NIAID Nominee Nixed; CDC Funds Hep B Vax Study; ‘Earth-Shaking’ Vax Battle

Steven Quay, MD, PhD, a biopharma executive with no background in infectious diseases, is no longer being considered for director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (STAT)

The CDC is allocating new grant funding to a controversial and formerly suspended hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau that experts say is unethical. (Rolling Stone)

A group of 31 Senate and House Democrats sent a letter to CDC director Erica Schwartz, MD, MPH, JD, saying that her leadership “raises serious concerns” about her ability to fight back against unscientific healthcare decisions by the Trump administration.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is forming a workgroup of experts to discuss how to insulate the CDC from political influence once the current administration is out of office. (New York Times)

Finally, the agency will deploy additional resources to Pennsylvania to further investigate the measles outbreak there. (Reuters via MSN)

The Trump administration violated federal law when it withheld $78 million in research funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a Government Accountability Office report concluded. (The Hill)

The Federal Trade Commission and seven states have asked a New York judge to hold “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli in contempt for violating a 2022 court order banning him for life from the pharmaceutical industry. Shkreli has allegedly traded in at least 60 pharmaceutical stocks. (CNBC)

An ongoing legal battle in West Virginia over religious exemptions to vaccination — with Aaron Siri leading the charge — could be “as earth shaking as the reversal of Roe” v. Wade, should it reach the Supreme Court, experts say. (Rolling Stone)

The Trump administration has broken more than 85% of its promises regarding food, agriculture, and pesticides, according to a scorecard released by the Make America Healthy Again movement. (NBC News)

Investigators in HIV research networks face an uncertain future amid delays by the Trump administration in starting the grant renewal process. (New York Times)

The Labor Department is investigating nine universities for alleged fraud related to visas for postdoc students, who make up a large part of the biomedical workforce. (STAT)

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine views helped kill an Agriculture Department plan to fight bird flu. (Politico)

The American Public Health Association is partnering with the Epstein Becker Green law firm to catalogue immunization laws across all 50 states.

Medicare beneficiaries have better access to healthcare than their peers in other countries, but more problems with affordability, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fund.