Next year's flu shots are at risk as well as the development of new vaccines.
(Scroll to the bottom for my letter to reps.)
It's like people have been walking into this with normalcy bias.
DA meeting to choose flu vaccine composition canceled without explanation Meg Tirrell By Meg Tirrell, CNN Wed February 26, 2025 A March meeting of outside advisers to the United States Food and Drug Administration to discuss the composition of flu vaccines for this fall’s flu season has been canceled, a member of the advisory committee told CNN. The meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBPAC, is held every March “to pick flu strains, because it’s a six-month production cycle for a vaccine released in September,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of VRBPAC, told CNN Wednesday. He said this year’s meeting had been set for March 13, and he received an email this afternoon saying it had been canceled. “No indication it’s been postponed,” he told CNN; “cancelled.”
Most people want vaccines. MOST people want vaccines. Yet vaccines are being derailed. It's very possible we will have NO SEASONAL FLU VACCINE NEXT SEASON. After enduring a horrendous flu season this year despite 146.5 million doses of flu vaccines having been received for the 2024-25 season. The lives saved this winter may not be as lucky next year.
It's an abomination.
Brian PJ Cronin @brianpjcronin.bsky.social February 26, 2025 at 7:43 PM People laughed a few days ago when @jamellebouie.net said we might not have flu shots next year, but: sara g miller @saragmiller.bsky.social · 6h NEWS: The FDA abruptly canceled its upcoming advisory committee meeting to select the strains for next year's flu shot. by @berkeleyjr.bsky.social FDA cancels meeting to select flu strains for next season's shots The canceled meeting comes just days after a CDC vaccine advisory committee meeting was abruptly postponed. www.nbcnews.com February 26, 2025 at 7:43 PM 1.5K reposts 154 quotes 4.2K likes
Many vaccinated people voted for Trump in 2024 even after he was repeating RFKJr's anti-vax bullshit to get his endorsement probably, and many voted for the Senate Republicans who confirmed RFKJr. Even Republicans want vaccines. Even MAGA Republicans want vaccines, despite all the anti-vax content that has targeted MAGA.
Multimillion-dollar Biden-era COVID-19 vax project halted by Trump’s HHS Stop-work order comes as 10,000 individuals were slated to begin clinical trials Monday Emma Colton By Emma Colton Fox News Published February 25, 2025 A recent modification to the contract would have allowed Vaxart to invoice BARDA for the remaining roughly $230 million for clinical trials, but the stop-work order prevents the biotech company from invoicing BARDA until further notice. Vaxart, however, can still invoice HHS related to medical monitoring of individuals who took part in an initial round of trials, Fox Digital learned.
This is all part of Project 2025. They claim they're just against mandates – and that in itself is anti-vax, anti-mandate is anti-vax. But they are actually against vaccines, and believe entirely wrong things about them. It says on page 284 of Project 2025 about the covid vaccine wrongly calling it: "experimental mRNA vaccine that the CDC now wants to force on children, who are at little to no risk from COVID -19 but at great risk from public health officials." MRNA technology was around for many years before covid vaccines, and the vaccines are not and were not experimental, they completed clinical trials before being distributed to the public. They seem to be invoking the preposterously but disturbingly wrong Alex Jones conspiracy theory that healthcare professionals are a violent threat to people. The wrong assertion that healthcare workers are deliberately harming people with vaccines is unfortunately a common conspiracy theory rumour wrongly believed in right-wing circles.
Report: RFK Jr. Planning to Remove Advisors on Vaccine Committee — Meanwhile, the CDC postponed a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices by Joyce Frieden, Washington Editor, MedPage Today February 21, 2025 Kennedy is planning to remove several members of CDC's vaccine advisory committee due to what he sees as conflicts of interest, Politico reported. The secretary has previously said that he is concerned about the drug industry's relationship with regulators. The process of reviewing committee members has just started, and there is no firm timeline for the removals, nor is it known how many people will be removed, sources said. ACIP Meeting Postponed. The key committee involved in overseeing vaccine use is the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). That committee was scheduled to have a meeting next week, but that meeting has been postponed and no new date has been announced. The postponement triggered a letteropens in a new tab or window signed by the American Medical Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (DSA), and several other medical groups urging the Trump administration to reschedule the meeting.
They're going to end promising cancer treatment development too.
Science Friday - 02/21/2025 - A Vaccine For Pancreatic Cancer Continues To Show Promise Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, and about 90% of diagnosed patients die from the disease. A team at Memorial Sloan Kettering has been working to improve those outcomes by developing a new mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer. A few years ago, the team embarked on a small trial to test the vaccine’s safety. Sixteen patients with pancreatic cancer received it, and even though it was a small study, the results were promising: Half the participants had an immune response, and in those patients the cancer hadn’t relapsed after 18 months. This week, the team released a new study in Nature following those same patients, and found six out of eight who responded to the vaccine in the first study did not have their cancer return more than three years later.
They’re willing to ruin the hopes of pancreatic cancer patients all because of wanting to politicize public health and sell supplements.
It’s an abomination.
There has been more than one state where Republicans are trying to ban MRNA technology in medicine, with lawmakers debating fantasy "facts" very clearly based on internet medical misinformation they've heard from Qanon social media influencers.
Montana House votes down bill to ban mRNA vaccines by KATE HESTON Daily Inter Lake | February 21, 2025 12:00 AM Proponents of the bill argued that the gene-based vaccinations were harmful while opponents argued that a ban would infringe on medical freedom. Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, chaired the session on Wednesday where legislators debate the legislation. Rep. Lukas Schubert, R-Kalispell, spoke in favor of the legislation, telling his colleagues he believed that someone who received the Covid-19 vaccine could spread it to other people. “These vaccines spread like diseases, you can look it up,” Schubert said on the floor. “As an individual who did not receive the Covid vaccine, I don’t want to have vaccines forced upon me without my consent.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that Covid-19 vaccines recommended for use in the United States do not shed as they don’t include a live virus.
It's well known that quack cure purveyors make money off people desperate for "alternative" cancer treatments. There's an entire industry that is financially motivated to squash real cancer treatment development. And they just happen to be promoted by the same people who promote anti-vax disinformation.
And this all matters because the government ultimately controls what gets recommended, covered by insurance, and the vaccine compensation program.
The Hill - Supreme Court schedules arguments in case where Trump administration is defending ACA by Nathaniel Weixel - 02/24/25 5:30 PM ET Additionally, the HHS secretary has the ultimate authority to decide whether USPSTF recommendations should become binding on health-insurance issuers, the administrafrrtion argued. The secretary may directly review — and deny legal force to — any recommendations. He can also request that the Task Force reconsider or modify its recommendations.
The anti-vax strategy constantly suggested by anti-vax groups specifically references going after liability as how they can take out vaccines — I’ve heard this on many podcast interviews with anti-vaxxers. If they aren’t covered by insurance and aren’t recommended, they won’t be covered by the vaccine claims compensation program for example.
My letter to reps:
I want vaccines. I'm appalled and confused and frightened by the fact that the CDC ACIP meeting on vaccines was postponed and now the FDA VRBPAC meeting on vaccines was cancelled. This is the meeting that must decide on next season's flu vaccines. The new covid vaccine development program was also halted just days before a trial was about to begin and the resources have already been committed and promised. I want vaccines! The federal government shouldn't be in the business of allowing preventable deaths on purpose. I want vaccines.