CDC – Page 3

All 17 fired vaccine advisors unite to blast RFK Jr.’s “destabilizing decisions”

ACIP, anti-vaccine, CDC, COVID-19, fda, health, rfk jr, robert f kennedy jr, vaccines / DJ Henderson / June 18, 2025

The members highlighted their medical and scientific expertise, lengthy vetting, transparent processes, and evidence-based approach to helping set federal immunization programs, which affect insurance coverage. They also lamented the institutional knowledge lost by the removal of the entire committee and its executive secretary, as well as cuts to the CDC broadly. Together they “have left the US vaccine program critically weakened,” the experts write.

“In this age of government efficiency, the US public needs to know that the routine vaccination of approximately 117 million children from 1994–2023 likely prevented around 508 million lifetime cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1,129,000 deaths, at a net savings of $540 billion in direct costs and $2.7 trillion in societal costs,” they write.

They also took direct aim at Kennedy, who unilaterally changed the COVID-19 vaccination policy, announcing the changes on social media. This “bypassed the standard, transparent, and evidence-based review process,” they write. “Such actions reflect a troubling disregard for the scientific integrity that has historically guided US immunization strategy.”

Since Kennedy has taken over the US health department, many other vaccine experts have been pushed out or left voluntarily. Peter Marks, the former top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration, was reportedly given the choice to resign or be fired. In his resignation letter, he wrote: “it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary [Kennedy], but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

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New COVID variant swiftly gains ground in US; concern looms for summer wave

CDC, COVID-19, ECDC, Europe, health, NB.1.8.1, omicron, SARS-CoV-2, vaccines, variant, WHO / 9u50fv / June 17, 2025

While COVID-19 transmission remains low in the US, health experts are anxious about the potential for a big summer wave as two factors seem set for a collision course: a lull in infection activity that suggests protective responses have likely waned in the population, and a new SARS-CoV-2 variant with an infectious advantage over other variants.

The new variant is dubbed NB.1.8.1. Like all the other currently circulating variants, it’s a descendant of omicron. Specifically, NB.1.8.1 is derived from the recombinant variant XDV.1.5.1. Compared to the reigning omicron variants JN.1 and LP.8.1, the new variant has a few mutations that could help it bind to human cells more easily and evade some protective immune responses.

On May 23, the World Health Organization designated NB.1.8.1 a “variant under monitoring,” meaning that early signals indicate it has an advantage over other variants, but its impact on populations is not yet clear. In recent weeks, parts of Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, have experienced increases in infections and hospitalizations linked to NB.1.8.1’s spread. Fortunately, the variant does not appear to cause more severe disease, and current vaccines are expected to remain effective against it.

Still, it appears to be swiftly gaining ground in the US, fueling worries that it could cause a surge here as well. In the latest tracking data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NB.1.8.1 is estimated to account for 37 percent of cases in the US. That’s up from 15 percent two weeks ago. NB.1.8.1 is now poised to overtake LP.8.1, which is estimated to make up 38 percent of cases.

It’s important to note that those estimates are based on limited data, so the CDC cautions that there are large possible ranges for the variants’ actual proportions. For NB.1.81, the potential percentage of cases ranges from 13 percent to 68 percent, while LP.8.1’s is 23 percent to 57 percent.

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RFK Jr. announces 8 appointees to CDC vaccine panel—they’re not good

CDC, health, Robert F Kenned Jr., robert malone, vaccines / Shannon Garcia / June 12, 2025

Anti-vaccine advocate and current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took to social media Wednesday to announce the names of eight people he is appointing to a critical federal vaccine advisory committee—which is currently empty after Kennedy abruptly fired all 17 previous members Monday.

In the past, the vetting process for appointing new members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) could take years. But Kennedy has taken just two days.

The panel, typically stocked with vaccine, infectious disease, and public health experts, carefully and publicly reviews, analyzes, and debates vaccine data and offers recommendations to the CDC via votes. The CDC typically adopts the recommendations, which set clinical practices nationwide and determine insurance coverage for vaccinations.

