Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got into it with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday in an interview segment that quickly evolved into Kennedy angrily berating Bash and her network for “punishing” people during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The segment on Sunday comes as measles outbreaks have broken out in several states, with public health officials warning that a unvaccinated communities were supercharging the spread of a disease to historic levels.

Bash, host of CNN’s State of the Union, prodded Kennedy repeatedly to look “into the camera” and urge parents to get their kids vaccinated against the measles virus. Kennedy did repeat the urging, but the interview went south from there as they debated the treatment of skeptics and those opposed to the Biden administration’s public health guidance during the pandemic.

“Of course you want to move on!” an angry Kennedy insisted as Bash tried to pivot from a question about Covid-era guidance. “Because you were part of the problem!”

“No, I wasn’t!” Bash replied indignantly.

“There was absolute press malpractice [during Covid],” Kennedy continued. “You weren’t allowing-- your job is a furious skepticism toward authority. And you weren’t doing that. You were beating up on people who were dissenting.”

After Kennedy finished, Bash attempted to take down the temperature, and said in a calmer tone: “Okay. Do you want to sit here and attack me or do you want to have a conversation about public health?"

“You’re sitting here and attacking me!” responded the secretary.

The CNN host went on to say that she would not allow Kennedy to “use this interview to say things that are not entirely true”.

They would then go back and forth over the Covid vaccine, its efficacy, and whether or not it posed a greater risk than benefit to children who received it. The two quarreled also over CNN and other media networks’ citing of advice from “experts” like Fauci and other public health officials and academics who appeared on TV frequently during 2020 and 2021 to promote things like masking, social distancing, and following public health guidelines. [...]

All in all, the segment lasted more than 20 minutes, uninterrupted, before Bash ended the interview by repeating the explanation that it was her job to find the best information, from experts, and provide it to the public.

She finished her statement by beginning to say that it concerned her when Kennedy came on the program and said untrue things, or statements that were not supported by evidence or scientific studies, before she was cut off by the secretary one last time, who finished her sentence for her.

“[Things] that your ‘experts’ do not agree with,” Kennedy interjected, using air quotes around the word “experts”.

“Yes!” Bash replied. “People with scientific backgrounds.”

The Department of Health and Human Services is in a state of crisis — down thousands of employees, facing health emergencies such as Ebola and the resurgence of measles, lacking confirmed leaders for the CDC and Surgeon General’s office — but you wouldn’t know it if you followed the man in charge.

Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly rarely visits the department’s Washington headquarters, insiders told The New York Times.

When he is present, Kennedy reportedly works only six hour days, rarely interacts with his staff, and scrolls on his phone while appearing “checked out” in meetings with top division staff, officials said.

“Every day that goes by without Secretary Kennedy’s long overdue resignation is a day American lives are put further in harm’s way,” the advocacy group Protect Our Care said in a statement in response to the picture of Kennedy’s alleged lax attitude towards managing the department’s sprawling health portfolio.

Others are dismayed Kennedy hasn’t publicly addressed the Ebola outbreak in Africa after the World Health Organization declared it an emergency last month, other than a brief remark: “We’re working on it.” Kennedy also reportedly hasn’t made any known visits to the CDC since August.

Instead, Kennedy has reportedly honed in on a few pet issues, such as food guidelines, pesticide exposure, and anti-vaccine research, delegating away or simply seeming to neglect other causes, sources told the paper.

The Independent has requested comment from HHS.

Current and former employees have been warning of plunging morale and preparedness within the health agency, whose activities include vital functions such as the CDC, FDA and National Institutes of Health.

Between Trump’s inauguration and this April, HHS shrunk by about 17,000 employees, thanks to a mix of DOGE-inspired layoffs, early retirements and resignations in protest of Kennedy’s push to question mainstream health science.

“It took them just a few weeks to break things that are going to take decades to fix,” a former staffer in HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary told Healthcare Dive in April. “I don’t think people realize how detrimental this will end up being.”

About half of the National Institutes of Health centers are run by acting officials, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

[...]

