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‘On the precipice of disaster’: Measles may be endemic in 25 years if vaccine uptake stays low, model predictsColourized transmission electron micrograph of a measles virus particle (red), with a yellow background. Photo: CDC and NIAID. Licensed under Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 DEED Attribution 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Topic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles

‘On the precipice of disaster’: Measles may be endemic in 25 years if vaccine uptake stays low, model predicts

Published April 24, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom

Without a 5% higher measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate, measles may revert to endemicity in the United States within 25 years, while a 10% decline in vaccination could lead to 11.1 million cases of the highly contagious illness in that timeframe, according to predictions from a simulation model published today in JAMA.

Also today, the World Health Organization (WHO); UNICEF; and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance warn that burgeoning outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases threaten to reverse years of progress.

Continue reading‘On the precipice of disaster’: Measles may be endemic in 25 years if vaccine uptake stays low, model predicts
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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

Novavax says its COVID-19 shot is on track for full FDA approval after delay

Published April 23, 2025

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Published by: The Associated Press
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By Matthew Perrone, Lauran Neergaard

WASHINGTON (AP) — Novavax’s closely watched COVID-19 vaccine is on track for full approval after additional discussions with the Food and Drug Administration, the company said Wednesday.

The news sent company shares soaring more than 21% in morning trading and appeared to resolve concerns that Trump administration officials might be holding up a decision on the shot.

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

RFK Jr. eyes reversing CDC’s Covid-19 vaccine recommendation for children

Published April 22, 2025

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Published by: Politico
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By Adam Cancryn

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is weighing pulling the Covid-19 vaccine from the government’s list of recommended immunizations for children, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.

The directive under consideration would remove the Covid shot from the childhood vaccine schedule maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and widely used by physicians to guide vaccine distribution, marking Kennedy’s most significant move yet to shake up the nation’s vaccination practices.

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Federal cuts threaten to close Pennsylvania lab that certifies N95s and other respirators in JuneIllustration of a white N95 respirator torn into two pieces, with violet background. Based on image by Rossie C S from Pixabay.
Topic: N95 respiratorsView all posts for the topic: N95 respirators

Federal cuts threaten to close Pennsylvania lab that certifies N95s and other respirators in June

Published April 17, 2025

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Published by: Pennsylvania Capital-Star
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By Ian Karbal

The Pennsylvania laboratory that certifies all of the country’s NIOSH-approved respirators is on the chopping block. HHS is stonewalling employees who raise questions.

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Topic: war on scienceView all posts for the topic: war on science

Internal budget document reveals extent of Trump’s proposed health cuts

Published April 16, 2025

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Published by: The Washington Post
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By Lena H. Sun, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Rachel Roubein, Joel Achenbach, Lauren Weber

The Trump administration is seeking to deeply slash budgets for federal health programs, a roughly one-third cut in discretionary spending by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a preliminary budget document obtained by The Washington Post.

The HHS budget draft, known as a “passback,” offers the first full look at the health and social service priorities of President Donald Trump’s Office of Management and Budget as it prepares to send his 2026 fiscal year budget request to Congress. It shows how the Trump administration plans to reshape the federal health agencies that oversee food and drug safety, manage the nation’s response to infectious-disease threats and drive biomedical research.

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Topic: anti-vaxxersView all posts for the topic: anti-vaxxers

Health secretary RFK Jr. declares certain vaccines have ‘never worked,’ flummoxing scientists

Published April 10, 2025

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Published by: STAT
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By Helen Branswell

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has expressed another unorthodox view on vaccines, with the long-time vaccine critic declaring that vaccines for respiratory bugs that target a sole part of the pathogen they are meant to protect against do not work.

The claim was dismissed as erroneous by vaccine experts, who were befuddled by the secretary’s theory, espoused during an interview with CBS News.

Kennedy made the claim in explaining a controversial recent decision by political appointees at the Food and Drug Administration to delay granting a full license to Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is still given under an emergency use authorization or EUA.

