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Tag: United States

Topic: Lyme diseaseView all posts for the topic: Lyme disease

Lyme disease research at Johns Hopkins in jeopardy due to federal funding delays

Published December 29, 2025

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Published by: CNN / CTV News
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MARYLAND (WJZ) — Maryland has some of the highest cases of Lyme disease in the nation, yet funding for research is in jeopardy.

Lyme disease is the most common and fastest-growing vector-borne disease in the United States. Approximately 476,000 Americans are diagnosed and treated for it each year, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In Maryland, Lyme disease cases have nearly doubled since 2020, according to the latest data from the Maryland Department of Health.

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Topic: Trump regimeView all posts for the topic: Trump regime

Health minister says she worries about U.S. public health decisions harming Canadians

U.S. panel voted to remove universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for infants

Published December 13, 2025

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Published by: CBC News
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By Benjamin Lopez Steven

Health Minister Marjorie Michel says she worries about how recent actions by U.S. public health agencies, like removing a universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendation for American infants, could hurt Canadians’ health.

“It’s a big worry for me,” Michel said in an interview on CBC’s The House that airs Saturday morning. “The U.S. is our closest neighbour. And it’s a big neighbour.”

“It’s absolutely crucial to work with provinces and territories to be all on the same page, for example, on vaccination,” Michel told host Catherine Cullen.

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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

CDC advisers drop decades-old universal hepatitis B birth dose recommendation, suggest blood testing after 1 dose

Published December 5, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom, Laine Bergeson, Liz Szabo, Chris Dall

This morning, after contentious discussion, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 8-3 to drop the recommendation for a universal birth hepatitis B vaccine dose and 6-4 to suggest that parents use serologic testing—which detects antibodies in the blood—to determine whether more than one dose of the three-dose series are needed.

Under the first recommendation, only infants born to mothers who test positive for hepatitis B would receive a birth dose, while parents of other babies would be advised to postpone the first dose for at least two months.

ACIP makes vaccination recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including those for different age-groups and disease risk status, as well as on US immunization schedules for children, adolescents, and adults. The CDC director has ultimate discretion whether to approve ACIP’s advice, and physicians can make their own decisions about whether to comply, but ACIP recommendations have historically affected insurance coverage of vaccines.

Continue readingCDC advisers drop decades-old universal hepatitis B birth dose recommendation, suggest blood testing after 1 dose
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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

Panel Votes to Stop Recommending Hepatitis B Shots at Birth for Most Newborns

In a move toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of upending vaccine policy, the committee recommended delaying the shots for infants whose mothers test negative for the virus.

Published December 5, 2025

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Published by: The New York Times
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By Apoorva Mandavilli

A federal vaccine committee took a major step toward Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s goal of remaking the childhood vaccine schedule on Friday, voting to end a decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that can cause severe liver damage.

The divisiveness and dysfunction of the committee in making the decision, however, raised questions about the reliability of the advisory process and left at least one critic “very concerned about the future” of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, voted 8 to 3 that women who test negative for hepatitis B should consult with their health care provider and decide “when or if” their child will be vaccinated against the virus at birth. The committee did not change the recommendation that newborns of mothers known to be infected or whose status is unknown be immunized. The shift is not expected to affect insurance coverage of the shots.

Continue readingPanel Votes to Stop Recommending Hepatitis B Shots at Birth for Most Newborns
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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

Vaccine Committee May Make Significant Changes to Childhood Schedule

Comments by President Trump, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some panelists suggest the committee is likely to delay hepatitis B shots and discuss revising the use of other vaccines.

Published December 2, 2025

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Published by: The New York Times
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By Apoorva Mandavilli

Advisers to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appear poised to make consequential changes to the childhood vaccination schedule, delaying a shot that is routinely administered to newborns and discussing big changes to when or how other childhood immunizations are given.

Decisions by the group are not legally binding, but they have profound implications for whether private insurance and government assistance programs are required to cover the vaccines.

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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

FDA official, without providing data, claims link between COVID-19 vaccines and pediatric deaths

Published November 29, 2025

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Published by: CBS News
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By Kerry Breen, Margaret Brennan, Dr. Céline Gounder

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division, sent a memo to staff that linked children’s deaths to the COVID-19 vaccine, but did not provide data to back the claim.