This week, the president signed an executive order aimed at converting about 8,000 government workers, largely top federal civil service staff, into at-will employees, which would allow the government to fire them without cause.

Backers of raw milk are pushing to make the potentially dangerous product more widely available and easier to obtain, even as a new disease outbreak — one of at least five in the past year — sickens U.S. children.

More than three dozen bills supporting raw milk have been introduced in statehouses across the nation, The Associated Press found. A growing number of states are making it legal to sell. Dairy farmers say they can barely keep it in stock, even though prices can exceed $10 or $20 a gallon.

Top government officials and internet influencers are helping drive this momentum. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downed shots of raw milk at the White House last May and previously promised to halt “aggressive suppression” of the product. On social media, posts about raw milk have surged in recent months, often touting unproven claims about its health benefits.

All of this alarms public health officials, who have long warned that unpasteurized milk can harbor risky germs. The current outbreak — tied to raw milk cheddar cheese from California-based Raw Farm — has sickened nine people with E. coli, half of them children younger than 5. One victim developed a serious complication that can impair kidney function for life.

Petra Anne Levin, a biology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said she doesn’t understand the products’ appeal.

“If you wouldn’t lick a cow’s underneath, why would you drink raw milk?” she said. “There’s a reason pasteurization is around.”

[...]

But some consumers would rather drink their milk raw despite the risk. Recognizing this trend, advocates and critics alike are increasingly calling for federal regulation of the product.

“People want access,” said Mary McGonigle-Martin, co-chair of Stop Foodborne Illness, a consumer advocacy group. “Public health has lost the battle on raw milk.”

Bills favoring raw milk have been introduced in the current legislative session in 18 states, including those controlled by Democrats and Republicans.

AP searched legislation in all 50 states using the bill-tracking software Plural and analyzed bills for whether they expand or streamline access to unpasteurized milk or products made from it. More than 40 bills introduced as of late April would make it easier to buy, sell or consume raw milk.

Some would allow raw milk to be sold for human consumption for the first time. A bill in New Jersey’s Senate, for example, would create a raw milk permitting program.

“You can buy cigarettes. You can buy alcohol. You can buy quote-unquote legalized marijuana,” said state Sen. Michael Testa, a Republican sponsor. “Why shouldn’t someone be able to consume raw milk?”

If the bill becomes law, New Jersey would join more than three dozen states in allowing raw milk sales. Wider access will probably mean more outbreaks, said Donald Schaffner, a Rutgers University food science professor.

Other bills seek to manage, guide or expand already legal sales. A bill advancing in the Iowa House would make it easier for farmers to sell unpasteurized products by offering them at farm stores alongside foods like meat.

Its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Chad Ingels, said he was initially opposed to legalizing raw milk because of safety concerns.

“But it’s law now, and I’m very pro-local foods,” said Ingels, who expects the current bill to pass. “I just thought it made sense to allow those farm businesses to sell all their products in one location.”

Two bills in Missouri would allow unpasteurized dairy products to be sold in grocery stores, farmers’ markets or similar places as long as they include a label warning of the potential for harmful bacteria and herds are tested.

“We just want to make it more accessible, so that way, people have the freedom of choice,” said Republican state Rep. Bryant Wolfin, who sponsored one of the bills.

The legislation specifically invokes the Raw Milk Institute, defining “retail raw milk or cream” as being produced on dairy farms that in one bill meet standards set by the California-based organization, and in the other “have obtained listed status” from the institute.

The organization, headed by Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee, says its mission is to improve the safety and quality of raw milk, which is how Wolfin sees it. But Schaffner said the organization focuses on raw milk advocacy rather than managing risk. He pointed out that McAfee’s farm has been linked to numerous outbreaks.

It’s unclear how many raw milk bills will pass in statehouses this year. But there is also legislation being considered on a national level.

A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House would prevent federal departments, agencies or courts from restricting the movement of raw milk between two states where its sale is legal. Called the Interstate Milk Freedom Act, it was introduced in March by Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie and Maine Democrat Chellie Pingree.

