Kennedy Cancels Vaccine Funding – KFF Health News

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The announcement of the Secretary of Health and Social Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that the federal government will cancel nearly $ 500 million in mRNA research is disturbing not only for those who develop vaccines, but also for public health experts who see technology behind the COVVI-19 first plans as the best hope of the country to fight a pandemic future.

And President Donald Trump demands that large pharmaceutical companies offer many American patients the same prices available for patients abroad. It is not the first time that he has been doing such threats, and drug manufacturers – who have marked some victories against Medicare negotiations in the president’s tax and expenses – are probably not voluntary to lower their prices.

This week’s panelists are Emmarie Huetteman from Kff Health News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of The Pink Sheet, Sandhya Raman by CQ Roll Call and Lauren Weber from Washington Post.

Among the take -out dishes of this week’s episode:

• Explaining the decision to cancel the financing of mRNA vaccine, a priority for vaccine criticisms, Kennedy falsely said that technology was ineffective against respiratory diseases. Researchers have made progress in mRNA vaccines for diseases such as bird flu and even cancer, and the Trump administration opposition to support the development of vaccines weakens the prospects for future breakthroughs.
• Trump’s insistence that major drug manufacturers voluntarily reduce their prices highlight the few tools that the presidency must provide results on this important portfolio problem for many Americans. Medicare’s ability to negotiate the prices of medicines took a blow under the great law on the big and expenditure of Trump, which included two measures recommended by the pharmaceutical industry which would delay or exclude certain expensive drugs from the process of submitting requests.
• A year after Trump promised on the campaign track to guarantee the coverage of fertilization in vitro, the White House would not have planned to force insurers to pay for these expensive reproductive services – a change that would require a congress act and could increase overall costs.
• And with the congress at home for its August recreation and a deadline at the end of September, the annual government’s financing process is underway – but it is unlikely that the resolution is quickly or properly. Senate appropriars are more detail in their work than usual, but the House of Representatives has not yet published its version, which should reduce more deeply and strike social problems like harder abortion.

In addition, for “additional credit”, the panelists suggest that the stories of health policy they read (or write) this week that they think you should also read:

Emmarie Huetteman: The “new federal work requirements of KFF Health News mean less latitude for states”, by Katheryn Houghton and Bram Sand-Smith.

Sarah Karlin-Smith: “Confessions of A Welfare Queen” by Slate, by Maria Kefalas.

Sandhya Raman: “The Swedish push of CQ Roll Call for smoke-free products leads a few to wonder about the risks” of Sandhya Raman.

Lauren Weber: The “” hot wasps “of the New York Times found in nuclear installations in South Carolina”, by Emily Anthes.

Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:

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