Tag: vaccines

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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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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vaccines

Analysis: 2024-25 COVID vaccines offered strong protection against worst outcomes in seniors

Published July 31, 2025

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: July 31, 2025
By Stephanie Soucheray

The 2024-25 COVID mRNA vaccines targeting JN.1 were highly effective in protecting against hospitalization and death for at least 4 months in a cohort of Danish citizens aged 65 and older by October 1, 2024. The new analysis estimating the vaccine efficacy (VE) of last season’s COVID vaccines was published earlier this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

In total, 894,560 Danish residents were included in the study, with a median age of 76. By Jan 31, 2025, 820,229 (91.7%) of the participants had received a JN.1 vaccine. Among those without updated JN.1 vaccination (74,331), 278 COVID-19 hospitalizations and 84 deaths were observed during 25.6 million person-days.

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Trump regime

Controversial FDA official Dr. Vinay Prasad departs agency

Published July 29, 2025

Published by: CNN
Published on: July 29, 2025
By Meg Tirrell, Sarah Owermohle, Adam Cancryn

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the controversial critic of the US Food and Drug Administration who took a top role at the regulatory agency in May, has resigned less than three months into the job.

“Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family,” a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services told CNN on Tuesday.

Prasad, a hematologist oncologist, was named head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in early May, giving him purview over vaccines and biologic medicines. He was subsequently also given the role of FDA chief medical and scientific officer. Like a number of Trump administration health appointees, Prasad had been a harsh critic of the government’s response and vaccine policies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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vaccines

New COVID-19 vaccine candidate shows strong protection against multiple variants

Published July 18, 2025

Published by: Centenary Institute
Published on: July 18, 2025

A promising new COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by researchers at the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney has shown strong potential to protect against both current and emerging coronavirus variants. By targeting features shared by a range of coronaviruses, the vaccine is designed to offer broader and longer-lasting protection as the virus continues to evolve.

The development comes as Australia faces continued COVID-19 circulation during winter, with new Omicron subvariants such as XBB.1.5 contributing to infections and hospitalisations. To date, there have been over 115,000 COVID-19 cases reported to the Australian Government’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System for 2025.

Published in the scientific journal npj Vaccines, the new study shows that the vaccine candidate, named CoVEXS5, protected mice from multiple coronaviruses, including the highly immune-evasive Omicron XBB.1.5 variant and SARS-CoV-1, a relative of SARS-CoV-2 that was responsible for the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.

In laboratory tests, CoVEXS5 reduced virus levels in the lungs of infected mice by approximately 99.9% compared to unvaccinated controls, demonstrating a dramatic protective effect.

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vaccines

Study finds no link between aluminum in vaccines and autism, asthma

Published July 14, 2025

Published by: NBC News
Published on: July 14, 2025
By Kaitlin Sullivan

Aluminum in childhood vaccines is a target of vaccine skeptics, who blame the ingredient on myriad health concerns. But a study of more than 1 million people, published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found no link between aluminum in vaccines and an increased risk of 50 chronic conditions, including autoimmune diseases, allergies and autism.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spread vaccine misinformation for years, said on a podcast in 2024 that aluminum in vaccines is “extremely neurotoxic.” (An HHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.)

Senior study author Anders Hviid said that, as a parent, he understood the concerns about vaccine safety.

“Our study addresses many of these concerns and provides clear and robust evidence for the safety of childhood vaccines. This is evidence that parents need to make the best choices for the health of their children,” said Hviid, who is a professor and the head of epidemiology research at Statens Serum Institut, a sector of the Danish Ministry of Health focused on combating and preventing infectious diseases.

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measles

Alberta’s measles outbreaks surpass case counts reported for entire U.S.

Published July 14, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: July 14, 2025
By Jennifer Lee

Alberta has now confirmed more measles cases than the entire United States has reported this year.

The province has been battling outbreaks since March and as of noon Monday, total case counts in the province had ballooned to 1,314.

The latest update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that country has amassed 1,288 cases this year.