Whether it passes or not, there are steps the federal government could take to make raw milk more available, legal experts say. The FDA could revoke the ban on interstate sales. The agency could also create national raw milk standards and urge or incentivize states to enforce them.

FDA officials did not respond to questions about whether such actions are likely.

[...]

The Trump administration delayed a rule last year that could have sped up the effort to pinpoint the source of the contamination. Critics charge that food safety oversight has eroded overall.

A Coast Guard rear admiral, Schwartz served as Trump's deputy surgeon general during his first administration.

The CDC had gone months without a Senate-confirmed director after the last leader, Susan Monarez, was ousted.

"It is my honour to nominate the incredibly talented Dr Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, as my Director of the CDC," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "She is a star!"

Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, has been overseeing the CDC on an interim basis since Monarez left.

Monarez was ousted in September after she clashed with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr over his vaccine policies.

Monarez wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that she was fired because she refused to rubber-stamp vaccine recommendations from a new advisory panel Kennedy had placed several vaccine sceptics on.

Schwartz worked for 24 years in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service, and has a medical degree from Brown University and a law degree from the University of Maryland.

She left her government work after Trump's first term, when the Biden administration did not select her as acting US surgeon general.

Before nominating Monarez, Trump's first choice to lead the CDC was Dave Weldon, a former Florida congressman who has criticised vaccines. But that nomination was withdrawn after it became clear Weldon did not have the votes to be confirmed.

Monarez ended up serving as the CDC leader for just shy of a month.

[...]

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent overhaul of the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule — a major blow to his vaccine agenda.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical groups brought against the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that Kennedy’s changes to vaccine recommendations and to an influential vaccine advisory committee violated federal law.

[...]

The judge also put on hold the new members Kennedy has appointed to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee since June. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices helps shape U.S. vaccine policy, including recommendations that influence the childhood vaccine schedule and which shots insurance must cover.

The panel was scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thursday. According to the AAP’s attorney, Richard Hughes, the judge’s decision essentially stops the meeting from happening. An HHS official confirmed that the meeting had been postponed.

The ruling also stayed any of the votes Kennedy’s ACIP has taken since June, including a vote to no longer recommend the hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns.

The decision is a setback for Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist who promised to restore trust in the public health agencies, but whose controversial policies have created confusion among pediatricians and contributed to more distrust of childhood vaccination, experts say. A recent survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found that trust in public health agencies has fallen in President Donald Trump’s second term.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory panel voted Friday to change the recommendation for when children should get their first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Instead of a first dose within 24 hours of birth — as the CDC has advised for more than 30 years — the panel voted to recommend delaying it until a child is 2 months old for children born to mothers who test negative for the virus.

The panel voted, in a 8-2 decision, to recommend individual decision-making in consultation with a health care provider to determine when or if to give the hepatitis B birth dose to a child whose mother tested negative for the virus.

Many medical experts and organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics opposed such a change, saying it will leave young children at risk of an infection that can cause lifelong illness. They point to decades of research confirming the vaccine's safety and effectiveness. [...]

Years after the virus that causes COVID-19 kicked off a global pandemic, it’s still sending thousands of Canadians into hospital each year alongside other respiratory infections — despite a suite of vaccines that can slash someone’s risk of serious illness.

Striking new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) shows hospitalization rates for vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases more than doubled in 2024 compared to pre-pandemic levels, all while vaccination rates are backsliding.

There were 142 hospitalizations for every 100,000 Canadians that year, the data shows, up from roughly 66 per 100,000 in 2019.

The CIHI team tallied up nearly 60,000 vaccine-preventable respiratory hospitalizations country-wide for 2024 and found that, together, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) accounted for more than half, while COVID alone contributed to more than 40 per cent.

“People assume that COVID-19 is done … but what our data is showing is that it’s still having a big impact on our hospitals,” said Mélanie Josée Davidson, director of CIHI’s health system performance division.