The memo said that a review “found that at least 10 children have died after and because of receiving COVID-19 vaccination,” according to multiple sources familiar with the email. The memo was first reported by the New York Times.

Prasad suggested that the deaths were related to myocarditis, or the inflammation of the heart muscle. Prasad did not share any data used in the review, including the children’s ages, whether they had existing health conditions, or how the FDA determined there was a link between their death and the vaccine. The findings were not published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

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Washington resident dies of complications from bird flu strain never before reported in humansColourized transmission electron micrograph of avian influenza A H5N1 virus particles (yellow), grown in canine kidney epithelial cells (blue). Photo: CDC and NIAID.
Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

Washington resident dies of complications from bird flu strain never before reported in humans

Published November 21, 2025

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Published by: CNN
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By Katherine Dillinger, Jen Christensen

A Washington resident died of complications from an infection with a bird flu strain never before reported in humans, the state Department of Health said on Friday.

The patient was an older adult with underlying health conditions who had been hospitalized and undergoing treatment for infection with H5N5 avian influenza.

It’s the first reported case of bird flu in a human in the US in nine months and only the second reported human death from the virus in the United States, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the risk to the general public from the virus remains low.

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Topic: United KingdomView all posts for the topic: United Kingdom

Delay in COVID-19 lockdowns in U.K. resulted in some 23,000 more deaths: public inquiry

Published November 20, 2025

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Published by: CBC News / Reuters
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Former British prime minister Boris Johnson oversaw a “toxic,” “chaotic” and dithering response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a delay in locking the country down resulting in about 23,000 more deaths, a report by a public inquiry concluded on Thursday.

Britain recorded more than 230,000 deaths from COVID, a similar death rate to the United States and Italy but higher than elsewhere in western Europe, and it is still recovering from the economic consequences.

An inquiry, which Johnson ordered in May 2021, delivered a blistering assessment of his government’s response to the pandemic, criticizing his indecisive leadership, lambasting his Downing Street office for breaking their own rules and castigating his top adviser, Dominic Cummings.

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Topic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles

Measles outbreak in Arizona and Utah could spell the end for U.S. elimination status

Published November 19, 2025

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Published by: NBC News
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By Aria Bendix, Erika Edwards

A measles outbreak in Arizona and Utah shows no sign of slowing, putting the United States dangerously close to losing its elimination status for the vaccine-preventable disease.

With holiday travel and gatherings approaching, doctors worry that transmission could escalate. If measles continues to spread through Jan. 20, that will mark a year of sustained transmission in the United States. At that point, the disease would no longer be considered eliminated and it would instead revert to being endemic, or constantly present.

The backward step seems highly likely.

Continue readingMeasles outbreak in Arizona and Utah could spell the end for U.S. elimination status
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Topic: avian fluView all posts for the topic: avian flu

1st US human bird flu case in 9 months confirmed with strain only seen in animals before

Published November 14, 2025

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Published by: ABC News
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By Mary Kekatos

A Washington state resident has tested positive for bird flu, marking the first human case confirmed in the U.S. in nine months.

The patient, who is an older adult with underlying health conditions, developed symptoms including high fever, confusion and respiratory distress and was hospitalized in early November, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

Testing confirmed the patient has H5N5, a strain of bird flu that has previously been reported in animals but never before in humans, according to the Washington State Department of Health. However, officials say the risk to the public is low.

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With an absent CDC and mismatched ‘subclade K’ flu strain, experts face upcoming season with uncertaintyColourized transmission electron micrograph of influenza A virus particles (red and gold), isolated from a patient sample and then propagated in cell culture. Blue background. This image features the H3N2 influenza strain. Photo: NIAID.
Topic: influenzaView all posts for the topic: influenza

With an absent CDC and mismatched ‘subclade K’ flu strain, experts face upcoming season with uncertainty

Published November 12, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

Earlier this month, a group of Canadian researchers published early influenza data for the 2025-26 season, issuing a warning: There has been an observed mismatch with the seasonal influenza vaccine strain and what is emerging as the dominant flu strain this season, H3N2 subclade K.

Based on early reports from Japan and the United Kingdom, the Canadian researchers wanted to publish these data to encourage enhanced surveillance in North America this season, especially given the tumultuous situation in the United States.

