By LAURAN NEERGAARD and LAURA UNGAR

WASHINGTON (AP) — A dozen prior leaders of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — appointed by Republicans and Democrats alike — issued a scathing denunciation of new FDA assertions casting doubt on vaccine safety.

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The former officials say the agency’s plans to revamp how life-saving vaccines for flu, COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases are handled — outlined in an internal FDA memo last week — would “disadvantage the people the FDA exists to protect, including millions of Americans at high risk from serious infections.”

“The proposed new directives are not small adjustments or coherent policy updates. They represent a major shift in the FDA’s understanding of its job,” the officials, former FDA commissioners and acting commissioners, wrote Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The internal memo by FDA vaccine chief Dr. Vinay Prasad hasn’t been publicly released but a source familiar with the document confirmed its authenticity. The document claimed — without providing evidence — that COVID-19 vaccines caused 10 children’s deaths. It went on to outline planned agency changes in handling those and certain other vaccines, and said that FDA staff who disagreed should resign.

FILE – In this undated photo provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Vinay Prasad smiles for a portrait. (U.S. FDA via AP)

Among Prasad’s plans were revising how yearly flu shot updates are handled and focusing more on “the benefits and harms of giving multiple vaccines at the same time.” A common message of vaccine skeptics is that too many shots may overwhelm kids’ immune systems or that ingredients may build up to cause harm — although scientists say repeated research into those claims has turned up no concerns.

On Wednesday, the former FDA leaders wrote that Prasad’s claim about child deaths related to COVID-19 vaccines had been reported to a surveillance system that doesn’t contain medical records or other information sufficient to prove a link — and that government scientists had carefully combed through those reports in previous years, reaching different conclusions. They also noted that “substantial evidence” shows COVID-19 vaccines reduce children’s risk of severe disease and hospitalization.

But the bigger picture, the former FDA leaders argued, is that the new proposals would reject long-standing science about how to evaluate vaccines being updated to better match virus strains, slow innovation to replace older vaccines with newer, potentially better ones, and make the process less transparent to the public.

An administration spokesman didn’t immediately comment.

Many doctors and public health experts also have expressed alarm about the memo.

“Vaccines save lives, period,” Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in a statement. “It is a sad day when FDA creates confusion and mistrust without supplying evidence, spreading propaganda that makes lifesaving vaccines harder to access and that creates additional confusion and mistrust for the public.”

The FDA’s planned vaccine changes come at a time when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years — is seeking to broadly remake federal policies on vaccines.

FILE – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)

Kennedy already ousted a committee that advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine recommendation and replaced it with handpicked members. And in August, he fired Susan Monarez 29 days into her tenure as CDC chief over vaccine policy disagreements. The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee will meet Thursday and Friday to discuss h epatitis B vaccinations in newborns and other vaccine topics.

Ungar reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell ‘s most vocal accusers urged judges on Wednesday to grant the Justice Department’s request to unseal records from their federal sex trafficking cases, saying “only transparency is likely to lead to justice.”

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Annie Farmer weighed in through her lawyer, Sigrid S. McCawley, after the judges asked for input from victims before ruling on whether the records should be made public under a new law requiring the government to open its files on the late financier and his longtime confidante, who sexually abused young women and girls for decades.

Farmer and other victims fought for the passage of the law, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Signed last month by President Donald Trump, it compels the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to release by Dec. 19 the vast troves of material they’ve amassed during investigations into Epstein.

The Justice Department last week asked Manhattan federal Judges Richard M. Berman and Paul A. Engelmayer to lift secrecy orders on grand jury transcripts and other material from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case and a wide range of records from Maxwell’s 2021 case, including search warrants, financial records and notes from interviews with victims.

“Nothing in these proceedings should stand in the way of their victory or provide a backdoor avenue to continue to cover up history’s most notorious sex-trafficking operation,” McCawley wrote in a letter to the judges.

The attorney was critical of the government for failing to prosecute anyone else in Epstein and Maxwell’s orbit.

She asked the judges to ensure that the orders they issue do not preclude the Justice Department from releasing other Epstein-related materials, adding that Farmer “is wary” that any denial could be used “as a pretext or excuse” to withhold information.

Epstein, a millionaire money manager known for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite, killed himself in jail a month after his 2019 arrest.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 by a federal jury of sex trafficking for helping recruit some of Epstein’s underage victims and participating in some of the abuse. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

In a court filing Wednesday, Maxwell’s lawyer again said that she is preparing a habeas petition in a bid to overturn her conviction. The lawyer, David Markus, first mentioned the habeas petition in court papers in August as she fought the Justice Department’s initial bid to have her case records unsealed. The Supreme Court in October declined to hear Maxwell’s appeal.

