Category: Vaccine Headlines
Trump administration’s universal flu vaccine project puzzles scientists
NPR Vaccine experts are perplexed by a project the Trump administration has launched to develop a universal flu vaccine, which has long been a goal, though an elusive one, in medical research. Dubbed Generation Gold Standard, the project is aimed at creating a flu shot that doesn’t have to be updated every year to match the […]
May 13, 2025
US government exercises $144m option for smallpox/mpox vaccine contract
Pharmaceutical Technology The options are for the freeze-dried version of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos, a formulation that allows easier stockpiling. Amid a US measles outbreak the US government has placed a $143.6m order for Bavarian Nordic’s smallpox/mpox jab Jynneos to bolster its infectious disease preparedness. The order is part of a ten-year contract awarded to vaccine-developer […]
May 7, 2025
The MMR vaccine doesn’t contain ‘aborted fetus debris’, as RFK Jr has claimed. Here’s the science
The Conversation Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the United States’ top public health official, recently claimed some religious groups avoid the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine because it contains “aborted fetus debris” and “DNA particles”. The US is facing its worst measles outbreaks in years with nearly 900 cases across the country and active outbreaks in several states. At […]
May 6, 2025
$500 Million Bet on Old Vaccine Technology Puzzles Scientists
MedPageToday The candidate vaccine uses technology that was largely abandoned in the 1970s. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shifted the money from a pandemic preparedness fund to a vaccine development program led by two scientists whom the administration recently named to senior positions at the NIH. While some experts were pleased that Kennedy had […]
May 6, 2025
Should you get a measles booster? Here’s what to know.
Washington Post Most people in the United States have gotten the two doses of the MMR vaccine as children, but a measles vaccine booster may help some adults. There have been 800 confirmed cases of measles in the United States this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has also reported two deaths […]
Apr 30, 2025
RFK Jr. plans changes to vaccine injury reporting system
STAT Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday that he plans to roll out changes to the vaccine injury monitoring system that would automate and increase data collection as well as look for negative impacts of the shots. Reforming the current Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System has long been part of Kennedy’s agenda to raise […]
Apr 16, 2025
The Many Ways Kennedy Is Already Undermining Vaccines
New York Times The health secretary has chipped away at the idea that immunizing children against measles and other diseases is a public health good. During his Senate confirmation hearings to be health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presented himself as a supporter of vaccines. But in office, he and the agencies he leads have […]
Apr 16, 2025
Key vaccine committee meets for the first time under Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
AP A key vaccine advisory committee met for the first time under new U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading voice in the U.S. anti-vaccine movement. Tuesday’s meeting was, to some extent, business as usual, though with a major question looming: Who would evaluate the committee’s recommendations? The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ two-day […]
Apr 16, 2025
Vaccine expert worries child measles deaths are being ‘normalized’
NPR Measles is an extremely contagious disease. It’s also extremely preventable. There’s a vaccine. It’s highly effective. For decades it has made measles outbreaks in the U.S. relatively rare, and measles deaths rarer still. But the U.S. has now seen more than 700 measles cases this year, and 3 deaths so far with active outbreaks across […]
Apr 15, 2025
Intranasal influenza virus-vectored vaccine offers protection against clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 infection in small animal models
Nature The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus has been endemic in aquatic birds since 1997, causing outbreaks in domestic poultry and occasional human infections worldwide. Recently, the cross-species transmission of a new reassortant variant from clade 2.3.4.4b of H5N1 to cattle in the US has heightened concerns regarding the expansion of host range […]
Apr 2, 2025