RFK Jr. Says US Will Pull Funding for Key Global Vaccine Organization + More
Fierce Healthcare reported:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said this week that the U.S. government will no longer make financial contributions to Gavi, the leading global organization on vaccination.
In recorded remarks sent to a Gavi’s global summit, RFK Jr. said he supports the organizations’ broader efforts to address the affordability of healthcare but that it has “neglected the key issue of vaccine safety” and “ignored the science” on vaccines when it’s inconvenient.
“When vaccine safety issues have come before Gavi, Gavi has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem,” RFK Jr. said in the video, which was first made public by The New York Times.
Melatonin Doses Can Vary From What’s on the Label. Here’s How Much.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers have identified dozens of melatonin supplements with doses well above or below the amount listed on the label.
They analyzed 110 melatonin supplements purchased in 2023, focusing on ones marketed for children. Their study was first published in a peer-reviewed journal in October, but did not identify any of the products.
The FDA’s study is the largest of melatonin-containing products in the U.S., the researchers noted in a peer-reviewed article on the results. The Washington Post filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in November to obtain the names of the supplements tested, the results and any memo or report regarding the study.
Among the supplements tested, researchers found that three products from Zarbee’s, Robitussin and Creekside Natural Therapeutics varied the most from the melatonin declared, according to the documents from the FOIA request. Three other brands, WellYeah, Calmable and Nextdia, sold products that contained zero or close to zero detectable melatonin per serving, the documents show.
Some pediatric sleep medicine specialists said melatonin should be treated like a prescribed medicine, not a supplement. They also advised that children should be given the smallest effective dose, starting at half a milligram, after parents have tried other ways to help them sleep.
Hundreds of Weight Loss and Diabetes Jab Users Report Pancreas Problems
Hundreds of people have reported problems with their pancreas linked to taking weight loss and diabetes injections, prompting health officials to launch a study into side-effects. Some cases of pancreatitis reported to be linked to GLP-1 medicines (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) have been fatal.
The move comes after an increase in reports of acute pancreatitis to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s Yellow Card scheme, which monitors any adverse reactions to medications and medical devices in the UK.
Acute pancreatitis is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas, a gland located behind the stomach that aids in digestion. It often requires hospital admission. Symptoms include severe pain in the abdomen, nausea and fever.
Patient information leaflets for GLP-1 medications list pancreatitis as an “uncommon” reaction, affecting around one in 100 patients. To date, the scheme has received nearly 400 reports of acute pancreatitis from patients who have used Mounjaro, Wegovy, Ozempic and liraglutide, with nearly half (181) involving tirzepatide (Mounjaro).
Arkansas Receives Estimated $44.5 Million From Purdue Pharma Settlement
On Wednesday, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced that the state has received $44.5 million as part of a Purdue Pharma settlement. AG Griffin issued the statement where he detailed Arkansas’ portion of the $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family for the group’s role in the “proliferation of the country’s opioid crisis.”
“Arkansas will receive an estimated $44.5 million of the settlement,” AG Griffin said.
The attorney general said that the funds will be dispense beginning in the Spring of next year and will continue through 2040.
“As with previous settlements, Arkansas’s portion will be split into thirds, with one third — about $14.8 million — being awarded to the state, which will be managed by my office; one third being awarded to Arkansas municipalities; and one third being awarded to Arkansas counties,” he said. AG Griffin also shared that the counties’ and municipalities’ portions will be managed by the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership.
The U.S. Is Going Backwards on Vaccines, Very Fast
Vaccine experts in the U.S. have long considered the case on thimerosal closed. A chemical preservative that stamps out contamination in vaccine vials, thimerosal was removed from most U.S. shots more than two decades ago over worries that its mercury content could trigger developmental delays.
But those concerns — as well as baseless claims that thimerosal causes autism — have been proved unfounded, many times over. “We took care of this 20 years ago,” Kathryn Edwards, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Vanderbilt University, told me.
That’s not how anti-vaccine activists see the compound.
Even the strongest data supporting thimerosal’s safety have not quelled the concerns of those who insist on the chemical’s harms. And now the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, has signaled that thimerosal’s presence in vaccines should remain open for debate. The panel is scheduled on Thursday to discuss the compound, which is present in a minority of flu shots in low or trace amounts, and vote on how vaccines containing it should be used.
The Defender Staff
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