Markus said in Wednesday’s filing that while Maxwell now “does not take a position” in the wake of the transparency act’s passage, doing so “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial” if her habeas petition succeeds.

The records, Markus said, “contain untested and unproven allegations.”

Engelmayer, who’s weighing whether to release records from Maxwell’s case, gave her and victims until Wednesday to respond to the Justice Department’s unsealing request. The government must respond to their filings by Dec. 10. The judge said he will rule “promptly thereafter.”

Berman, who presided over the Epstein case, ordered victims and Epstein’s estate to respond by Wednesday and gave the government until Dec. 8 to reply to those submissions. Berman said he would make his “best efforts to resolve this motion promptly.”

Lawyers for Epstein’s estate said in a letter to Berman on Wednesday that the estate takes no position on the Justice Department’s unsealing request. The lawyers noted that the government had committed to making appropriate redactions of personal identifying information for victims.

Last week, a lawyer for some victims complained that the House Oversight Committee had failed to redact, or black out, some of their names from tens of thousands pages of Epstein-related documents it has released in recent months.

Transparency “CANNOT come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of sexual abuse and sex trafficking victims, especially these survivors who have already suffered repeatedly,” lawyer Brad Edwards wrote.

By PETER SMITH and JULIE CARR SMYTH

A former missionary with an Ohio-based ministry has been indicted on federal charges of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with four different minors in Haiti over multiple years.

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Jeriah Mast, 44, of Millersburg, Ohio, was indicted for alleged actions during his multiple visits to Haiti between 2002 and 2019. Mast — who according to authorities admitted to abusing about 30 victims in Haiti and more in Ohio — worked for part of that time for the Millersburg-based Christian Aid Ministries, which coordinates missionary activities for Amish, conservative Mennonite and related groups.

It marks the second court case against Mast, who was sentenced in Holmes County court in 2019 to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two minors in Ohio.

Mast received an early judicial release in October after serving just under six years, according to Ohio’s inmate database. As a condition of his release, he was placed on three years’ supervised probation and required to complete an intensive supervision program, including sex-offender specific programming.

Court records indicate that presiding retired Judge Edward Emmett O’Farrell of Tuscarawas County granted Mast’s release based on “an exemplary record” behind bars and “most importantly, the Defendant’s stated and demonstrated remorse for the crimes he committed, and the emotional and psychological pain and suffering he inflicted upon the child victims and their families in this case.”

Mast was arrested on the federal charges on Nov. 5 and formally indicted on Tuesday. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court in Cleveland.

“Crimes against children, like those mentioned in these allegations, are reprehensible,” U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement. “Such appalling and morally corrupt behavior will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We commend the work of Homeland Security Investigations and the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, whose thorough work led to these federal charges being filed today.”

The charges are based on a U.S. law that prohibits citizens from “traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person,” according to court filings.

The court docket indicates Mast is represented by a public defender, who did not immediately return email and phone messages seeking comment late Wednesday.

The Mast scandal came into public view in 2019 after he abruptly returned home from Haiti. In a subsequent interview with Holmes County authorities, he admitted to molesting about 30 children in Haiti between about 2003 and 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court by Special Agent Jason M. Guyton of Homeland Security Investigations. Details of his admission indicate many if not all of the reported victims were boys.

The federal charges accuse Mast of abusing four different minors in 2004, 2007 and 2011. One was a 13-year-old boy Mast met through his missionary work and allegedly molested in a tent, according to the criminal complaint.

The case was among those that drew attention to issues of sexual abuse in Amish and related, plain-dressing church communities such as conservative Mennonites and the Charity churches that Mast belonged to. Advocates have said victims have been pressured to forgive abusers and not to seek prosecution outside the disciplines of the largely closed religious communities.

Holmes County, where Christian Aid Ministries is based, is the hub of one of the nation’s largest Amish settlements. In 2019, CAM placed two of its managers on leave amid revelations that they knew as early as 2013 that Mast had confessed to sexual activity with young men, yet kept him on the job.

A CAM spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.

CAM’s work in Haiti came into the spotlight in 2021 when 17 missionaries and their children were kidnapped by a gang. They went free later that year, some ransomed by a third party, CAM acknowledged. CAM said most of the rest escaped.

On Wednesday, Joly Germine, alleged to be the founder and leader of the gang, was sentenced in federal court in Washington to life in prison for orchestrating the kidnapping.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

A now-former Washington County sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to four months in the workhouse and four years’ probation for driving drunk while off duty and crashing head-on into a family’s SUV on an Afton highway, seriously injuring the driver, who was heading to an apple orchard with his wife and several children.

