CDC Meeting On Vaccines, Fed Rate Cuts, Kimmel Suspended

0:01A federal vaccine panel meets today discussing COVID boosters and childhood shots. This is established science that they're attacking. How can advisors named by RFK Jr. affect which vaccines you are able to choose? I'm Laila Faudil, that's Stephen Skeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates that can help the weakening job market, but also adds the risk of even more inflation. We have a situation where we have two-sided risk, and that means there's no risk-free path. Also, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission made a threat to ABC stations. Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.

0:44Within hours, Jimmy Kimmel was off the air for telling jokes the government disliked. The FCC leader publicly celebrated. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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1:45In fact, 75 % of Walmart management started in hourly roles. With benefits like health care, paid parental leave, and tuition support, Walmart isn't just a place to work. It's a place to grow. Learn more at walmart.com slash spark. This message comes from Ritual. What makes Ritual vitamins different? Ritual vitamins are made with bioavailable, clinically studied key ingredients, as well as the essence of mint. Get 25 % off your first purchase when you visit ritual.com slash NPR. Starting today, a federal advisory committee needs to talk about vaccines. Yeah, their recommendations have a big influence on who gets COVID vaccines this fall or whether babies get vaccinated against hepatitis B.

2:32Many health and medical experts are watching because the Trump administration just swapped out all the members. NPRS Ping Huang is attending the meeting in Atlanta and joins us now. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. Which committee is this? So this is the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP. It's a panel that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put together to guide the country on how to use vaccines to protect people. And this will be their second meeting since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sacked all 17 of the previous members and replaced them with his own picks in June.

3:03He picked seven then, and then earlier this week he added five more members. One of the common themes between many of his picks is that they say the government overstated the risks from COVID, and they also question whether people need all these vaccines. So what do they look at then today and tomorrow? Yeah, so the agenda contains three topics. There's COVID vaccines, there's hepatitis B vaccines for children, and then there's also the MMRV vaccine. That's measles, mumps, rubella, plus chicken pox. And with the COVID vaccines, they're actually late on this. So the Food and Drug Administration approved the fall booster shots already, and they're starting to arrive in drugstores.

3:38And right now, there's this confusion about who should get the vaccines, and the advice is actually differing between states. But health experts worry that when this group votes, they could recommend limits that could make it even harder for people to get them. Jason Schwartz, who's a health policy professor at Yale, he says that the panel includes people who say that COVID vaccines have harmed or killed many, even though that doesn't square with the evidence. So the idea that there have been dozens of deaths or other unacknowledged harms that were swept under the rug doesn't align with what we saw during the COVID pandemic regarding the careful, ongoing scrutiny of the vaccines throughout their introduction.

4:17The CDC and the FDA have invested a lot in the safety monitoring to look for problems. Yeah, I guess we should note there was a time when the vaccine was new, but now it's been taken by hundreds of millions of people and there's a lot of evidence. What about the other vaccines? Yeah, so today they're going to be looking at the vaccine for hepatitis B, which has been recommended at birth since 1991 in the U.S. That's a vaccine that protects against liver diseases, including cancer. And they're also looking at the MMRV vaccine. Now, this has a slightly higher risk of causing problems with fevers than the MMR vaccine without the chickenpox part.

4:51But these are vaccines that have been given to kids for years, and questions about them have been considered settled. But Kennedy's committee has raised them again. Here's Lakshmi Panayanakopoulos, a former CDC vaccine official. She's done a lot of work with the committee, but she quit the agency this spring. We've studied all this. We've looked at this so much and so in depth. And this is established science that they're attacking. So she and a lot of others that I spoke with say that this is a group that intends to change the country's vaccine approach. I hear from people who are worried about what they might decide, are taking extra steps to get vaccinated now before the rules change.

5:30So is it possible this committee's findings or recommendations could make it harder for people to get a vaccine if they choose to get one? Yeah, I mean, I've heard those stories this week, too, Steve. And this group is really influential. You know, they decide what vaccines are offered for free to children through the Vaccines for Children program. They decide what a lot of health insurers will cover. A lot of states have laws that are tied to school requirements based on what this group recommends. And so it is very possible that this group, if they choose to limit access, could make it harder for people to get vaccines.

6:04And Pierce Ping Huang, thanks so much. You're welcome.

6:15The Federal Reserve has lowered short-term interest rates. That move influences other rates and should make it a bit cheaper to get a car loan, bankroll a business, or carry a balance on your credit card. The central bank is trying to shore up the job market and is also facing a challenge to its independence. NPR chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley always reports independently and joins us now. Scott, good morning. Good morning, Steve. Okay, so the Fed held off cutting rates for most of this year because they were concerned about inflation. What changed? Well, they're getting more nervous about the labor market.

6:48There's been very little job growth since April. And while we've not seen a whole lot of layoffs, there is concern that people who lose their jobs are having a harder time finding new ones. And over time, that could push the unemployment rate up. So the Fed's trying to fight that by lowering interest rates. But it's a delicate balancing act because inflation is still higher than the central bank would like. And the Fed fights inflation by keeping interest rates high. So it's kind of a tough spot for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues as they try to keep both inflation and unemployment in check.

7:19Ordinarily, when the labor market is weak, inflation is low. And when the labor market is really strong, that's when you've got to be careful about inflation. So we have a situation where we have two-sided risk, and that means there's no risk-free path. This week, concerns about the job market won out, so the Fed opted to lower its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point. Okay, so we've followed the whole battle over the independence of the Fed. The president has been demanding more aggressive rate cuts. Jerome Powell has been saying we have to make our own independent choice based on the facts.

