Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
White House's Vaccine Safety Commission Has Mostly Fallen Off Radar
Stat: Plans For White House Vaccine Commission Appear To Have Stalled
Robert Kennedy Jr., the environmental activist and leading vaccine skeptic, says that it has been months since he has talked with White House officials about chairing a vaccine safety commission — and that the idea of such a panel may no longer be under consideration. ...Kennedy said, however, he has met with a series of top administration officials about vaccine safety since Trump took office, including agency heads at the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health. He said those meetings took place at the request of the White House. (Branswell, 8/21)
Stat: An Interview With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. On Vaccines
In the early days of 2017, proponents of vaccination were deeply concerned. Donald Trump, who has long espoused a debunked link between vaccines and autism, was set to enter the White House. He met with environmental activist Robert Kennedy Jr., who has for years argued that vaccines can cause a range of developmental and other health conditions. Kennedy emerged to report he’d been asked to chair a commission into vaccine safety. But seven months later, no such commission has been appointed and the crisis-mired White House has declined to say whether the plan has been shelved. (Branswell, 8/21)
