RFK Jr. Calls For Changes As Childhood Vaccine Injuries Group Preps To Meet

Bloomberg: Childhood Vaccine Injuries Group To Meet Under Kennedy Pressure
A little-known committee that suggests modifications to the US vaccine injury compensation program is scheduled to meet in late December, after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated he wants changes. The Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines will convene Dec. 29, its first gathering in more than a year, according to a notice posted on the Federal Register. (Nix, 12/15)

CIDRAP: Racially Charged Language On Mothers And Babies Taints Vaccine Advisory Meeting
Su Wang, MD, tuned in to a meeting of federal vaccine advisers earlier this month with some trepidation. She wanted to share her experience living with hepatitis B and encourage the advisers to continue recommending vaccine for all newborns. But she was also prepared to hear vaccine misinformation from the committee, whose members were handpicked by Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist. (Szabo, 12/15)

NPR: FDA Chief Says Trust In U.S. Health Advice Has Eroded
FDA Commissioner Martin Makary said the government must show greater humility and be more transparent if it hopes to rebuild public trust in its health guidance, which he said has been badly eroded since the pandemic. In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, Makary addressed recent controversy over an FDA memo that cited rare reports of child deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccinations. He said the information was not new but had not been made public, and argued that officials failed to clearly communicate how risks varied by age and underlying health conditions, even as vaccines saved many lives. (Inskeep, 12/15)

On covid and long covid —

Bloomberg: FDA Chief Says No Plans To Put Boxed Warning On Covid Vaccines
The US Food and Drug Administration has no plans to put a “black box” warning on Covid vaccines, the agency’s top official said, despite a recent report that US regulators were preparing to add a new caution to the immunizations. CNN reported Friday that the FDA was preparing to change the safety information related to the shots to include its strongest level of warning. But on Monday, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said that “we have no plans to put that on the Covid vaccine.” (Smith, 12/15)

CIDRAP: Pregnant Women Vaccinated Against COVID-19 Less Likely To Be Hospitalized Or Deliver Prematurely, New Data Show 
Pregnant women who develop COVID-19 after being vaccinated are much less likely to be hospitalized, need intensive care, or deliver early compared with women who aren’t vaccinated, a study today shows. Canadian researchers who examined the medical records of nearly 20,000 women who developed COVID-19 while pregnant, found that vaccinated women were 62% less likely to be hospitalized than unvaccinated women and 90% less likely to need critical care, according to the study, published in JAMA. (Szabo, 12/15)

CIDRAP: COVID Hospitalization Tied To 69% Higher Risk Of Death For Up To 2 Years
A new large cohort study in Israel suggests that adults who survive a COVID hospitalization face significantly higher long-term mortality than their uninfected peers, with elevated risk persisting for 2 years after hospitalization. The findings were published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Bergeson, 12/12)

The Washington Post: Chronic Inflammation Linked To Long Covid, Could Yield New Treatments
Why some people experience long-lasting physical and mental effects from covid-19 could be linked to chronic inflammation, according to new research that experts say could help develop new treatments for the confounding condition that continues to afflict millions. Some early research on the condition has suggested that long covid’s symptoms linger because the virus persists in people’s bodies. But the new study published Friday in Nature Immunology found that people with long covid had activated immune defenses and heightened inflammatory responses for more than six months after initial infection compared with those who fully recovered. (Chiu, 12/15)

On measles and bird flu —

Axios: South Carolina Measles Response Puts Personal Choice Over Orders
Officials responding to a South Carolina measles outbreak are following an increasingly familiar script in their advice to families: You should vaccinate your kids, but it's your choice. (Bettelheim, 12/16)

CIDRAP: CDC Social Media Silence During 2025 Measles Outbreak Left Void Filled By News Media, Study Suggests
As the United States faces its largest measles outbreak in three decades, one of the nation’s most storied public health voices has largely fallen silent on social media. A new exploratory analysis suggests that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dramatically scaled back its social media posts during the first seven months of 2025, creating what researchers call a “health communication void.” That empty space was quickly filled by news media and, in some cases, less-credible voices. (Bergeson, 12/15)

CIDRAP: Wisconsin Detects Avian Flu In Cattle For First Time
Yesterday the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced the first known case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a dairy cattle herd in Wisconsin, noting that the detection does not does pose a risk to consumer health or affect the safety of the commercial milk supply. (Soucheray, 12/15)