Yesterday, Kennedy pledged that none of the new ACIP members would be “ideological anti-vaxxers.” However, the list of today’s appointees includes Robert Malone, who falsely claims to have invented mRNA vaccines and has spent the past several years spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about them.

Speaking at an anti-vaccine rally in 2022, Malone spread dangerous falsehoods about mRNA COVID-19 vaccines: “These genetic vaccines can damage your children. They may damage their brains, their heart, their immune system and their ability to have children in the future. Many of these damages cannot be repaired.”

Troubling list

Malone aligned with the anti-vaccine crowd during the pandemic and has become a mainstay in conspiratorial circles and an ally to Kennedy. He has claimed that vaccines cause a “form of AIDS,” amid other nonsense. He has also meddled with responses to the measles outbreak that erupted in West Texas in January. In April, Malone was the first to publicize news that a second child had died from the highly infectious and serious infection, but he did so to falsely claim that measles wasn’t the cause and spread other dangerous misinformation.

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Anti-vaccine advocate RFK Jr. fires entire CDC panel of vaccine advisors

ACIP, CDC, health, Robert F Kenned Jr., vaccines / Beth Washington / June 10, 2025

“Most likely aim to serve the public interest as they understand it,” he wrote. “The problem is their immersion in a system of industry-aligned incentives and paradigms that enforce a narrow pro-industry orthodoxy.”

Kennedy, who is currently trying to shift the national attention to his idea of clean living and higher-quality foods, has a long history of advocating against vaccines, spreading misinformation and disinformation about the lifesaving shots. However, a clearer explanation of Kennedy’s war on vaccines can be found in his rejection of germ theory. In his 2021 book that vilifies infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, he bemoaned germ theory as “the pharmaceutical paradigm that emphasized targeting particular germs with specific drugs rather than fortifying the immune system through healthy living, clean water, and good nutrition.”

As such, he rails against the “$1 trillion pharmaceutical industry pushing patented pills, powders, pricks, potions, and poisons.”

In Kennedy’s op-ed, he indicates that new ACIP members will be appointed who “won’t directly work for the vaccine industry. … will exercise independent judgment, refuse to serve as a rubber stamp, and foster a culture of critical inquiry.”

It’s unclear how the new members will be vetted and appointed and when the new committee will be assembled.

In a statement, the president of the American Medical Association, Bruce Scott, rebuked Kennedy’s firings, saying that ACIP “has been a trusted national source of science- and data-driven advice and guidance on the use of vaccines to prevent and control disease.” Today’s removal “undermines that trust and upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives,” he continued. “With an ongoing measles outbreak and routine child vaccination rates declining, this move will further fuel the spread of vaccine-preventable illnesses.”

This post has been updated to include a statement from the AMA. This story is breaking and may be updated further.

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Top CDC COVID vaccine expert resigns after RFK Jr. unilaterally restricts access

anti-vaccine, CDC, COVID-19, health, robert f kennedy jr, vaccines / DJ Henderson / June 4, 2025

A top expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was overseeing the process to update COVID-19 vaccine recommendations resigned on Tuesday.

The resignation, first reported by The Associated Press and confirmed by CBS News, comes just a week after health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. unilaterally revoked and altered some of the CDC’s recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines, restricting access to children and pregnant people. The resignation also comes three weeks before CDC’s experts and advisors are scheduled to meet to publicly evaluate data and discuss the recommendations for this season—a long-established process that was disrupted by Kennedy’s announcement.

The departing CDC official, Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, a pediatric infectious disease expert, was a co-leader of a working group on COVID-19 vaccines who advised experts on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). She informed her ACIP colleagues of her resignation in an email on Tuesday.

“My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most vulnerable members of our population, and that is not something I am able to continue doing in this role,” Panagiotakopoulos wrote.

