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BumRushDaShow

(170,963 posts) Tue Apr 21, 2026, 12:42 PM Tuesday

COVID shots, newer vaccines in limbo after US court halts Kennedy's advisory panel

Source: Reuters

April 21, 2026 6:02 AM EDT Updated 5 hours ago

CHICAGO, April 21 (Reuters) - Americans may face the next respiratory disease season without clear guidance for COVID shots and updated flu vaccines after a federal court ruling last month left several vaccines in limbo, and raised questions about whether some newly approved products would be covered by insurers.

The decision by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy froze the work of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the panel that advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and ‌Prevention on how vaccines should be used. Murphy ruled that most members of a panel appointed last year by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were unqualified and ordered that their votes be put on hold, effectively restoring the previous childhood immunization schedule that the U.S. Health Secretary and his allies had sought to revamp.

The ruling leaves the CDC without a functioning advisory body to recommend new vaccines or updated uses of existing ones. “It’s just uncharted territory,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who left the agency last year in protest over Kennedy's moves to rewrite U.S. vaccine policies.

Without ACIP recommendations, newly licensed vaccines and expanded indications — while legal to prescribe — may not be covered by insurers or included in federal programs, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University and longtime ACIP adviser. Kennedy has yet ⁠to say whether he will reconfigure the panel, using his revamped ACIP charter to circumvent the court ruling, appeal the judge's order, or both.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/covid-shots-newer-vaccines-limbo-after-us-court-halts-kennedys-advisory-panel-2026-04-21/

This is around the latest time when vax companies that make the "traditional" versions of the flu vaccine, need to get started with their manufacturing to be ready for fall (after WHO came up with the current circulating types in February (they need a long lead time due to the process using incubation in eggs).

2 replies

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COVID shots, newer vaccines in limbo after US court halts Kennedy's advisory panel (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Tuesday OP

It would be funny if it wasn't going to lead to illnesses and deaths. maxsolomon Tuesday #1

MaddowBlog-CDC buries report that showed the efficacy of the Covid vaccines LetMyPeopleVote Thursday #2

maxsolomon

(38,956 posts)

1. It would be funny if it wasn't going to lead to illnesses and deaths.

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Apr 21, 2026, 01:14 PM

Tuesday

But this is what America voted for. Hell in a hand cart!

LetMyPeopleVote

(180,856 posts)

2. MaddowBlog-CDC buries report that showed the efficacy of the Covid vaccines

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Thu Apr 23, 2026, 08:33 PM

Thursday

The good news is, the Covid vaccine proved effective over the winter. The bad news is, Trump’s appointees at the CDC blocked the release of the good news.

Please read of the hypocrisy in are government now, WOWâ€¼ï¸CDC buries report that showed the efficacy of the Covid vaccine. The good news is, the Covid vaccine proved effective over the winter. The bad news is, Trumpâ€™s appointees at the CDC blocked the release of the good news.
— Donna898 (@donna-f898.bsky.social) 2026-04-23T14:35:18.131Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/cdc-buries-report-that-showed-the-efficacy-of-the-covid-vaccine

When it comes to public health, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, a Covid-19 vaccine was made available to Americans last year, and according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it made a significant difference in helping people avoid serious illness.

The bad news is, the Trump administration’s political appointees at the CDC don’t want you to know about the good news. The Washington Post reported:

A report showing the efficacy of the covid-19 vaccine that was previously delayed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, according to three people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

The report showed that the vaccine reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter.

Some of this might sound vaguely familiar, because we learned a couple of weeks ago that the findings about the efficacy of the Covid vaccine were supposed to be published in mid-March, but Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health who is also the acting CDC director, delayed the release.....

Part of the problem with this is that there was no reason to question the methodology. The other part of the problem is that Bhattacharya doesn’t exactly have a track record on the issue that inspires confidence in his credibility. In October 2020, as the pandemic continued to claim the lives of thousands of Americans per day, the public was confronted with a highly controversial joint statement called the “Great Barrington Declaration,” which, among other things, argued that public health officials should pursue a radical version of “herd immunity” by allowing Covid to spread untrammeled through the population.....

On Capitol Hill this week, Democratic Rep. Raul Ruiz of California asked the secretary, “If Dr. Schwartz is confirmed, will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?”

Kennedy replied, “I’m not going to make that kind of commitment.”

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