RFK Jr. Names five new members of the CDC Vaccine Committee

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The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., added on Monday to five new members to a key vaccine panel that purged in June.

The measure occurs before a critical meeting of the Committee, called Immunization Practices Advisory Committee, or ACIP, scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The panel will review the data and make recommendations on vaccines for COVID-19 and hepatitis B, as well as measles, papers, rubella and the firing of the chickenpox, before the autumn and winter season.

So who are the new advisors? They include an expert in infectious diseases that have delayed COVID mandates, such as vaccine requirements, mandates and another member who has advocated the treatments not tested for that virus, including ivermectin.

“There is some evidence that certainly suggests that some of the members have based their opinions on questionable Scientific information or having misunderstood the results of scientific studies, “Neil Maniar, a professor of public health at Northeastern University, told CNBC.

That is not a surprise: the seven members that Kennedy designated for ACIP at the beginning of this year included some widely known vaccine critics. Kennedy argues that gutting the last committee was necessary to restore public confidence in immunizations.

But the panel has traditionally consisted of independent medical and public health experts “that trust the gold standard of the best scientific evidence,” said Maniar. He called it “with respect to the fact that we are moving in a very different direction with a committee that plays a very important role in terms of policy and immunization coverage” in the United States.

ACIP routinely reviews vaccine data and makes recommendations to the centers for the control and prevention of diseases that determine who is eligible for shots and if insurers must cover them, among other efforts.

This is what you should know about the five new members:

• Kirk Milhoan He is a pediatric cardiologist at Driscoll Children's Hospital in Texas. HHS in a statement said “has a doctorate in myocardial inflammation mechanisms.” He is the main member of the Independent Medical Alliance, a group formed in 2020 that has been struggling to restrict the use of HRNM COVID vaccines for pregnant women and children and has advocated the COVID treatments not proven. Milhoan's biography on the group's website says that it is dedicated to treating patients with “vaccine -related cardiovascular toxicity due to peak protein.” In a 2024 panel about vaccine injuries convened by the representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia and Covid Covid shot skeptic, Milhoan said that these vaccines represent more damage than well.
• Hillary Blackburn He is a pharmacist and director of access to medicines and affordability in the Catholic Health System, Ascension. She is the daughter -in -law of Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn de Tennessee.
• Evelyn Griffin He is an obstetrician and gynecologist based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The HHS said that “it was among the first gynecological surgeons assisted by robotics in the United States and has led efforts to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.” According to local reports, he has spoken against Louisiana's decision to add covid shots to the school immunization program and has testified about the adverse reactions of vaccines.
• Raymond Pollak He is a transplant surgeon in Illinois. In 1999, Pollak was a complainant in a lawsuit against the Hospital of the University of Illinois claiming that the hospital admitted patients with liver transplants when they were not medically necessary. HHS said he has published more than 120 articles reviewed by peers and has been a principal investigator in subsidies for transplant biology of the National Health Institutes and numerous drug trials. Pollak's opinions about vaccines are not clear.
• Catherine Stein, An epidemiologist of infectious diseases at the Case Western Reserve University Faculty. HHS said he has published 115 pairs reviewed, and his research has focused on tuberculosis and infectious diseases. Stein has been openly critical of the United States response to Covid and has minimized the severity of the pandemic. She told OHIO legislators that health officials were inflating the death of Covid Death and Hospitalization, according to the Ohio Capital Journal.

We will cover the ACIP meeting this week with the new members, so be attentive for our coverage.

Feel free to send any advice, suggestion, stories ideas and data to Annika in a new email: [email protected].

This is Ashley, who comes to you with some bittersweet news this week.

Until Monday, I officially started a new role in CNBC as our AI reporter! I will cover the main Laboratories of AI, including Openai and Anthrope, for our site. Certainly there is no shortage of stories to dig, and I am excited to start.

But since my coverage reach is changing a lot, unfortunately that means that this is my last week as a regular taxpayer to the bulletin of healthy returns. It has been very fun to connect with readers through this format, and I will miss writing it every week.

Fortunately, there are tons of overlap between AI and medical care at this time, so I will continue to cover the sector through that lens. You will still see my byline in the newsletter from time to time.

I'm not going far, so please get in touch. You can send me tips and stories ideas at [email protected].

Until next!

The groceries and gasoline prices obtain the holders when it comes to the CPI, the observed government inflation report. But for much of this year, the inflation of medical care has taken a greater bite of our wallets, and is prepared to take an even greater part of our money next year.

With the inflation of medical care that reaches a maximum of three years in August, insurers are promoting premiums in commercial plans.

While the CPI showed that the costs of prescription drugs rose just under 1% in August, high price for cancer care remains the main category for health spending for large employers. When it comes to high volume drugs, LPG-1 are a great cost driver, with the increasing list of treatable conditions by Ozempic of Novo Nordisk and the growing demand of workers for treatment to lose weight in Zepbound and Wogovy.

High and high volume drugs have created great challenges for employers before, since the advent of statins to treat high cholesterol in the 1990s to the innovative treatment of hepatitis C Sovaldi a decade ago. In those cases, employers pressed for changes in pharmacy benefits management.

This could be another time when PBMS will feel pressure to offer a new model.

Some employers are beginning to explore how they can get better prices in LPG-1 through the cash market. While they and drug manufacturers would violate their PBM contracts if they were directly in the sales of LPG-1, some new PBM participants propose new contract models for weight loss treatments and general cell and gene therapies in process.

Paytient's CEO Brian Whorley calls it a stress test moment for the PBM market.

It has become a common place to see the executive directors of Big Tech and Pharmaceutical Companies Reuneed with officials of the White House and President Trump himself.

Unitedhealth Group The Stephen Hemsley CEO seems to be taking a page of that play book.

Hemsley met with the president's chief of the president, Susie Wiles, recently, according to the Wall Street Journal. The measure occurs when the United CEO is trying to get the company under a cloud of regulatory scrutiny.

This summer, the legal staff approached the Department of Justice on an investigation into their business, already the end of this fall, the company will launch an external audit of its commercial practices in its units of benefits of Medicare and Pharmacy.

In response to the report, a company spokesman told CNBC: “Public policy shapes medical care throughout the United States, and it is our responsibility to commit to administration and congress at all levels to improve the access and affordability of the patient.”

Do not hesitate to send any advice, suggestion, stories ideas and data to Bertha in a new email: [email protected].