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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) went after former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez Wednesday, charging she was fired from the prestigious health agency last month for promoting infant vaccination.
Monarez, 50, had been answering questions from the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) over her abrupt firing Aug. 27 after clashing with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“You resisted firing people who have this idea that the COVID vaccine should be [given] at six months. That’s what this is about,” Paul, 62, argued during a heated back-and-forth.
“You didn’t resist firing the beautiful scientists, the career people … [who were] unobjective and unbiased. You wouldn’t fire the people who are saying that we have to vaccinate our kids at six months of age. That’s who you refuse to fire,” he added.
“That assertion is not commensurate with the experience that I had with the individuals who were identified to be fired,” Monarez countered.
Many of Paul’s colleagues on the HELP panel appeared sympathetic to Monarez as she claimed Kennedy demanded she dismiss “officials responsible for vaccine policy without cause” while pre-approving recommendations from the HHS secretary’s hand-picked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
Paul, an opthamologist by training, revisited one of his favorite topics during the hearing by discoursing on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines among kids. --->READ MORE HERE
Do newborns need the hepatitis B vaccine to B healthy?
That’s slated to be deliberated Thursday at a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). The influential vaccine advisory panel is expected to vote to recommend delaying a shot typically given at birth to age 4, NPR reported.
“There is going to likely be a discussion about hepatitis B vaccine, very specifically trying to dislodge the birth dose of hepatitis B vaccine and to push it later in life,” Demetre Daskalakis, the former director for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told the outlet.
“Apparently this is a priority of the Secretary’s.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long questioned the safety of vaccines, including those for hepatitis B. He ousted all 17 ACIP members in June and appointed new ones ahead of this week’s key meeting, which will also review recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines.
Here’s a look at hepatitis B, a viral infection that’s the world’s leading cause of liver cancer, and the current vaccination recommendations.
How prevalent is hepatitis B?
Over 296 million people are living with chronic hepatitis B, making it the most common liver infection in the world.
In the US, as many as 2.4 million Americans may have a chronic case.
Acute hepatitis B becomes chronic when the patient’s immune system fails to clear the virus within six months of infection.
There were 17,650 new reports of chronic hepatitis B and 1,769 hepatitis B-related deaths in 2023, according to the CDC. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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