Pediatricians say panel’s decision will create confusion and access issues, and condemn ‘parody of public health’

The entire US childhood vaccine schedule is now open for scrutiny, experts say, after government vaccine advisers took up discussions of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and their components and changed its recommendations on one crucial prevention.

Several of the vaccine advisers are longtime anti-vaccine activists, and they were all chosen by Donald Trump’s controversial health secretary Robert F. Kennedy after he fired the previous advisers in an unprecedented move to enact dramatic changes to US vaccination policy. Kennedy has been a frequent critic of vaccines.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) makes recommendations to the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who decides whether to change official policy. The recommendations also have sweeping effects on state-level policies and insurance coverage. Some states have laws based on recommendations made by the ACIP.

Move from CDC advisers mirrors Trump team’s regressive approach to longstanding vaccine guidance

Vaccine advisers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted on Friday morning to limit hepatitis B vaccines in a major move signaling the Trump administration’s regressive approach to vaccines that have been given safely and effectively for decades.

The panel of advisers, hand-picked by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, decided to remove the well-established and far-reaching recommendation that all newborns in the US receive a hepatitis B vaccine.

The committee voted to recommend that parents of infants whose mothers test negative for hepatitis should decide when – or if – their child should receive the vaccine series, in consultation with a healthcare professional. Consulting with doctors was already a standard part of vaccination.

Hundreds of videos on TikTok and elsewhere impersonate experts to sell supplements with unproven effects

TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation.

The factchecking organisation Full Fact has uncovered hundreds of such videos featuring impersonated versions of doctors and influencers directing viewers to Wellness Nest, a US-based supplements firm.

All the deepfakes involve real footage of a health expert taken from the internet. However, the pictures and audio have been reworked so that the speakers are encouraging women going through menopause to buy products such as probiotics and Himalayan shilajit from the company’s website.

The revelations have prompted calls for social media giants to be much more careful about hosting AI-generated content and quicker to remove content that distorts prominent people’s views.

Some excerpts:

Experts say the hype around the latest dietary must-have has become a farce

The current obsession taken up by the vast and growing Wellness Industrial Complex can be summarized in one word: protein. It is everywhere. Protein popcorn. Protein breakfast cereal. Protein ice cream. Protein potato chips. Protein candy bars. Starbucks is offering protein-infused lattes. There is an ever-expanding assortment of protein powders and supplements. And, the 1990s Jerry Seinfeld would be happy to hear, protein yogurt. Protein stacked on top of protein. This protein blitzkrieg has been felt. Consumers are responding. Marketing has won.

A 2024 survey found that 71 percent of Americans are trying to increase their protein intake. Another survey found that over 90 percent believe the inaccurate idea that it is essential to eat meat to get enough protein. In a 2021 industry survey involving a dozen countries, roughly half of respondents said they associate protein with a “healthy diet,” and 72 percent were willing to pay a premium for “protein fortification.” And the market for protein-rich food products is predicted to double over the next decade, rising to more than $100 billion (US) by 2034.

The reality is that most of us consume more than enough protein. Indeed, it has been estimated that the average adult male overshoots their protein consumption by 55 percent. While others put that overconsumption at less, there clearly isn’t some vast lack-of-protein crisis gripping the developed world. As Stuart Phillips, one of the world’s leading experts on all things protein, told me, “Protein is essential, but the hype has turned it into a farce. People have lost their minds on this one.”

Indeed, for the vast majority of people, there are no health benefits to eating more protein than the recommended daily allowance. Extra protein doesn’t magically turn into extra muscle; it is flushed out of our bodies as urea. Or, as Marcia Clark, an orthopedic surgeon, sports medicine expert, and president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, told me, the extra protein mostly just “becomes expensive pee.” It is also worth noting that any excess calories connected to consuming all that protein aren’t stored in some special repository in our body. They are stored as fat.

Some excerpts:

Experts say the hype around the latest dietary must-have has become a farce

The current obsession taken up by the vast and growing Wellness Industrial Complex can be summarized in one word: protein. It is everywhere. Protein popcorn. Protein breakfast cereal. Protein ice cream. Protein potato chips. Protein candy bars. Starbucks is offering protein-infused lattes. There is an ever-expanding assortment of protein powders and supplements. And, the 1990s Jerry Seinfeld would be happy to hear, protein yogurt. Protein stacked on top of protein. This protein blitzkrieg has been felt. Consumers are responding. Marketing has won.

A 2024 survey found that 71 percent of Americans are trying to increase their protein intake. Another survey found that over 90 percent believe the inaccurate idea that it is essential to eat meat to get enough protein. In a 2021 industry survey involving a dozen countries, roughly half of respondents said they associate protein with a “healthy diet,” and 72 percent were willing to pay a premium for “protein fortification.” And the market for protein-rich food products is predicted to double over the next decade, rising to more than $100 billion (US) by 2034.

