For the second time since being sworn in as health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has signed off on new recommendations for vaccine use. One involves endorsement of a new meningococcal vaccine, the other expands the pool of adults recommended to get a shot to protect against respiratory syncytial virus or RSV. The recommendations were passed by the CDC’s expert vaccine panel in April and have been awaiting formal approval ever since. Because CDC doesn’t currently have a director or acting director, only the health secretary can sign off on the recommendations.
The meningococcal vaccine is GSK’s MenABCWY, which can be given to healthy people aged 16 to 23 years and people aged 10 and older whose health status puts them at increased risk from meningococcal disease. The recommendation for RSV vaccine expands the eligible population to include people aged 50 to 59 who are at high risk from RSV because of underlying medication ailments. It applies to vaccines made by GSK, Pfizer and Moderna.
The recommendations were approved by the now former ACIP, before Kennedy fired the entire committee and replaced it with handpicked replacements, some of whom are notable vaccine skeptics. The new committee met last week and passed a number of recommendations of its own. It doesn’t appear that Kennedy has endorsed them yet. — Helen Branswell
first opinion
How to protect pilgrims from disease without diminishing their faith
Over 660 million pilgrims gathered at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, India, in February. Months later, physician Jake Scott has seen the downstream health consequences firsthand in his California clinic, having treated several Americans who got ill after ritual bathing in India’s sacred river. Their diagnoses range from typhoid fever and multidrug-resistant E. coli to persistent giardiasis and polymicrobial gastroenteritis.
“Each patient described their pilgrimage’s profound spiritual meaning; none expected that a moment meant to cleanse the soul would require hospitalization thousands of miles from home,” Scott writes in a new First Opinion essay.
Read more about how even the best sanitation systems can buckle under the pressure of the world’s largest mass gathering, and the practical steps that can be taken to curb disease while still respecting faith.
from AXIOS:
| NIH makes taxpayer-funded studies public |
| By Tina Reed |
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| Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios |
| All National Institutes of Health-funded research appearing in scientific journals will be made publicly available as soon as it is published starting this month, the agency posted on X.
Why it matters: It’s the latest move by the Trump administration to challenge scientific publishing and the way peer-reviewed studies are disseminated. Many journals are password-protected and not widely available to nonsubscribers.
Driving the news: NIH director Jay Bhattacharya posted on X that NIH moved up the launch of its open-access policy from December to July 1.
What they’re saying: “Science journals are ripping the American people off with exorbitant access fees and extra charges to publish research openly,” an HHS spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
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