Category: Vaccine

A new vaccine shows encouraging early results as a potential off-the-shelf treatment for certain patients with pancreatic or colorectal cancer, according to a study co-led by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). The vaccine targets tumors with mutations (or changes) in the KRAS gene, a driving force in many cancers.

This cancer vaccine is different from another type of pancreatic cancer vaccine, which is custom-made for each patient using messenger RNA (mRNA). Both are therapeutic vaccines given after surgery to prevent or delay the cancer from coming back in high-risk patients.

Having a vaccine thats off-the-shelf would make it easier, faster, and less expensive to treat a larger number of patients, says medical oncologist and pancreatic cancer specialist Eileen OReilly, MD, who helped lead the trial and is one of the corresponding authors in the study published in Nature Medicine. This gives hope for people with pancreatic and colorectal cancer who have been out of effective treatments when their disease returns.

Dr. OReilly is co-corresponding author of the Nature Medicine study, along with Shubham Pant, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Christopher M. Haqq, MD, PhD, of Elicio Therapeutics.

The phase 1 trial involved 25 patients whose pancreatic or colorectal cancer had certain KRAS mutations and were at high risk of the cancer returning after surgery. The results demonstrated this vaccine is safe and appears to stimulate the patients immune system to create cancer-fighting cells:

In patients whose immune system appeared to respond to the vaccine, the recurrence of cancer was delayed compared with patients who did not respond to the vaccine, Dr. OReilly says. Thats the type of early clinical effect we can build on.

A different approach to activating immune cells has been led by surgical oncologist Vinod Balachandran, MD. He is investigating whether a personalized mRNA vaccine using proteins from a patients pancreatic tumors will alert their immune system that the cancer cells are foreign. In this way, the mRNA vaccine trains the body to protect itself against cancer cells. This vaccine is now being tested in a phase 2 research study at MSK and other institutions.

Having a vaccine that's 'off-the-shelf' would make it easier, faster, and less expensive to treat a larger number of patients.

Personalized vaccines while promising also have challenges. They take time to make and are costly. By contrast, an off-the-shelf vaccine manufactured in batches could be given to patients with minimal delay and would be cheaper to produce.

These findings are exciting because they show we may have more than one way to activate immune cells to target pancreatic cancer, Dr. OReilly says.

Researchers have long considered KRAS mutations to be a prime target for therapies. Recently, effective drugs have emerged that block a specific KRAS mutation called KRAS-G12C, which is common in lung cancer.

This was a major breakthrough after decades of trying to find a good KRAS therapy, Dr. OReilly says. But KRAS-G12C mutations are present in only 1% of pancreatic cancers.

The new vaccine is able to activate immune cells that target different KRAS mutationscalled KRAS-G12D and KRAS-G12R, which drive about 90% of pancreatic cancers and 40% of colon cancers. The vaccine contains synthesized peptides (short chains of amino acids) that can launch immune cells to target cancer cells with these mutations.

The KRAS vaccine is given with a shot in four places one in each arm and leg. The peptides travel to nearby lymph nodes, which are loaded with the cells critical to generating an effective immune response.

Patients in the trial received the vaccine in two phases six doses in a primary phase, followed a booster phase with four doses a few months later. The vaccine caused mild side effects such as soreness and fatigue, but Dr. OReilly reported it was tolerated better than standard treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, or targeted drugs.

To confirm these early results, a randomized phase 2 trial opened in December 2023, involving more than 150 people at multiple U.S. sites who have completed treatment for pancreatic cancer, have tumors with KRAS mutations, and are at high risk for the disease returning. The vaccine for this phase targets more KRAS mutations compared with the initial vaccine. The participants will be split into two groups: two-thirds randomized to receive the vaccine, and one-third to be observed.

We hope this next phase will give us further proof that vaccines can generate a potent immune response and translate that immune response into improvement in clinical outcomes, especially against pancreatic cancer, Dr. OReilly says. Many groups at MSK are collaborating on these vaccines and KRAS therapies for pancreatic cancer and everyone is very interested in learning which are the best approaches to develop. Its encouraging to know that we could have multiple emerging treatment options for such a difficult disease.

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Vaccine Targeting KRAS in Pancreatic and Colorectal Cancer Shows Promise - On Cancer - Memorial Sloan Kettering

Last year was another extraordinary year for medical innovation. The World Health Organization recommended a second vaccine for the prevention of malaria in children and a second vaccine for Dengue fever. The first ever CRISPR treatment was approved to treat sickle-cell disease and -thalassaemia and we had another Alzheimers medicine approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

These breakthroughs provide hope to patients, families and caregivers all over the world. However, we know that these ground-breaking advances in healthcare are only meaningful when they can reach the people who need them. To be successful, we need to be as innovative in our approaches to patient access as we are in the scientific discovery and development of medicines and vaccines themselves.

Investing in medicines and vaccines can provide significant health, economic and societal value. In the European Union alone, prescription drugs added an estimated 2 million healthy years to patients lives between 2007 and 2017. Furthermore, for just a subset of medicines, the pharmaceutical industry contributes 27 billion in productivity gains for EU economies, and approximately 13 billion in healthcare cost savings due to averted complications. Vaccination is recognized as one of the most cost-effective ways of saving lives and promoting good health and wellbeing and promoting economic recovery. The return on investment in innovation is significant for health systems and economies.

Yet the burden of disease, particularly from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), is growing. Between 2020 and 2050, cancer is projected to cost the world economy $25 trillion. The global cost of Alzheimers and related dementias will cumulatively reach between $11.3 trillion and $27.3 trillion by 2050, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) set to shoulder 65% of that economic burden. These examples alone demonstrate the value of investing in new treatments that tackle some of our most significant global health challenges.

The upcoming Fair Pricing Forum, hosted by the WHO, will focus on the role that affordability and pricing can play in determing access to health products. This is an important discussion to have, not only to better understand the evidence, but also to identify ways governments, payers, and industry can work together to find tailored and pragmatic solutions to the barriers that prevent patients from benefiting from new treatments.

The pharmaceutical industry perspective is clear. When determining the price of any medicine or vaccine we must recognize the value they bring and take into account a countrys economic circumstances, so that it reaches the people who need it, and provides an incentive for R&D investment into the next generation of medicines and vaccines.

Pharmaceutical companies are working in partnership across healthcare systems and governments to ensure patients can access new treatments. Tools such as tiered and differential pricing have been shown to be effective and sustainable in improving access to medicines in low and middle income countries (LMICs). While the specifics vary among companies and products, tiered pricing is now a standard approach across much of the industry, in which prices are aligned to take into account a countrys relative wealth.

For example, tiered pricing was used extensively by companies during the pandemic to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines were affordable. Gavi, COVAX and other procurers for LMICs benefitted from reduced prices.

Other integrated approaches such as value-based healthcare (VBHC) where value reflects the outcomes for all stakeholders, especially patients, affordability-based patient assistance programmes and managed entry agreements are also increasingly supporting health systems to allocate resources effectively and efficiently to address diverse access barriers.

However, the price of an individual medicine or vaccine is only one factor, and it alone does not determine whether patients are able to access the treatment they need. There are many challenges that impede the journey of a medicine or vaccine from a developer to a patient. These challenges can be linked to regulatory pathways, reimbursement and procurement processes, funding and financing of healthcare systems, and the ability of healthcare systems and infrastructure to deliver products and services to the people who need them.

If we are going to tackle barriers to access and support patients to receive innovative treatments, we must strengthen the funding and capacity of healthcare systems so they have the facilities and skills to diagnose, treat and support patients. Progress towards the provision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) alongside increasing investment into health systems needs to be accelerated to achieve the SDG targets.

It is too often the case that even inexpensive treatments for many major diseases are unavailable to the patients and populations who need them. Many of the WHO Best Buy NCD medicines that could save lives in LMICs are off-patent and cost less than $1, but are still not accessible to millions of people who would benefit from them.

This is why industry, health systems and healthcare organizations should work together to improve access to care by supporting greater investment in healthcare including prevention and building the capacity and capability for the delivery of high quality care, including innovative treatments.

Pharmaceutical companies understand this, and many are working closely with healthcare systems and stakeholders around the world to improve access. For example, since 2017, Access Accelerated, a collective initiative of leading biopharmaceutical companies in partnership with the World Bank and other civil society partners, has resulted in the mobilization of billions of dollars to improve the prevention, treatment and care of people living with NCDs in LMICs. Access Accelerated and the World Bank will soon launch a renewed partnership to support countries to catalyze increased financing for NCDs.

Several companies are working in partnership with C/Can and the Access to Oncology Medicines (ATOM) Coalition led by Union of International Cancer Control (UICC) to build healthcare system infrastructure and capacity to provide innovative medicines in sustainable ways.

The health and economic benefits of these treatments can be unlocked by ensuring better access to the latest medical innovations. To focus purely on affordability misses many of the main barriers. Unless we strengthen the healthcare systems that people rely on, progress towards sustainable equitable access will remain elusive.

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Access to medicines and vaccines is about much more than price - IFPMA

Symptoms of measles include an itchy rash of red-brown spots.Credit: Jim Goodson/CDC/Science Photo Library

UK health services are battling an outbreak of measles causing alarm in a nation that had eliminated the disease in 2017.

On 19 January, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), the public-health authority, declared a national incident over rising cases of measles. The agency has logged more than 300 cases in England since 1 October 2023 (see Measles surge).

A decline in uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is given in two doses, during the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the spread of the disease across England and the rest of Europe, while small outbreaks have occurred in a handful of US states.

Measles is caused by a virus and is highly contagious. It is spread through coughing and sneezing. Symptoms include a fever, a runny nose and an itchy rash of red-brown spots. Its considered to be one of the most infectious respiratory infections there is, says population-health researcher Helen Bedford at University College London. Those most at risk include babies, young children, pregnant people and those with a weakened immune system.

Nature explores the uptick in cases.

Low uptake of the measles vaccine is a key driver of the UK measles cases, say researchers. Around 85% of children in England have received two MMR vaccine doses by five years old, according to data from the National Health Service (NHS). This falls below the vaccination rate of at least 95% needed to achieve herd immunity which substantially reduces disease spread as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO; see Jabs needed).

Source: UK government

It is worrying but not all that surprising to see another measles outbreak within the UK, paediatrician Ronny Cheung at the Evelina London Childrens Hospital said in a statement to the UK Science Media Centre. The fact remains that vaccination coverage for children under the age of 5 is now the lowest it has ever been in the past 10 years, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic worsened matters, says Bedford. At first, the number of measles cases dipped because of social-distancing measures. But vaccine uptake also dropped, contributing to the latest surge, she says.

Moreover, anti-vaccine messaging during the pandemic caused some people to question vaccine safety, which might have delayed uptake, says Bedford. People have got more questions, which, unfortunately, due to cuts in public-health funding, arent always properly addressed, she says.

On 22 January, the NHS launched a vaccination campaign, urging millions of parents and carers to book vaccine appointments for their children. Health services will contact all parents of unvaccinated children aged 6 to 11. If parents and young people respond to the information, and the message to get vaccinated, we could stop it in its tracks, says Bedford.

Vaccination rates are lowest in London, where just 74% of children have received two doses of the vaccine. Two doses are 97% effective against catching measles. One local council in the capital has launched a vaccine-awareness campaign in multiple languages to reach more people.

Without further action, the outbreak could spread more widely across the United Kingdom, causing deaths, says Bedford.

In 2018, a measles outbreak of around 900 cases occurred in England. The previous year, the WHO had declared that the United Kingdom had eliminated the disease, defined as the absence of circulating measles. Despite losing the elimination status, the country gained it again in 2021.

In response to the outbreak, Public Health England, the UKHSAs predecessor, advised people to get the MMR vaccine. The only thing that you can do to stop measles spreading is get vaccinated, says Bedford. This means catching up people who didnt have it, including those who didnt have it 20 years ago, she says.

Since 1 December, there have been 23 confirmed measles cases in the United States, across Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Many of the cases were linked to international travellers returning to the country, and reflect a rise in the number of measles cases globally, according to a newsletter sent by the US Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention on 25 January. There were 58 reported US cases last year, down from 121 in 2022. This is much less than the more than 1,200 US infections in 2019.

But Europe is facing a more alarming situation. There was a 45-fold rise in measles cases in the WHOs European region from 2022 to 2023. In 2023, the regions 40 member states reported some 42,200 measles cases, up from fewer than 1,000 in 2022.

The rise in cases is also the result of declining national vaccination rates, which fell from 92%, on average, in 2019 to 91% in 2022, according to the WHO.

Globally, the number of measles cases increased by 18% between 2021 and 2022, and deaths from measles increased by 43%, according to a WHO report released last November.

Continued here:

Measles outbreaks cause alarm: what the data say - Nature.com

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a respiratory virus causing infection in the lungs, nose, and throat.

RSV affects all ages including young infants and infects about 64 million people globally each year.

While RSV symptoms normally feel just like those of the common cold in adults and older children, it can be a much more serious disease in older adults, young children, and babies.

Researchers report that RSV is the most common cause of hospitalization of infants in high-income countries.

The respiratory infection is responsible for about 3.6 million lower respiratory tract hospitalizations in young children each year, with 1.4 million of those in children ages 0 to 6 months.

For this reason, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) both recommend pregnant people receive an RSV vaccine to help immunize their babies from the disease before birth.

Of the two RSV vaccines currently available, only one vaccine Pfizers Abrysvo is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Commission for use in pregnant people.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends the Abrysvo vaccine for people who are 32 to 36 weeks pregnant during the peak RSV season, which is from September to January in the U.S.

A pregnant woman who receives (the) RSV vaccine in the last trimester weeks 32 to 36 will develop antibodies against RSV that will be passed to the fetus and protect the infant against RSV, Dr. Edward Liu, chief of infectious diseases at Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center in New Jersey explained to Medical News Today.

Some infants are more susceptible to develop severe RSV symptoms that can lead to hospitalization, requiring oxygen and/or mechanical ventilation to help them breathe, added Chanique Ecby, clinical assistant professor at the University of Houston Andy and Barbara Gessner College of Nursing. Due to infants being so vulnerable, Abrysvo, the RSV vaccine for pregnant women, should be given to help provide antibodies that will protect the newborn against severe RSV disease after birth.

The Abrysvo vaccine prevents lower respiratory tract disease and severe lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in infants from birth through 6 months of age.

Babies are protected by RSV at birth if the pregnant individual received the vaccine at least two weeks prior.

Dr. Sherry Ross, a board-certified OB/GYN and womens health expert at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, spoke with MNT about RSV vaccines effectiveness:

The effectiveness of the RSV vaccine in protecting a baby may vary depending on when the vaccine was given to the pregnant woman and the underlying health and lung conditions of the baby.

In a study published in April 2023 of 3,500 pregnant individuals who received Abrysvo, the vaccine helped reduce the risk of severe lower respiratory tract disease by 81.8% within 90 days after birth and 69.4% within 180 days after birth, compared to those who received a placebo.

Additionally, in a subgroup of pregnant individuals receiving the vaccine during 32 to 36 weeks of pregnancy, lower respiratory tract disease risk was lowered by 34.7%, and severe lower respiratory tract disease risk was reduced by 91.1% within 90 days after birth when compared to those who received the placebo.