The reality is that most of us consume more than enough protein. Indeed, it has been estimated that the average adult male overshoots their protein consumption by 55 percent. While others put that overconsumption at less, there clearly isn’t some vast lack-of-protein crisis gripping the developed world. As Stuart Phillips, one of the world’s leading experts on all things protein, told me, “Protein is essential, but the hype has turned it into a farce. People have lost their minds on this one.”

Indeed, for the vast majority of people, there are no health benefits to eating more protein than the recommended daily allowance. Extra protein doesn’t magically turn into extra muscle; it is flushed out of our bodies as urea. Or, as Marcia Clark, an orthopedic surgeon, sports medicine expert, and president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, told me, the extra protein mostly just “becomes expensive pee.” It is also worth noting that any excess calories connected to consuming all that protein aren’t stored in some special repository in our body. They are stored as fat.

One of the crowning achievements in global health is at risk of coming undone.

Between 2000 and 2020, the number of children who die before they hit their 5th birthday dropped by half — from nearly 10 million deaths a year to under 5 million deaths a year.

*Vinay Prasad memo said at least 10 children had died from Covid vaccination – but offered scant evidence for claim

America’s top vaccines official promised, in a long and argumentative memo to staff on Friday, to revamp vaccine regulation after claiming that at least 10 children died from Covid vaccination – but he offered no evidence for that allegation and scant details on the new approach.

The top-down changes, without input from outside advisers or publication of data, worries experts who fear vaccines such as the flu shot may quickly disappear and that public trust will take a major hit.

“The ultimate outcome will be fewer vaccines and more vaccine-preventable illness,” said Dan Jernigan, former director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases until this year.

America’s top vaccines official promised, in a long and argumentative memo to staff on Friday, to revamp vaccine regulation after claiming that at least 10 children died from Covid vaccination – but he offered no evidence for that allegation and scant details on the new approach.

There is a recall for more than 260,000 cases of shredded cheese sold in 31 states and Puerto Rico because of the potential for metal fragment contamination, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA said that the various shredded cheeses were recalled by Great Lakes Cheese Co. The cheese products are sold under private store-brand labels at several retailers, including Target, Walmart and Aldi.

The city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit against some of the nation’s top food manufacturers on Tuesday, arguing that ultraprocessed food from the likes of Coca-Cola and Nestle are responsible for a public health crisis.

City Attorney David Chiu named 10 companies in the lawsuit, including the makers of such popular foods as Oreo cookies, Sour Patch Kids, Kit Kat, Cheerios and Lunchables. The lawsuit argues that ultraprocessed foods are linked to diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and cancer.

“They took food and made it unrecognizable and harmful to the human body,” Chiu said in a news release. “These companies engineered a public health crisis, they profited handsomely, and now they need to take responsibility for the harm they have caused.”

A birth dose of the vaccine, recommended for newborns since 1991, is up to 90% effective in preventing infection from the mother if given in the first 24 hours of life. If babies receive all three doses, 98% of them have immunity from the incurable virus, with the protection lasting at least 30 years.

But on Tucker Carlson's podcast in June, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely claimed that the hepatitis B birth dose is a "likely culprit" of autism.

He also said the hepatitis B virus is not "casually contagious." But decades of research shows the virus can be transmitted through indirect contact, when traces of infected fluids like blood enter the body when people share personal items like razors or toothbrushes.

The committee's recommendations carry weight. Most private insurers must cover the vaccines the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices endorses, and many state vaccination policies are directly linked to its guidelines.

Is there any study that compares health effects of an ultra processed diet to a minimally processed one that actually keeps calorie consumption the same? Every study i see ignores this or links UPF intake to weight gain but doesnt go beyond that. Ie if i track my macros, I dont see any reason why i cant eat UPFs besides maybe more hunger.

A handful of people with HIV have been cured after receiving HIV-resistant stem cells – but a man who received non-resistant stem cells is also now HIV-free

A man has become the seventh person to be left HIV-free after receiving a stem cell transplant to treat blood cancer. Significantly, he is also the second of the seven who received stem cells that were not actually resistant to the virus, strengthening the case that HIV-resistant cells may not be necessary for an HIV cure.

“Seeing that a cure is possible without this resistance gives us more options for curing HIV,” says Christian Gaebler at the Free University of Berlin.

Five people have previously become free of HIV after receiving stem cells from donors who carried a mutation in both copies of a gene encoding a protein called CCR5, which HIV uses to infect immune cells. This led scientists to conclude that having two copies of the mutation, which completely removes CCR5 from immune cells, was crucial for curing HIV. “The belief was that using these HIV-resistant stem cells was essential,” says Gaebler.

