Use of Vaccination Metrics in Physician Payment Programs Discouraged by CMS
A new State Health Official (SHO) letter from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—the federal agency that oversees Medicaid and sets quality and payment standards for state health programs nationwide—provides new federal guidance that challenges a long-standing federal policy financially incentivizing physicians to vaccinate their patients, particularly children.1 CMS announced on Dec. 30, […]
Pre-filled Syringe Version of GSK’s Shingles Vaccine Approved by FDA
On July 17, 2025, officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted a license to GSK plc (formerly GlaxoSmithKline) to distribute a pre-filled syringe version of Shingrix (Zoster Vaccine Recombinant Adjuvanted) vaccine to control outbreaks of shingles (herpes zoster) in adults. The pre-filled syringe version of Shingrix was approved for use by adults […]
RSV Vaccines for Senior Adults Linked to Guillain-Barré Syndrome
On Feb. 29, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) presented a preliminary analysis that showed that 23 adults over the age of 65 who received a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine developed Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).1 When a person develops GBS, including after an infection or […]
Big Pharma’s Revolving Door With Government Health Agencies
More than half of the staff at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) go to work for pharmaceutical giants when they leave the government, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Southern California and Harvard University. The report showed that eight percent of the CDC staff came from […]
The Impending U.S. ICD Vaccine Passport and Its Unconstitutionality
The CDC recently codified International Classification of Disease (ICD) codes for COVID-19 vaccine status. ICD codes are extensively used in medical records, medical insurance data and health research to classify precisely disease states as well as injuries from exogenous agents such as accidents, medication and medical device injuries, toxic chemicals, etc. Vaccination status is not […]
U.S. Consumers Warned About Fraudulent Coronavirus Testing Sites
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General has issued a warning to the public about fraudulent schemes and scams related to COVID-19 services and testing that involve telemarketing calls, text messages, social media platforms, and door-to-door visits.1 At the outset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there was a proliferation of fraudulent […]