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Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has previously made statements skeptical of vaccines, is now recommending the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine for infants.On Thursday, RFK’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to recommend clesrovimab, a new RSV antibody shot made by Merck, for infants 8 months and younger who don’t have protection from a maternal vaccine (a vaccine received in pregnancy). A broader vaccine review is underway The decision comes after the panel announced on Wednesday it would be reviewing the current childhood immunization schedule. The committee is set to vote on recommendations for the influenza vaccine, as well. The RSV shot was approved for use in infants earlier this month by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). ENFLONSIA provides an important new preventive option to help protect healthy and at-risk infants born during or entering their first RSV season with the same dose regardless of weight, said Dr. Dean Y. Li, president, Merck Research Laboratories, said at the time.Li continued, We are committed to ensuring availability of ENFLONSIA in the U.S. before the start of the upcoming RSV season to help reduce the significant burden of this widespread seasonal infection on families and health care systems. According to the CDC, RSV infects nearly everyone by age 2, causing cold symptoms, and sometimes, breathing struggles. In the U.S., around 300 infant deaths are caused by RSV each year. The vote, which passed with five for the vaccine and two against, is the first decision from RFK’s committee, made up of members whom RFK handpicked after dismissing the previous panel of 17 members in its entirety. The current panel includes some vaccine skeptics. Retsef Levi, an operations management professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Vicki Pebsworth, the research director of a group focused on preventing vaccine injuries and deaths, were the two members who voted against the shot. Kennedys history of vaccine misinformation Trump’s controversial pick for HHS Secretary has frequently made false claims on the topic of vaccines. In regard to COVID, Kennedy once falsely claimed that some race groups have natural immunity to the virus. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately, Kennedy said. COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese. RFKs critics feel that having a vaccine skeptic at the helm of the HHS is already cause for concern after the CDC began postponing meetings on national vaccine recommendations in February. After the committee also announced that it would start a renewed review of all recommended pediatric vaccines, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) put out a video titled, AAP Steps up on Vaccine Recommendations,” which warned that immunization policy through ACIP is “no longer a credible process” under RFK’s leadership. The AAP added that it will continue to publish its own recommendations on vaccines for children. Uncertainty at the CDC’s helm Thursdays recommendation from RFKs panel still has to be endorsed by the CDC. However, there is major confusion surrounding who is currently in charge of the organization, as it doesn’t seem to have a clear leader. Kennedy, and others, have recently sidestepped questions about the matter. Then, last week, RFK gave the name Matt Buzzelli, who he described as a public health expert” when Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester pressed him on who the current acting director was. The CDCs leadership page has Matthew Buzzelli, a trial lawyer with no health-related experience, listed fourth as the agencys chief of staff. Following the exchange, the Senator sent RFK a letter, expressing grave concern.
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E-Commerce
Big Lots has been through a wild ride since the home discount retail chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last September. In December 2024, the company announced that it would hold going-out-of-business sales at its remaining store locations. The following month, however, Big Lots announced that Variety Wholesalersa retail company based in North Carolinawould acquire and operate hundreds of existing Big Lots stores. After a period of remodeling and restocking, Variety Wholesalers has since reopened 219 Big Lots stores in a handful of states. The openings took place in four waves, starting in April and ending in June. The final reopening phase concluded with the reopening of 78 Big Lots stores on June 5. While return of Big Lots is good news for fans of the brand, it may be exposing some unsuspecting bargain hunters to scamsparticularly, for shoppers who prefer to buy things online. Big Lots warns of online scams Earlier this month, Big Lots took to social media to alert customers about the presence of online scams, explaining that its current website has no e-commerce component. “BIG LOTS! no longer operates any ecommerce website,” the retailer wrote on its Facebook page. “These are scam websites using our name and logo. Any purchases made through these websites should be IMMEDIATELY reported to your bank or credit card company. Our official website is biglots.com. The post attracted hundreds of comments, with some commenters saying they’d fallen victim to the bogus offers. Scammers have been targeting consumers with online ads impersonating Big Lots. Links within these ads direct hopeful shoppers to fake websites that are not affiliated with the official retailer. Be aware that any advertisements promoting online Big Lots deals are not legitimate. Some products are still listed on the official Big Lots website A section of the retailer’s official website highlights products that Big Lots stores actually sell. Although there are no capabilities to make a purchase through the official Big Lots website, product listings include photos, descriptions, and prices. Jeff King, vice president of sales and marketing for Variety Wholesalers, told Fast Company that the products listed on the Big Lots website are meant to illustrate the deals available in-store. “We do have products listed on our website to show the great values on the large variety of products we carry in our stores,” he said. “We do this to encourage customers to visit our stores and see what deals they can find.” Bottom line: It’s essential to be vigilant against online shopping scams. If you’re hoping to shop at Big Lots, you’ll need to visit a physical store.
