Anthony Fauci, MD, plans to step down from his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and four more federal healthcare updates Becker's has reported on since Aug. 16:
1. A month after the federal government authorized Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine for adults, the drugmaker's protein-based vaccine gained the CDC's and FDA's emergency use authorization for children 12 to 17 years old.
2. Dr. Fauci said Aug. 22 that he will step down from his role as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in December.
3. The Biden administration is set to begin shifting costs of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to the commercial market, ending the practice of the U.S. government purchasing the drugs and making them available at no cost.
4. President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law Aug. 16. The sweeping $739 billion reconciliation package contains a number of significant healthcare provisions.
5. HHS will soon distribute nearly 450,000 monkeypox vaccine doses, doubling the promised supply and moving up the expected timeline. The news comes a week after the FDA signed off on an approach that would allow the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine to be split into fifths.