Latest news with #VaccineEducationCenter
Axios
2 hours ago
- Health
- Axios
Florida kindergartners lead Southeast in vaccine opt-outs
The new school year is bringing more ambivalence and confusion over children's vaccines, with shifting policies under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and lingering skepticism leading more parents to opt out. Why it matters: The number of kindergartners in Florida with non-medical vaccine exemptions rose this year, part of a national retreat from routine vaccination that coincides with the worst measles outbreak in 30 years. State of play: Clinicians say moves like Kennedy's decision to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy kids have emboldened some parents to question the effectiveness and safety of a range of shots. Some pediatricians offices and even children's health systems have begun weighing whether to keep unvaccinated patients on their rosters. "It's gotten so bad that you're concerned about the waiting room with a lot of children who are unvaccinated," says Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "That's a risk, not only to them, but the children they come in contact with." By the numbers: The CDC estimates that 4.8% of kindergartners in Florida skipped the required vaccines in the 2024–25 school year using a non-medical exemption. That's more than double the 1.8% rate in 2014–15, and it's the highest in the Southeast. Florida logged 10,556 non-medical exemptions, the second-highest total after Texas with 15,207. How it works: In Florida, a parent can obtain a religious exemption for their child by visiting the county's health department. No appointment is needed, and no questions are asked, per the state Department of Health.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. announces eight new members of vaccine panel after firing all 17 members
Two days after he fired all 17 members of a committee that advises the federal government on vaccine safety, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced eight new members, including a physician criticized for spreading COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories. Vaccine experts warned Kennedy's abrupt termination of the entire committee on June 9 would create public distrust around the government's role in promoting public health. The new list of members includes scientists, public-health experts and physicians. "All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense," wrote Kennedy in a post on X on June 11. "They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations." The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It comprises medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the United States. "The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well," noted Kennedy, who has a history of controversial views on vaccines. Dr. Paul A. Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, previously told USA TODAY that Kennedy was "fixing a problem that doesn't exist," by overhauling the committee. Picking members for the committee generally involves a three- to four-month vetting process by the CDC. Offit said he would "presumably pick people who are like-minded, and I think that will shake confidence in this committee." Kennedy's list of picks includes some widely-respected experts, such as Dr. Cody Meissner, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Children's Hospital. However, it also includes some prominent figures who have criticized vaccines. One of them, Dr. Robert Malone, is a virologist and vaccine skeptic who became well-known during the COVID-19 pandemic for spreading misinformation about the virus on conservative shows and podcasts. His appearance on 'The Joe Rogan Experience' prompted public uproar against Spotify after Malone promoted false and misleading conspiracy theories about the vaccine, even invoking Nazi Germany. The physician-scientist and biochemist has falsely claimed spike proteins from COVID-19 mRNA vaccines often cause permanent damage to children's vital organs. Kennedy's picks for ACIP also includes Vicky Pebsworth, who has been listed on the board of the National Vaccine Information, a group widely criticized for spreading vaccine misinformation. Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, was also picked to serve on the federal advisory committee. In 2023, he posted a video on X criticizing COVID-19 vaccines. The post is pinned to his profile. 'The evidence is mounting and indisputable that MRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people,' he said. 'We have to stop giving them immediately!' Dr. Martin Kulldorff, another one of Kennedy's ACIP picks, wrote a paper published in the Journal of the Academy of Public Health in March that called for a 'COVID Commission' that would investigate the National Institutes of Health's handling of the pandemic. Other appointees include: Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with a career in clinical research, public health policy, and federal service; Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician; Michael A. Ross, a clinical professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr. bring on eight members on vaccine panel
The Herald Scotland
12-06-2025
- Health
- The Herald Scotland
RFK Jr. bring on eight members on vaccine panel
"All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and common sense," wrote Kennedy in a post on X on June 11. "They have each committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations." The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices makes recommendations on the safety, efficacy and clinical need of vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It comprises medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the United States. "The committee will review safety and efficacy data for the current schedule as well," noted Kennedy, who has a history of controversial views on vaccines. Dr. Paul A. Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, previously told USA TODAY that Kennedy was "fixing a problem that doesn't exist," by overhauling the committee. Picking members for the committee generally involves a three- to four-month vetting process by the CDC. Offit said he would "presumably pick people who are like-minded, and I think that will shake confidence in this committee." The list of appointees includes: Dr. Joseph R. Hibbeln, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist with a career in clinical research, public health policy, and federal service; Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and a leading expert in vaccine safety and infectious disease surveillance; Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management who specializes in healthcare analytics; Dr. Robert W. Malone, a physician-scientist and biochemist who claims to be the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology and has said spike proteins from COVID-19 mRNA vaccines often causepermanent damage to children's vital organs; Dr. Cody Meissner, a professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth; Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician; Vicky Pebsworth, who holds a doctorate in public health and nursing from the University of Michigan and Michael A. Ross, a clinical professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at George Washington University and Virginia Commonwealth University. and will replace them with new members, a move that the Trump administration's critics warned would create public distrust around the government's role in promoting public health.
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.