Key excerpts below:

In early November, a resident of Grays Harbor, a county on the south-west Pacific coast of Washington state about 100 miles from Seattle, became severely unwell with flu-like symptoms including high fever, respiratory distress and confusion.

They were admitted to hospital, and on November 14 officials confirmed that tests showed infection with an H5N5 avian influenza virus. The patient, an older adult with underlying conditions, was treated in hospital, but sadly they died on November 21.

This was the first reported human infection with an H5N5 influenza virus.

Where did it come from?

This hasn’t yet been formally confirmed. However, the patient kept a flock of backyard poultry that were exposed to wild birds, which suggests how they might have caught the virus.

H5N5 is found in wild birds around the world, and it is relatively common for it to pass from them into flocks of poultry. This is, however, the first time an H5N5 influenza virus has been found to go one step further and infect a human.

Should we be worried about what happens next?

H5N5 is an ecological and agricultural threat. Although bird flu vaccines exist, at the moment, political and economic factors make it hard to use them in US poultry. Instead, the virus must be controlled by surveillance, housing poultry indoors, increasing farm biosecurity and, as a last resort, by mass culling of infected poultry.

This is challenging enough, but bird flu also demands our attention because the virus is a potential cause of new pandemics.

In the long run, this risk is very significant. However, it is worth remembering that, although influenza is better at changing its host species and creating pandemics than any other virus, that is still an incredibly hard thing for the virus to do.

The vast majority of “spillover” infections of bird flu into humans are one-off events. They can vary unpredictably in their effects. Most are quite mild (for example, causing conjunctivitis), but some can be very severe, as was the case in this first recorded case of H5N5. But after infecting one human, most avian influenza viruses go no further.

Scientists will watch for several warning signs that a virus may be adapting to humans, especially any hint of person-to-person spread. There is no sign that this has happened here.

At the moment, the wider risk to humans from H5N5 is still low, and there is no reason to think this was anything other than a tragic one-off case. However, there will be plenty of opportunities for influenza viruses to try again. As H5N5 and other subtypes of avian influenza virus continue to circulate, it is important we continue to monitor this virus carefully.

As 2025 winds down amid concerns about “affordability,” Americans have added incentives to wish family, friends and themselves a “healthy New Year.” An AP-NORC poll reports that 60 percent of respondents are “extremely” or “very” worried about health care cost increases. 

Substantial cuts to Medicaid in the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill and a refusal by Republicans to renew Affordable Care Act tax credit subsidies will bring the total of uninsured Americans to about 31 million by 2027. Tens of millions more will experience sticker shock when they get their health insurance bills from the ACA, Medicaid, Medicare and private companies. 

Over the next decade, federal government spending on Medicaid in FY 2026.), which serves 72 million Americans, accounting for 20 percent of expenditures on health care in the United States and 50 percent of long-term care, will go down by $911 billion in FY 2026.)

Research finds OpenAI’s free chatbot fails to identify risky behaviour or challenge delusional beliefs

ChatGPT-5 is offering dangerous and unhelpful advice to people experiencing mental health crises, some of the UK’s leading psychologists have warned.

Research conducted by King’s College London (KCL) and the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK (ACP) in partnership with the Guardian suggested that the AI chatbotfailed to identify risky behaviour when communicating with mentally ill people.

A psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist interacted with ChatGPT-5 as if they had a number of mental health conditions. The chatbot affirmed, enabled and failed to challenge delusional beliefs such as being “the next Einstein”, being able to walk through cars or “purifying my wife through flame”.

Lead FDA vaccine regulator announced new approval process after claiming Covid vaccine had killed 10 children

The leading vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a far stricter course for federal vaccine approvals, following claims from his team that Covid vaccines were linked to the deaths of at least 10 children.

Experts suggest the announcement will make the vaccine approval process significantly more difficult.

A PBS NewsHour correspondent first reported on the memo's contents in a post on X. The New York Times noted that the document did not include identifying details such as the children's ages, any existing health conditions, or how the causal relationship between vaccination and death was determined. The vaccine manufacturers involved were also not named.

Dr Paul Offit of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, who reviewed the memo, told MedPage Today that it was a "dangerous and irresponsible thing to do".

"[Prasad] says he has evidence that this vaccine killed 10 children, but that's not the way it works," Offit said. "If you think you have an extraordinary claim, you should back it up with extraordinary evidence. He should have submitted it to an excellent journal where it can be reviewed by subject matter experts who can say, 'Yes, this is clear evidence,' then it can be published. That's the way it works."