Tag: cdc

ACIP Launches Sweeping Covid-19 Vaccine Review Under Retsef Levi

MIT professor Retsef Levi has been an outspoken voice on the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee (ACIP) since its dramatic overhaul in June.

He has pressed agency officials on uncomfortable questions, challenging the narrow surveillance windows used to track harms and insisting that delayed effects could not simply be ruled out.

He also raised concerns about the safety of RSV monoclonal antibodies after clinical trials showed a clear imbalance in infant deaths.

Now, Levi is no longer just a dissenter.

He has been appointed chair of the CDC’s new Covid-19 vaccine working group, and with today’s release of its Terms of Reference, the scale of his task has come into sharp focus.

Under the guidance of Levi and his colleagues, the ACIP working group now has a mandate unlike anything the committee has ever undertaken.

For the first time, federal advisers will investigate the unresolved issues that have dogged the vaccines since their rushed rollout in late 2020.

From DNA contamination in the manufacturing process to the persistence of spike protein and mRNA in the body, from immune class switching following repeated boosting to safety in pregnancy, cardiovascular risks, and long-term disability, the list of questions is as sweeping as it is sensitive. (full list below)

The Terms of Reference stretch far beyond the narrow remit that characterised ACIP’s early deliberations, when myocarditis was acknowledged as the only confirmed harm and most safety reviews stopped at 42 days.

Levi and his team are now tasked with probing long-term outcomes, mapping vaccine policies around the world, and assessing, to what extent, years of official reassurances about safety and efficacy hold up against emerging data.

It is a striking reversal for the CDC and the FDA.

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Meet Trump’s CDC Director: Susan Monarez

As the Trump administration has spent its first few months in The White House constructing the physical and digital infrastructure required for a pre-crime, technocratic police state, little attention has been paid to the ways in which the institutions ostensibly dedicated to “public health” are helping build out this digital control grid. As Unlimited Hangout has been reporting for many years now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a prominent subgroup of the surveillance state has emerged at the intersection of Big Tech, Big Pharma and the military industrial complex — one that is laying the groundwork to implement the final frontier of mass surveillance: the bio-surveillance apparatus. 

During his first term, Trump implemented the notorious Operation Warp Speed, the Pentagon-ran COVID-19 response plan which issued emergency deregulatory measures and massive funding for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Now, his second administration has successfully managed to become associated with COVID-era dissidence. This was primarily accomplished through Trump successfully securing the endorsements of figures who were skeptical of the official line on COVID-19, most prominently comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan and longtime environmental litigator and founder of Children’s Health Defense, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Since taking office, however, the second Trump administration has consistently contradicted this unofficial commitment to the spirit of COVID-era dissent and public health institutional overhaul. Just last week, the President touted Operation Warp Speed as one of the “most incredible things ever done in this country.” The week before, he announced an initiative to enable the vast sharing of individuals’ health data across a myriad of “health systems and apps,” in partnership with Pentagon-contracting Big Tech companies. More quietly, however, Trump nominated a seasoned official of the biosecurity apparatus named Susan Monarez to be the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Monarez, whose background is perfectly in line with this technocratic approach to healthcare that the administration has embarked on, was “handpicked” by Kennedy after the previous nominee, Dave Weldon, withdrew his nomination in March. Monarez had been acting director of the CDC for several months and was confirmed at the end of July with little fanfare.

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Patrick Joseph White named as shooter who opened fire on CDC and killed cop ‘after suffering COVID vaccine injury’

The gunman who opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta Friday and killed a police officer has been identified as 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White. 

CNN reported that the family of the 30-year-old who had spoken with law enforcement said he blamed a recent illness on the Covid-19 vaccine, which was pushed by the CDC. 

White, from Kennesaw, Georgia, was formally identified Saturday as the shooter by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

‘There is extensive evidence to collect due to the complex scene,’ a statement from the bureau noted. ‘Numerous interviews are being conducted. This investigation will take an extended period of time.’

Law enforcement had said on Friday that the gunman died in the shooting after a firefight with cops. It is unclear if he was shot by officers or committed suicide. 

During the shooting, Police Officer David Rose, 33, a father-of-two, was killed at the CDC Buildings near Emory University. 

The shooter was armed with a long gun, and authorities recovered three other firearms at the scene, a law enforcement source told the Associated Press.

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CDC boots American Medical Association from panel that establishes vaccine recommendations

U.S. health officials have told more than a half-dozen of the nation’s top medical organizations that they will no longer help establish vaccination recommendations.

The government told the organizations on Thursday via email that their experts are being disinvited from the workgroups that have been the backbone of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The organizations include the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“I’m concerned and distressed,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who for decades has been involved with ACIP and its workgroups.

He said the move will likely propel a confusing fragmentation of vaccine guidance, as patients may hear the government say one thing and hear their doctors say another.

