HHS scraps further work on life-saving mRNA vaccine platform

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: August 6, 2025
By Mary Van Beusekom

In what experts say will hobble pandemic preparedness, US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday announced the dismantling of the country’s mRNA vaccine-development programs—the same innovation that allowed rapid scale-up of COVID-19 vaccines during the public health emergency.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine-development contracts totaling just under $500 million, including an award to Moderna/University of Texas Medical Branch for a vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu now sweeping the world. That grant was terminated in late May.

Contracts awarded to Emory University and Tiba Biotech were cancelled, and agreements with Luminary Labs, ModeX, and Seqirus have been scaled back.

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measles

Canada likely to lose measles elimination status as outbreak continues: expert

Published August 6, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: August 6, 2025
By Pauline Chan

Canada is at risk of losing its measles elimination status as an outbreak that started in New Brunswick last year continues to grow.

Measles has been considered eliminated in Canada since 1998, and the country saw an average of 91 cases annually before October 2024, when the outbreak began. The designation means that, within a certain geographical region, there has been no sustained measles transmission over 12 consecutive months.

Since then, of the 4,394 measles infections nationwide, Health Canada data shows that most individuals were exposed to the virus domestically (94 per cent) and were not vaccinated (88 per cent).

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pro-virus policies

RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development

Published August 6, 2025

Published by: The Associated Press
Published on: August 6, 2025
By Amanda Seitz

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a statement Tuesday that 22 projects, totaling $500 million, to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted.

Kennedy’s decision to terminate the projects is the latest in a string of decisions that have put the longtime vaccine critic’s doubts about shots into full effect at the nation’s health department. Kennedy has pulled back recommendations around the COVID-19 shots, fired the panel that makes vaccine recommendations, and refused to offer a vigorous endorsement of vaccinations as a measles outbreak worsened.

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Alberta

Alberta’s Perverse New Barriers to COVID Vaccines

Published August 5, 2025

Published by: The Tyee
Published on: August 5, 2025
By Andrew Nikiforuk

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s radical new rules for COVID immunization pose a genuine threat to the elderly, the working poor and pregnant moms.

Smith, who revived her ailing political career by peddling conspiratorial COVID theories, has designed a program that is not only punitive but discriminatory, bureaucratic and Soviet in nature.

“This policy is so bad that it’s actually worse than their usual failure to plan properly,” said James Talbot, the province’s former chief medical officer of health. “In fact, it is so bad it looks like they are actually planning to fail.”

Here are the three basic tenets of any successful public health program: make it available, make it accessible and make it affordable. Smith turns all three upside down.

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avian flu

Bird Flu May Be Airborne on Dairy Farms, Scientists Report

Published August 4, 2025

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: August 4, 2025
By Apoorva Mandavilli, Emily Anthes

The bird flu virus that has beset dairy farms since early last year may be spreading through the air in so-called milking parlors and through contaminated wastewater, as well as from milking equipment, scientists have found.

The Department of Agriculture has said that the virus spreads primarily from milking equipment or is carried by dairy workers and vehicles traveling between farms.

But in the new study, scientists found live virus in the air of milking facilities, suggesting that cows and farmworkers might have become infected by inhaling the pathogen. The virus may also spread by water used to clean cattle barns or contaminated with discarded milk.

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Ottawa-Gatineau

Wildfire smoke blanketing Ottawa could linger into Tuesday

Published August 4, 2025

Published by: CTV News
Published on: August 4, 2025
By Ted Raymond

Environment Canada says a cloud of wildfire smoke that is covering the nation’s capital could hang overhead into Tuesday.

A special air quality statement is in effect for much of the region as smoke continues to affect most of southern and eastern Ontario.

“The wildfire smoke may persist into tonight and possibly Tuesday before finally easing,” Environment Canada says. “Air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour.”

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Month: August 2025