GoKawiil
Tech News
New York health officials announced late Monday that a child in the state has died from measles, the first such death there in more than three decades. It is the seventh measles-linked death nationwide this year, following six deaths in Pennsylvania, which has recorded over 1,430 cases in its own outbreak. New York has logged 170 measles cases across more than a dozen counties this year.
FDA scientific staff largely opposed a policy that would have made it easier for Americans to obtain unproven peptide drugs favored by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to six people familiar with its development. Agency officials reportedly warned that career scientists had serious safety concerns and would not endorse a regulation declaring the peptides safe, and staff said they had limited input in drafting the policy.
The FDA has proposed expanding its 'threshold of regulation' exemption, which currently applies only to food-contact materials like packaging, to allow chemicals to be added directly to food as flavorings, preservatives, emulsifiers and other additives without safety review, provided they fall below 0.5 parts per billion. The expansion was included in a Federal Register filing tied to the agency's recent move to close the separate 'generally regarded as safe' loophole, which Robert F Kennedy Jr and the FDA publicly touted as a win for food safety.
The FDA approved mFlusiva, a flu vaccine shown to perform well in older adults, but the CDC has issued no formal recommendation on its use. This departs from the agency's usual practice of guiding doctors and the public on newly approved vaccines shortly after FDA clearance.
The CDC has begun allowing states to order 2026–2027 COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program, ending a delay of nearly a month despite FDA approval of the shots in late August. HHS initially said procurement decisions had not been finalized, and an unnamed source told The Washington Post the holdup partly stemmed from unfinished clinical guidance requiring outside expert review.
Despite chaos at the CDC's vaccine advisory panel and RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine actions as health secretary, updated flu and COVID-19 vaccines have been FDA-approved and are already shipping to pharmacies for the fall season. Major insurers have agreed to keep covering previously recommended vaccines at no cost through at least 2027, and state health officials expect a mostly normal rollout.
The CDC has declined to include two child deaths from measles reported by Pennsylvania's health department in its official outbreak tally, departing from its usual practice of accepting state-reported data. The move follows a public dispute between HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, after Shapiro blamed vaccine misinformation for the deaths and Kennedy accused him of fabricating the incident. Both children, from Lancaster County, were unvaccinated and tested positive for measles, according to state officials.