By The Defender Staff
Key Adviser Quits Federal Vaccine Panel
Dr. Robert Malone, vice chair of the federal committee that recommends vaccines to Americans, angrily resigned his position on Tuesday. The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, is currently in judicial limbo. A federal judge ruled last week that the advisers, appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., did not have the expertise needed to make vaccine recommendations and prevented them from meeting as planned this month.
The judge also blocked all of the committee’s actions to date, including decisions to rescind recommendations for some childhood vaccines. The Department of Health and Human Services has indicated that it will appeal the ruling but has not said when. Dr. Malone indicated that he would not rejoin the committee even if the ruling were to be overturned or if Mr. Kennedy announced a new slate of advisers.
“If offered the opportunity to participate in a relaunched A.C.I.P., I will respectfully decline,” Dr. Malone said in a text message. “This was not an impulsive decision,” he said. “Hundreds of hours of uncompensated labor, incredible hate from many quarters, hostile press, internal bickering, weaponized leaking, sabotage,” he added. “I have better things to do.”
Bhattacharya Addresses CDC Director Role, Works to Bolster Staff Morale in First All-Hands Meeting
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff gathered Wednesday for what many hoped would be an announcement of the Trump administration’s choice for a new leader of the beleaguered agency. But instead, acting Director Jay Bhattacharya told them a permanent director would likely be nominated by Thursday.
A transcript of the hour-plus all-hands meeting, obtained by STAT, revealed tough questions for Bhattacharya, who scored points from staff on some issues — like supporting measles vaccination — but waffled on others. His defense of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he called a friend and suggested has been mischaracterized by the media, was met with some audible grumbling, one source in the room told STAT.
Bhattacharya said the road that enters the main campus would be renamed for the Atlanta police officer who was killed in August when a gunman fired a barrage of rounds at the CDC, forcing staff into an hours-long lockdown. The gunman, who reportedly believed he had been injured by Covid-19 vaccine, took his own life.
US Public Health Groups Urge Firing of EPA Boss Zeldin, Saying He ‘Brazenly Betrayed’ Agency
More than 160 environmental and public health organizations on Tuesday called for Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, to resign or be fired.
“No [EPA] administrator in history — Democratic or Republican — has so brazenly betrayed the agency’s core mission,” the groups wrote in an open letter. “EPA’s foremost purpose is to protect human health and the environment. With Administrator Lee Zeldin at the helm, EPA has abandoned its mission, creating damage that will take decades to address.”
Under Zeldin, the EPA has rolled back or weakened dozens of environmental protections aimed at slowing the climate crisis, protecting clean air and water, and safeguarding Americans’ health. “He slashed vital funding, gutted agency staff, and has rigged the system to put corporate polluters first, at the expense of our health,” the letter continues. The Guardian has contacted the EPA for comment.
RFK Jr. And Dr. Oz Have a Plan to Save Rural Health Care. Here’s the Catch.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team want to Make Rural America Healthy again. He has suggested that AI nurses could save dying rural hospitals. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said robots could give ultrasounds to women and touted how AI avatars could help. And President Donald Trump’s administration is infusing $50 billion over five years to improve rural health, with some states proposing to use the money for drones to deliver lab samples or prescriptions.
The rural health care industry has long faced tight budgets, doctor shortages and challenges reaching patients in remote areas. But even as Trump officials pitch advanced technology to close these clinical gaps, rural health providers are worried that much of it is being oversold.
And the one-time $50 billion injection the administration has promised for innovation, they argue, won’t make up for the estimated $137 billion in Medicaid dollars rural areas are expected to lose over the next decade due to cuts from what Trump called the “big, beautiful bill,” according to an analysis by health policy research and news organization KFF.
The post Key Adviser Quits Federal Vaccine Panel + More appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.
IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More
Leave a Reply