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E-Commerce
Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. Bringing AI to the doctors appointment AI in healthcare is top of mind this week, thanks to a viral story on Reddit about a man who said ChatGPT saved his wifes life. She had undergone a cyst removal and wasnt feeling well, but was on an antibiotic and decided to wait it out. After the man described her symptoms to ChatGPT, the chatbot advised him to take his wife to the ER. He didand likely saved her life. Doctors diagnosed her with sepsis. Stories like these arent new. Over the past year, weve seen a number of ChatGPT-saved-my-life anecdotes popping up online. Meanwhile, two-thirds of doctors now reportedly use ChatGPT to help them home in on a diagnosis, often with good results. The models powering ChatGPT are trained on medical textbooks, research journal articles, medical guidelines, and health websites such as WebMD. That training gives them broad knowledge of anatomy, diseases, symptoms, treatment options, and drug interactions. OpenAI also fine-tuned the models by using feedback from health professionals. While AI modelseven highly specialized onescant yet replace human doctors, researchers are working hard to improve their accuracy and reliability. AI is also having an immediate impact in clinical documentationan area thats long been a pain point for doctors. Many physiciansespecially primary care doctorsspend an extra 90 minutes to three hours per day completing patient records. Combined with the pressure to see more patients, this contributes heavily to burnout. Increasingly, health systems are deploying AI scribes to ease this burden. Such tools can record a patient encounter and generate summaries for the electronic medical record (EMR). The Cleveland Clinic, for example, implements a clinical documentation and point-of-care coding solution from San Francisco-based Ambience. Using Ambiences app (which itself is powered by OpenAI models), the clinician records a patient visit, reviews an AI-generated summary of everything discussed in the meeting (including the billing codes), then approves the notes for inclusion in the EMR. According to Cleveland Clinics chief digital officer Rohit Chandra, 4,000 of the organizations physicians are already using the tool. It makes their jobs a ton easier, and it makes the patient interactions a lot better because now patients actually engage with the doctor, he says. Looking ahead, AI scribes could go far beyond basic documentation. Future versions may be able to document a medical exam with full contextual knowledge of the patients history (past problems and conditions, treatments, tests, and medications). We believe that with some work and attention, AI will become smart enough to understand the fullness of a patient’s health journey, as opposed to just a discreet encounter, Chandra says. For example, if a new condition arises during an exam, the AI might flag connections to prior complaints or lab results. It could help a physician prescribe new medications and guard against bad interactions in patients who may already be taking multiple drugs. The AI can also prepare a pre-read for the clinician: a summary of a patients current complaintin the context of the individuals past historythat a physician (who may have already seen 10 patients that day) can read outside the door of the exam room. I’m hoping that we can keep building on the success that weve had so far to literally drive the documentation burden to zero, Chandra says. If we do that well, we should eliminate a huge handicap that currently sits around our doctors, and we can bring the joy back to caregivingthats a literal quote from a doctor. And with so much promise for easing physician burnout and improving patient care, investors are taking note. Ambience raised a $70 millionB round in February 2024, co-led by KleinerPerkins and OpenAIs Startup Fund, reportedly putting its valuation at $1 billion. Ambience competes with Abridge, which performs a similar function of transcribing physician-patient conversations. Like Ambience, it has an integration with the popular Epic electronic medical records platform. Abridge recently raised $300 million in a SeriesE funding at a $5.3billion valuation. Health AI may have a breakout star in OpenEvidence The healthcare industry moves very slowly, until it doesnt. A company called OpenEvidence is tackling clinical decision supportone of the most challenging