Campbell Johnston Blair, 59, of Hastings, was intoxicated and wearing his sheriff’s office uniform while heading south on Minnesota 95 (St. Croix Trail) at Scenic Lane just after 10:30 a.m. Oct. 27, 2024. His duty pistol was on the front passenger seat.

Campbell Johnston Blair (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

Erik and Heather Sward, of Woodbury, were on their way to an apple orchard to celebrate their daughter’s second birthday. The couple’s two other children, ages 6 and 8, and their two cousins, 7 and 9, were also in the 2022 Ford Expedition, according to the state patrol.

Blair, driving a 2024 Subaru Crosstrek SUV, crossed over the center line and smashed into the couple’s SUV at 55 mph, the criminal complaint said.

Erik Sward’s injuries included a spinal fracture and fractures to his lower left leg. Heather and three of the children emerged with minor injuries, according to prosecutors.

Blair was put on administrative leave from his job and resigned Feb. 1. He’d been a deputy since 2020 and was assigned to the court security unit.

The Washington County Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case, but court proceedings were held in Anoka County District Court to avoid a potential conflict of interest.

In September, Blair entered a Norgaard plea to felony criminal vehicular operation-causing substantial bodily harm and a gross misdemeanor charge of criminal vehicular operation-causing bodily harm.

Under a Norgaard plea, a defendant says they are unable to remember what happened due to drug use or mental health impairment at the time, but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a jury to convict beyond a reasonable doubt.

Six other charges were dismissed at Tuesday’s sentencing as part of a plea agreement Blair reached with the prosecution: carrying a pistol while under the influence of alcohol, which is a misdemeanor, and five additional counts of criminal vehicular operation.

Under state sentencing guidelines, Blair faced a presumptive 12-month stayed prison sentence.

Anoka County District Judge Todd Schoffelman handed down a 364-day workhouse sentence, then stayed all but 120 days. Blair will receive one day of jail credit toward the workhouse term, which will begin Jan. 2.

The sentence includes a stay of imposition, which means Blair’s felony conviction will be reduced to a misdemeanor if he successfully completes terms of probation.

55 mph crash

According to the complaint, state troopers called to the crash found Blair in his uniform and conscious but covered in blood from lacerations. His duty vest and pistol were on the front passenger seat. He told a trooper he had worked overnight at Regions Hospital in St. Paul and got done at 7 a.m. He said he had been called to return to work at the hospital.

Field-sobriety tests were not conducted at the crash scene because Blair had to be extricated from his SUV and transported to Regions Hospital for medical care.

Blair gave a statement to investigators while at Regions, repeating that he had been called back to work at Regions. He smelled of alcohol, but denied that he had been drinking. He agreed to give a preliminary breath test, and gave a “weak sample” that registered a 0.09 blood-alcohol level, the complaint read. The legal limit for a driver in Minnesota is 0.08.

Investigators later learned that Blair had not been called back in to work, and that he did not work again until that night. “It was unknown why Blair was in full uniform with his duty vest and pistol,” the complaint said.

Several motorists said they saw Blair weaving over lane lines and driving erratically.

Troopers believed that Blair hit the couple’s SUV at 55 mph without braking, since no marks were found on the highway, the complaint said.

Erik Sward told investigators while hospitalized they were struck with no warning and that he did not have time to hit the brakes.

He also took prescribed Ambien

In a sentencing memo, Blair’s attorney, Stephen Foertsch, said Blair testified at his plea hearing that he took Ambien per his prescription instructions and remembered drinking one beer.

A sample of Blair’s blood taken at the hospital showed a 0.089 BAC and the presence of the sleep disorder drug, according to Foertsch.

“Mr. Blair’s offense was caused by an unexpected reaction to Ambien and alcohol, a reaction that, again, Mr. Blair had no reason to anticipate,” Foertsch wrote.

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Blair testified that he remembered waking up in the hospital, but had no memory of putting on his uniform, according to Foertsch. Blair testified that he was not scheduled to work, nor called in to work, and he did not know why he put on his uniform.

Assistant Washington County Attorney Erin Stephens said last week in the state’s sentencing memo that Blair should have known the dangers of drinking and driving since he was a deputy at the time.

Yet, he chose to consume alcohol and his prescribed Ambien dosage, Stephens said.

“Unfortunately, this day, he was an actual danger to other motorists, causing significant harm in the lives of many,” the prosecutor wrote.