{"id":1215241,"date":"2025-02-14T16:30:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T21:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1215241"},"modified":"2025-02-14T16:30:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T21:30:21","slug":"louisiana-officially-ends-mass-vaccinations-as-rfk-jr-comes-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1215241","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana officially ends mass vaccinations as RFK Jr. comes to power"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>As prominent anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed to the nation&#8217;s top health position Thursday, Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham sent a memo to the state&#8217;s health department saying that the state &#8220;will no longer promote mass vaccination&#8221; and barred staff from running seasonal vaccine campaigns, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nola.com\/news\/healthcare_hospitals\/louisiana-vaccines-abraham-department-health\/article_e84828d8-ea38-11ef-af78-036bbfc0e22e.html#tncms-source=featured-3\">a report by the Times-Picayune of New Orleans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The memo echoes <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/health\/2024\/12\/louisiana-bars-health-dept-from-promoting-flu-covid-mpox-vaccines-report\/\">directives that state health employees say they were told in October and November<\/a>. In meetings at the time, employees learned of a policy shift that would end seasonal campaigns for flu, COVID-19, and mpox vaccines, but it was to be implemented discreetly and not put in writing.<\/p>\n<p>According to Abraham&#8217;s memo, the abandonment of lifesaving vaccination campaigns is in service of individual choice. &#8220;For many illnesses, vaccines are one tool in the toolbox of ways to combat severe illness,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/13\/us\/louisiana-mass-vaccination.html?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20First%20Edition&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_Y7TRe-NKnZcOmmHnV7C7IMEv_iWgcHs3muaqUKW5uVpO71Tzao8VKW92hLUd1iiFYEU3PppG-nJwLPXAqYJbOgooaeA&amp;_hsmi=347361433&amp;utm_content=347361433&amp;utm_source=hs_email\">according to The New York Times<\/a>, which also obtained a copy of the memo.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/health\/2025\/02\/louisiana-officially-ends-mass-vaccinations-as-rfk-jr-comes-to-power\/\">Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/health\/2025\/02\/louisiana-officially-ends-mass-vaccinations-as-rfk-jr-comes-to-power\/#comments\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As prominent anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed to the nation&#8217;s top health position Thursday, Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham sent a memo to the state&#8217;s health department saying that the state &#8220;will no longer promote mass vaccination&#8221; &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1215241\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ars-technica","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1215241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1215241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1215241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1215241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}