Tag: Mary Ziegler

AMA protests changes to key vaccine advisory committee

Volume 405, Issue 10496
21 June 2025
WORLD REPORT  The organisation, which represents more than 270 000 physicians and medical students, has
been reluctant to criticise the Trump administration’s actions, until now. Susan Jaffe reports.  
After months of relative quiet while the Trump administration overhauls US health and science agencies, the American Medical Association  has had enough.  When Health and Human Services  Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr dismissed all 17 members of the independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, delegates attending AMA’s annual meeting strongly condemned the action.  On June 10, more than 700 delegates approved an emergency resolution calling on Kennedy to reverse his decision [and] required AMA leadership to “immediately” ask the Senate committee overseeing HHS to investigate Kennedy’s actions “regarding his administration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices”.  [Continued here.]

US Supreme Court protects access to abortion medication

Volume 403, Issue 10445
22 June 2024 

WORLD REPORT  Justices did not address claims that mifepristone endangered patients and that its approval by the FDA was flawed. Opponents vow to continue the legal fight. Susan Jaffe reports [continued here].

 

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Health organizations fear effects of US abortion ruling

Volume 399, Issue 10338
14 May 2022 

 

WORLD REPORT Health and human rights groups are concerned that many states would outlaw abortion if the Supreme Court topples Roe v Wade. Susan Jaffe reports. 

Protests and celebrations erupted across the USA following the unprecedented leak of a draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn the court’s 1973 landmark Roe v Wade ruling establishing a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion. …“States are already working together to create enormous abortion deserts that many people will not be able to cross”, said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. [Continued here.]

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Califf takes the helm at the US FDA, again

Volume 399, Issue 10330
19 March 2022 

WORLD REPORT   Robert Califf will have to face several controversial health issues in his second tenure as commissioner. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.  

Califf takes over amid a lull in the COVID-19 pandemic and an array of hotly debated issues 9 months before a congressional election. The
election results could shrink, if not eliminate, the Democratic majority President Joe Biden needs to propel his health agenda, including the relaunched cancer moonshot and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health that would accelerate the development of medical treatments. [Plus new COVID-19 tests and treatments, opioid misuse, accelerated approval process, abortion pill conflict, continued here.] 

US Supreme Court expected to weaken abortion rights

Volume 398, Issue 10317
11 December 2021

 

WORLD REPORT   The US Supreme Court, now dominated by conservatives, heard arguments last week on the legality of a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. However, the justices signalled that they are likely to do more than uphold the law. .[Continued here.]

 

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