Dr. Patricia Faraz, a board-certified OB/GYN at The Womens Hospital at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA, told MNT the advantage of taking the vaccine during pregnancy allows a baby to be born with immunity and immediate protection, as long as the mom received a vaccine for greater than 14 days before the baby is born.

Basically by giving it to the mom, youre reducing one less vaccine that the baby needs to receive, and they have immediate immunity at birth, Dr. Faraz added.

The FDAs approval of Abrysvo for pregnant people was based on the results of a phase 3 clinical trial evaluating the vaccines safety and effectiveness.

Potential side effects from the RSV vaccine are common and similar to other vaccines including injection site discomfort, headache, muscle pain, and nausea, Dr. Ross explained. There are no side effects to the unborn baby.

Dr. Faraz noted that so far, pregnant people under her care receiving the vaccine have only experienced minimal side effects:

The most common side effects would be pain or soreness at the injection site, and then other common side effects that have been reported are headaches, nausea, and muscle pain. Honestly, within my group of patients, I havent heard anybody complain about anything yet so far its been well tolerated.

There may be some instances in which a pregnant individual would not be able to receive the RSV vaccine.

For example, according to the CDC, the RSV vaccine should not be given to pregnant people who are less than 32 weeks pregnant. The FDA has this stipulation marked as a warning on the prescribing information for Abrysvo.

Early in the pregnancy before week 32, (the) RSV vaccine is not recommended as there are reports of preterm delivery, Dr. Liu explained.

A pregnant woman may be unable to receive the RSV vaccine if she has a history of severe allergic reaction to any component of the vaccine, Ecby added.

If a pregnant person is unable to get the RSV vaccine during pregnancy, Dr. Ross said the individual would be a perfect candidate to receive nirservimab, which gives RSV antibodies directly to the baby after birth to protect against RSV infections:

Nirsevimab gives RSV antibodies directly to the baby after birth, adding longer protection than the 6 months that the RSV vaccine affords a newborn. One disadvantage of nirsevimab is it may be harder to get, especially during the high-risk seasons of fall and winter.

Dr. Faraz said monoclonal antibodies can also be given to babies if they are born earlier than the two weeks needed for the vaccine to provide immunity:

In a case where the baby was born, like lets say a week after the mom was given the vaccine, that baby may still be a candidate to receive monoclonal antibodies after birth. This is (also) an option if you have a baby who was born with a cardiac defect. Even if the mom has been vaccinated, you could still administer the antibodies to the baby for added protection or a baby that severely immunocompromised.

Overall, all medical experts MNT spoke with agree that if a pregnant individual is able to take the RSV vaccine, they should.

RSV is an infection that for years we know is a risk to small babies and infants, Dr. Faraz said. Their immunity is weak and RSV is super common, especially when there are multiple children in the household its just going to be so easy for that baby to get exposed.

Getting the RSV vaccine, between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, is another way to ensure healthcare providers and pregnant women have done everything to give a baby the healthiest start in life, right out of the gate, Dr. Ross added.

There are no protective vaccines against RSV for babies as their immune systems are not mature, Dr. Liu commented. RSV seasons are unpredictable and can be severe regionally. RSV can be a serious infection for babies and taking the RSV vaccine can protect the baby.

If you meet the criteria for the vaccine, give your unborn child a fighting chance to be healthy during RSV season, Dr. Ecby concluded.

See the original post here:

RSV vaccine while pregnant: How effective is it and how does it work? - Medical News Today

Measles cases expected to spread cross-country due to vaccination gaps, high travel

by Lauren Turman

Nearly 25 years after measles was eliminated in the United States, cases have been starting to resurface. (CDC)

Nearly 25 years after measles was eliminated in the United States, cases have been starting to resurface. According to the CDC, almost two dozen measles cases have been reported since December 1, with the first cases being found in the northeast.

