• PUBLIC HEALTHMore States Protect Access to the COVID Shot as Feds Restrict Eligibility

    By Shalina Chatlani

    At least 17 states have taken steps to ensure broader access to the COVID-19 vaccine since last month, when the federal government significantly restricted eligibility for the shot. The moves represent an extraordinary state rebellion against the public health authority of the federal government.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHWest Coast Health Alliance Adopts Vaccine Recommendations

    By Dave Mason,

    Governors of California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii announced Wednesday their states have agreed on winter recommendations for flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines. The states will base future immunization guidance on independent medical organizations instead of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

  • PUBLIC HEALTHFunding Cuts to U.S. HIV Preventive Services Could Lead to Thousands More Cases, Billions in Costs

    By Mary Van Beusekom

    Two just-published studies estimate the health and economic consequences of reducing, interrupting, or ceasing HIV preventive services in the United States, revealing thousands of new infections and costs in the billions over the next decade.

  • ASSAULT ON SCIENCEHow RFK Jr.’s Misguided Science on mRNA Vaccines Is Shaping Policy − a Vaccine Expert Examines the False Claims

    By Deborah Fuller

    On Kennedy’s instructions, NIH is funneling money away from new mRNA technologies toward a single project developing universal vaccines based on traditional whole-virus vaccine technology. Kennedy justified the decision with a series of false assertions about vaccines and their underlying technology. Abandoning mRNA vaccine research may lead to lives needlessly lost, whether due to potential medicines untapped or to pandemic unpreparedness.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHKennedy Hearing Deepens Crisis Over Dismantling of CDC Leadership - Health Scholar Explains Why the Agency’s Ability to Protect Public Health Is Compromised

    By Jordan Miller

    CDC, long considered the nation’s –if not the world’s –premier public health organization, is unraveling. The reason: HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s effort to emasculate the agency, undermine its scientific foundations, replace scientists in the agency with unqualified anti-vaxxers, do away with its evidence-to-recommendations framework, and promote skepticism, if not rejection, of science and scientific methods. Public health professionals are now warning the public that vaccine recommendations coming from the CDC may not be trustworthy.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHFormer NIH Officials File Whistleblower Complaint

    By Chris Dall

    Two former top NIH officials have filed whistleblower complaints, claiming they were removed from leadership positions over their objections to agency leadership’s hostility toward vaccines, politicization of scientific research, and suspension of funding for clinical trials and foreign research.

  • TRUTH PROTECTIONCOVID Vaccine Myth-Busting Can Work: Study

    By Mary Van Beusekom

    A COVID-19 misinformation-busting messaging intervention that presented a myth followed by a fact among people who had completed the initial vaccine series strengthened their resolve to follow up with a booster dose.

  • ARGUMENT: CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGERWe Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

    Nine former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who served as directors or acting directors under Republican and Democratic administrations, serving under presidents from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trrump, argue that HHS Secretary Roert F. Kennedy Jr. poses a clear and present danger to the health of Americans. He has placed anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists at top HHS positions, and he appears to be guided by a hostility to science and a belief in bizarre, unscientific approaches to public health.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHFlorida Plans to Scrap Kid Vaccine Mandates as HHS Employees Demand RFK Jr Resignation

    In ongoing upheaval over antivaccine policies espoused by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his allies in Florida today—in a national first—announced plans to scrap requirements for school-based vaccination.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHHow Vaccines Changed the World

    By Mariel Ferragamo

    Vaccination campaigns have nearly eradicated some of the most deadly and transmissible diseases. However, against a backdrop of a rising tide of vaccine hesitancy, and U.S. leaders pulling global support, outbreaks are cropping up again.

  • FOOD SECURITYThe Rising Threat to New York City’s Food System

    By Ilana Schwartz

    The Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, the largest of its kind in the country, serves as the penultimate stop for 4.5 billion pounds of food that feed the city and surrounding areas each year. Losing access to that hub could be catastrophic for a city that produces almost none of its own food.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHHealth Leaders, Medical Groups: CDC Leader Exodus Puts Nation's Health at Risk

    By Lisa Schnirring

    As news broke of the ouster of newly confirmed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez, PhD, and the resignations of some of the agency’s top scientists, reactions came fast and furious from public health leaders, professional groups, and lawmakers.

  • PUBLIC HEALTHChaos Continues at CDC

    RFK Jr. has replaced the scientists who served on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) with individuals who share his skepticism about the efficacy of vaccines in fighting disease. These vaccine-skeptics have formed a new working group to review the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and named an operation research professor with no background in medicine, or in science more generally, to chair the working group. Chaos ensued.

  • FLESH-EATING BCTERIAWhat Is the Potentially Deadly Flesh-Eating Bacteria and Why Can Infections Be So Hard to Treat?

    By Cynthia McCormick Hibbert

    Vibrio vulnificus thrives in warm, salty water. Cases are on the rise, with a man on Cape Cod being one of the latest to fall ill.

  • COMMON-SENSE NOTES // By Idris B. OdunewuA Shining Star in a Contentious Legacy: Could Marty Makary Be the Saving Grace of a Divisive Presidency?

    While much of the Trump administration has sparked controversy, the FDA’s consumer-first reforms may be remembered as its brightest legacy. From AI-driven drug reviews to bans on artificial dyes, the FDA’s agenda resonates with the public in ways few Trump-era policies have.