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HIV

US aid cuts halt HIV vaccine research in South Africa, with global impact

Published July 13, 2025

Published by: The Associated Press
Published on: July 13, 2025
By Mogomotsi Magome

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Just a week had remained before scientists in South Africa were to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine, and hopes were high for another step toward limiting one of history’s deadliest pandemics. Then the email arrived.

Stop all work, it said. The United States under the Trump administration was withdrawing all its funding.

The news devastated the researchers, who live and work in a region where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world. Their research project, called BRILLIANT, was meant to be the latest to draw on the region’s genetic diversity and deep expertise in the hope of benefiting people everywhere.

But the $46 million from the U.S. for the project was disappearing, part of the dismantling of foreign aid by the world’s biggest donor earlier this year as President Donald Trump announced a focus on priorities at home.

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vaccines

‘Tremendous uncertainty’ for cancer research as US officials target mRNA vaccines

Published July 12, 2025

Published by: The Guardian
Published on: July 12, 2025
By Melody Schreiber

As US regulators restrict Covid mRNA vaccines and as independent vaccine advisers re-examine the shots, scientists fear that an unlikely target could be next: cancer research.

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines have shown promise in treating and preventing cancers that have often been difficult to address, such as pancreatic cancer, brain tumors and others.

But groundbreaking research could stall as federal and state officials target mRNA shots, including ending federal funding for bird flu mRNA vaccines, restricting who may receive existing mRNA vaccines and, in some places, proposing laws against the vaccines.

The Trump administration has also implemented unprecedented cuts to cancer research, among other research cuts and widespread layoffs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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vaccines

FDA approves Moderna COVID vaccine for kids under 12 at higher risk

Published July 10, 2025

Published by: CIDRAP
Published on: July 10, 2025
By Jim Wappes

Vaccine maker Moderna announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted full approval of its Spikevax (mRNA-1273) COVID vaccine for children 6 months to 11 years old. But, because federal officials in May restricted its recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines to adults 65 and older and to people of all ages who are at increased risk for severe disease, Spikevax will be available only to kids in that age range who are at higher risk.

“COVID-19 continues to pose a significant potential threat to children, especially those with underlying medical conditions. Vaccination can be an important tool for protecting our youngest against severe disease and hospitalization,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, MBA, MEng. “We appreciate the FDA’s diligent scientific review and approval of Spikevax for pediatric populations at increased risk for COVID-19 disease.”

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British Columbia

BC’s Largest Pocket of Measles Cases Likely Peaking, Officials Say

Published July 10, 2025

Published by: The Tyee
Published on: July 10, 2025
By Michelle Gamage

The largest outbreak of measles in B.C. might be cresting, but there are still pockets of people without immunity spread across the province, which could lead to future outbreaks, say public health officials.

Most of the province’s confirmed 102 cases are in the northeast, where the disease has been spreading for the last couple weeks, said Dr. Martin Lavoie, deputy provincial health officer, at a press conference earlier today.

“This is not a pandemic, but measles is very serious,” Lavoie said.

He added that while there’s 102 confirmed cases there’s likely more as some people are resting and recovering at home, and have not been directly counted by health officials.

Dr. Jong Kim, chief medical officer for Northern Health, said B.C. has “likely seen the height of the wave” of the outbreak in the northeast, but that further cases are still possible, especially if the virus finds another pocket of the population where people have not received the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

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Atlantic Canada

Vaccination rates among children in Maritimes are too low to stop spread of measles

Published July 9, 2025

Published by: The Canadian Press
Published on: July 9, 2025
By Hina Alam

FREDERICTON – At least three out of the four Atlantic provinces have released data revealing their measles vaccination rates in children are below the 95 per cent threshold recommended by scientists to prevent the disease from spreading.

In Nova Scotia, the provincial government told The Canadian Press that about 23 per cent of children were not fully vaccinated for measles in 2024. Brooke Armstrong, Health Department spokeswoman, said 93.4 per cent of two-year-olds had at least one dose of vaccine and 78.6 per cent of two-year-olds had both required shots.

Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick say about 10 per cent of children are not fully vaccinated for the disease. Autumn Tremere from Prince Edward Island’s Health Department said between 91 per cent and 94 per cent of children in Grade 1 had received two doses.

