Welcome to Public Health Watch, a weekly roundup from Protect Our Care tracking catastrophic activity as part of Donald Trump’s sweeping war on health care. From installing anti-vaccine zealot RFK Jr. as Secretary of HHS to empowering Elon Musk to make indiscriminate cuts to our public health infrastructure, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, Donald Trump is endangering the lives of millions of Americans. Protect Our Care’s Public Health Watch will shine a spotlight on the worst of the Trump/RFK war on vaccines, science, and public health, and serve as a resource for the press, public, and advocacy groups to hold them accountable.
What’s Happening In Public Health?
The GOP War on Vaccines Will Have Deadly Consequences
NBC: FDA claims Covid shots killed 10 children and vows new vaccine rules The director of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division told agency staff in a memo that an internal review found that at least 10 children died “after and because of receiving” the Covid vaccine. The 3,000-word memo, obtained by NBC News, was written by Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. In it, Prasad claims that agency staff determined that “no fewer than 10” of 96 child deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, between 2021 and 2024 were “related” to Covid vaccination. He said the true numbers could be higher, accusing the agency of ignoring the safety concerns for years. The memo, sent Friday, did not include the children’s ages or medical histories, timelines or documentation for the deaths he references and does not identify the manufacturer of the vaccine. The FDA’s findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
- Stat: Experts say top FDA official’s claim that Covid vaccines caused kids’ deaths requires more evidence It is unclear what the FDA’s next steps will be. The memo does not contain any information on plans to release more detailed information on the deaths or to publish the result in a medical journal. Prasad said the agency would require more definitive data for vaccines administered during pregnancy and that he plans to reform the way that annual influenza vaccines are regulated. He also stated that the FDA may look at whether multiple shots should be given at once, a concern that could disrupt the childhood vaccine schedule. “The talk about purported danger of combined vaccines or multiple vaccines given at same visit is concerning if applied to ban or un-recommend combo vaccines, or require spacing-out in a way that greatly reduces uptake and done without evidence of harm,” said Jeffrey Morris, a professor of public health and preventive medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It was not clear which vaccines Prasad was talking about in many of his comments, such as those related to vaccines given during pregnancy. Outside experts said they would need much more evidence to understand whether it had been established that the Covid vaccine caused deaths in children. They said it was surprising that more data were not included in the memo, which they viewed as certain to be made public. Some claims in the memo, such as the implication that the federal government sets school vaccine mandates, are incorrect. “It’s irresponsible science at best and it’s dangerous to the public at the very least,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Osterholm said the FDA should refer the question of whether there was a causal link between Covid vaccination and the deaths Prasad identified to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine for independent review.
Politico: RFK Jr. is overhauling the program that helps preserve Americans’ access to vaccines Drug companies and lawyers for patients have thought for years that the federal program for people injured by vaccines is understaffed and too slow to offer compensation. They’ve been urging Congress to overhaul it. Now, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is considering much more dramatic changes that industry insiders and public health experts worry could threaten the availability of vaccines for the public by prompting drug companies to flee the U.S. market. A senior Kennedy adviser has proposed expanding the conditions that the program considers vaccine injuries to include some cases of severe autism. Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist before he became health secretary, has long believed there’s a link between rising autism rates and vaccines despite ample science to the contrary. “You’re playing with fire, because I think that we could seriously lose small vaccine manufacturers,” said Richard Hughes, a vaccine lawyer and former executive at vaccine maker Moderna. “For large manufacturers, they ultimately have to ask serious questions about whether it’s viable for them to remain in the market” and provide vaccines to Americans.
