15 States Sue H.H.S. Over Revisions to Vaccine Schedule + More
Source: Children’s Health Defense
15 States Sue H.H.S. Over Revisions to Vaccine Schedule
Federal health officials have pared back the number of shots recommended for children. The states, led by Democrats, say the changes were not based on science. Aiming to reverse recent changes to federal vaccine recommendations, 15 states led by Democrats announced on Tuesday that they were suing the Trump administration.
The lawsuit, filed by a coalition of 14 attorneys general and the governor of Pennsylvania, asks the courts to nullify the administration’s decision in January to reduce the number of diseases children are routinely immunized against to 11 from 17.
It also challenges “the unlawful replacement” of members of the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, who recommend vaccines for Americans.
The suit names the Department of Health and Human Services and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as defendants. It also names the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
“H.H.S. Secretary R.F.K. Jr. and his C.D.C. are flouting decades of scientific research, ignoring credible medical experts, and threatening to strain state resources and make America’s children sicker,” Rob Bonta, attorney general of California, said at a news briefing on Tuesday.
“The fact is, vaccines save lives and save our state’s money,” he added.
The lawsuit contends that the administration’s new vaccination schedule was not based on any scientific evidence, relying instead on comparisons to countries that are significantly different from the United States.
Will the FDA Yank mRNA Vaccines?
Rumbling beneath the Trump administration’s hostility toward mRNA vaccines has been a larger question of whether the FDA will eventually pull them from the market altogether. According to experts, probably not. But that doesn’t mean the agency won’t act in other ways to curtail them, and its recent treatment of Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine application could provide a clue about how that might happen.
“I think FDA will be a lot more likely to put obstacles in the way of approving new versions — which would be bad enough — than remove existing vaccines,” vaccine law expert Dorit Reiss, professor of law and chair in litigation at UC Law San Francisco, told PharmaVoice via email. “And their recent conduct suggests they may well do it in an inconsistent, under-handed way: Agree to a certain set of trials for approval, and then go back on their word.”
Coast Guard Reinstates More Than 50 Service Members Separated Over COVID-19 Vaccine
The Coast Guard reinstated more than 50 members who were separated after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine without an approved exemption, a Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. A three-member panel of the Coast Guard Board for Correction of Military Records voted in favor of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s recommendation on Feb. 12 to reinstate 56 people who were discharged from the organization, according to the final decision.
The 56 service members included in the group application will receive back pay and benefits and revert to their former rank, as outlined in President Donald Trump’s related executive order. In totality, 274 members of the Coast Guard were involuntarily separated solely for refusing the vaccine, 69 of whom had already been reinstated, the ruling said.
The guard’s “Return 2 Service” team contacted the remaining 205 members, though only the 56 were included in Noem’s recommendation.“56 members of the United States Coast Guard who were kicked out of the service over the COVID-19 vaccine have finally been reinstated with back pay — this is a victory for religious, personal, and medical freedom for all Americans — both in and out of uniform,” Noem said in a statement.
Minnesota Bill Expands Bird Flu Programs, Pays Farmers to Comply With Bird Flu ‘Prevention Measures’
A Minnesota bill introduced on Monday would allocate taxpayer funds for bird flu efforts and pay livestock producers to install bird flu prevention systems, further expanding government-funded avian influenza programs as federal agencies and international organizations rapidly increase spending tied to the purported virus.
Senate File 3832 (S.F. 3832), introduced in the Minnesota Senate and referred to the Agriculture, Veterans, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee, creates multiple funding streams specifically targeting avian influenza.
If enacted, the legislation would establish ongoing taxpayer funding for bird flu programs within Minnesota’s agricultural system. You can see which legislators are sponsoring the bill here.
FDA Proposes New System for Approving Customized Drugs and Therapies for Rare Diseases
Federal health officials on Monday laid out a proposal to spur development of customized treatments for patients with hard-to-treat diseases, including for rare genetic conditions that the pharmaceutical industry has long considered unprofitable. The preliminary Food and Drug Administration guidelines, if implemented, would create a new pathway for bespoke therapies that have only been tested in a handful of patients due to the challenges of conducting larger studies.
The FDA announcement specifically mentions gene editing, although agency officials said the new approach could also be used by other drugs and therapies. It’s a shift long sought by patients, advocates and researchers focused on rare diseases, which often do not fit within the pharmaceutical industry’s business model or the FDA’s traditional drug-approval system.
“It is our priority to remove barriers and exercise regulatory flexibility to encourage scientific advances and deliver more cures and meaningful treatments for patients suffering from rare diseases,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in a release.
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