New Brunswick Health Department spokeswoman Tara Chislett said the 2023-24 school immunization report showed 91.2 per cent of students with proof of immunization were up to date for the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

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vaccines

Medical Societies Sue Kennedy and H.H.S. Over Vaccine Advice

Published July 7, 2025

Published by: The New York Times
Published on: July 7, 2025
By Apoorva Mandavilli

Six leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and the federal Department of Health and Human Services, charging that recent decisions limiting access to vaccines were unscientific and harmful to the public.

The suit, filed in federal court in western Massachusetts, seeks to restore Covid vaccines to the list of recommended immunizations for healthy children and pregnant women.

Mr. Kennedy has been on a “decades-long mission” to undermine vaccines and to portray them as more dangerous than the illnesses they are designed to prevent, said Richard H. Hughes IV, a lawyer who teaches vaccine law at George Washington University and is leading the effort.

“The secretary’s intentions are clear,” Mr. Hughes said: “He aims to destroy vaccines.”

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measles

Measles cases surge to record high since disease was declared eliminated in the US

Published July 6, 2025

Published by: CNN
Published on: July 6, 2025
By Deidre McPhillips

Falling childhood vaccine coverage and a large, smoldering outbreak that was kindled in an undervaccinated pocket of West Texas have driven the United States to a troubling new milestone: There have been more measles cases in the US this year than any other since the disease was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago.

There have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases of measles reported in the US in 2025, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. Just halfway through the year, the case tally has already surpassed the last record from 2019, when there were a total of 1,274 cases.

Experts say this year’s cases are likely to be severely undercounted because many are going unreported. Three people have died from measles this year – two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico, all of whom were unvaccinated – matching the total number of US measles deaths from the previous two and a half decades.

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vaccines

How does Alberta’s new COVID-19 vaccine policy compare to other provinces? We asked

Published June 30, 2025

Published by: CBC News
Published on: June 30, 2025
By Jennifer Lee

Alberta’s decision to reduce access to publicly funded COVID-19 vaccines so far appears to set the province on a different course than many other Canadian jurisdictions.

Most Albertans will no longer be eligible for a free COVID-19 shot this fall.

The provincial government recently announced plans to limit coverage to specific high-risk groups, including Albertans living in care homes and group settings, those receiving home care, people on social programs such as AISH, and immunocompromised individuals.

All other seniors, pregnant Albertans and health care workers are not included, despite strong recommendations by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) that they should be vaccinated. NACI also recommends that everyone else may receive an annual dose.

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vaccines

We will not stay silent on vaccines, say leaders of five major U.S. medical associations

Published June 26, 2025

Published by: STAT
Published on: June 26, 2025
By Jen Brull, Susan J. Kressly, Jason Goldman, Steven J. Fleischman, Tina Q. Tan

The authors are the presidents of American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Let us introduce ourselves. We are the doctors you trust with your health and the health of your family across every stage of life, from the first checkups in infancy and childhood, to health care during pregnancy and adulthood, through management of chronic illness and aging. We are family physicians, pediatricians, internal medicine physicians, OB-GYNs, and infectious disease experts. Our commitment is not to politics, but to the absolute well-being of our patients and populations, and to providing them with best evidence-based health care.

We have an urgent, united message: Immunizations work, they are very effective and safe, and they save lives. Vaccines are among the most rigorously studied and effective tools in public health. Through widespread immunization, we have eradicated debilitating and fatal diseases that once caused serious illness, hospitalization, and death for millions of people.

But today, that legacy is at serious risk.

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British Columbia

B.C.’s premier says measles spikes across Canada a result [of] anti-vax ‘recklessness’

Published June 25, 2025

Published by: The Canadian Press
Published on: June 25, 2025
By Chuck Chiang

VANCOUVER – British Columbia Premier David Eby says the growing spread of measles across Canada is “the sadly predictable outcome” of the “recklessness” of anti-vaccination politicians.

Eby says the disease is “no joke,” given the potentially serious impact on those infected, and it’s preventable with two vaccine shots.

He told a Vancouver news conference that the focus for provincial public health authorities now is to make sure that people who are not protected receive full vaccination.

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