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The head of the National Institutes of Health has offered a new explanation for why the federal government canceled $500 million in contracts to help develop messenger RNA vaccines, saying the platform is not viable because the public doesn’t trust it. (Branswell, 8/11)

This fall, it may not be possible for many parents to have a healthy child under age 5 immunized against Covid. Pfizer’s vaccine has long been available to these children under so-called emergency use authorization. But the Food and Drug Administration is considering discontinuing the authorization for that age group, according to an email sent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to state and local health departments. Pfizer confirmed the possibility on Monday evening and said that the company was “currently in discussions with the agency on potential paths forward.” For children 5 to 11 years old, the Pfizer vaccine is expected to be approved and available, according to the C.D.C.’s email, which was reviewed by The New York Times. (Mandavilli, 8/11)

For nearly 40 years, a special federal court system has compensated Americans who prove they were harmed by vaccines while also protecting the manufacturers from litigation. Even the staunchest defenders of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program agree it needs reform. It is slow, understaffed and can feel adversarial to families legitimately in need. Now Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to overhaul the program, saying he will make it more efficient and speedier for Americans seeking payment. (Jewett and Mandavilli, 8/11)

The Annals of Internal Medicine rejected a call from some readers and from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to retract a large vaccine safety study published last month. The paper showed that cumulative aluminum exposure from vaccination during the first 2 years of life did not raise the risk of chronic neurodevelopmental, autoimmune, atopic, or allergic disorders, according to Niklas Worm Andersson, MD, PhD, of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, and co-authors. (George, 8/11)

The common cold may help protect against COVID-19, which may partially explain why children, who are especially vulnerable to most viral respiratory infections, generally have milder SARS-CoV-2 infections than adults, National Jewish Health–led researchers write today in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 8/11)

A recent study in Clinical Microbiology and Infection shows that patients undergoing long-term kidney replacement therapy (KRT) had significant reductions in morbidity and mortality after three doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The study was based on all patients on KRT from the Finnish Registry for Kidney Diseases. Each patient was matched with 10 controls, and hazard ratios of hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 were calculated according to vaccination status to estimate vaccine effectiveness (VE). (Soucheray, 8/11)

Farmers, food manufacturers, chemical companies, anti-vaccine activists and MAHA moms — all waiting anxiously for the release of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s strategy for “making children healthy again” — will have to wait a bit longer. The White House said Monday that it expected the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which President Donald Trump created in February to revamp the nation’s food supply and chronic health outcomes, to send the strategy to the president Tuesday, as required by an executive order. (Lim, Brown and Messerly, 8/11)

Americans will have to wait several weeks for the Trump administration’s next steps in its agenda to “Make America Healthy Again,” according to three people familiar with the matter. While President Donald Trump’s MAHA Commission will submit its strategy to the White House on Tuesday — sticking to an executive-ordered deadline — scheduling issues stand in the way of its public release. (Owermohle and Cancryn, 8/11)