ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida plans to become the first state to eliminate vaccine mandates, a longtime cornerstone of public health policy for keeping schoolchildren and adults safe from infectious diseases.
State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who announced the decision Wednesday, cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as “immoral” intrusions on people’s rights that hamper parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.
Comments closedAir quality warnings have been issued for much of B.C.’s South Coast, where smoke wafting from wildfires on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border has created hazy skies.
Elevated levels of fine particulate matter have been detected across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley as a result, creating a risk of negative health effects.
The conditions are expected to last “a few days, or until there is a change in the weather,” according to a notice posted on the Metro Vancouver Regional District website on Wednesday.
As of the early afternoon, the smoke had pushed Vancouver to the top of a “most-polluted major city” ranking from IQAir, a Swiss company that develops air quality monitoring systems.
Comments closedWe have each had the honor and privilege of serving as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, either in a permanent or acting capacity, dating back to 1977. Collectively, we spent more than 100 years working at the C.D.C., the world’s pre-eminent public health agency. We served under multiple Republican and Democratic administrations — every president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump — alongside thousands of dedicated staff members who shared our commitment to saving lives and improving health.
What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced.
Secretary Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more. Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven “treatments” while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top C.D.C. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.
Comments closedCVS and Walgreens, the country’s two largest pharmacy chains, are for now clamping down on offering Covid vaccines in more than a dozen states, even to people who meet newly restricted criteria from the Food and Drug Administration.
On Thursday, Amy Thibault, a spokeswoman for CVS, said the vaccine was not available at pharmacies in 16 states, citing “the current regulatory environment” and emphasizing that the list could change.
On Friday, CVS issued an update: It could administer vaccines in 13 of the 16 states, and in the District of Columbia, to people who had obtained a prescription from a doctor or other medical provider. (As of Friday morning, its online scheduling tool still did not allow anybody to book an appointment in those places; Ms. Thibault said an update was in progress.) In Massachusetts, Nevada and New Mexico, CVS still cannot offer the shots at all, Ms. Thibault said.
Comments closedHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. summoned Susan Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to his office in Washington earlier this week to deliver an ultimatum.
She needed to fire career agency officials and commit to backing his advisers if they recommended restricting access to proven vaccines — or risk being fired herself, according to people familiar with the events.
Dr. Monarez’s refusal to do so led to an extraordinary standoff on Thursday that paralyzed the nation’s health agency, which is still reeling from mass layoffs and a shooting this month that killed a police officer and terrified employees.
Comments closedSusan Monarez, PhD, was fired late yesterday as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after clashing with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccine policy.
The White House fired her after Monarez refused to resign, and the action kicked off a mass resignation wave of three of the CDC’s top officials: Debra Houry, MD, MPH, the CDC’s chief medical officer; Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, head of the CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Earlier this week Jennifer Layden, MD, PhD, who led the Office of Public Health Data, also stepped down.
Comments closedThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official tasked with overseeing the nation’s vaccine policy resigned from his post Wednesday, shortly after the White House fired the agency’s director.
Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, cited his philosophical differences with Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that “challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people,” adding, “Enough is enough.”
“I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health,” he wrote in his resignation letter, which he also posted on social media.
Comments closedIt’s hard not to forget the 2023 Canadian wildfire season, when more than 16 million hectares of forest were lost, thousands were displaced and smoke suffocated cities across both Canada and the U.S.
And it turns out Canada experienced its worst air pollution levels that year since 1998, according to a new report released today by the University of Chicago’s Air Quality Life Index (AQLI). At the same time, the report found that pollution levels didn’t change much for the rest of the world in 2023.
If those levels continued for a person’s lifetime, the average Canadian would lose roughly two years of their life expectancy, according to the report.
Efforts have been made around the world, including in Canada, to curb harmful emissions of fine particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres, also known as PM 2.5. But wildfires are reversing those advances — with serious health consequences.
Comments closedBeginning this fall, all Ontarians 75 and older will be eligible for a free shot that protects against respiratory syncytial virus.
Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones is scheduled to announce the expansion of public coverage for RSV vaccines on Wednesday, according to a Ministry of Health release that The Globe and Mail obtained in advance.
Until now, the Ontario government only paid for the RSV vaccine for seniors who were 60 and older and considered high risk, such as transplant recipients, dialysis patients and nursing home residents.
