Latest news with #VaccineEducationCenter
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr and health agency falsely claim MMR vaccine includes ‘aborted fetus debris'
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his department have made a series of misleading statements that alarmed vaccine experts and advocates in recent days – including that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine includes 'aborted fetus debris'. Health department officials released statements saying they could alter vaccine testing and build new 'surveillance systems' on Wednesday, both of which have unnerved experts who view new placebo testing as potentially unethical. 'It's his goal to even further lessen trust in vaccines and make it onerous enough for manufacturers that they will abandon it,' said Dr Paul Offit, an expert on infectious disease and immunology and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, about the statements and Kennedy. 'It's a fragile market.' In this same week, Kennedy exhorted parents to 'do their own research' in a talkshow interview – the phrase has become pop culture shorthand for a shallow internet search that casts people into the arms of the disinformation ecosystem. Related: Private firms are trying to fill research gaps, but their 'puny' budgets are no match for federal funds 'All new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure – a radical departure from past practices,' an HHS spokesperson told the Washington Post in response to questions about general vaccine policy and the measles vaccine. The department did not clarify what it meant by 'new vaccine'. The department spokesperson also described new surveillance systems for vaccines, 'that will accurately measure vaccine risks as well as benefits – because real science demands both transparency and accountability', but did not elaborate on the design of those systems. Prior to being confirmed to the role of health secretary, Kennedy was arguably the nation's most prominent anti-vaccine advocate and led a non-profit known for prolific misinformation. He also earned money by referring clients to law firms suing vaccine makers. Among the claims Kennedy spread was that medications cause 'autoimmune injuries and allergic injuries and neurodevelopmental injuries that have long diagnostic horizons or long incubation periods, so you can do the study and you will not see the injury for five years', he said in an interview in 2021, according to reporting by the Post. Kennedy also claimed this week that the MMR vaccine includes 'aborted fetus debris'. The rubella vaccine, like many vaccines, is produced using decades-old sterile fetal cell lines derived from two elective terminations in the 1960s. Vaccines against new pathogens, such as Covid-19, are placebo tested. However, experts consider new placebo-controlled trials for long-time vaccines, for instance measles, to be unethical because it would effectively deny a patient a known intervention while potentially exposing them to a dangerous disease. 'No institutional review board at any academic center would ever accept that – so he's asking what personal injury lawyer invariably asks for, which is the impossible to be done,' said Offit. Although Kennedy has made false and misleading statements about vaccines generally, the Covid-19 vaccine appears to be especially in the administration's crosshairs. In response to recent questions about Covid-19 strategy from the Guardian, the administration responded: 'The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.' Related: How 'revenge of the Covid contrarians' unleashed by RFK Jr puts broader vaccine advances at risk Health officials have reportedly required all research grant applications on messenger RNA technology, which powers most Covid-19 vaccines, be flagged to Kennedy's office. They have also ended research that tested for the Covid-19 vaccine's safety and efficacy in special groups, such as pregnant women, as part of an $11bn clawback in grants from states. Most controversially, the Food and Drug Administration has delayed expected approval of a new Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax, reportedly on the review of a political appointee known to be skeptical of vaccines. Over the weekend, FDA commissioner Marty Makary addressed the delay by describing annual updates to the vaccine's strains as a 'new' product, creating confusion about whether vaccine makers have to conduct new safety and efficacy trials. Such trials would not be a normal part of routine updates. On Monday, the company released a statement that said in part the FDA had demanded a clinical trial as part of post-approval surveillance, and that it would continue to work with the FDA.