areas in medicineand appears so far to be winning over doctors at an impressive pace. In February, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company reported that 250,000 U.S. doctors were already using its product, and by mid-June the number had climbed to 350,000. Some industry observers say its the fastest-growing platform for physicians in history. OpenEvidence recently closed a $75 million A round led by Sequoia Capital that pushed its valuation to $1 billion. The product functions a bit like Perplexity, but for healthcare. Its an AI-powered search tool, along with a chatbot, that lets doctors keep asking questions until they get what they need. Specifically, the tool locates evidence-based medical information from peer-reviewed journals, then summarizes it to answer a given question. The platform searches across 35 million medical publications, and recently announced a strategic partnership with The New England Journal of Medicine, giving it access to decades of premium medical content. OpenEvidence also recently signed a multiyear deal with the JAMA Network that provides its AI tool with access to content from the networks 13 medical journals. Unlike other platforms, OpenEvidence doesnt rely on random health information found on the open web. The outputs are grounded in trusted medical literature, and if the literature is inconclusive, OpenEvidence simply doesnt attempt an answer. One of the hardest things about being a doctor . . . is that theyre expected to keep up with a fire hose of medical information, said OpenEvidence CEO Daniel Nadler in a recent podcast. So this is really not appreciated by people who are not doctors, but there are two new medical papers published every minute, 24 hours per day. Hume AIs emotionally intelligent models are finding new applications in eldercare and mental health Theres growing evidence that, for many people using AI chatbots, one of the main attractions is companionshipoften even a shoulder to cry on. For this to work well, a chatbot must have a easonable amount of common sense (to help users keep their problems in perspective), but also strong emotional intelligence, especially empathy. New York-based Hume AI specializes in emotionally intelligent AI voice models. CEO Alan Cowen told me that these models enable a chatbot to detect the users emotional state and respond appropriately. The models can also speak and listen simultaneously, allowing the AI to fully process what the user is sayingand know when to stop talking and simply listen. One of the most compelling applications of Hume AIs emotionally intelligent AI voices is a smartphone app called EverFriends, which provides conversation and companionship to seniors struggling with isolation and loneliness. Grand Rapids-based EverFriends.ai, the apps developer, believes its critical that the app can detect a users mood and adapt its tone and responses accordingly. For users with dementia, the app can slow down its speech and repeat its outputs when needed. Along with companionship, EverFriends can help older users remember to take medications, attend appointments, and do home health routines such as balance exercises. And the app can automatically send out an emergency alert to caregivers or family if something goes wrong. Hume also supplies the EQ AI behind a platform called Hpy, which is used by therapists. The platform serves as a scribe by listening in on therapy sessions and generating comprehensive session notes, which cuts down on the time therapists must spend on documentation. While creating the notes, Hpy also draws on Humes Expression Measurement API to detect emotional cues in the clients wordsinsights that may shape the therapists approach. Finally, Hpy uses Humes Empathic Voice Interface (EVI) to give clients an AI companion to talk to between sessions with the human therapist. Clients can have guided sessions with the AI voice to work on specific therapeutic goals, or just have an open conversation with the AI. The AI, in turn, is able to maintain a meaningful dialogue, thanks to its awareness of the clients needs from earlier sessions. More AI coverage from Fast Company: The AI baby boom is here. But can ChatGPT really raise a child? Anthropics AI copyright win is more complicated than it looks Ive become an AI vibe coding convert Genesys wants agentic AI to make customer service less robotic Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
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