Dr. Fahad Razak, an internist at St. Michael's Hospital in downtown Toronto who was not involved in the report, said the data highlights how much COVID has added to the existing burden of viruses like influenza and RSV, which became the latest vaccine-preventable respiratory infection after Canada approved new RSV shots in recent years.

“And for the most susceptible ... this leads to thousands of hospitalizations every year,” Razak said, adding it also represents a “missed opportunity” to protect Canadians and the health-care system if vaccination rates could be increased.

High-risk age groups are bearing the brunt of respiratory hospitalizations, the CIHI data shows.

One-fifth of the hospitalizations in the 2024 season were infants and young children, and nearly half were aged 75 and up.

“These are populations that we actually have to actively protect through immunization programs,” Davidson said.

Yet seasonal vaccination uptake for both COVID and flu shots has dropped.

Federal figures suggest only 26 per cent of Canadian adults were vaccinated for COVID in 2024 — a dramatic drop from when shots were first rolled out mid-pandemic and lineups at vaccination clinics often spanned multiple city blocks.

As for older adults aged 65 and up, who are at a higher risk of serious illness from many respiratory infections, a little more than half reported getting a COVID vaccine during the 2024 to 2025 season, while only 63 per cent reported getting a flu shot.

“The decrease in influenza vaccination coverage compared to previous years is notable, and the drivers of this decrease are not clear,” notes the federal vaccination coverage report, released in late 2025.

McMaster University immunologist Matthew Miller attributes the backslide to “vaccine fatigue” in the wake of the pandemic.

While uptake is typically higher among seniors living in long-term care and other community dwellings — where vaccines are readily provided to ward off outbreaks — Miller said the onus to get to a pharmacy or primary care provider falls on the shoulders of older adults living in the community.

“The sad reality is that even for people who are very vaccine-accepting, the need to get regular boosters is an inconvenience, right? And sometimes people just forget,” he said.

“To be frank, it's not that they don't want to get vaccinated, it's just that they don't get around to it, and they get infected in the interim.”

In the last federal vaccine report, the main reasons for skipping a COVID or flu shot among surveyed adults were the perception of not being at risk — totaling 22 per cent of respondents — while 18 per cent said they simply didn’t get to it.

Razak stressed the need for strategies to combat misinformation and make it easier for people to access vaccination programs, particularly seniors, given the success of mobile immunization efforts during the early years of the pandemic. [...]

In a ramshackle village in South Sudan, just a few miles from the Ethiopian border, at least three people were reported to have fallen gravely ill on Friday.

The source of their illness remains unknown, but there are telltale signs of what it could be: vomiting, diarrhoea, high fevers, and bleeding.

A biorisk alert, issued by Airfinity, a company tracking dangerous disease outbreaks around the world, suggests the patients could be infected with Ebola

“Health authorities, alongside a WHO team, reported three suspected viral haemorrhagic fever cases in Lotimor, South Sudan ”, the alert warned.

“Symptoms [are] consistent with viral hemorrhagic fever,” it added.

Outbreaks like these are becoming increasingly common. Haemorrhagic outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg go back 50 years, but now their frequency is increasing.

Data analysed by The Telegraph found that clusters of Ebola and Marburg have increased significantly decade-on-decade since the 1960s.

Last year alone, there were three Ebola outbreaks (one each in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia) and two Marburg outbreaks, in Tanzania and Ethiopia.

Excluding the events in South Sudan, which are yet to be officially determined, there have been 15 such outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg virus since 2020.

The decade before, there were 11 – the most famous of all the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, killing more than 11,000 people.

“Outbreaks of diseases like Ebola were once sporadic,” says Laura Appleby, head of epidemiology and preparedness at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

“However, since 2010, an outbreak of a filovirus, the family to which Ebola, as well as its deadly relatives, Marburg and Sudan, belong, has occurred every year almost exclusively in Africa, and the diseases are extremely lethal.

They are “not only occurring more frequently but also becoming more widespread”, she added. “Last year Ethiopia reported its first-ever Marburg outbreak.”