“This is not the time to be flying blind into the respiratory virus season,” Danuta Skowronski, MD, the epidemiology lead for influenza and emerging respiratory pathogens at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, told CIDRAP News. Skowronski was senior author of the paper, which was published in the Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada.

Continue readingWith an absent CDC and mismatched ‘subclade K’ flu strain, experts face upcoming season with uncertainty
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Topic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles

Canada officially loses its measles elimination status

Published November 10, 2025

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Published by: The Globe and Mail
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By Alanna Smith, Kristy Kirkup

Canada has been stripped of its measles elimination status after failing to interrupt transmission within one year of an outbreak that continues to spread in parts of the country.

The Public Health Agency of Canada said Monday it was notified by The Pan American Health Organization, a regional arm of the World Health Organization, that Canada lost its designation – an accomplishment it held for 27 years.

“While transmission has slowed recently, the outbreak has persisted for over 12 months, primarily within under-vaccinated communities,” the statement said.

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Topic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles

Canada loses its measles elimination status

Published November 10, 2025

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Published by: Radio-Canada
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By Mélanie Meloche-Holubowski

The Pan American Health Organization has informed the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) that Canada no longer has the status of a country that has eliminated measles, due to an outbreak that has been ongoing for more than one year.

This status indicates that there is no continuous transmission of the disease for 12 months or more in a given geographical area.

“Despite considerable efforts by Canada, the country has lost its status. Measles is now considered to be endemic in this country,” PAHO director Dr. Jason Barbosa told a news conference.

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Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Pharmacists decry ‘hurdles’ facing Albertans who want a COVID vaccine

Published November 4, 2025

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Published by: Global News
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By Ken MacGillivray, Skylar Peters

Changes to the Alberta government’s COVID vaccination plan this year mean many Albertans are facing long waitlists and a hefty bill to get their shot.

With the government-run program only offered through public health clinics and many of those clinics experiencing long waits, some Albertans are choosing instead to go to their local pharmacist to get immunized — as they have done in previous years.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

COVID vaccination cuts risk of long-term symptoms in teens by over a third, data suggest

Published November 3, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom

The risk of long COVID was 36% lower in adolescents vaccinated within 6 months before their first infection than in their unvaccinated peers, suggests an analysis of US Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) trial data published late last week in Vaccine.

The study, led by Massachusetts General Hospital researchers, involved 724 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who were vaccinated against COVID-19 within the previous 6 months and 507 unvaccinated youth matched on sex, symptom onset, and enrollment date.

Continue readingCOVID vaccination cuts risk of long-term symptoms in teens by over a third, data suggest
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Topic: cardiovascular diseaseView all posts for the topic: cardiovascular disease

Covid and Flu Can Triple Your Risk of Heart Attack

Published October 29, 2025

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Published by: The New York Times
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By Nina Agrawal

The risk of a heart attack triples within the first few weeks after a Covid-19 infection, the study suggested, and quadruples in the month after a flu infection. The study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, was a large review and analysis of existing research.

“It endorses a general idea that we’ve been thinking about and talking about for the past several years — that infections are generally not benign,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, a senior clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved in the study.

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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

Analysis: Last year’s COVID vaccines protected well against severe illness

Published October 28, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

The updated 2024-25 COVID-19 vaccines provided 57% protection against hospitalization and death, although their effectiveness waned over time, according to a study yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The study assessed effectiveness against infection, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalization. Protection against infection and ED visits was 45%.

The study was based on outcomes seen among Nebraskan residents during the 2024-25 respiratory virus season and used hospital discharge data from member hospitals of the Nebraska Hospital Association and data from death certificates from the Nebraska Office of Vital Records.

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Topic: researchView all posts for the topic: research

A surprise bonus from COVID-19 vaccines: bolstering cancer treatment

Published October 20, 2025

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Published by: Science
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By Phie Jacobs

The innovative messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines that thwarted the ravages of COVID-19 may also help fight tumors in cancer patients, according to a new analysis of medical records and studies in mice.

People with cancer who coincidentally received the mRNA shots before starting drugs designed to unleash the immune system against tumors lived significantly longer than those who didn’t get vaccinated, a research team announced yesterday at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin. Laboratory experiments by the group suggest the vaccines rev up the immune system, making even stubborn tumors more susceptible to treatment.

Continue readingA surprise bonus from COVID-19 vaccines: bolstering cancer treatment
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