TRACKING EMERGING VIRUSES – June 3, 2025 – COVID
“What’s Going On With Trump’s New COVID-Vaccine Policies?”
By Chas Danner
“How did the CDC come to this conclusion?
That’s not clear. This was not the normal transparent and public process for the CDC to update its vaccine recommendations. The agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices wasn’t involved in the new recommendation, the CDC provided no scientific basis for the changes, and the agency currently has no known acting director to sign off on the plan. It’s not even clear who at the agency updated the vaccine schedule.”
“Can RFK Jr. just rewrite vaccine policies by himself?
“The problem with Kennedy’s decision is that it seems to have been his decision, not the decision of deliberative medical authorities. If such an announcement were to come from independent scientists who review data and debate trade-offs, it might have been justifiable. Indeed, if it had stemmed from leaders who did not have a history of vaccine skepticism and a disregard for standard procedure, perhaps we wouldn’t even be discussing it. But this asymmetry is not a sign that we are unfairly blaming the messenger. It is a reminder that science is about more than the right answer, when such a thing exists. Science is a process, and if we follow its procedures with care we can get closer to the truth.”
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“mRNA, once lauded as a scientific marvel, is now a government target”
By Lizzy Lawrence and Isabella Cueto
“mRNA, a Nobel-winning technology harnessed by Trump officials to create Covid shots in record time, is becoming a political reject as the nation’s leaders openly embrace vaccine skepticism.
Republican lawmakers and federal health officials alike are shunning messenger RNA, a basic building block of biology that proved its value during Covid, and that holds promise for combating the next pandemic and unlocking new cancer treatments. Public health experts and biotech companies are watching in horror as the government cuts its investments in the technology, and as officials like health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. foment deep distrust of mRNA vaccines.”
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“FDA chief wary of federal recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines”
By David Cohen
“Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the FDA, on Sunday made it clear he was dubious of previous federal recommendations on Covid-19 vaccinations and the agencies who made them.
In an interview with host Margaret Brennan of CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Makary responded to repeated requests from Brennan to clarify federal guidance (or the lack thereof) with variations on the same answer. “We believe the recommendation should be with a patient and their doctor,” he said at one point, declining to give specific advice — or specifying how doctors might be able to offer guidance in the absence of informed direction from the federal government.”
“Makary there needed to be more controlled studies, so that decisions to approve vaccines would be more authoritative.
The CBS host tried to get Makary to say what was lacking in the current data for such vaccines, and when that information might be available to the agency, as well as the general public.
In his answers Sunday, Makary was not supportive of past guidance, criticizing the methodology of the CDC.
“We know the CDC data is contaminated with a lot of false positives from incidental positive Covid tests with routine testing of every kid that walks in the hospital,” he told Brennan.
Makary also cast doubt on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. “That panel has been a kangaroo court where they just rubber-stamp every single vaccine put in front of them,” he said.”
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“WHO Warns Of New COVID Variant Taking Hold: What To Know In NJ”
https://patch.com/new-jersey/across-nj/new-covid-variant-dominant-china-showing-what-know-nj
“A New COVID Variant Is Spreading Quickly — These Are The Symptoms Doctors Are Warning About”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliaries/the-most-common-covid-symptoms-nb181
“New COVID strain detected in California as federal government changes vaccine recommendations”
“Long-COVID diagnoses fairly common in Medicare claims”
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/long-covid-diagnoses-fairly-common-medicare-claims
curated by Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai