Vaccines have been called one of the greatest public health achievements in human history. Even before the lifesaving COVID vaccines were rolled out, millions of lives had been saved with vaccines over decades. But anti-vaccine rhetoric is at an all-time high and with the possibility of fervent anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy becoming the head of the US Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, there is growing fear that Kennedy will supercharge the global anti-vaccine movement and that more children, especially, will die from vaccine preventable diseases.
The Washington Post (US) reports, “Kennedy has for years questioned federal agencies charged with vaccine production and safety, promoted debunked claims linking vaccines to autism, and challenged the CDC’s recommended list of vaccines for children. He founded and chaired one of the nation’s most prominent anti-vaccine groups, Children’s Health Defense, a prolific and lucrative spreader of anti-vaccine misinformation online.” Politico (US) reports that several of the proposed leads of key agencies under HHS, including the CDC, FDA and NIH, are key allies of Kennedy. “The group currently under consideration offers a window into how Trump may fill out one of his largest and most consequential federal agencies, with the search focusing largely on loyalists best known for airing contrarian views and antagonizing the mainstream public health establishment.”
Maggie Fox writes in an opinion in Scientific American (US), “COVID has killed more than 42,000 people in the US so far this year alone. And with H5N1 avian influenza spreading among poultry, cattle and people, this is a perilous time to give free rein to an amateur…. It’s ironic that Kennedy happily casts doubt on vaccines, which are meticulously tested and monitored and which have saved 154 million lives over the past 50 years, while promoting unproven or disproven products alongside treatments that only empty pockets with empty promises.”
If You Are in a Hurry
- Read a call from epidemiologist Tulio de Oliveira to the US to learn from the global south in responding to the H5N1 outbreak in New York Times.
- Read a call to the US media to report on public health issues with urgency in Harvard Public Health.
- Read New Times on good news for the Marburg outbreak in Rwanda.
- Read The Nation about a new partnership to test a one shot mpox vaccine in Kenya.
- Read USA Today on climate change fueling rising cases of dengue.
- Read Health Policy Watch on the news there will be no pandemic agreement in December.
The US Media and Public Health
Richard J. Tofel writes in an opinion in Harvard Public Health (US), “Politicians are ignoring the greatest public health crisis in a century, and journalists are letting them.” He notes, “if Kennedy, perhaps speaking from a White House podium, were able to dissuade a sufficient number of parents from the routine vaccination of their own children to undo herd immunity, the result in a few years could be millions of cases of measles and thousands of child deaths…. These are the sorts of distinctions about which the political reporters covering him need to be informed—and unafraid to report.”
Global Measles Cases Rose in 2023
Reuters (UK) reports, “Measles cases rose 20% last year, driven by a lack of vaccine coverage in the world's poorest countries and those riddled with conflict,” according to WHO and the US CDC. “Nearly half of all the large and disruptive outbreaks occurred in the African region where the number of deaths increased by 37%, they said.” Read the report.
Rwanda Releases Last Hospitalized Case of Marburg
New Times (Rwanda) via AllAfrica reports, “The Ministry of Health has announced that two patients who had been receiving treatment for the Marburg Virus Disease recovered on Friday, November 8, bringing the total recoveries to 51….’The outbreak is under control and surveillance continues,’ the ministry said in a weekly update on the Marburg virus….The outbreak can be declared over if no new infections arise for 42 days — equivalent to two incubation periods for the virus — after the last case is identified, according to the scientific journal Nature.”
New Times (Rwanda) also reports, “The Africa CDC, in a statement released Monday, said it has formally urged the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reassess and lift the travel advisory issued on October 7, which cautioned its citizens to ‘reconsider travel’ to Rwanda…. ‘Africa CDC has urged the HHS and CDC to assess the situation on the ground, in collaboration with international health agencies, and update the travel advisory to reflect the current epidemiological context,’ it said, emphasizing that revising the advisory would recognize Rwanda's public health achievements while supporting its economic recovery.
Concerns Rise About H5N1 Flu in North America
Epidemiologist Tulio de Oliveira writes in a New York Times (US) opinion, “As a virus scientist in South Africa, I’ve been watching with dread as H5N1 bird flu spreads among animals in the United States. The pathogen poses a serious pandemic threat and has been detected in over 500 dairy herds in 15 states — which is probably an undercount. And yet, the US response appears inadequate and slow, with too few genomic sequences of H5N1 cases in farm animals made publicly available for scientific review…. The United States should learn from how the global south responds to infectious diseases. Those of us working in the region have a good track record of responding to epidemics and emerging pandemics, and can help the United States identify new virus strains and offer insights into how to control H5N1. This knowledge has not come easily or without suffering; it has developed from decades of dealing with deadly diseases. We’ve learned one simple lesson: You need to learn your enemy as quickly as possible in order to fight it.”
CIDRAP (US) reports, “The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) today said tests have identified a suspected avian flu infection in a child from Alameda County who had mild upper respiratory symptoms and no known contact with infected animals. If confirmed, the case would mark the second avian flu infection in a child in North America from a yet undetermined source. Last week, health officials in Canada reported an H5N1 infection in a previously healthy British Columbia teen who is hospitalized in critical condition. Also, if confirmed the California case would mark the second in the United States this year in a person without exposure to sick farm animals.
The Guardian (UK) reports, “The teenager hospitalized with bird flu in British Columbia, Canada, may have a variation of the virus that has a mutation making it more transmissible among people, early data shows – a warning of what the virus can do that is especially worrisome in countries such as the US where some H5N1 cases are not being detected. The US ‘absolutely’ is not testing and monitoring bird flu cases enough, which means scientists could miss mutated cases like these, said Richard Webby, a virologist at St Jude children’s research hospital’s department of infectious diseases.