Unilateral changes

Previously, the CDC and ACIP recommended COVID-19 vaccines for everyone ages 6 months and up. Experts have emphasized that pregnant people in particular should get vaccinated, as pregnancy suppresses the immune system and puts pregnant people at high risk of severe COVID-19 and death. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that “COVID-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic.” Further, dozens of studies have found that the vaccines are safe and effective at protecting the pregnant person, the pregnancy, and newborns.

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CDC updates COVID vaccine recommendations, but not how RFK Jr. wanted

CDC, centers for disease control and prevention, health, rfk jr, vaccines / Kelly Newman / May 31, 2025

In practice, it is unclear how this change will affect access to the vaccines. Health insurers are required to cover vaccines on the CDC schedules. But, it’s yet to be seen if children will only be able to get vaccinated at their doctor’s office (rather than a pharmacy or vaccine clinic) or if additional consent forms would be required, etc. Uncertainty about the changes and requirements alone may lead to fewer children getting vaccinated.

In the adult immunization schedule, when viewed “by medical condition or other indication” (table 2), the COVID-19 vaccination recommendation for pregnancy is now shaded gray, meaning “no guidance/not applicable.” Hovering a cursor over the box brings up the recommendation to “Delay vaccination until after pregnancy if vaccine is indicated.” Previously, COVID-19 vaccines were recommended during pregnancy. The change makes it less likely that health insurers will cover the cost of vaccination during pregnancy.

The change is at odds with Trump’s Food and Drug Administration, which just last week confirmed that pregnancy puts people at increased risk of severe COVID-19 and, therefore, vaccination is recommended. Medical experts have decried the loss of the recommendation, which is also at odds with clear data showing the risks of COVID-19 during pregnancy and the benefits of vaccination.

The President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) put out a statement shortly after the Tuesday video, saying that the organization was “extremely disappointed” with Kennedy’s announcement.

“It is very clear that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families,” ACOG President Steven Fleischman said.

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CDC can no longer help prevent lead poisoning in children, state officials say

applesauce, CDC, health, lead, Robert F. Kennedy / Mike M. / May 23, 2025

Amid the brutal cuts across the federal government under the Trump administration, perhaps one of the most gutting is the loss of experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who respond to lead poisoning in children.

On April 1, the staff of the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program was terminated as part of the agency’s reduction in force, according to NPR. The staff included epidemiologists, statisticians, and advisors who specialized in lead exposures and responses.

The cuts were immediately consequential to health officials in Milwaukee, who are currently dealing with a lead exposure crisis in public schools. Six schools have had to close, displacing 1,800 students. In April, the city requested help from the CDC’s lead experts, but the request was denied—there was no one left to help.

In a Congressional hearing this week, US health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told lawmakers, “We have a team in Milwaukee.”

But Milwaukee Health Commissioner Mike Totoraitis told NPR that this is false. “There is no team in Milwaukee,” he said. “We had a single [federal] staff person come to Milwaukee for a brief period to help validate a machine, but that was separate from the formal request that we had for a small team to actually come to Milwaukee for our Milwaukee Public Schools investigation and ongoing support there.”

Kennedy has also previously told lawmakers that lead experts at the CDC who were terminated would be rehired. But that statement was also false. The health department’s own communications team told ABC that the lead experts would not be reinstated.

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Texas goes after toothpaste in escalating fight over fluoride

cavities, CDC, fluoride, health, Oral health, texas, toothpaste, water / Mike M. / May 3, 2025

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating two leading toothpaste makers over their use of fluoride, suggesting that they are “illegally marketing” the teeth cleaners to parents and kids “in ways that are misleading, deceptive, and dangerous.”

The toothpaste makers in the crosshairs are Colgate-Palmolive Company, maker of Colgate toothpastes, and Proctor & Gamble Manufacturing Co., which makes Crest toothpastes. In an announcement Thursday, Paxton said he has sent Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to the companies.