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RFK Jr. Unloads Disturbing Vaccine Secrets on Tucker—And Surprises Everyone on Trump

It’s not every day an active HHS Secretary sits down for 90 minutes straight with Tucker Carlson.

But that’s exactly what happened, and Kennedy instantly seized Carlson’s attention with a chilling story of CDC corruption.

He revealed that the health agency buried a 1999 internal study led by researcher Thomas Verstraten, which showed an alarming 1135% increase in autism risk from the hepatitis B vaccine.

Kennedy said the researchers were “shocked” by the findings.

So what did they do? They covered it up, according to Kennedy.

“They got rid of all the older children essentially and just had younger children who are too young to be diagnosed [with autism].”

RFK Jr. then explained the real reason why your pediatrician will kick you out of their practice for refusing vaccines.

“There’s a published article out there now that says that 50% of revenues to most pediatricians come from vaccines.”

It’s all about the money. The higher the vaccination rate, the bigger the bonus.

“And that’s why your pediatrician, if you say I want to go slow on the vaccines… will throw you out of his practice because you’re now jeopardizing that bonus structure.”

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New CDC Vaccine Panel Recommends Merck’s RSV Shot for All Newborns

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this morning voted to recommend all newborns receive Merck’s new monoclonal antibody shot, designed to protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Two of the seven committee members, Retsef Levi, Ph.D., and Vicky Pebsworth, Ph.D., opposed the recommendation, citing safety concerns. The remaining five members supported it.

The vote marked the first — and closely watched — decision by the new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), appointed early this month by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He replaced all 17 sitting members, citing long-standing conflicts of interest that he said had plagued the committee for years.

Kennedy’s decision outraged the mainstream public health industry, which feared the new committee would be more critical of vaccines. It even prompted a move by vaccine manufacturers, insurers and the professional medical organizations they support to bypass government health agencies’ recommendations by creating a nongovernmental system for recommending and purchasing vaccines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this month approved Merck’s RSV shot, clesrovimab, which will be marketed as Enflonsia. It joins two other recently approved RSV drugs. One is Sanofi and AstraZeneca’s monoclonal antibody shot for infants, Beyfortus (nirsevimab). The other is Pfizer’s RSV vaccine, Abrysvo, for pregnant mothers.

Data presented by the CDC during Wednesday’s ACIP meeting reassured committee members that the recently approved RSV interventions were safe and effective.

However, an analysis of the CDC’s Vaccine Safety Datalink for the 2023-2024 respiratory season revealed an association between Abrysvo and an increased risk for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, which include gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, eclampsia and HELLP syndrome, a life-threatening pregnancy complication.

Presenters repeatedly emphasized that RSV — a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild cold-like symptoms but can be serious in infants — is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the U.S. There are fewer than 100 deaths per year from RSV in the U.S., according to data presented at the meeting.

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ACIP Members Push Back on CDC’s COVID Vaccine Safety Claims

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 vaccine work group today assured the agency’s new panel of vaccine advisers that the vaccines are necessary, effective and have no safety concerns beyond a small risk of myocarditis among an age-limited group of young men.

The new members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) pushed back on several claims made by the presenters, including the agency’s methods for assessing efficacy and safety.

They also questioned claims the group made about how dangerous the COVID-19 virus is, especially for children.

ACIP didn’t schedule a vote today on COVID-19 vaccines. The committee only heard data presentations by the work group and engaged in a question-and-answer session.

Today’s meeting was the first since U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired the previous 17 ACIP members and replaced them with eight (now seven) new members.

The work group members haven’t changed under the new administration.

Last month, Kennedy announced changes to the COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for children and pregnant women.

The CDC now recommends “shared clinical decision-making” between parents and providers for healthy children ages 6 months to 17 years who are not moderately immunocompromised. The agency changed its guidance on COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women from recommended to “no guidance.”

After several hours of presentations, the work group concluded that the 2024-2025 vaccines were effective in preventing hospitalizations and critical outcomes from COVID-19 in adults, that there is robust safety surveillance with no known risks beyond myocarditis.

The group also concluded that pregnant women are at greater risk from COVID-19, and that maternal vaccination has been shown to protect infants — a claim unsupported by any data from the presentations, said Dr. Meryl Nass, who live-blogged the meeting for CHD.TV.

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CDC Advisers Vote To Recommend Removal Of Mercury From Influenza Vaccines

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on June 26 advised the agency to stop recommending influenza vaccines containing a mercury-based preservative.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) in a series of votes reaffirmed the existing recommendation that virtually all individuals aged at least 6 months of age receive an annual influenza shot. The panel further advised, though, that individuals only receive thimerosal-free vaccines.

