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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

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

Published July 18, 2025

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Published by: Centenary Institute
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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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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

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

Published July 14, 2025

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Published by: NBC News
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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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Topic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles

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

Published July 14, 2025

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Published by: CBC News
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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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Topic: HIVView all posts for the topic: HIV

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

Published July 13, 2025

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Published by: The Associated Press
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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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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

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

Published July 12, 2025

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Published by: The Guardian
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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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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

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

Published July 10, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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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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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

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

Published July 10, 2025

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Published by: The Tyee
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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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Topic: Atlantic CanadaView all posts for the topic: Atlantic Canada

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

Published July 9, 2025

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Published by: The Canadian Press
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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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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

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

Published July 7, 2025

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Published by: The New York Times
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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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Topic: measlesView all posts for the topic: measles

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

Published July 6, 2025

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Published by: CNN
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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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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

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

Published June 30, 2025

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Published by: CBC News
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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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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

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

Published June 26, 2025

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Published by: STAT
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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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Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia

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

Published June 25, 2025

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Published by: The Canadian Press
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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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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

Childhood vaccines were a global success story. Misinformation and other obstacles are slowing that progress, a study shows

Published June 25, 2025

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Published by: CNN
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By Jen Christensen

Routine vaccines have prevented the deaths of about 154 million children around the world over the past 50 years, a new study shows, but efforts have been slowing recently, allowing for the growth of some vaccine-preventable diseases. This backslide could lead to many more unnecessary illnesses and deaths without an increased effort to vaccinate children and counter misinformation.

The report, published Tuesday in the medical journal The Lancet, says that over the past five decades, the World Health Organization’s Expanded Programme on Immunization has vaccinated more than 4 billion children. This doubling of global coverage of vaccines has prevented countless cases of tuberculosis, measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis.

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

Viewpoint: CDC’s upcoming vaccine advisory meeting set up to sow distrust in vaccines

Published June 23, 2025

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Vaccine Integrity Project Staff and Advisers

This week’s meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is likely to mark its end—for now—as a vaccine advisory body.

Regardless of which party controlled the White House and who served as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), ACIP—a federal advisory committee of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—held meetings that included presentations of vetted, evidence-based data and used a structured framework for moving from scientific evidence to vaccine recommendations.

Based on what we have learned about the new committee members appointed by the secretary, the meeting agenda and presenters, however, the purpose of the meeting appears to be an opportunity to deemphasize vaccine benefits—many of which are largely invisible to the public and taken for granted—and emphasize the potential risks of vaccines.

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Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Measles ‘out of control,’ experts warn, as Alberta case counts surpass 1,000

Published June 21, 2025

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Published by: CBC News
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By Jennifer Lee

Alberta’s measles outbreaks have now eclipsed the 1,000-case mark and infectious disease specialists are warning the virus is “impossible to contain,” given the current level of transmission.

The province reported another 24 cases on Friday, including 14 in the north zone, nine in the south and one in the Edmonton zone.

This brings the total confirmed cases since the outbreaks began in March to 1,020.

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Topic: kakistocracyView all posts for the topic: kakistocracy

‘I Think He Is About to Destroy Vaccines in This Country’

Published June 18, 2025

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Published by: The New York Times
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By David Wallace-Wells

I think we are on the verge of losing vaccines for this country, from this country. And the reason is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will hold up a paper, in the next four or five months, that says it’s aluminum in vaccines that are causing a whole swath of problems, including autism. I think he is about to destroy vaccines in this country. I do.

— Paul Offit
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Topic: AlbertaView all posts for the topic: Alberta

Alberta government faces mounting pushback to new COVID-19 vaccine policy

Published June 17, 2025

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Published by: CBC News
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By Jennifer Lee

The Alberta government is facing fierce and mounting opposition to plans that will reduce access to publicly funded COVID-19 vaccines in the province

The province announced late on Friday that it will limit funding of the COVID-19 shots to very 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.

Seniors living in the community, pregnant Albertans and health-care workers will have to pay out of pocket for the vaccine, along with the rest of the population.

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