The move is an escalation in an ongoing battle over fluoride, which effectively prevents dental cavities and improves oral health. Community water fluoridation has been hailed by health and dental experts as one of the top 10 great public health interventions for advancing oral health across communities, regardless of age, education, or income. But, despite the success, fluoride has always had detractors—from conspiracy theorists in the past suggesting the naturally occurring mineral is a form of communist mind control, to more recent times, in which low-quality, controversial studies have suggested that high doses may lower IQ in children.

The debate was renewed earlier this year when the National Toxicology Program at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences finally published a particularly contentious study after years of failed scientific reviews. The study claims to find a link between high levels of fluoride exposure and slightly lower IQs in children living in areas outside the US, mostly in China and India. But the study’s methodology, statistical rigor, risk of bias, and lack of data transparency continue to draw criticism.

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With over 900 US measles cases so far this year, things are looking bleak

CDC, elimination, health, measles, MMR, vaccination / Kelly Newman / April 26, 2025

As of Friday, April 25, the US has confirmed over 900 measles cases since the start of the year. The cases are across 29 states, but most are in or near Texas, where a massive outbreak continues to mushroom in close-knit, undervaccinated communities.

On April 24, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had tallied 884 cases across the country. Today, the Texas health department updated its outbreak total, adding 22 cases to its last count from Tuesday. That brings the national total to at least 906 confirmed cases. Most of the cases are in unvaccinated children and teens.

Overall, Texas has identified 664 cases since late January. Of those, 64 patients have been hospitalized, and two unvaccinated school-aged children with no underlying medical conditions have died of the disease. An unvaccinated adult in New Mexico also died from the infection, bringing this year’s measles death toll to three.

The cases and deaths are breaking records. In the past 30 years, the only year with more measles cases than the current tally was 2019, which saw 1,274 cases. Most of those cases were linked to large, extended outbreaks in New York City that took 11 months to quell. The US was just weeks away from losing its elimination status, an achievement earned in 2000 when the country first went 12 months without continuous transmission.

Since 2019, vaccination coverage of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine among US kindergartners has only fallen. National rates fell from 95 percent in 2019—the threshold considered necessary to keep measles from spreading—to 92.7 percent in the 2023–24 school year, the most recent year for which there’s data.

On the brink

In 2019, amid the record annual case tally, cases had only reached a total of 704 by April 26. With this year’s tally already over 900, the country is on track to record a new high. Before 2019, the next highest case total for measles was in 1994. That year, the country saw 899 cases, which 2025 has already surpassed.

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Controversial doc gets measles while treating unvaccinated kids—keeps working

anti-vaccine, CDC, children's health defense, health, measles, outbreak, robert f kennedy jr / Shannon Garcia / April 22, 2025

In the video with Edwards that has just come to light, CHD once again uses the situation to disparage MMR vaccines. Someone off camera asks Edwards if he had never had measles before, to which he replies that he had gotten an MMR vaccine as a kid, though he didn’t know if he had gotten one or the recommended two doses.

“That doesn’t work then, does it?” the off-camera person asks, referring to the MMR vaccine. “No, apparently not, ” Edwards replies. “Just wear[s] off.”

It appears Edwards had a breakthrough infection, which is rare, but it does occur. They’re more common in people who have only gotten one dose, which is possibly the case for Edwards.

A single dose of MMR is 93 percent effective against measles, and two doses are 97 percent effective. In either case, the protection is considered lifelong.

While up to 97 percent effectiveness is extremely protective, some people do not mount protective responses and are still vulnerable to an infection upon exposure. However, their illnesses will likely be milder than if they had not been vaccinated. In the video, Edwards described his illness as a “mild case.”

The data on the outbreak demonstrates the effectiveness of vaccination. As of April 18, Texas health officials have identified 597 measles cases, leading to 62 hospitalizations and two deaths in school-aged, unvaccinated children with no underlying medical conditions. Most of the cases have been in unvaccinated children. Of the 597 cases, 12 (2 percent) had received two MMR doses previously, and 10 (1.6 percent) had received one dose. The remaining 96 percent of cases are either unvaccinated or have no record of vaccination.

