A sweeping analysis of health data from more than 1.2 million children in Denmark born over a 24-year period found no link between the small amounts of aluminum in vaccines and a wide range of health conditions—including asthma, allergies, eczema, autism, and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The finding, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, firmly squashes a persistent anti-vaccine talking point that can give vaccine-hesitant parents pause.

Small amounts of aluminum salts have been added to vaccines for decades as adjuvants, that is, components of the vaccine that help drum up protective immune responses against a target germ. Aluminum adjuvants can be found in a variety of vaccines, including those against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and hepatitis A and B.

Read full article

Comments

A Utah-based plastic surgeon appears to be off the hook for federal charges over an alleged COVID-19 vaccine fraud scheme, in which he and three of his associates were accused of providing fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards at $50 a pop while squirting the corresponding vaccines down the drain—wasting roughly $28,000 worth of federally provided, lifesaving vaccines. In cases where parents brought in children for fake immunizations, the group would allegedly inject saline solutions at the parents' request to make the children believe they had received vaccinations.

In total, the group was accused of wasting 1,937 COVID-19 vaccine doses between October 2021 and September 2022, including 391 pediatric doses, and creating fraudulent immunization records for them. The alleged scheme netted them nearly $97,000.

The charges were filed in January 2023 under the Biden administration after two separate undercover agents went through the scheme to get a fake vaccination card. The plastic surgeon, Michael Kirk Moore Jr., who owns and operates Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah in Midvale, south of Salt Lake City, as well as the business' office manager, Kari Dee Burgoyne, its receptionist, Sandra Flores, and Moore's neighbor, Kristin Jackson Andersen, were charged in the case. All four people faced charges of conspiracy to defraud the federal government, along with two counts related to improper disposal of government property.

Read full article

Comments

The vaccine panel hand-selected by health secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to drop federal recommendations for seasonal flu shots that contain the ethyl-mercury containing preservative thimerosal. The panel did so after hearing a misleading and cherry-picked presentation from an anti-vaccine activist.

There is extensive data from the last quarter century proving that the antiseptic preservative is safe, with no harms identified beyond slight soreness at the injection site, but none of that data was presented during today's meeting.

The significance of the vote is unclear for now. The vast majority of seasonal influenza vaccines currently used in the US—about 96 percent of flu shots in 2024–2025—do not contain thimerosal. The preservative is only included in multi-dose vials of seasonal flu vaccines, where it prevents the growth of bacteria and fungi potentially introduced as doses are withdrawn.

Read full article

Comments

After anti-vaccine advocate and US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired all 17 experts who sat on a revered federal vaccine panel and restocked it with eight dubious members, a growing chorus of lawmakers, health experts, and public advocates are calling for a pivotal meeting scheduled for Wednesday to be scrapped and for the panel to be "dissolved" and remade with qualified members.

On June 9, Kennedy unilaterally cleaned out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP). Though vetting for the committee has historically taken up to two years, Kenney announced the eight new members two days later. Some of the members are clear anti-vaccine activists, others have espoused contrarian or anti-public health perspectives, and some also have little to no relevant expertise for being on ACIP.

"[T]he reconstituted ACIP is a farce," Robert Steinbrook, a director at consumer rights watchdog Public Citizen, said in a statement. "Rather than further sullying the ACIP and undermining public confidence in vaccines, this week’s meeting should be rescheduled after the Senate has confirmed a new CDC Director who can both appoint an authoritative and representative committee and be able to approve the panel’s recommendations."

Read full article

Comments

With ardent anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the country's top health position, use of a long-approved vaccine against measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella/chickenpox (MMRV) as well as flu shots that include the preservative thimerosal will now be reevaluated, putting their future availability and use in question. The development seemingly continues to vindicate health experts' worst fears that, as health secretary, Kennedy would attack and dismantle the federal government's scientifically rigorous, evidence-based vaccine recommendations.

Discussions of the two types of vaccines now appear on the agenda of a meeting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) scheduled for two days next week (June 25 and 26).

ACIP’s overhaul

On June 9, Kennedy summarily fired all 17 members of ACIP, who were rigorously vetted—esteemed scientists and clinicians in the fields of immunology, epidemiology, pediatrics, obstetrics, internal and family medicine, geriatrics, infectious diseases, and public health. Two days later, Kennedy installed eight new members, many with dubious qualifications and several known to hold anti-vaccine views.

Read full article

Comments

All 17 experts ousted from the federal vaccine advisory committee have spoken out about the drastic changes that anti-vaccine advocate and current US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made since taking office. Those changes include unilaterally restricting access to COVID-19 vaccines and summarily firing the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which had guided federal vaccine policies for more than 60 years.

"We are deeply concerned that these destabilizing decisions, made without clear rationale, may roll back the achievements of US immunization policy, impact people’s access to lifesaving vaccines, and ultimately put US families at risk of dangerous and preventable illnesses," the fired experts write in an editorial published in JAMA.

Kennedy dismissed the entire committee on June 9, accusing the former members of lacking public trust and being "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest," despite the committee's transparent disclosure and conflict of interest policies.

Read full article

Comments

Notorious anti-vaccine advocate David Geier has begun working at the US Department of Health and Human Services and is seeking access to sensitive vaccine safety data that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously barred him from accessing—at least twice—according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal.

Geier and his father, Mark Geier, who died in March, are known for peddling the thoroughly debunked falsehood that vaccines cause autism, publishing a long list of dubious articles in low-quality journals that push the idea. In particular, the two have blamed the mercury-containing vaccine preservative, thimerosal, despite numerous studies finding no link. Thimerosal was largely abandoned from vaccine formulations in 2001 out of an abundance of caution.

In 2011, an investigation by the Maryland State Board of Physicians found that the Geiers were misdiagnosing autistic children and treating them with potent hormone therapies in a treatment they dubbed the "Lupron Protocol." Mark Geier was stripped of his medical license. David Geier, who has no medical or scientific background and holds only a bachelor's degree, was disciplined for practicing medicine without a license.

Read full article

Comments

Far fewer babies went to the hospital struggling to breathe from RSV, a severe respiratory infection, after the debut of a new vaccine and treatment this season, according to an analysis published today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RSV, or respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus, is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the US. An estimated 58,000–80,000 children younger than 5 years old are hospitalized each year. Newborns—babies between 0 and 2 months—are the most at risk of being hospitalized with RSV. The virus circulates seasonally, typically rising in the fall and peaking in the winter, like many other respiratory infections.

But the 2024–2025 season was different—there were two new ways to protect against the infection. One is a maternal vaccine, Pfizer's Abrysvo, which is given to pregnant people when their third trimester aligns with RSV season (generally September through January). Maternal antibodies generated from the vaccination pass to the fetus in the uterus and can protect a newborn in the first few months of life. The other new protection against RSV is a long-acting monoclonal antibody treatment, nirsevimab, which is given to babies under 8 months old as they enter or are born into their first RSV season and may not be protected by maternal antibodies.

Read full article

Comments