Express Tribune
05-05-2025
- Health
- Express Tribune
Measles surge signals post-herd-immunity era in North America, experts warn
Listen to article A prominent immunologist has issued a stark warning of a "post-herd-immunity world" as measles outbreaks ravage communities in the American Southwest, Mexico, and Canada, with inadequate vaccination coverage. The United States is now facing its worst measles outbreak in 25 years, centred in west Texas and spreading into New Mexico and Oklahoma. The outbreak has claimed the lives of two unvaccinated children and one adult. Dr Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said the virus's return shows the consequences of declining vaccination. 'Measles is the most contagious of all vaccine-preventable diseases – it's the first to come back,' he said. As of 1 May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 935 confirmed cases across 30 jurisdictions. Nearly a third of those infected under the age of five have been hospitalised. Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. But if sustained transmission continues for 12 months, that status could be lost. The virus is now also spreading in Mexico and Canada, particularly among tight-knit Mennonite communities, where vaccination rates are low. The World Health Organization says three major outbreaks across North America account for most of the 2,300 confirmed measles cases in the region this year. The risk of infection has grown 11-fold compared to 2024. Cases are also surging in Europe. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported more than 35,000 cases in 2024 so far — a tenfold increase over the previous year. Romania accounts for 87% of these cases. In the US, experts say the rise in cases is being worsened by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr's promotion of vaccine misinformation. Though he has expressed limited support for the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, Kennedy continues to spread false claims, including that the vaccine contains 'aborted fetus debris'. His department has announced vague plans for new vaccine safety systems and approval procedures, but experts warn these could undermine long-established immunisation practices. Kennedy also visited affected communities in Texas, claiming that antibiotics and steroids had led to 'miraculous' recoveries from measles. Medical experts dismissed this as dangerous misinformation. 'There is no cure for measles,' the American Academy of Pediatrics stated. 'It is misleading and dangerous to promote unproven therapies.' The MMR vaccine is 97% effective. Since 1974, it has saved more than 93 million lives globally, according to the WHO.
New York Post
03-05-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Measles outbreak in US surpasses 930 cases as infectious disease expert warns world may have lost herd immunity
The growing measles outbreak that's taken over North America this year — including nearly 1,000 cases in the US alone — may be indicative of the loss of herd immunity, an infectious disease expert is warning. Although the US eradicated measles in 2000 by achieving herd immunity through mass vaccination, Dr. Paul Offit, of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said the world may have reverted back to a 'post-herd immunity' world when that level of immunization didn't yet exist. 'I think the measles outbreak proves that,' Offit told The Guardian. Advertisement 3 Dr. Paul Offit said the current outbreak proves the world might have lost herd immunity to measles. Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia 'Measles – because it is the most contagious of the vaccine-preventable diseases, the most contagious human disease really – it is the first to come back,' he said. The US has struggled to maintain the 95% measles vaccination rate needed for herd immunity with a growing anti-vax movement, as only an estimated 91% of Americans are vaccinated against the disease, according to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Advertisement Offit worries the loss of herd immunity being seen with measles could eventually spread to other infectious diseases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported US measles cases had climbed to 935 in its last update Friday — at least 2,500 known cases have been seen across the US, Canada and Mexico — with the spread showing no sign of slowing. Texas continues to be the epicenter of the disease in the US, with 683 confirmed cases since late January — including 20 new infections in the last week. There have been three confirmed deaths in the US so far, including two unvaccinated elementary school children in Texas with no known underlying conditions, and an unvaccinated adult in New Mexico. Advertisement 3 Measles was considered eradicated in the US in 2000 through achieving herd immunity with vaccination. AP Officials also say the genetic strains of measles spreading in Canada — where the outbreak is believed to have started in the fall — matches the other large outbreaks being seen in the US and Mexico. Nearly all of the infected — 96% — have been unvaccinated, according to CDC data. This year's surge more than triples the total count reported in 2024, when the US recorded just 285 cases. Advertisement As many as 13% of those sick with measles have needed to be hospitalized — up from 11% a week ago. 3 Of the people who caught measles this year in the US, 13% have had to be hospitalized – most of them children under five. Getty Images Measles is one of the world's most contagious diseases and can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. Before the measles vaccine was available, 400 to 500 people died of measles each year in the US, 48,000 were hospitalized and 1,000 suffered swelling of the brain, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this week the media should pay more attention to diabetes and autism — not measles — as an 'existential threat' to the nation's health.