Dr. Taylor Nelson, an infectious disease physician with MU Health Care, said measles is one of the most transmissible diseases and will likely continue to spread through the Midwest and to the West Coast. Though the disease was eradicated in the U.S., If an unvaccinated person goes to a country where a disease is still common, becomes infected, and brings it back, they can spread the virus to other unvaccinated people. She said high travel and a largely unvaccinated population are causing an uptick in numbers.

Although the numbers were lower during the first year of COVID, we've now seen an incline again over the last couple of years," Nelson said. "And I think primarily the reason is because people are not getting vaccinated, not vaccinating their kids as much as we were when those initial measles vaccination efforts were happening. And so we're seeing more pockets of people who are susceptible to the infection."

Nelson said that with COVID-19, herd immunity, or the number of the population that will have to be immune to keep measles from spreading, will likely be very. When asked about vaccine fatigue among adults, she said creating a plan with a primary care physician will help things seem more manageable.

"I still do think they're one of the best medical inventions if not the best medical invention we've had right in the last century," she said, "So these things are these things that can protect you from your primary care doctor or a physician that you trust and come up with a schedule on. What do we need to address first? You don't have to get all of them at one time, but what's the most important, what's the most pressing? What can we get done now? What can we potentially do in the future?"

Measles' Initial symptoms include fatigue, runny nose, coughing, and fever. Later, a full-body rash will likely develop. In severe cases, severe complications can lead to death. If you contract measles, doctors say the virus has to run its course since there is no specific antiviral treatment.

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Measles cases expected to spread cross-country due to vaccination gaps, high travel - krcgtv.com

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UK measles outbreak reveals need to boost child vaccine uptake

Outline the factors that have led to a fall in the uptake of the measles vaccine

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Geography class: UK measles outbreak reveals need to boost child vaccine uptake - Financial Times

By Amy Maxmen January 29, 2024

Rates of routine childhood vaccination hit a 10-year low in 2023. That, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, puts about 250,000 kindergartners at risk for measles, which often leads to hospitalization and can cause death. In recent weeks, an infant and two young children have been hospitalized amid an ongoing measles outbreak in Philadelphia that spread to a day care center.

Its a dangerous shift driven by a critical mass of people who now reject decades of science backing the safety and effectiveness of childhood vaccines. State by state, theyve persuaded legislators and courts to more easily allow children to enter kindergarten without vaccines, citing religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs.

Growing vaccine hesitancy is just a small part of a broader rejection of scientific expertise that could have consequences ranging from disease outbreaks to reduced funding for research that leads to new treatments. The term infodemic implies random junk, but thats wrong, said Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. This is an organized political movement, and the health and science sectors dont know what to do.

Changing views among Republicans have steered the relaxation of childhood vaccine requirements, according to the Pew Research Center. Whereas nearly 80% of Republicans supported the rules in 2019, fewer than 60% do today. Democrats have held steady, with about 85% supporting. Mississippi, which once boasted the nations highest rates of childhood vaccination, began allowing religious exemptions last summer. Another leader in vaccination, West Virginia, is moving to do the same.

An anti-science movement picked up pace as Republican and Democratic perspectives on science diverged during the pandemic. Whereas 70% of Republicans said that science has a mostly positive impact on society in 2019, less than half felt that way in a November poll from Pew. With presidential candidates lending airtime to anti-vaccine messages and members of Congress maligning scientists and pandemic-era public health policies, the partisan rift will likely widen in the run-up to Novembers elections.

Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy researcher at the University of California Law San Francisco, draws parallels between todays backlash against public health and the early days of climate change denial. Both issues progressed from nonpartisan, fringe movements to the mainstream once they appealed to conservatives and libertarians, who traditionally seek to limit government regulation. Even if people werent anti-vaccine to start with, Reiss said, they move that way when the argument fits.