About 95 percent of influenza vaccines administered in the United States in late 2024 and early 2025 were free of thimerosal, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Tracy Hoeg, an FDA official, told the committee that there appear to be enough influenza vaccine doses without thimerosal for the upcoming virus season, which runs from the fall into the winter.

A spokesperson for Sanofi told The Epoch Times in an email: “We acknowledge the recommendation of the new ACIP. We now await the decision by the CDC on the path forward.

“We will have sufficient supply of Sanofi flu vaccine to support customer preference for this season.”

Seqirus, which also produces influenza vaccines with thimerosal, has not responded to requests for comment.

ACIP provides advice to the CDC’s director, who typically adopts the recommendations.

The CDC has no acting director listed on its website. President Donald Trump’s nominee for the post, Susan Monarez, is being considered by the Senate. The CDC and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, did not respond to requests for comment.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier in the year adopted some recommendations offered by ACIP.

Kennedy has long opposed vaccines with thimerosal, and the panel heard before the vote from Lyn Redwood, a past president of a nonprofit that Kennedy founded who is now listed as an employee of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Redwood said in her presentation that a number of studies have provided evidence against thimerosal, including a 2003 paper that found an association between thimerosal exposure and tics and a 2007 study that found links to several positive and several negative associations, including a lower measure of executive functioning.

“There have been studies that have found evidence of harm,” Redwood said.

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CDC’s New Vaccine Advisers Vow to Study Cumulative Effect of Childhood Vaccine Schedule

The CDC’s new advisory committee today announced plans to look at the cumulative effect of all vaccines given during childhood.

Martin Kulldorff, Ph.D., the committee’s new co-chair, said:

“The number of vaccines that our children and adolescents receive today exceeds what children in most other developed nations receive — and what most of us in this room received when we were children.

“In addition to studying and evaluating individual vaccines, it is important to evaluate the cumulative effect of the recommended vaccine schedule. This includes interaction effects between different vaccines, the total number of vaccines, cumulative amounts of vaccine ingredients, and relative timing of different vaccines.”

A new committee work group will look into these issues, Kulldorff said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends at least 70 doses of 15 different vaccines for children and adolescents up to age 18.

Another new work group will look at vaccines that have not been subject to reviewed in more than seven years, he added. “This was supposed to be a regular practice of the ACIP, but it has not been done in a thorough and systematic way. We will change that.”

ACIP began its two-day meeting today despite a call from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) late Monday to delay the meeting until the committee “is fully staffed with more robust and balanced representation.”

On June 11, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. named eight researchers and physicians to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory panel, two days after removing all 17 ACIP sitting members.

However, according to The New York Times, one of the new members, Dr. Michael A. Ross, a physician licensed in Virginia and a former professor of obstetrics and gynecology, withdrew from the committee.

Kennedy reconstituted the committee to “avoid conflicts of interest,” citing past members’ financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, he said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed about the change.

According to Cassidy, although the new committee members “have scientific credentials, many do not have significant experience studying microbiology, epidemiology or immunology. In particular, some lack experience studying new technologies such as mRNA vaccines, and may even have a preconceived bias against them.”

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FDA, CDC advisers say lost pregnancies higher than expected following early mRNA vaccination

President Trump’s second-term agenda has been careful not to cast doubt on his signature first-term achievement, the development of COVID-19 vaccines through Operation Warp Speed, which congressional Republicans continue to laud and even claim was sabotaged by Pfizer to deny Trump a consecutive term despite his base souring on the therapeutics.

A new preprint study on mRNA COVID vaccines in early pregnancy, coauthored by top advisers to Trump’s Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, may fuel the splintering of the Make America Healthy Again movement as the jabs’ opponents ramp up pressure on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ban them.

Not yet peer-reviewed, the study analyzed hundreds of thousands of Israeli medical records on pregnant women in the three years before and after SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China, finding 43% more “observed-to-expected” fetal losses per 100 pregnancies — 13 instead of nine — when the first mRNA dose is taken between 8-13 weeks’ pregnancy.

Pregnant women who took a booster between 8-13 weeks lost an additional two pregnancies per 100, a “potential dose-response relationship,” the study said.

By using pregnant women who got flu vaccines between 8-27 weeks and women who received either vaccine before their pregnancy as “comparative controls,” the authors said they were able to show the association is unique to COVID vaccines. 

The former had a “consistently lower-than-expected observed number of fetal losses, likely the result of healthy vaccinee bias” – in which people with overall better health tend to have higher vaccination rates – while the latter had “according-to-expected or lower-than-expected numbers of fetal losses,” the study found.

It said “almost all” mRNA doses were made by Pfizer, whose own 2021 report to the FDA – which the agency hid for 16 months until a court made it public – shows 44% of women in Pfizer’s clinical trial lost their pregnancies.

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