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FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

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Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#11

Presumably it may be rescheduled? Let's say personnel is in flux at the moment. Might make sense to bump out an important meeting until things stabilize? There is so much breathless hysteria in the media predicting or implying a prediction, and when 99% of it fails to materialize there is never a follow up.

Well considering the FDA gave no information or plans to reschedule to committee members that seems unlikely.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/fda-flu-vacci...

> The F.D.A. sent an email to members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on Monday afternoon informing them of the cancellation, according to a senior official familiar with the decision. There was no reason given. The panel was to meet March 13.

> One committee member, Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, an outspoken critic of Mr. Kennedy, confirmed the cancellation and warned that it could interfere with or delay production of flu vaccines.

> “It’s a six-month production cycle,” Dr. Offit said. “So one can only assume that we’re not picking flu strains this year.”

Considering the flu kills tens of thousands every year and hospitalized hundreds of thousands more, with the potential of evolving to be more lethal - yes this is important.

If the Trump, GOP and Musk fucked up staffing by firing people who have the expertise to make these decisions, yes they are at fault. If RFK Jr is interfering with this for his anti-vax and anti-science crusade, he is also at vault.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#13

This is a remarkably stupid decision. Flu vaccines are incredibly successful not just from a public health standpoint but also a business productivity standpoint. I guess we're going to relearn this lesson the hard way. Especially with businesses also demanding people come back to the office to work.

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Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#16

[flagged]

They want your money. Nothing to do with MAGA. They “cut” federal spending and fire people from their jobs while MElon makes $100b since December.

how does canceling a meeting to pick a flu strain for development of a flu vaccine help them to acquire money?

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#18

This is a remarkably stupid decision. Flu vaccines are incredibly successful not just from a public health standpoint but also a business productivity standpoint. I guess we're going to relearn this lesson the hard way. Especially with businesses also demanding people come back to the office to work.

> Flu vaccines are incredibly successfu

A big part of the problem is a lot of people don't understand this. How often do you hear people say, "I got the flu vaccine and still got the flu".

However, most people who say they have "the flu" are using the term colloquially and it is unlikely that they actually had influenza.

Further, as we saw with the COVID vaccines, people are incapable of understanding that vaccines don't create an impenetrable barrier. Instead it lowers risk of infection and increases likelihood of a milder case.

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#19

Presumably it may be rescheduled? Let's say personnel is in flux at the moment. Might make sense to bump out an important meeting until things stabilize? There is so much breathless hysteria in the media predicting or implying a prediction, and when 99% of it fails to materialize there is never a follow up.

Well considering the FDA gave no information or plans to reschedule to committee members that seems unlikely. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/us/politics/fda-flu-vacci... > The F.D.A. sent an email to members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on Monday afternoon informing them of the cancellation, according to a senior official familiar with the decision. There was no reason given.…

[flagged]

Re: FDA meeting to pick next winter's flu shot is canceled, in ominous sign for US

#20
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They want your money. Nothing to do with MAGA. They “cut” federal spending and fire people from their jobs while MElon makes $100b since December.

how does canceling a meeting to pick a flu strain for development of a flu vaccine help them to acquire money?

Don't have to pay for flu vaccines for medicare/medicaid, because they are "unsafe"
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