The Guardian
03-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
World may be ‘post-herd immunity' to measles, top US scientist says
A leading immunologist warned of a 'post-herd-immunity world', as measles outbreaks affect communities with low vaccination rates in the American south-west, Mexico and Canada. The US is enduring the largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states including New Mexico and Oklahoma. 'We're living in a post-herd-immunity world. I think the measles outbreak proves that,' said Dr Paul Offit, an expert on infectious disease and immunology and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. 'Measles – because it is the most contagious of the vaccine-preventable diseases, the most contagious human disease really – it is the first to come back.' The US eliminated measles in 2000. Elimination status would be lost if the US had 12 months of sustained transmission of the virus. As of 1 May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 935 confirmed measles cases across 30 jurisdictions. Nearly one in three children under five years old involved in the outbreak, or 285 young children, have been hospitalized. Three large outbreaks in Canada, Mexico and the US now account for the overwhelming majority of roughly 2,300 measles cases across the World Health Organization's six-country Americas region, according to the health authority's update this week. Risk of measles is considered high in the Americas, and has grown 11-fold compared with 2024. Only slightly behind, data released earlier this week from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and WHO also noted that measles cases across Europe were up tenfold in 2024 compared to 2023. That data also indicated that the 2024 measles cases in Europe followed a seasonal pattern, which was not previously noted in 2021 through 2023. Of the European cases, which reportedly hit 35,212 for 2024, 87% were reported in Romania. The ECDC said the dip in vaccine rates has impacted the recent spike in measles, with only three countries, Hungary, Malta and Portugal, having coverage of 95% or more for both doses of the measles vaccine. 'This virus was imported, traveling country to country,' said Leticia Ruíz, the director of prevention and disease control in Chihuahua, Mexico, according to the Associated Press. Many cases are in areas with large populations of tight-knit Mennonite communities. The religious group has a history of migration through the American south-west, Mexico and Canada. Mennonite teaching does not explicitly prohibit immunization, according to an expert in the religion. However, as some in the Mennonite community in Texas resist assimilation and speak a dialect of Low German, community members may have limited contact with public health authorities, leading to lower vaccination rates. Immunologists fear the rate of infection of such diseases – and the unnecessary suffering they bring – will increase as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, spreads misleading claims about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, undermines public confidence in vaccines' benefits, threatens to make some vaccines less accessible, guts public health infrastructure and pushes leading vaccine experts out of the department. The National Institutes of Health said it would launch a 'universal' influenza vaccine trial with $500m in funding, but the news comes as the administration displays hostility toward Covid-19 vaccines. 'Here, Robert F Kennedy Jr is exactly who he has been for the last 20 years. He's an anti-vaccine activist, he is a science denialist and a conspiracy theorist,' said Offit. 'He has a fixed belief that vaccines are doing more harm than good – as he's said over and over again.' Although Kennedy has tepidly endorsed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to prevent measles, he has also made false and inflammatory claims about the vaccine. Just this week, Kennedy told a crowd that it contains 'aborted fetus debris'. The rubella vaccine, like many others, is produced using decades-old sterile fetal cell lines derived from two elective terminations in the 1960s. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Kennedy's health department also stated this week that it would implement new safety surveillance systems and approval requirements for vaccines, but did not provide any specifics about the design. Experts said running certain trials, such as for a decades-old vaccine like MMR, would be unethical because it could expose people to a dangerous disease when an intervention is known to be safe. Kennedy recently visited the most affected community in Texas, centered in Gaines county, in his capacity as health secretary. There, he made misleading claims about measles treatment, including that the antibiotic clarithromycin and steroid budesonide had led to 'miraculous and instantaneous recovery'. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that the best way to treat measles is through prevention with the MMR vaccine, which is 97% effective. Still, Kennedy has said he will ask the CDC to study vitamins and drugs to treat the viral disease. Measles is a virus. There is no cure for the viral disease and it is not considered 'treatable' by leading physicians' groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). 'There is no cure for measles, and it can result in serious complications. It's misleading and dangerous to promote the idea that measles is easily treated using unproven and ineffective therapies like budesonide and clarithromycin,' the AAP has said of Kennedy's claims. Measles kills about one in 1,000 children who become infected with the disease, and has similar rates of brain swelling, called encephalitis, that can result in lifelong disability. Measles infection suppresses the immune system, which can lead to other infections. Measles vaccination is believed to have saved more than 93 million lives worldwide between 1974 and 2024 and reduced overall childhood mortality.
