CDC's vaccine panel to take up longtime target of anti-vaccine groups

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new vaccine advisers meet next week, but their agenda suggests they'll skip some expected topics — including a vote on Covid-19 shots — while taking up a longtime target of anti-vaccine groups.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices makes recommendations on how to use the nation's vaccines, setting a schedule for children's vaccines as well as advice for adult shots. Last week, Kennedy abruptly dismissed the existing 17-member expert panel and handpicked eight replacements, including several anti-vaccine voices.
The agenda for the new committee's first meeting, posted Wednesday, shows it will be shorter than expected. Discussion of Covid shots will open the session, but the agenda lists no vote on that. Instead, the committee will vote on fall flu vaccinations, on RSV vaccinations for pregnant women and children and on the use of a preservative named thimerosal that's in a subset of flu shots.
It's not clear who wrote the agenda. No committee chairperson has been named and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not comment.
Committee won't take up HPV or meningococcal vaccines
Missing from the agenda are some heavily researched vaccine policy proposals the advisers were supposed to consider this month, including shots against HPV and meningococcal bacteria, said Dr. Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Instead, the committee is talking about subjects 'which are settled science,' she said.
'Every American should be asking themselves how and why did we get here, where leaders are promoting their own agenda instead of protecting our people and our communities,' she said. She worried it's 'part of a purposeful agenda to insert dangerous and harmful and unnecessary fear regarding vaccines into the process.'
The committee makes recommendations on how vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used. The recommendations traditionally go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director. Historically, nearly all are accepted and then used by insurance companies in deciding what vaccines to cover.
But the CDC has no director and the committee's recommendations have been going to Kennedy.
Thimerosal is a longtime target of anti-vaccine activists
Thimerosal was added to certain vaccines in the early 20th century to make them safer and more accessible by preventing bacterial contamination in multi-dose vials. It's a tiny amount, but because it's a form of mercury, it began raising questions in the 1990s.
Kennedy — a leading voice in an anti- vaccine movement before he became President Donald Trump's health secretary — has long held there was a tie between thimerosal and autism, and also accused the government of hiding the danger.
Study after study has found no evidence that thimerosal causes autism. But since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine.
Thimerosal now only appears in multidose flu shot vials, not the single-shot packaging of most of today's flu shots.
Targeting thimerosal would likely force manufacturers to switch to single-dose vials, which would make the shots 'more expensive, less available and more feared,' said Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Doctors' groups have opposed Kennedy's vaccine moves
Last week, 30 organizations called on insurers to continue paying for Covid vaccines for pregnant women after Kennedy said the shots would no longer be routinely recommended for that group.
Doctors' groups also opposed Kennedy's changes to the vaccine committee. The new members he picked include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of Covid vaccines, a top critic of pandemic-era lockdowns and a leader of a group that has been widely considered to be a source of vaccine misinformation.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has long put out its own immunization recommendations. In recent decades it has matched what the government recommended. But asked if they might soon diverge, depending on potential changes in the government's vaccination recommendations, Kressly said; 'Nothing's off the table.'
'We will do whatever is necessary to make sure that every child in every community gets the vaccines that they deserve to stay healthy and safe,' she said.

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Creative industries to get £380m boost ahead of industrial strategy launch

Leader Live

32 minutes ago

Leader Live

Creative industries to get £380m boost ahead of industrial strategy launch

The investment, announced by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, will see £380 million spent on a range of projects intended to double private investment in the creative industries. Ms Nandy said the investment would 'boost regional growth, stimulate private investment, and create thousands more high-quality jobs'. The figure includes £25 million for research into cutting-edge technologies such as the virtual avatars used in Abba Voyage, and £75 million to support the film industry. It will also see £30 million put towards backing start-up video games companies – an industry worth billions of pounds to the UK – and another £30 million for the music industry, including an increase in funding for grassroots venues. Another £150 million will be split between the mayors of Manchester, Liverpool, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, the North East and the West of England to support creative businesses in their regions. The announcement comes as the Government prepares to publish its industrial strategy next week, billed as a 10-year, multibillion-pound plan to back certain sectors and secure growth for the UK economy. The creative industries are set to be one of the winners, with a plan for the sector expected to be published alongside the wider industrial strategy. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: 'The UK's creative industries are world-leading and have a huge cultural impact globally, which is why we're championing them at home and abroad as a key growth sector in our modern industrial strategy.' But earlier this month, the Government also rejected a planning application for a major new film studio near Holyport, in Berkshire, over its impact on the green belt. The £380 million has been welcomed by the industry, with the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu) saying it was a 'show of commitment to the sector'. But Bectu chief Philippa Childs said creative workers would also be looking for 'sustained support' from the Government as the sector 'recovers from a series of external shocks'. Recent years have seen the sector rocked by Covid, the cost-of-living crisis and concerns about the impact of AI and Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on films made outside the US. Conservative shadow culture secretary Stuart Andrew accused Labour of threatening the 'very survival' of the creative industries. He said: 'From their national insurance jobs tax to their business rates hike, Labour are pushing creative businesses to the brink, and we now know that Rachel Reeves has a secret plan to raise taxes – meaning things will only get worse. 'Labour must recognise that their economic mismanagement is dealing a devasting blow to the sector.'