New troubles from healthcare Trumpism

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The policy of damaging vaccines in the United States continues. Two main pieces of news are coming to us from overseas. The Trump administration has decided to cancel the contract with the pharmaceutical company Moderna for the advanced development of the vaccine against avian influenza H5N1, which also included the right to purchase doses. Moderna itself announced this on Wednesday evening, confirming the cancellation of the $590 million funding that had been allocated in January by the Biden administration to support the development and clinical trials of five additional influenza subtypes . One of the fastest and most effective tools to deal with a possible avian influenza epidemic has thus been discarded. Avian influenza has already affected 70 people, mainly agricultural workers, in the last year in the United States. In addition, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the end of the recommendations on anti-Covid vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, causing dismay and confusion among CDC officials who learned of the decision only through a video published on X.

Yet, just a few days earlier, the US regulatory body, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), had reiterated its recommendations in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, recommending vaccines especially for people over 65 and those at risk of severe forms of the disease, including pregnant women among the risk categories. In addition to fueling confusion, Kennedy Jr.'s decision further undermines people's trust in vaccines and risks making them less available since insurance coverage in the United States depends on the official recognition of these guidelines on the categories to which the vaccine is recommended. Yet another move that seems to fit into a broader context of mistrust towards public health agencies and risks further fueling a climate of misinformation and uncertainty .

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