. In June, he fired all 17 members of a committee that issues official government recommendations on immunisations, replacing them with some people who have criticized the safety and efficacy of vaccines. He also removed the Covid-19 vaccine from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women. — BBC
Boston Globe
26-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Kennedy says US is pulling funding from global vaccine group Gavi
Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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. Offit also called Kennedy's decision to withdraw support from Gavi 'incredibly short-sighted and selfish,' saying that it would put the U.S. at higher risk of disease outbreaks imported from elsewhere. Advertisement 'If you're talking about an 'America-first' stance, this is just not a very smart thing to do,' Offit said. Kennedy's recorded speech to Gavi came on the same day that his reconstituted U.S. vaccine advisory panel met for the first time. He fired the previous 17-member panel this month and replaced it with a seven-member group that includes several vaccine skeptics. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
CDC vaccine panel to review ingredient RFK Jr has targeted for removal
A key vaccine advisory panel reconstituted by health secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr is slated to discuss thimerosal-containing influenza vaccines in its first meeting – an ingredient which has been a fixation of anti-vaccine activists for decades. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will hold two separate votes later this month: one on 'influenza vaccines' and one on influenza vaccines that contain thimerosal. Thimerosal is an ethylmercury preservative used in multi-dose vaccine vials to prevent fungi and bacteria growth. The preservative has been studied and deemed safe, but was nevertheless removed from all routine childhood vaccines in 2001 as a precaution. 'I was there when we went through this the first time,' said Dr Paul Offit, director of the vaccine education center and an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, about debates over the preservative in the early 2000s. Offit served on the ACIP panel in question from 1998 to 2003. He said the issue of thimerosal was vigorously debated and found safe then, prompting him to ask: 'What's the point?' In a short history of the thimerosal controversy published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Offit described how some parents became convinced thimerosal gave their children autism, resulting in thousands of autistic children receiving heavy metal chelation treatments each year. Studies have found no link between thimerosal and autism, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has also denied claims of a thimerosal-autism link. Kennedy, however, has written a book arguing against the use of thimerosal. Offit said the discussion of thimerosal appeared to geared to, 'accomplish [Kennedy's] goals of making vaccines less affordable, less accessible and more feared', he said. 'Here's what you do know – you do know RFK Jr is an anti-vaccine, science-denying conspiracy theorist. He is devoted to this, he is a zealot, there is no middle ground with him,' said Offit. 'He believes we have merely substituted infectious diseases for chronic diseases.' The panel's advisory recommendations are critical because they result in vaccine 'schedules'. These schedules are relied on by health insurers to determine which vaccines to cover and by clinicians who use them as an evidence-based guide on immunization – effectively giving the American public access to the medicines. Although the CDC does not always take the panel's advice, the CDC typically affirms the panel's decisions. However, the agency is currently without a leader, as Senate hearings have not yet been held for nominee and CDC career official Susan Monarez. As a result, Kennedy has signed off on some previous ACIP recommendations. Kennedy wrote a book on the preservative thimerosal in 2014 called Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak, in which he argues that 'there is a broad consensus among research scientists that thimerosal is a dangerous neurotoxin that should be immediately removed from medicines'. Kennedy said in the book he is 'pro-vaccine'. Until 9 June, the ACIP was an independent panel of 17 experts who served staggered terms and were rigorously vetted by career CDC staff. Kennedy broke with tradition when he fired the entire panel, claiming in a Wall Street Journal editorial that he was working to 'restore public trust in vaccines'. The same week, Kennedy appointed eight new members to the committee, including medical professionals with little vaccine expertise and known vaccine skeptics. A wide spectrum of groups criticized the decision, from MomsRising, who said they were 'alarmed and disgusted', to major doctors' groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, to public health leaders who described Kennedy's actions as 'a coup,' to the former members of the committee, who warned the independent panel was at 'a crossroads'. The group is scheduled to meet the last week of June. Prior to Kennedy's changes, they had been expected to discuss reducing the number of shots needed for human papilloma virus (HPV) and a meningococcal vaccine. On Wednesday, the panel released a draft agenda for its upcoming meeting. A wide range of vaccines will be discussed – including those against influenza; the tropical disease chikungunya; the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (chickenpox) vaccine; anthrax; Covid and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The agenda scheduled a vote on recommendations for flu vaccines, including the multidose versions that still contain thimerosal. These vaccines are used only in adolescents and adults. The panel is also scheduled to vote on recommendations for maternal and pediatric versions of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Notably, despite Kennedy's repeated pledges of 'radical transparency', the draft agenda does not include the names of many speakers, which are listed as 'TBD' (to be determined) for instance on 'Covid-19 safety update'. New ACIP members have not been added to a conflict of interest tracker for ACIP members developed by the Trump administration. A spokesperson for HHS said the new members ethics agreements 'will be made public' before they start work with the committee. In addition to the new draft agenda, there have also been changes to the committee's meeting times not reflected in the Federal Register, according to Politico. The group will meet for two days instead of three, and there does not appear to be a vote scheduled on Covid vaccines.
Boston Globe
09-06-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Health secretary RFK Jr. abruptly fires CDC vaccine advisory panel
Proponents of vaccines have feared Kennedy, who has been openly critical of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, might take such a step, but were still shocked. 'We have just demonstrated that politics will overrun science in this administration. It scares me to think of what's ahead,' said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Paul Offit, a former member of the committee and one of the developers of a vaccine that protects against rotavirus infection, said the committee's work over decades has markedly improved the health of children and adults in this country. Advertisement 'They should be given an award, not fired,' said Offit, an infectious diseases pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Offit also called for a public response to the move from Sen. Bill Cassidy, the chair of the Senate Health Committee, who expressed grave concerns about Kennedy's anti-vaccine positions during his confirmation hearing. Though he appeared at points to be reluctant to vote for Kennedy, Cassidy did in the end give him his vote — but only after extracting a number of promises, including that he would keep the ACIP in place. Advertisement The step followed The ACIP meets three times a year — more often during emergencies like the Covid pandemic — to review data on vaccines and recommend on how they should be used. The group studies vaccines known to be in the regulatory pipeline and vaccines that have recently been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, advising the CDC on who they should be offered to once they have been approved. Its next meeting was scheduled for later this month.
