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May 16, 2023

By DANIEL PAYNE

06/05/2023 10:00 AM EDT

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Anti-vaccination groups have pushed back on legislation requiring the HPV vaccine for schoolchildren in California — with some success. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

THE COVID EFFECT — A vaccine requirement in deep-blue California that once would have seemed like an easy call has become thorny post-pandemic, POLITICO's Rachel Bluth reports from Sacramento.

A bill that would have required the HPV vaccine for schoolchildren in California has been watered down beyond recognition, a victim of a homegrown anti-vaccine movement that's become more organized and more successful since the pandemic.

But anti-vaccine activists didn't do it on their own. The "most powerful thing to get [Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry] to withdraw the mandate was school districts opposing the bill," said Joshua Coleman, who founded the group V for Vaccine to fight such requirements.

While only a handful of mostly small, rural districts formally opposed the bill, statewide education groups also started to privately pressure the Democratic lawmaker to drop or soften her proposal.

Across the country, blue-state lawmakers have nearly given up attempting to create new vaccine policies and are now simply trying to hold the line on a decade's worth of public health gains. Attempts to add required vaccines for school kids this year sputtered in Wisconsin, California and Massachusetts, a stunning reversal after a successful push to tighten exemptions for mandated childhood vaccines.

The HPV vaccine has been around for almost two decades and could spare thousands of people from developing cervical and oral cancer.

The virus it targets is often, but not always, sexually transmitted, and certain strains of it can lead to cervical, oral and other cancers. It's the cause of about 3 percent of all cancers in women and 2 percent in men, around 36,000 new cases each year.

But even a shot that can stop cancer can't overcome the lingering pandemic politics that have tinted nearly all vaccine legislation nationwide.

"It's fair to say we’re experiencing a new paradigm in the vaccine debates," said Troy Flint, a spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, which hasn't taken an official position on the bill. "I think there is weariness about addressing the issue because of the impact that the closure of in-person instruction had on students, as well as just the vitriol that surrounds the issue and has the potential to distract."

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Congressional committees are poised to tackle health care priorities now that the debt ceiling drama has passed. | AP Photo

WHAT’S NEXT FOR CONGRESS — With debt ceiling legislation behind them, lawmakers are returning to move ahead on top health care priorities, from the state of youth mental health to the economics of consolidation in health care.

— The Senate HELP Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on the prevalence of mental illness among young Americans.

— Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) will convene a youth mental health summit in Boston on Monday with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

— Academics, a hospital executive and the leader of a doctors’ association will be among those testifying to the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on consolidation in health care and how it impacts access and cost.

— The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs will hold a Wednesday hearing to discuss a bill that would require HHS to take a more active role in supporting the health of Native Americans living in cities.

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COVID IMMUNITY FOR ALL — Almost all blood donors in samples from the third quarter of 2022 had antibodies for Covid-19, according to recent research from the CDC.

Those antibodies came from vaccination, infection or a mix of both. Having antibodies from both, called hybrid immunity, is thought to provide better protection against the virus than just antibodies from one or the other.

Blood from more than 70,000 donors was analyzed. Of that group, 23 percent had antibodies from infection alone, 26 percent had antibodies from vaccines alone and 48 percent had hybrid immunity.

Though immunity from infection has increasingly become part of the population's protection against the virus, vaccination is still important, the agency said. Getting the shot is the best way to reduce risk of hospitalization and death.

That's especially true among adults 65 and older, who had a low prevalence of infection-induced and hybrid immunity.

A message from PhRMA:

IT’S ‘A TRAP’ — The World Health Organization's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned the narrative that e-cigarettes should be seen largely as harm-reduction tools, POLITICO's Ashleigh Furlong reports.

E-cigarettes, or vapes, have been found to be less harmful than smoking, leading tobacco companies — who are all moving into the vaping market — to push the line that vaping can be used as a public health harm reduction measure.

"It's not true," Tedros said at a press briefing last week, arguing that kids as young as 10 were being recruited to start vaping "because they think that it's cool because it comes in different colors, different flavors and so on."

Tedros said e-cigarettes must be regulated and expressed concern about e-cig advertising, saying studies show this is being carried out inside or near schools.

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A CRITICAL LOOK AT PREGNANCY CRISIS CENTERS — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's administration aims to crack down on anti-abortion crisis pregnancy clinics as the governor seeks to make the state a safe haven for women in the post-Roe era, POLITICO's Caroline Petrow-Cohen reports.

Democratic leaders and abortion rights activists say crisis pregnancy centers disguise themselves as abortion clinics to draw women in with signs and ads similar to those used by licensed clinics.

But supporters of the crisis pregnancy centers say the clinics support women and offer free medical services such as ultrasounds and testing for sexually transmitted infections — as well as provide resources for new parents.

Similar plans have had mixed results in other Democratic-controlled states, such as California and Connecticut, and clinic supporters argue they offer a wealth of services to women.

But that isn't stopping the new efforts to regulate pregnancy centers’ marketing tactics, now playing out in the courts.

It's yet another battle over abortion at the state level as governors and statehouse lawmakers look to take a stand in the absence of earlier federal protections of abortion rights.

NO QUARTERS NEEDED — This morning, New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will hold a ribbon cutting for a vending machine — stocked with health and harm-reduction items.

Dubbed "the city's first public health vending machine," the initiative looks to expand access to naloxone, "safer sex kits" and more.

Maarika Kimbrell is now a partner in the FDA and healthcare practice at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. She previously was director of the FDA's Office of New Drug Policy.

Maria Ansari was named CEO and executive director of the Permanente Medical Group and president and CEO of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group.

Lauren Riplinger has been promoted to chief public policy and impact officer at the American Health Information Management Association.

CNN reports that Maryland has confirmed its first case of measles since 2019.

The Guardian reports that a new study found a pill could cut the risk of death from lung cancer in half.

NBC News reports on the pressures that force the immigrant health care workforce to stay.

A message from PhRMA:

Middlemen say they want lower prices, yet they often deny or limit coverage of lower-cost generics and biosimilars while giving preferential coverage to medicines with higher prices. This might be good for PBM's bottom line, but it can lead to higher costs for patients. What else are they hiding?