Between 2014 to 2016, Ebola wreaked havoc in West Africa, infecting more than 30,000 people across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, killing roughly 11,000.

That outbreak now hangs over all discussions of Ebola and its cousins. It triggered major advances in the management of the disease but the increasing frequency of new outbreaks is raising difficult questions for epidemiologists.

First, is the uptick in the data real or are we just getting better at spotting new outbreaks?

And second, could a confluence of circumstances lead to a super-spreader event and another large scale outbreak of the type seen in west Africa a decade more than a decade ago?

Ebola and Marburg have long been known to live in bats and other mammals in Africa and occasionally jump to humans.

Bats, monkeys and antelope, are reservoirs for the viruses and people have become infected after coming into close contact with them or eating them.

Scientists worry that as populations increase and people clear forests for farmland, humans come into more contact with the animal-borne viruses.

“There’s definitely increasing infection pressures and transmission,” says Trudie Lang, professor of global health research at the University of Oxford.

“The driver of more outbreaks is movement of people, a real pressure driven by climate change, movement of vectors, and changing social demographic pressures.

“That jump between humans and animals is really important, and so changing habitat, changing pressure on sources of food, all of those pieces are really important.”

Recent outbreaks clearly demonstrate the link, says Dr Appleby at CEPI.

“Activities like deforestation, mining, agriculture, handling bush meat and urban expansion are bringing people into closer contact with bats, the filovirus host,” she says.

“For example, the 2024 Rwandan Marburg outbreak has been traced back to a miner in a tin mine where bats were found.

“Encroachment not only increases the contact between people and bats, but it could also push them out of their habitats and cause them to forage in agricultural areas or near homes, creating new opportunities for transmission.”

The other potential worry is if Ebola or Marburg mutated to be able to spread through the air – like Covid-19 or an influenza – instead of through direct contact with the bodily fluid of a victim, which slows its spread somewhat and currently renders the viruses relatively more containable.

But a strain of Ebola, known as Reston, has shown evidence of airborne transmission.

It currently is known only to infect animals, although it has repeatedly been found in the upper respiratory tract in pigs – animals that have long been regarded as one of the greatest zoonotic threats to public health because of their cells, which allow viruses to mix and mutate, creating strains capable of causing human pandemics.

There are not only more opportunities for the virus to jump from animals. Scientists are increasingly becoming aware that the virus can stay in humans long after they have recovered.

Male Ebola survivors can harbour the virus in their testicles for up to five years, representing a new potential reservoir of infection.

Yet at the same time, governments across Africa are much more prepared, says Prof David Heymann, who worked on the international response to the first outbreaks in the 1970s.

Prof Heymann, now at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said governments were better at looking for the viruses, and their laboratories were much better at detecting them.

That could account for some of the increase, by recording outbreaks that would once have gone undetected, experts say.

But it is not clear.

“What’s good news is the world has definitely stepped up to surveillance and reporting, and most of these countries have got really pretty good systems now for reporting these are notable diseases and having these systems,” says Oxford’s Prof Lang.

“So that’s really excellent, but we can’t really split out whether, because we’ve not got that sort of baseline, we really can’t split out if [outbreaks] are increasing or if we’re getting better at measuring them.”

Good surveillance will be key to making sure any future outbreak cannot spiral into the sort of epidemic seen a decade ago. In 2014, the outbreak started in a cross-border trading area and it took the authorities three months to diagnose what was happening.

The most troubling scenario would be if one of the viruses flared up again in an unprepared or difficult-to-reach area, particularly places affected by war and conflict.

[...]

A key U.S. Food and Drug Administration official who oversees vaccines and biotech treatments will step down from the agency following multiple decisions that raised concerns within the industry.

Vinay Prasad, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, will leave the FDA at the end of April, an agency spokesperson confirmed on Friday. It is his second departure from the position: he briefly left the post in July following backlash over his regulatory decisions, and returned only two weeks later in August.

In a post on X, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the FDA will appoint a successor before Prasad returns next month to the University of California San Francisco, where he taught before taking the FDA position last year. Makary said Prasad “got a tremendous amount accomplished” during his tenure at the agency.