Comments closedThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory group has long had a work group in place to review the latest COVID-19 vaccine science, including weighing the risks and benefits, but a newly constituted group will launch a sweeping new review of the vaccines led by a member who has opposed COVID vaccines.
The Brownstone Institute on August 22 reported that Retsef Levi, PhD, one of seven members appointed to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) by US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been appointed to lead the COVID vaccine review. On August 20, the CDC posted updated terms of reference for the COVID vaccine work group, which is lengthy. Some of the topics include impacts from repeated boosting and mapping policies in other countries.
Levi does not have a biomedical degree or clinical medicine experience. He has a doctorate in operations research and is a professor of operations management at MIT Sloan School of Management. On social media, Levi has called mRNA vaccines dangerous and said they should be removed from the market.
Comments closedHealth Canada has approved Moderna’s newly updated COVID-19 vaccine — and for the first time, the vaccines will be “made in Canada.”
The company says having the vaccine available from domestic manufacturers and suppliers creates a critical piece of health resilience to “ensure Canada is ready, not just reactive.”
“With this approval, for the first time ever, mRNA COVID-19 vaccine doses for Canadians will be made in Canada. That’s a remarkable milestone,” Stefan Raos, general manager at Moderna, says in an emailed statement sent to Global News.
Comments closedTORONTO – Health Canada has authorized updated COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna for use this respiratory virus season.
Moderna says it will manufacture vaccine doses for the Canadian market in its new facility in Laval, Quebec and syringes will be filled in Cambridge, Ontario.
News releases from both Pfizer and Moderna say the new mRNA shots will target the LP.8.1 variant, a descendant of Omicron that the World Health Organization was monitoring earlier this year.
Comments closedAll 2025 pre-filled syringe doses to be made in Canada, marking a domestic production milestone
CAMBRIDGE, MA / ACCESS Newswire / August 22, 2025 / Moderna announced today that Health Canada has authorized its updated COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, Spikevax®, targeting the SARS-CoV-2 LP.8.1 variant, for individuals aged six months and older. Moderna is on track to deliver the updated vaccine in time for the 2025-2026 vaccination season.
All Spikevax pre-filled syringe (PFS) doses for the Canadian market will now be manufactured domestically, marking the first time Canada’s entire PFS format is produced at home. The drug substance will be produced at Moderna’s new facility in Laval, Quebec, with fill-finish operations completed by Novocol Pharma in Cambridge, Ontario. These Canadian-made doses are expected to be available for this fall.
“This approval is a regulatory milestone and a testament to Canada’s growing leadership in biomanufacturing and public health resilience,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “Thanks to Health Canada’s timely and thorough review, we are proud to supply Spikevax doses to communities across the country, including, for the first time this year, doses produced in Canada.”
Comments closedAlbertans who don’t qualify for free COVID-19 vaccinations in their home province can get one in British Columbia.
B.C.’s Ministry of Health confirmed that detail in response to a query from CBC News. Canadian residents can get vaccinated due to a reciprocal agreement between all provinces and territories.
“Any publicly funded immunization in B.C. can be provided at no cost to any Canadian travelling within the province,” a statement from the ministry said. “This includes providing publicly funded COVID-19 vaccine to people of Alberta.”
Comments closedCalls are growing louder in Alberta for the COVID-19 vaccine to be covered free of charge for all residents, following the province’s decision Tuesday to partially reverse its vaccine policy and expand coverage to some health-care workers.
While the move has been welcomed by workers and unions, public health experts and critics say it doesn’t go far enough, leaving many Albertans uncertain about access to the vaccine.
“The government has now taken a step towards admitting that they had the wrong approach,” said Chris Galloway, executive director at Friends of Medicare.
Comments closedQuebec has reported a case of the potentially deadly tick-borne disease Rocky Mountain spotted fever that was likely acquired in Ontario or Quebec. The disease was also reported in dogs in Ontario earlier this year.
Here’s what you need to know about preventing, identifying and treating the disease.
Comments closedEDMONTON – In a partial policy reversal, Alberta’s government said Tuesday it will cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations for health-care workers.
Maddison McKee, spokesperson to Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange, said in an email that COVID-19 vaccine coverage will be extended to all health-care workers this fall under the first phase of the province’s vaccination rollout.
“Immunization will remain voluntary,” said McKee.
Comments closed