Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC, FDA Officials Warn Kids Could Die From RFK Jr.'s Anti-Vaccine Stance
Modern Healthcare: CDC Director Warns About RFK Jr.’s Skeptical Vaccine Views
The top US public health official warned about the threat of curtailing vaccination efforts as longtime skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepares for an influential role in the incoming Trump administration. “We have a very short memory of what it is like to hold a child who has been paralyzed with polio, or to comfort a mom who lost their kid from measles,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen said Wednesday at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit in Washington. “I don’t want to have to see us go backward in order to remind ourselves that vaccines work.” (Smith, 11/13)
Stat: Biden Officials Warn Of Threat To U.S. Children If Anti-Vaccine Views Prevail
Two senior Biden administration officials on Wednesday warned there could be serious consequences for the nation’s children if it had to relearn lessons about the public health benefits of vaccines. (Branswell and Oza, 11/13)
NBC News: RFK Jr.’s Anti-Vaccine Group Lost $3 Million Last Year
After years of financial growth, Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., recorded a more than 30% drop in revenue last year, to $16 million, according to recent tax filings. The pandemic boosted the profiles and pocketbooks of anti-vaccine organizations and activists, but none more than Children’s Health Defense and Kennedy. The nonprofit doubled its revenue in 2020 to $6.8 million, then grew again to $16 million in 2021 and $23.5 million in 2022. Last year was the first substantial loss in the organization’s history, of about $3 million, driven by a reduction in contributions, according to the filings. (Zadrozny, 11/13)
More about RFK Jr.'s health views —
Stat: Can RFK Jr. Get Confirmed? Moderate GOP Senators Avoid The Question
Moderate Republican senators, some of whom have bucked President-elect Trump in the past, are reluctant to criticize Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who could be nominated for a Senate-confirmed health care leadership role in the next Trump administration. Kennedy has recently tried to distance himself from the anti-vaccine rhetoric that’s made him famous, claiming he just wants more data about vaccines. But for decades, Kennedy has pushed the unfounded theory that vaccines cause autism. (Zhang, Wilkerson and Owermohle, 11/13)
The Washington Post: RFK Jr. Faces Battles In Quest To Change America’s Food
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faults Democrats for failing to prioritize healthy food. “The fact that Democratic sachems are debating whether their party should support public health as a political strategy rather than embracing it as a core value is testimony to how out of touch and morally bankrupt the party has become,” Kennedy told The Washington Post. “Healthy food and clean, uncorrupted government agencies ought not to be partisan issues.” (Roubein, Weber, Scherer and Ovalle, 11/14)
The New York Times: R.F.K. Jr. Scorns Trump’s Fast Food Habit: ‘Really, Like, Bad’
What happens when a 78-year-old, Diet Coke-drinking, McDonald’s-consuming president-elect buddies up with an alternative medicine aficionado like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? He gets publicly chided for his eating habits. Mr. Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic whose ideas about remaking the nation’s public health system include getting processed food off grocery store shelves, spared no niceties in passing judgment on Mr. Trump’s food choices during a recent interview with Joe Polish, a marketing industry podcaster. His remarks were first reported by The Daily Beast. “The stuff that he eats is really, like, bad,” Mr. Kennedy said, recounting the offerings on Mr. Trump’s plane. (Stolberg, 11/13)
In related news about the covid vaccine —
CIDRAP: Medical Boards Almost Never Discipline Doctors Who Peddle False COVID Claims, Legal Researcher Says
Less than 1% of all state medical-board disciplinary actions against physicians in the five most populous US states were for spreading misinformation about topics such as vaccines and therapies during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with 29% for negligence, according to an analysis from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Law. Yet two public health experts argue that, because of First Amendment rights and other factors, that's how it should be. (Van Beusekom, 11/13)
CBS News: Many More Seniors Are Getting COVID Shots This Year, CDC Reports
Nearly 4 in 10 seniors have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine so far this year, new survey data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests, marking a steep increase in vaccination rates compared with the same time last year. The data from the CDC's National Immunization Survey estimates that 37.6% of Americans ages 65 and older had gotten a shot of this season's updated COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 2, compared with 22.6% of older adults by the same week in 2023. (Tin, 11/13)