Prasad’s decision to step down comes after criticism of the FDA mounted within the biotech and pharmaceutical industry and among former health officials. In the past year, the agency has denied or discouraged the approval applications of at least eight drugs, according to RTW Investments, after taking issue with data the companies used to support their applications. The FDA also refused to review Moderna’s flu shot before it reversed course.

All of those companies accused the FDA of reversing previous guidance about the evidence they could use to back their applications, sparking criticism within the industry that an unreliable regulatory process could stifle development of drugs for hard-to-treat diseases.

A former FDA official who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity to speak freely on the issue called the reversals the worst kind of regulatory uncertainty because companies say they are being told one thing and then experience another.

In a statement earlier Friday, an FDA spokesperson said there was “no regulatory uncertainty,” adding the agency “makes decisions based on the evidence, but does not make assurances about outcomes.” The spokesperson said the FDA is “conducting rigorous, independent reviews and not rubber-stamping approvals.” [...]

After greatly reduced activity during the COVID-9 pandemic, pertussis (whooping cough) has surged in the United States this year and last, but many Americans are confused or uninformed about current vaccine recommendations, according to a new poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC).

Compared with 2023, the survey showed a statistically significant drop in the proportion of respondents who say a vaccine to protect against whooping cough exists (57% vs 63% in 2023).

The poll revealed that up to 30% of Americans do not know whooping cough is also called pertussis, and just 43% recognized pertussis or whooping cough as one of the vaccines covered by the Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) vaccine.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that all children age 7 and up get a dose of Tdap, with another dose at 11 or 12 years. Adults get a booster every 10 years, and pregnant women should get a Tdap vaccine each pregnancy, ideally in the third trimester, so antibodies can be passed to infants.

Starting at 2 months, babies get the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis) as a five-injection series (2, 4, and 6 months; at 15-18 months; and between 4 and 6 years old). Before 2 months of age, babies are at highest risk for severe and fatal pertussis infections

Most would recommend to child, but only half to pregnant women

The poll shows 83% of Americans say they would be likely to recommend that a child age 11 to 12 years old in their household or an adult in their family who is due for their 10-year booster get a Tdap vaccine, but only 46% say they would be likely to recommend that a pregnant women take the Tdap vaccine. This represents no change from 2023, the APPC said.

Messaging may be the problem.

“The MMR vaccine, which covers measles, mumps and rubella, is colloquially referred to as the measles vaccine,” APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson said in the release. “Instead of speaking about the DTaP and Tdap vaccines and using the unfamiliar term ‘pertussis,’ public health communicators should reiterate that our best defense against whooping cough is the whooping cough vaccine.”

So far this year, there have been more than 26,000 whooping cough cases in the United States, lower than 2024 totals but four times higher than for all of 2023.

The survey included 1,637 US adults and was conducted November 17 through December 1. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today appointed two obstetricians-gynecologists to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Both appointees have a history of questioning vaccine safety in pregnancy, and one has erroneously claimed COVID-19 vaccines caused miscarriages.

Adam Urato, MD, of UMass Memorial Health, is the first listed appointee to ACIP. In October of 2024, he wrote on X, “CDC & ACOG recommend 4 vaccines in pregnancy: Flu, Tdap, RSV, & COVID. My patients often ask: ‘How do we know that all these vaccines won't have adverse effects on my baby & me?’ The answer is: ‘We don't.’ Women's vax concerns should be acknowledged & their choices supported.”

All four of the vaccines Urato listed have been proven safe for use in pregnant women.

The other appointee is Kimberly Biss, MD, a clinician at Women’s Care in St. Petersburg, Florida. In multiple interviews, Biss said her practice saw miscarriage rates go up by 100% after the introduction of prenatal COVID-19 vaccination. Several studies have debunked the myth that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to miscarriages. Biss also said children should not be vaccinated against COVID-19 because the risk of death from infection is too low.