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Topic: war on scienceView all posts for the topic: war on science

How Trump 2.0 is slashing NIH-backed research — in charts

Published April 10, 2025

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Published by: Nature
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By Max Kozlov, Chris Ryan

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has terminated nearly 800 research projects at a breakneck pace, wiping out significant chunks of funding to entire scientific fields, finds a Nature analysis of the unprecedented cuts.

The administration of US President Donald Trump began purging NIH-funded studies on topics that it deems problematic less than 50 days ago, continuously expanding its list to include research on topics ranging from COVID-19 to misinformation. Hundreds of the 30,000-plus scientists funded by the NIH yearly have been forced to halt their work after receiving notices that their research “no longer effectuates agency priorities”, and some have had to fire personnel or even shut down their laboratories.

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

Studies: 1 in 7 US working-age adults report long COVID, with heaviest burden on the poor

Published April 9, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom

Nearly 1 in 7 working-age US adults had experienced long COVID by late 2023, and socially disadvantaged adults were over 150% more likely to have persistent symptoms, two new studies find.

Future public health, economic burdens

Yesterday in Communications Medicine, Daniel Kim, MD, DrPH, of Northeastern University, analyzed data from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey from September and November 2022 and August to October 2023 on more than 375,000 US adults, including nearly 50,000 with self-reported long COVID.

Kim assessed sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors as predictors of long COVID; estimated the risk of unemployment, financial difficulties, and anxiety and depression among working-age adults (ages 18 to 64 years) and those currently experiencing lingering symptoms; and tallied the economic effects of the resulting lost wages.

Continue readingStudies: 1 in 7 US working-age adults report long COVID, with heaviest burden on the poor
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Topic: war on scienceView all posts for the topic: war on science

Top scientists pen letter calling for end to ‘assault on U.S. science’

Published April 1, 2025

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Published by: CBC Radio
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By Catherine Zhu

Nearly 2,000 doctors, researchers, and scientists have signed an open letter calling for an end to what they describe as the Trump administration’s “wholesale assault on U.S. science.”

The letter, written by 13 scientists from disciplines including medicine, climate science and economics, urges Americans to demand their Congress protect scientific funding and integrity.

The signatories, all members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, wrote that the Trump administration is “destabilizing this enterprise by gutting funding for research, firing thousands of scientists, removing public access to scientific data, and pressuring researchers to alter or abandon their work on ideological grounds.”

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Topic: war on scienceView all posts for the topic: war on science

Rollout of ‘miracle’ HIV prevention drug is threatened by Trump cuts to global AIDS relief program

Published April 1, 2025

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Published by: STAT
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By Ed Silverman, Jason Mast

The Trump administration’s enormous cuts to a global AIDS relief program threaten to upend the planned rollout of a groundbreaking HIV prevention drug that was expected to save countless lives.

The medicine, lenacapavir, made by Gilead Sciences, has caused a stir because clinical trial data showed a single set of injections every six months could provide virtually complete protection against infection, a form of prevention known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or (PrEP). The drug, which is under regulatory review, has raised hopes that the deadly infectious disease can be mitigated around the globe. Early data for an even newer formulation suggest it might need to be given only once a year. “This is magical,” UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima declared last year.

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

Trump’s proposed tariffs likely to cause shortages of Canadian-made drugs in U.S., study says

Published March 31, 2025

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Published by: The Globe and Mail
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By Chris Hannay

U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on pharmaceuticals are likely to cause shortages of dozens of Canadian-made drugs in the United States, according to a new study.

Pharmaceuticals are one of a handful of sector-specific tariffs the President has talked publicly about imposing, along with ones already levied on steel, aluminum and autos. Mr. Trump has suggested tariffs could address high drug costs in the U.S. and increase domestic manufacturing.

New research published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at how many and what kind of Canadian-made drugs would be hit by the tariffs. It found US$3-billion in annual sales came from drugs with final production in Canada, which would lead to an increased cost of US$750-million for American buyers if tariffs were set at 25 per cent. Of the Canadian-made drugs, 79 per cent were generics.

