A Trump administration official overruled FDA scientists to reject a review of Moderna's mRNA flu vaccine, according to reports from Stat News and The Wall Street Journal. Vinay Prasad, the top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration during the Trump administration, made the decision, overriding agency scientists who were prepared to review the vaccine.
Stat News reported that a team of career scientists at the FDA was ready to review the vaccine. David Kaslow, a top career official who reviews vaccines, even wrote a memo objecting to Prasad's rejection, which reportedly included a detailed explanation of why the review should proceed. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the report with its own sources.
Meanwhile, Jim O'Neill, the US deputy health secretary, has become one of the most powerful people in public health. He oversees a department with a budget of over a trillion dollars and signed the decision memorandum on the US's new vaccine schedule. In an interview with MIT Technology Review, O'Neill discussed his plans to increase human healthspan through longevity-focused research supported by ARPA-H, a federal agency dedicated to biomedical breakthroughs. He also defended reducing the number of broadly recommended childhood vaccines, a move that has been widely criticized by experts.
In other news, Britain's High Court ruled that the government's decision to outlaw the protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization was unlawful, but it kept the ban in place pending an appeal. The court stated that "the nature and scale of Palestine Action's activities" did not meet the "legal threshold" for a ban.
In the business world, CEOs continue to address climate change, despite rollbacks on climate regulations. According to Fortune, most CEOs believe climate change is real and that they need to address it to remain profitable, create resilient operations, and stay relevant to their customers and employees.
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