7:49But Trump now has another hand-picked person on that rate-setting committee. How much did politics affect this choice? Well, Trump's newest appointee to the Fed board, White House economist Stephen Myron, did echo the president in voting for a bigger half-point interest rate cut yesterday, though none of his new Fed colleagues went along with that. Myron also appeared to signal that he thinks rates should be a lot lower by the end of the year. Every other meeting, Fed officials sketch out where they think rates ought to go, and those forecasters shared anonymously on what's called the dot plot.

8:20It seems reasonable to assume that Myron's dot is the one that's way off by itself, projecting rates more than a full percentage point lower than they are right now. Other Fed officials are more cautious projecting rates might drop by another quarter point, maybe another half point by year's end, or in the case of one hawkish committee member, that rates might even go back up a quarter point, presumably if inflation were to take a turn for the worse. I'm interested listening to you. It sounds like the Fed moved in the direction Trump would like, but not as far as he would like. So how much influence did he really have?

8:52Not much for now. And that's by design. As we've talked about, the Fed is supposed to operate at arm's length from the White House, so it's not swayed by short-term political pressures. Here's how Powell described it yesterday. We don't frame these questions at all or see them in terms of political outcomes. I think when you get to another part of Washington, everything is seen through the lens of does it help or hurt this political party, this politician? You know, that's the framework. And I think that is not at all the way we think about things at the Fed. We're taking a longer perspective.

9:23But that has not stopped the president from waging a high-pressure campaign for much lower rates. One thing to note, two earlier Trump appointees, Chris Waller and Michelle Bowman, did not join Meyron yesterday in voting for a bigger rate cut. So for the moment, at least, the firewall between the White House and the Fed appears to be holding. We'll see if that sticks. NPR chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley, thanks so much. You're welcome.

9:52ABC says it is pulling Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air indefinitely. Yeah, the network acted after the chair of the Federal Communications Commission threatened local stations that carry the show. The government wanted to silence a program that satirized President Trump. And Jimmy Kimmel was taken off the air after he talked about the murder of the Trump ally and political activist Charlie Kirk. And Pierre's Mandalay Delbarco is covering the story from Los Angeles. Mandalay, good morning. Good morning. Okay, so there are two parts of this story. One is who pushed Kimmel off the air, and the other is what Jimmy Kimmel said.

10:24Let's start with the words. What did he say? Yeah, well, during his monologue on Monday, Kimmel took a few jabs at President Trump, as he's done many times. He made fun of Trump's response to a reporter's question about Charlie Kirk's killing. Kimmel played video of Trump changing the subject. But it was what Kimmel said right before that that upset people, including Trump. Here's Jimmy Kimmel. We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them. and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

10:59You know, on his show last week, Kimmel called Kirk's murder senseless. And the day it happened, Kimmel also posted a message on Instagram sending love to the Kirk family and to victims of gun violence. Interesting. I want to note some context here. The FCC, Federal Communications Commission, is really powerful. They regulate speech on broadcasts, dangerous thing for the government to do. And because it is, Congress historically put it in charge of a bipartisan commission that was supposed to be independent from politics. That was supposed to protect us all from government abuse, at least to some extent.

11:33But the administration has rejected the idea of independence entirely, but chose to go ahead and use the power. How did the FCC use its power here? Well, you know, as you may know, the FCC licenses and regulates the local broadcast stations that play ABC network programs and all broadcast programs. And the chair of the FCC, Brendan Carr, criticized Kimmel's remarks and he threatened federal action against ABC affiliates. Here's what he said to podcaster Benny Johnson yesterday. Frankly, when you see stuff like this, I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

12:16You know, Nexstar operates 32 ABC stations around the country, and it's seeking FCC approval for a$6.2 billion merger. And after Nexstar announced it was pulling Kimmel's show, Sinclair Broadcast Group was next. That major TV station operator said in a statement that suspending the show is not enough. They want Kimmel to apologize directly and personally donate to the Kirk family and his group, Turning Point USA. And on Friday, Sinclair is replacing Kimmel's show with a tribute to Charlie Kirk. Wow, that's really interesting since contributing money is considered by the Supreme Court to be speech.

12:53So they want Jimmy Kimmel to make speech for Turning Point USA. How did the president respond to the government going after the comedian? Well, on his social media post, Trump congratulated ABC for, quote, courage in shutting down Kimmel's show. And you remember, it was just two months ago that the president was celebrating after CBS announced it was canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, another longtime Trump critic. And at the time, Trump warned that Jimmy Kimmel was next. In his latest post, Trump said, that leaves Jimmy and Seth. That is, late night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.

13:27The president urged NBC to cancel them. What is Jimmy Kimmel saying about all this? Well, we reached out to Jimmy Kimmel and his show, and we haven't heard back yet. But California Governor Gavin Newsom, comedians, actors, and organizations are denouncing the suspension as censorship. And the Writers Guild of America, which represents the writers of Jimmy Kimmel Live, sent a letter of support saying they oppose anyone who uses their power and influence to, quote, silence the voices of writers or anyone who speaks in dissent. That's NPR's Mandalay Delbarco in Los Angeles. Thanks so much. Thank you.

14:06And that's a first for this Thursday, September 18th. I'm Steve Enskeep. And I'm Leila Faldin. Make your next listen, consider this. The team behind NPR's All Things Considered goes deep into a single news story in just 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Wherever that might be. Today's Up First was edited by Scott Hensley, Rafael Nam, Mateen McCalla, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Olivia Hampton. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Anna Pettis, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe van Genhoven, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us tomorrow.

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