Washington Post: Louisiana health official who halted state vaccine campaign tapped as CDC’s No. 2 A Louisiana health official who ordered his health department to stop promoting mass vaccinations this past winter during a surge in influenza cases has been tapped to serve as the new No. 2 leader at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ralph Abraham, who is Louisiana’s surgeon general, has been hired to be the principal deputy director at the CDC, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, who confirmed the appointment. It is not clear when Abraham begins in the position. He is listed in the CDC’s internal directory as principal deputy director; a CDC email listed for him does not work. The nation’s top public health agency currently has no permanent director, and Abraham would essentially be running the agency. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ousted CDC Director Susan Monarez this summer after she resisted his requests to agree to vaccine recommendations he wanted an influential CDC advisory committee to make. HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill is serving as acting CDC director. Abraham adds to the vaccine critics working at the CDC under Kennedy, a prominent anti-vaccine activist before becoming the country’s top health official. Kennedy fired all of the CDC’s federal vaccine advisers and replaced them with people who have criticized coronavirus and other shots.
NOTUS: CDC Quietly Turned Off Its Vaccine Search Tool. It’s Not Clear When It’s Coming Back. Over the summer, a government website that helped Americans find vaccines got a MAHA makeover. Then it stopped working altogether. The Trump administration removed language from Vaccines.gov that said “Vaccines can help you stay healthy” on June 24, according to a NOTUS analysis of previous versions of the site cached by web.archive.org. It also cut the site’s FAQ section explaining “The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones is to get the vaccines recommended for you” and — most critically — changed the search tool that allowed users to enter their ZIP code to find vaccination sites in their area. Now, the ZIP code search doesn’t work. A site banner on the page states: “The functionality of this website may be impacted while it is being updated.” Changes to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website linking vaccines to rising autism rates drew widespread criticism when they were made last week. But it appears that the agency has been quietly pulling back its online vaccination resources for much longer. The CDC did not give NOTUS a timeline for when Vaccines.gov would function again — nor did it answer repeated inquiries about the stated updates.
Editorial: Wall Street Journal: RFK Jr. Turns the CDC Against Vaccines Who decided to leave Robert F. Kennedy Jr. home alone at the Health and Human Services Department? Without adults to supervise the Secretary, he’s damaging public trust in immunizations, and now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been conscripted into his anti-vaccine campaign.
Other Dangerous MAHA Initiatives
New York Times: Trump Administration Will No Longer Commemorate World AIDS Day Every year since 1988, the United States has marked Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day, when people mourn those who died of the disease, honor efforts to contain the epidemic and raise awareness among the general public. Not this year. The State Department this month instructed employees and grantees not to use funds from the United States government to commemorate the day. The directive is part of a broader policy “to refrain from messaging on any commemorative days, including World AIDS Day,” according to an email viewed by The New York Times. Employees and grantees may still “tout the work” being done through various programs “to counter this dangerous disease and other infectious diseases around the world,” the email said. And they may attend events related to the commemoration. But they should “refrain from publicly promoting World AIDS Day through any communication channels, including social media, media engagements, speeches or other public-facing messaging.” Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said the Trump administration was modernizing its approach to countering infectious diseases.
Public Health Threats
WLWT: Third Kentucky infant dies from whooping cough as statewide cases surge Another infant has died of whooping cough in Kentucky, becoming the third child to die of the illness in the last 12 months across the state. The first two deaths in the state represented the first whooping cough deaths in Kentucky since 2018. The Kentucky Department for Public Health did not say where the most recent whooping cough death occurred but warned Kentuckians about the rising threat of the illness, also known as pertussis. “We are deeply saddened to learn of another infant death in Kentucky due to pertussis and are concerned by the volume of cases we are seeing throughout the commonwealth,” said Dr. Steven Stack, secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. “We continue to urge Kentuckians to get their whooping cough vaccine and to make sure they are up to date on all other recommended immunizations. Many illnesses can be prevented through vaccination, which helps protect not only the individual but also those around them.”
ABC: US cases of norovirus on the rise with double the rate of positive tests since August Cases of norovirus are rising across the United States, doubling over the last few months, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nearly 14% of tests came back positive for norovirus during the most recent week ending Nov. 15, compared to roughly 7% about three months ago.