Panel recommends new infant vaccine
An influential federal advisory panel recommended Tuesday that every U.S. infant be vaccinated against rotavirus, a common and potentially fatal cause of childhood diarrhea and vomiting.
Children should receive a three-dose vaccination series within their first six months, according to a unanimous vote by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The panel’s recommendation cannot become policy unless it is adopted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The panel’s recommendations are commonly adopted by the CDC, which issues vaccination guidelines to doctors and hospitals.
The Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 3 licensed an oral rotavirus vaccine for infants, named RotaTeq. Manufactured by Merck & Co., the vaccine has a proposed sale price of $62.50 a dose.
Cambridge, Mass.
Harvard president quits amid debate
Lawrence Summers, the embattled president of Harvard University, resigned Tuesday after a tumultuous year during which he repeatedly clashed with the faculty at one of the nation’s most prestigious schools.
His resignation takes effect at the end of the academic year. Former president Derek Bok will serve as interim president of the university beginning July 1 until a new president is appointed, according to Harvard’s Web site.
Summers’ announcement comes after several weeks of inflamed rhetoric by his opponents on the faculty, incensed by the way he handled the dismissal of Arts and Sciences Dean William Kirby, and one week before a scheduled full faculty meeting on a vote of no confidence in his leadership.
Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary who was named president of Harvard in 2001, has been under intense fire from segments of the faculty for the past year after he suggested in a speech that genetic gender differences could explain why fewer women have excelled in science and math. He managed to quell the uproar for about six months until the Kirby incident.
San Francisco
Inmate’s execution put on hold
State officials on Tuesday postponed indefinitely the execution of a condemned killer, saying they could not comply with a judge’s order that a medical professional administer the lethal injection.
Prison authorities called off the execution after failing to find a doctor, nurse or other person licensed to inject medications to give a fatal dose of barbiturate, said Vernell Crittendon, a spokesman for San Quentin State Prison.
It was unclear when the execution of Michael Morales, 46, would be carried out, but the delay could last for months because of legal questions surrounding California’s method of lethal injection.