Author: Claudinne Miller
People who want COVID vaccines worry about access
NPR Some healthy pregnant women, parents of healthy kids and younger healthy adults are worried they won’t be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19 because of the recent changes in access by the federal government. The Trump administration is making it more difficult for healthy children and healthy pregnant women to get the COVID vaccine, […]
Jun 4, 2025
How measles tore through a remote West Texas city
NBC News SEMINOLE, Texas — On a Saturday in mid-March, Dr. Ben Edwards put on his scrubs and drove to a sheet metal building in this tiny West Texas city to treat children with measles. Red spots mottled his face; Edwards was sick with measles, too. An outbreak of the disease was swelling in Gaines […]
Jun 4, 2025
Arizona: Third commercial farm tests positive for bird flu
12 News A third commercial farm in Arizona has tested positive for avian flu, according to the Arizona Department of Agriculture. A third Maricopa County commercial farm has tested positive for Avian Influenza, according to the Arizona Department of Agriculture. Poultry at the latest farm to test positive started showing signs of the bird flu […]
Jun 4, 2025
Tracking the Threat: How a New H5N1 Virus Variant Took Hold Across Europe
Global Biodefense New genomic analyses trace the origins and spread of the EA-2023-DG H5N1 reassortant, highlighting evolving zoonotic risks and urgent surveillance needs. A new scientific study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases has mapped the emergence and spread of a novel highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus genotype—EA-2023-DG—across Europe. Conducted by an international team of researchers led by the […]
Jun 4, 2025
Study: Live bird flu virus can survive in raw milk for a week
Ag Daily A new lab study has found that the H5N1 avian influenza virus can remain infectious in raw milk for more than a day at room temperature and over a week when refrigerated, raising significant concerns about the potential for zoonotic transmission through unpasteurized dairy products. Published May 28 on the preprint server medRxiv, the non-peer-reviewed […]
Jun 4, 2025
CDC official overseeing COVID-19 vaccine recommendations resigns
MedPage Today A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Tuesday she was resigning from her role overseeing updates to the agency’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendations, following an order by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to force an update to the agency’s guidance. “My career in public health and vaccinology started with a deep-seated desire to help the most […]
Jun 4, 2025
Black Death Plague That Killed Millions Became Less Fatal because of This Genetic Tweak
Scientific American Reducing the copies of one gene in the bubonic plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, made it less deadly but potentially more transmissible. A small genetic change makes the bacterium that caused the plague less fatal but possibly more transmissible, allowing for greater disease spread in smaller populations, a study in Science reports. The bacterium Yersinia pestis caused the Black Death […]
Jun 3, 2025
Are you a mosquito magnet? It’s because of how you smell.
Washington Post Your body is a big protein shake that smells like stinky feet for hungry mosquitoes. Some people are magnets for mosquitoes, emitting a tantalizing combination of chemicals that invites the pesky insects to dine on them. Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York found people who have higher levels of certain acids on […]
Jun 3, 2025
We finally may be able to rid the world of mosquitoes. But should we?
Washington Post Gene editing holds the potential of suppressing mosquito species that carry deadly diseases — and raises ethical questions. They buzz, they bite, and they cause some of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. Mosquitoes are perhaps the planet’s most universally reviled animals. If we could zap them off the face of the Earth, […]
Jun 3, 2025
mRNA, once lauded as a scientific marvel, is now a government target
STAT After the success of Covid vaccine, HHS is now sowing doubt in mRNA technology. mRNA, a Nobel-winning technology harnessed by Trump officials to create Covid shots in record time, is becoming a political reject as the nation’s leaders openly embrace vaccine skepticism. Republican lawmakers and federal health officials alike are shunning messenger RNA, a […]
Jun 3, 2025