Pneumococcal Vaccines Ineffective at Reducing Hospitalizations and Deaths
Despite decades of public health campaigns promoting pneumococcal vaccination to prevent pneumonia and related deaths, new real-world evidence suggests the shots may not be delivering the expected benefits. A 2025 population-based cohort study of more than 2.2 million adults in Catalonia, Spain, published Oct. 21, 2025 in BMC Infectious Diseases, found that recipients of pneumococcal […]
Former FDA Director Regulating Vaccines Joins Eli Lilly
The former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Peter Marks, MD, PhD, who was responsible for the agency’s regulation of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, joined drug giant Eli Lilly and Company after resigning from the agency on Mar. 28, 2025.1 Dr. Marks alleged […]
FDA May Investigate DNA Contamination in COVID Shots
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is considering investigating potential DNA contamination in mRNA COVID-19 shots. Tracy Beth Hoeg, MD, senior adviser to FDA commissioner Marty Makary, MD, MPH, confirmed that the investigation is “something that’s being discussed.”1 Retsef Levi, PhD, chair of the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 immunization workgroup, […]
Flu Vaccine Effectiveness Pegged at About 50 Percent
Each year, the influenza vaccine is promoted across the country—recommended by public health authorities, advertised widely, and often required by medical workplaces, schools, and childcare centers. Yet, the vaccine’s effectiveness remains uncertain, as it is formulated months in advance based on predictions of which influenza virus strains will predominately circulate. This season, the flu shot’s […]
FDA Questions Safety of Giving Multiple Vaccines at Once
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is re-evaluating the long-standing federal vaccine use policy that allows multiple vaccines to be given during the same visit—particularly COVID-19, influenza and RSV shots. In a memo last month, Vinay Prasad, MD, MPH, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), wrote that the agency […]
Disturbing Secrets about Vaccines
The vaccine area is much more complicated than I knew when I worked at a department of infectious diseases as a young doctor. I didn’t perceive vaccines could be a problem and had taken all the recommended ones. My 2013 book, Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime, hardly mentions vaccines at all because none of the major […]