Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Halts Vaccine Advisory Panel Meetings, Quashes 2 Other Committees
The Washington Post: CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel Meeting Postponed Indefinitely
The Trump administration has directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to indefinitely postpone a public meeting of its vaccine advisory panel, a key forum for the nation’s discussion of information about vaccine safety and effectiveness. The decision came Thursday from officials at the Department of Health and Human Services, CDC’s parent agency, led by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who has long criticized the panel and the CDC. (Sun and Nirappil, 2/20)
Fierce Healthcare: Trump Cuts Long COVID, Health Equity Committees In New EO
President Donald Trump has terminated two advisory committees within the Department of Health and Human Services, one on long COVID and another on health equity at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The advisory committees were cut in an executive order released late Wednesday night, Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy," that broadly seeks to cut “unnecessary” programs to decrease government waste and lower inflation. The order targets advisory committees and programs across federal agencies. (Beavins, 2/20)
Politico: RFK Jr. Prepares Shake-Up Of Vaccine Advisers
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is preparing to remove members of the outside committees that advise the federal government on vaccine approvals and other key public health decisions, according to two people familiar with the planning. Kennedy plans to replace members who he perceives to have conflicts of interest, as part of a widespread effort to minimize what he’s criticized as undue industry influence over the nation’s health agencies, said one of the people, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. (Cancryn, Gardner and Lim, 2/20)
On FDA leadership —
Bloomberg: Lawyer Kyle Diamantas Will Become Top Food Regulator At FDA
Attorney Kyle Diamantas is expected to be announced as the new deputy commissioner for human foods at the US Food and Drug Administration following his predecessor’s resignation earlier this week, sources familiar with the decision said. Diamantas is registered as an attorney in Florida, and is currently listed as a special assistant in the FDA commissioner’s office, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’ employee directory. (Cohrs Zhang, Shanker and Edney, 2/20)
On research and funding cuts —
Stat: Trump NIH Research Cuts: What's At Stake In Friday's Court Hearing
A federal judge will hear arguments on Friday in the first hearing on three separate lawsuits filed to block the Trump administration’s plan to sharply cut the amount the National Institutes of Health pays universities and other research institutions for overhead costs. (Oza, 2/20)
Politico: DOGE Cancels Federal Contract For 9/11 Research
News that the Trump administration canceled a $257,000 federal contract for research on 9/11-related diseases drew widespread condemnation Thursday among New York Democrats. The contract would have paid for data processing work to compare cancer incidence rates among firefighters exposed to the World Trade Center toxins to firefighters in three other U.S. cities who were not exposed. (Kaufman, 2/20)
Bloomberg: Trump Hiring Freeze Spurs Hundreds Of Cuts In VA Health Research
President Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze is forcing terminations at the US Department of Veterans Affairs research office, jeopardizing projects that advance treatments for cancer, drug withdrawal and more. While doctors, nurses and other medical staff have been exempt from the Trump administration’s broad hiring halt and workforce cuts, the VA’s Office of Research and Development — one of the largest hubs for medical research in the world — was told it couldn’t keep researchers as their appointments end. Initial guidance had suggested that those jobs would also be protected. (Eidelson and Alexander, 2/20)
MedPage Today: Researchers Refuse To Alter Patient Safety Papers To Comply With Trump Orders
Some researchers who have published on a government patient safety website are refusing to alter their reports to comply with Trump administration executive orders around language, leaving them offline. Gordon Schiff, MD, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, is the author of a 2022 case report and commentary on suicide risk assessment that includes a line noting several groups at high risk of suicide, including the LGBTQ community. Rather than remove the line, the piece remains off the Patient Safety Network site, which is part of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). (Henderson, 2/20)
Stat: National Academies Replacing Words In Pending Reports, Some Members Say
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine is scrubbing pending reports of words such as “health equity,” “marginalized populations,” and “restorative justice” and replacing them with vaguer terms in an effort to appease the Trump administration, according to a letter protesting the actions sent to the organization’s leaders and obtained by STAT. (McFarling, 2/20)
Talk to us —
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