Continue readingTrump’s proposed tariffs likely to cause shortages of Canadian-made drugs in U.S., study says
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Topic: pro-virus policiesView all posts for the topic: pro-virus policies

US cutting Gavi vaccine alliance aid may cause ‘over a million deaths’

Published March 27, 2025

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Published by: France 24 / AFP
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Paris (AFP) – The United States cutting funding to Gavi, an organisation that provides vaccines to the world’s poorest countries, could result in more than a million deaths and will endanger lives everywhere, the group’s CEO warned on Thursday.

The news that Washington is planning to end funding for Gavi, first reported in the New York Times, comes as the two-month-old administration of President Donald Trump aggressively slashes foreign aid.

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

‘Something was wrong with my brain’: How covid leaves its mark on cognition

Published March 27, 2025

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Published by: The Washington Post
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By Richard Sima

In March 2020, Hannah Davis fell ill, and everything changed. Her respiratory symptoms were mild, but the neurological and cognitive fallout was frightening.

“I could tell very early on that something was wrong with my brain,” she said after getting sick with covid-19.

And Davis had quantitative proof — her score for processing speed on a cognitive test dropped from the 96th percentile right before the pandemic to the 14th percentile after her coronavirus infection.

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

CDC is pulling back $11B in Covid funding sent to health departments across the U.S.

Published March 25, 2025

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Published by: NBC News
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By Brandy Zadrozny

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pulling back $11.4 billion in funds allocated in response to the pandemic to state and community health departments, nongovernment organizations and international recipients, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a statement. “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the CDC, which is tasked with protecting the nation’s health. Notices began going out Monday, and awardees have 30 days to reconcile their expenditures. Figures are subject to change.

Continue readingCDC is pulling back $11B in Covid funding sent to health departments across the U.S.
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I traded my U.S. medical career for life in Canada. Here’s how the two health systems stack up.A red emergency sign at a hospital. Photo: Pixabey.
Topic: healthcareView all posts for the topic: healthcare

I traded my U.S. medical career for life in Canada. Here’s how the two health systems stack up.

Published March 25, 2025

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Published by: Canada Healthwatch
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By Code Black

After more than a decade practicing emergency medicine in the United States, I very recently began working shifts in Canada. The differences hit me immediately, and are profound.

What follows are a series of working hypotheses — early impressions shaped by firsthand experience and years of health policy work in the U.S. I expect they will evolve with time, but they already point to important contrasts in how both countries approach medicine, physician autonomy, and the doctor-patient relationship.

Continue readingI traded my U.S. medical career for life in Canada. Here’s how the two health systems stack up.
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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Long Covid office ‘will be closing,’ Trump administration announces

Published March 24, 2025

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Published by: Politico
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By Sophie Gardner, Alice Miranda Ollstein

The Trump administration is shuttering HHS’ long Covid office as part of its reorganization, according to an internal email seen by POLITICO.

The email was sent Monday by Ian Simon, the head of the Office of Long Covid Research and Practice. It said the closing is part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ reorganization.

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Topic: AIDSView all posts for the topic: AIDS

UN warns millions more will die from AIDS after US cuts

Published March 24, 2025

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Published by: DW
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By Alex Berry with AFP, Reuters

The UNAIDS program head has said millions more will die as a result of the sudden cuts to funding by the Trump administration. She also warned that the AIDS pandemic could return to 1990s levels.

The head of the United Nations program on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, said on Monday that over 6 million additional deaths from the disease are expected after the US slashed its funding.

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

Beyond long COVID — how reinfections could be causing silent long-term organ damage

Published March 20, 2025

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Published by: CBC Radio / Quirks and Quarks
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By Sonya Buyting

COVID may no longer be considered an official global emergency, but mounting scientific evidence suggests every COVID infection a person gets increases their risk of developing long-term health issues.

“There is no such thing as a COVID infection without consequence,” says long COVID researcher, David Putrino, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

The long-term effects can show up as long COVID, with symptoms such as shortness of breath, digestive problems, fast or irregular heartbeats, extreme fatigue and brain fog, or as silently accumulating cellular or organ damage.

Continue readingBeyond long COVID — how reinfections could be causing silent long-term organ damage
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