Dept of Health & Human Services to Reconstitute CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices

HHS announced the removal and replacement of the current members of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in a press release today. The CDC ACIP meeting for vaccine recommendations is still scheduled for June 25-27. According to the Federal Register announcement under Supplementary Information:

“SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Purpose: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is charged with advising the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on the use of immunizing agents. In addition, under 42 U.S.C. 1396s, the Committee is mandated to establish and periodically review and, as appropriate, revise the list of vaccines for administration to vaccine-eligible children through the Vaccines for Children program, along with schedules regarding dosing interval, dosage, and contraindications to administration of vaccines. Further, under applicable provisions of the Affordable Care Act and section 2713 of the Public Health Service Act, immunization recommendations of ACIP that have been adopted by the Director, CDC, and appear on CDC immunization schedules generally must be covered by applicable health plans.

Matters To Be Considered: The agenda will include discussions on anthrax vaccines, chikungunya vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines, cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine, Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, influenza vaccines, Lyme disease vaccine, meningococcal vaccines, pneumococcal vaccines, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccines for adults, and RSV vaccines for maternal and pediatric populations. Recommendation votes are scheduled for COVID-19 vaccines, HPV vaccine, influenza vaccines, meningococcal vaccine, RSV vaccines for adults, and RSV vaccine for maternal and pediatric populations. Vaccines for Children (VFC) votes are scheduled for COVID-19 vaccines, HPV vaccine, influenza vaccines, and RSV vaccines. Agenda items are subject to change as priorities dictate. For more information on the meeting agenda, visit https://www.cdc.gov/acip/meetings/index.html.

Meeting Information: The meeting will be webcast live via the World Wide Web. For more information on ACIP, please visit the ACIP website: https://www.cdc.gov/acip.“

Help Me Find the Origin of the Bald Eagle Joke!

Help! I’m stuck on this bald eagle joke that I heard decades ago and I wonder if anyone my age can remember who originally told it. I could write the joke here, but it’s sort of a live performance thing so I have to do a little acting. That’s why I made the short video. If anybody remembers it, just make a comment. Sorry, I don’t allow comments on my YouTube channel.

Update on the Tree Bag Thing

I have a quick update on the tree bag project around here. The landscaper dropped by and replaced a plant. Sena asked for his opinion on tree bags. He says tree bags are good.

Sena got four of them, one on the front yard maple and three for the rest of the trees in the back yard.

What’s a tree’s favorite song? “Please rebag me, let me grow, for I’m so thirsty anymore…” Think Engelbert Humperdinck. It’ll come to you.

I bet you didn’t know Michael Jackson did a song about tree bags. “You know I’m bagged; I’m bagged…, you know it…Who’s bagged?”

Big Mo Blues Show Tune

I was all set to hear the Big Mo Blues Show on KCCK 88.3 tonight starting at 6 pm and guess what? I must have fell asleep sitting up in my chair and didn’t wake up until this song “Bye Bye Blues” by Larry McCray came on a little past 6:30 pm. It makes me think of my wife, Sena-until she starts winning too many cribbage games.

New and Old Stories by Ray Bradbury!

We just got a couple of books by Ray Bradbury, and I’m pretty excited. Some of the stories I recognize, but there will be some, perhaps many, that will be new to me.

FDA VRBPAC Meeting to Discuss Covid-19 Vaccines

The FDA VRBPAC meeting to discuss Covid–19 vaccines is scheduled for May 22, 2025, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET. The committee will meet in open session to discuss and make recommendations on the selection of the 2025-2026 Formula for COVID-19 vaccines for use in the United States. The meeting presentations will be heard, viewed, captioned, and recorded through an online teleconferencing and/or video conferencing platform.

I couldn’t see any specifics about the forthcoming meeting. I assume there will be updates.

May Mental Health Awareness Month Calendar and Checklist (look below this sticky post for other new posts)

May is Mental Health Awareness Month!

This is May and it’s Mental Health Awareness Month. I just found out about something exciting and it’s the Iowa Healthiest State Initiative.

See the Calendar of Events and the Checklist.

CDC ACIP Meeting Today on Vaccines

There’s a CDC ACIP Meeting scheduled to start at 8:00 AM EST today (caught me off guard). The slides are here.

Noteworthy: Dr. Denise Jamieson, MD, MPH is chair of the CMV Working Group. She is Vice President for Medical Affairs and the Tyrone D. Artz Dean, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at University of Iowa. In the Q&A session following the Covid-19 vaccine presentation, Dr. Jamieson expressed a preference for a universal recommendation (citing implementation and uptake challenges, which other attendees mentioned as well) for the Covid-19 vaccine as opposed to a risk-based or permissive recommendation. See slide labeled “Discussion” below:

There was no vote scheduled for today’s meeting on the Covid-19 vaccine.

The presentation by Moderna on the new Covid-19 vaccine, mRNA-1283, was helpful. I gather there will be an FDA meeting about it in June.

Jim vs Donald Trump on Cribbage Pro

President Donald Trump and I made a deal about his plan to make Canada the 51^st state of America. If President Trump wins, he goes ahead and tries it. If I win, he lets it go.

I won.

This is satire! Happy April Fool’s Day!