Toward the end of the video, Edwards tells CHD he’s “doing what any doctor should be doing.”

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“Lab leak” marketing page replaces federal hub for COVID resources

CDC, COVID-19, health, Lab leak, SARS-CoV-2, Trump / Kelly Newman / April 19, 2025

After obliterating the federal office on long COVID and clawing back billions in COVID funding from state health departments, the Trump administration has now entirely erased the online hub for federal COVID-19 resources. In its place now stands a site promoting the unproven idea that the pandemic virus SARS-CoV-2 was generated in and leaked from a lab in China, sparking the global health crisis.

Navigating to COVID.gov brings up a slick site with rich content that lays out arguments and allegations supporting a lab-based origin of the pandemic and subsequent cover-up by US health officials and Democrats.

Previously, the site provided unembellished quick references to COVID-19 resources, including links to information on vaccines, testing, treatments, and long COVID. It also provided a link to resources for addressing COVID-19 vaccine misconceptions and confronting misinformation. That all appears to be gone now, though some of the same information still remains on a separate COVID-19 page hosted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While there remains no definitive answer on how the COVID-19 pandemic began, the scientific data available on the topic points to a spillover event from a live wild animal market in Wuhan, China. The scientific community largely sees this as the most likely scenario, given the data so far and knowledge of how previous outbreak viruses originated, including SARS-CoV-1. By contrast, the lab origin hypothesis largely relies on the proximity of a research lab to the first cases, conjecture, and distrust of the Chinese government, which has not been forthcoming with information on the early days of the health crisis. Overall, the question of SARS-CoV-2’s origin has become extremely politicized, as have most other aspects of the pandemic.

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Autism rate rises slightly; RFK Jr. claims he’ll “have answers by September”

autism, CDC, health, robert f kennedy jr, Testing / Shannon Garcia / April 16, 2025

Among the sites, there were large differences. Prevalence ranged from 9.7 per 1,000 children who were 8 years old in Texas (Laredo) to 53.1 in California. These differences are likely due to “differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices,” the CDC and network researchers wrote.

For instance, California—the site with the highest prevalence among 8-year-olds and also 4-year-olds—has a local initiative called the Get SET Early model. “As part of the initiative, hundreds of local pediatricians have been trained to screen and refer children for assessment as early as possible, which could result in higher identification of ASD, especially at early ages,” the authors write. “In addition, California has regional centers throughout the state that provide evaluations and service coordination for persons with disabilities and their families.”

On the other hand, the low ASD rates at the network’s two Texas sites could “suggest lack of access or barriers to accessing identification services,” the authors say. The two Texas sites included primarily Hispanic and lower-income communities.

The newly revealed higher rates in some of the network’s underserved communities could link ASD prevalence to social determinants of health, such as low income and housing and food insecurity, the authors say. Other factors, such as higher rates of preterm birth, which is linked to neurodevelopmental disabilities, as well as lead poisoning and traumatic brain injuries, may also contribute to disparities.

Anti-vaccine voices

The detailed data-heavy report stands in contrast to the position of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine advocate who promotes the false and thoroughly debunked claim that autism is caused by vaccines. Last month, Kennedy hired the discredited anti-vaccine advocate David Geier to lead a federal study examining whether vaccines cause autism, despite numerous high-quality studies already finding no link between the two.

Geier, who has no medical or scientific background, has long worked with his father, Mark Geier, to promote the idea that vaccines cause autism. In 2011, Mark Geier was stripped of his medical license for allegedly mistreating children with autism, and David Geier was fined for practicing medicine without a license.

In a media statement Tuesday in response to the new report, Kennedy called autism an “epidemic” that is “running rampant.” He appeared to reference his planned study with Geier, saying: “We are assembling teams of world-class scientists to focus research on the origins of the epidemic, and we expect to begin to have answers by September.”

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