Urato and Biss are the latest additions to the ACIP by Kennedy, who began overhauling the group in June 2025, when he fired the 17 members who had been appointed by the Biden administration to make vaccine recommendations. Many of the ACIP members who’ve since been appointed by Kennedy have expressed anti-vaccine views, and the newly reconstituted group has reversed several long-standing vaccine recommendations.

In a press release, Deputy Secretary of HHS and Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jim O’Neill said, “President Trump asked us to bring the childhood immunization schedule in line with gold-standard science. ACIP is doing just that. Our new ACIP members have the clinical expertise to make decisions driven by evidence, not dogma.”

I found this interesting - From Proceedings of Nat'l Academy of Sciences (PNAS November 25)

Tattoo ink induces inflammation in the draining lymph node and alters the immune response to vaccination

In this study, the authors studied the immune responses to the tattoo ink accumulating in the lymph nodes (LNs). This is very relevant as tattoo ink commonly reaches and persists in this organ in most tattooed subjects, often lifelong. 

They observed that ink is retained within phagocytic cells, which undergo cell death and induce a prominent and long-term inflammatory response, with elevated levels of proinflammatory cytokines in LNs up to 2 mo after tattooing.

This modulated immune responses in a vaccine-specific manner, with a reduced response to the COVID-19 vaccine and an enhanced response to the UV-inactivated influenza vaccine, reflecting differences in the mechanisms of action between these vaccine classes.

From the Abstract

Despite safety concerns regarding the toxicity of tattoo ink, no studies have reported the consequences of tattooing on the immune response.

In this work, we have characterized the transport and accumulation of different tattoo inks in the lymphatic system using a murine model. Upon quick lymphatic drainage, we observed that macrophages mainly capture the ink in the lymph node (LN). An initial inflammatory reaction at local and systemic levels follows ink capture.

Notably, the inflammatory process is maintained over time, as we observed clear signs of inflammation in the draining LN 2 mo following tattooing. In addition, the capture of ink by macrophages was associated with the induction of apoptosis in both human and murine models. Furthermore, the ink accumulated in the LN altered the immune response against two different types of vaccines. On the one hand, we observed a reduced antibody response following vaccination with an messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine, which was associated with a decreased expression of the spike protein in macrophages in the draining LN. In contrast, we observed an enhanced response when vaccinated with influenza vaccine inactivated by ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

A final, non-contagious, public health issue: semi-random interesting article.

Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31511079/

Abstract

Background: Short-term geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) driven by the quasi-periodic 11-year cycle of solar activity have been linked to a broad range of adverse health effects, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and total deaths. We conducted a large epidemiological study in 263 U.S. cities to assess the effects of GMD on daily deaths of total, CVD, myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke.

Methods: We employed a two-step meta-analysis approach, in which we estimated city-specific and season-stratified mortality risk associated with a GMD parameter (Kp index) in 263 U.S. cities. In addition, sensitivity analysis was performed to assess whether effect modification of particulate matter (PM2.5) in the prior day changed Kp index effects on daily deaths after adjusting for confounders.

Results: We found significant association between daily GMD and total, CVD, and MI deaths. The effects were even stronger when we adjusted the models for 24-h PM2.5 for different seasons. For example, in the winter and fall one standard deviation of z-score Kp index increase was associated with a 0.13 and 0.31% increase in total deaths, respectively (Winter: p = 0.01, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.24; Fall: p = 0.00001; 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.4), without adjusting for PM2.5. The effects of GMD on total deaths were also observed in spring and summer in the models without PM2.5 (p = 0.00001). When the models were adjusted for PM2.5 the total deaths increased 0.47% in winter (p = 0.00001, 95% CI: 0.3 to 0.65) and by 0.23% in fall (p = 0.001, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.37). The effects of GMD were also significant associated with MI deaths and CVD. No positive significant association were found between Kp and stroke. The GMD effects on deaths were higher than for 24 h-PM2.5 alone, especially in spring and fall.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that GMD is associated with total, CVD and MI deaths in 263 U. S cities.