The Guardian
01-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
RFK Jr and health agency falsely claim MMR vaccine includes ‘aborted fetus debris'
Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and his department have made a series of misleading statements that alarmed vaccine experts and advocates in recent days – including that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine includes 'aborted fetus debris'. Health department officials released statements saying they could alter vaccine testing and build new 'surveillance systems' on Wednesday, both of which have unnerved experts who view new placebo testing as potentially unethical. 'It's his goal to even further lessen trust in vaccines and make it onerous enough for manufacturers that they will abandon it,' said Dr Paul Offit, an expert on infectious disease and immunology and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, about the statements and Kennedy. 'It's a fragile market.' In this same week, Kennedy extolled parents to 'do their own research' in a talk show interview – the phrase has become pop culture shorthand for a shallow internet search that casts people into the arms of the disinformation ecosystem. 'All new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials prior to licensure – a radical departure from past practices,' an HHS spokesperson told the Washington Post, in response to questions about general vaccine policy and the measles vaccine. The department did not clarify what it meant by 'new vaccine'. The department spokesperson also described new surveillance systems for vaccines, 'that will accurately measure vaccine risks as well as benefits – because real science demands both transparency and accountability', but did not elaborate on the design of those systems. Prior to being confirmed to the role of health secretary, Kennedy was arguably the nation's most prominent anti-vaccine advocate and led a non-profit known for prolific misinformation. He also earned money by referring clients to law firms suing vaccine makers. Among the claims Kennedy spread was that medications cause 'autoimmune injuries and allergic injuries and neurodevelopmental injuries that have long diagnostic horizons or long incubation periods, so you can do the study and you will not see the injury for five years', he said in an interview in 2021, according to reporting by the Post. Kennedy also claimed this week that the MMR vaccine includes 'aborted fetus debris'. The rubella vaccine, like many vaccines, is produced using decades-old sterile fetal cell lines derived from two elective terminations in the 1960s, including the rubella vaccine. Vaccines against new pathogens, such as Covid-19, are placebo tested. However, experts consider new placebo-controlled trials for long-time vaccines, for instance measles, to be unethical because it would effectively deny a patient a known intervention while potentially exposing them to a dangerous disease. 'No institutional review board at any academic center would ever accept that – so he's asking what personal injury lawyer invariably asks for, which is the impossible to be done,' said Offit. Although Kennedy has made false and misleading statements about vaccines generally, the Covid-19 vaccine appears to be especially in the administration's crosshairs. In response to recent questions about Covid-19 strategy from the Guardian, the administration responded: 'The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.' Health officials have reportedly required all research grant applications on messenger RNA technology, which powers most Covid-19 vaccines, be flagged to Kennedy's office. They have also ended research that tested for the Covid-19 vaccine's safety and efficacy in special groups, such as pregnant women, as part of an $11bn clawback in grants from states. Most controversially, the Food and Drug Administration has delayed expected approval of a new Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax, reportedly on the review of a political appointee known to be skeptical of vaccines. Over the weekend, FDA commissioner Marty Makary addressed the delay by describing annual updates to the vaccine's strains as a 'new' product, creating confusion about whether vaccine makers have to conduct new safety and efficacy trials. Such trials would not be a normal part of routine updates. On Monday, the company released a statement that said in part the FDA had demanded a clinical trial as part of post-approval surveillance, and that it would continue to work with the FDA.