Mpox Vaccine News and Clade 1 Confirmed in More Countries
The Nation (Kenya) reports, “A pharmaceutical company based in the United States has announced a research partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) to develop and test a vaccine for Mpox…. Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corporation will undertake Phase I clinical trial of TNX-801 in Kenya, focusing on assessing the vaccine’s safety, tolerability and immunogenicity.
CIDRAP (US) reports WHO “that it has granted emergency use listing for Japan’s LC16m8 mpox vaccine, the second mpox vaccine to receive the designation since the group declared a public health emergency of international concern regarding outbreaks in Africa. The step paves the way for countries to receive doses and for children, hit hard by the virus in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi, to receive doses. Japan had stockpiled the vaccine, which was used in 1974 to vaccinate children.
The Independent (Nigeria) reports the Nigerian government “has commenced the vaccination campaign against Mpox in seven pilot states, including the Federal Capital Territory…. The vaccination programme aims to protect individuals at high risk of contracting the virus, such as healthcare workers, laboratory personnel, and close contacts of confirmed cases.”
CIDRAP (US) reports, “New genetic sequencing results have now confirmed novel clade 1b mpox virus in recent cases from Zambia and Zimbabwe, signifying that the virus is now spreading in most of Africa's regions, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said today. During a weekly briefing, Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, said the African region is still averaging about 2,800 new cases a week, ‘sending a clear message that mpox is not under control in Africa.’"
AP (US) reports, “Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first US case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo. The person had traveled to eastern Africa and was treated in Northern California upon return, according to the California Department of Public Health. Symptoms are improving and the risk to the public is low.”
Reuters (UK) reports, “Global health advocates have written to the makers of a key mpox diagnostic test to call for its price to be cut from around $20 per test to $5, to help tackle low testing rates in poorer countries badly hit by the virus. Medical diagnostics firm Cepheid's GeneXpert mpox test is one of three approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, but the price is prohibitive for countries like the hardest-hit Democratic Republic of Congo, activists said.
Nelson Aghogho Evaborhene and colelgaues write in a commentary in BMJ Global Health (UK), “The recurrent outbreak of the ppox virus in most parts of Africa serves as a daily reminder of the perils of neglecting the underlying drivers of emerging and re-emerging diseases. Understanding the interplay of factors that predispose individuals and communities, especially high-risk groups, is crucial to designing appropriate community-led, behavioural and pharmacological response efforts to control and eliminate ppox as a public health concern. Without caution, the growing burden of endemic African ppox could indeed be a recipe for an impending global disaster. An uncontrolled outbreak of this magnitude exposes our mutual vulnerability underscoring that ‘a problem for Africa, is a problem for the world’.34 Together, the world must act while we still have time.”
Record Levels of Dengue Driven by Climate Change
USA Today (US) reports, “Nearly a fifth of dengue infections in the Americas and Southeast Asia were propelled by climate change, according to a [new preprint] study… The latest data from the Pan-American Health Organization shows that in the first 10-plus months of 2024, there were nearly 7,500 deaths and more than 12.3 million infections – three times the number of cases in 2023, which was record-setting at the time. Read the study.
Rising Resistance to Key Malaria Treatment
Global Health Now (US) reports, “In yet another ominous sign for malaria treatment’s prospects, the malaria parasite is acquiring partial resistance to a key medication used to care for children experiencing severe malaria, according to a study published today in JAMA…. The study, led by Ugandan researchers Ruth Namazzi, MBChB, and Robert Opoka, MBChB, PhD, from Makerere University in Kampala, found partial resistance to the malaria drug artemisinin in 11 of 100 children treated for severe malaria. The finding is based on the fact that it took the drug more than five hours to reduce the parasite load by half—WHO’s definition of partial resistance.” Read the study.
No Pandemic Accord in December
Health Policy Watch (Switzerland) reports, “The pandemic agreement will not be adopted at a special World Health Assembly (WHA) next month as countries still need ‘more time’ to conclude the complex talks…. ‘Today, member states agreed we need to conclude the agreement as soon as possible and continue negotiations into 2025 with the goal of concluding the agreement by the next WHA scheduled in May 2025, so we are moving in the right direction with a strong political commitment by member states.’”
Long COVID Recovery Odds
Reuters (UK) reports, “Recent scientific studies shed new light on the experience of millions of patients [with long-term long COVID]. They suggest the longer someone is sick, the lower their chances of making a full recovery. The best window for recovery is in the first six months after getting COVID-19, with better odds for people whose initial illness was less severe, as well as those who are vaccinated, researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States found, opens new tab. People whose symptoms last between six months and two years are less likely to fully recover.” Read the study.
US NIH Under Trump
Nature (UK) reports, “Proposals from both chambers of the US Congress, as well as comments made by the incoming administration of US president-elect Donald Trump show that there is significant appetite to reform the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its US$47-billion research portfolio. What’s less clear is how this transformation will unfold; proposals have included everything from shrinking the number of institutes by half to replacing a subset of the agency’s staff members.”
Deaf Mosquitos and Disease Prevention
BBC UK) reports, “Scientists believe they have found a quirky way to fight mosquito-spread diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika, after showing that deaf male insects struggle to mate and breed. Mosquitoes have sex while flying in mid-air and the males rely on hearing to chase down a female, based on her attractive wingbeats. The researchers did an experiment, altering a genetic pathway that male mosquitoes use for this hearing. The result - they made no physical contact with females, even after three days in the same cage. Female mosquitoes are the ones that spread diseases to people, and so trying to prevent them having babies would help reduce overall numbers.” |
