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Louisiana’s top health official said in an internal memo to the state’s Health Department on Thursday that it would no longer use media campaigns or health fairs to promote vaccination against preventable illnesses. The official, Dr. Ralph L. Abraham, Louisiana’s surgeon general, wrote in the memo that the state would “encourage each patient to discuss the risks and benefits of vaccination with their provider” but would “no longer promote mass vaccination.” (Balk, 2/13)

Doctors, nurses and other public health professionals are speaking out against a bill that would dismantle New Hampshire's universal childhood vaccine purchasing program, saying it would increase barriers to vaccination and put kids’ health at risk. The bill – along with several others that would weaken childhood vaccination requirements – comes at a time of declining childhood vaccination rates, in New Hampshire and around the country. (Cuno-Booth, 2/13)

Hawaiʻi has seen an explosion in the number of families using religious exemptions to opt out of the state’s mandate that children receive vaccinations to attend school. (Tagami, 2/14)

For vaccine makers, there’s a lot at stake. The Covid-19 shot, which Kennedy once-called the “deadliest vaccine ever made,” is still one of Pfizer’s largest-selling products. Merck & Co.’s HPV shot, Gardasil, is the company’s second-best-selling product, and the company also makes one of the MMR vaccines Kennedy refused to say don't cause autism during his confirmation hearings. Moderna Inc.’s entire business so far, and most of its late-stage pipeline, is focused on various vaccines. And it’s not just manufacturers that are potentially at risk. In its annual report, CVS Health Corp. said that “regulatory changes or consumer sentiment shift for immunizations” may hurt demand at its stores. (Muller and Shanker, 2/13)

Sen. Mitch McConnell issued a blistering indictment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday, with the Kentucky Republican saying his childhood bout with polio heavily influenced his decision to vote against Kennedy as Health and Human Services secretary. “In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the relitigation of proven cures, and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” McConnell said in a statement. (Weixel, 2/13)