Even certain actors are the same. In the late 90s and early 2000s, a libertarian think tank, the American Institute for Economic Research, undermined climate scientists with reports that questioned global warming. The same institute issued a statement early in the pandemic, grandly called the Great Barrington Declaration. It argued against measures to curb the disease and advised everyone except the most vulnerable to go about their lives as usual, regardless of the risk of infection. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, warned that such an approach would overwhelm health systems and put millions more at risk of disability and death from covid. Allowing a dangerous virus that we dont fully understand to run free is simply unethical, he said.

Another group, the National Federation of Independent Business, has fought regulatory measures to curb climate change for over a decade. It moved on to vaccines in 2022 when it won a Supreme Court case that overturned a government effort to temporarily require employers to mandate that workers either be vaccinated against covid or wear a face mask and test on a regular basis. Around 1,000 to 3,000 covid deaths would have been averted in 2022 had the court upheld the rule, one study estimates.

Politically charged pushback may become better funded and more organized if public health becomes a political flashpoint in the lead-up to the presidential election. In the first few days of 2024, Floridas surgeon general, appointed by Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, called for a halt to use of mRNA covid vaccines as he echoed DeSantis incorrect statement that the shots have not been proven to be safe and effective. And vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president as an independent, announced that his campaign communications would be led by Del Bigtree, the executive director of one of the most well-heeled anti-vaccine organizations in the nation and host of a conspiratorial talk show. Bigtree posted a letter on the day of the announcement rife with misinformation, such as a baseless rumor that covid vaccines make people more prone to infection. He and Kennedy frequently pair health misinformation with terms that appeal to anti-government ideologies like medical freedom and religious freedom.

A product of a Democratic dynasty, Kennedys appeal appears to be stronger among Republicans, a Politico analysis found. DeSantis said he would consider nominating Kennedy to run the FDA, which approves drugs and vaccines, or the CDC, which advises on vaccines and other public health measures. Another Republican candidate for president, Vivek Ramaswamy, vowed to gut the CDC should he win.

Todays anti-science movement found its footing in the months before the 2020 elections, as primarily Republican politicians rallied support from constituents who resented pandemic measures like masking and the closure of businesses, churches, and schools. Then-President Donald Trump, for example, mocked Joe Biden for wearing a mask at the presidential debate in September 2020. Democrats fueled the politicization of public health, too, by blaming Republican leaders for the countrys soaring death rates, rather than decrying systemic issues that rendered the U.S. vulnerable, such as underfunded health departments and severe economic inequality that put some groups at far higher risk than others. Just before Election Day, a Democratic-led congressional subcommittee released a report that called the Trump administrations pandemic response among the worst failures of leadership in American history.

Republicans launched a subcommittee investigation into the pandemic that sharply criticizes scientific institutions and scientists once seen as nonpartisan. On Jan. 8 and 9, the group questioned Anthony Fauci, a leading infectious disease researcher who has advised both Republican and Democratic presidents. Without evidence, committee member Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) accused Fauci of supporting research that created the coronavirus in order to push vaccines: He belongs in jail for that, Greene, a vaccine skeptic, said. This is like a, more of an evil version of science.

Taking a cue from environmental advocacy groups that have tried to fight strategic and monied efforts to block energy regulations, Hotez and other researchers say public health needs supporters knowledgeable in legal and political arenas. Such groups might combat policies that limit public health power, advise lawmakers, and provide legal counsel to scientists who are harassed or called before Congress in politically charged hearings. Other initiatives aim to present the scientific consensus clearly to avoid both-sidesism, in which the media presents opposing viewpoints as equal when, in fact, the majority of researchers and bulk of evidence point in one direction. Oil and tobacco companies used this tactic effectively to seed doubt about the science linking their industries to harm.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said the scientific community must improve its communication. Expertise, alone, is insufficient when people mistrust the experts motives. Indeed, nearly 40% of Republicans report little to no confidence in scientists to act in the publics best interest.

In a study published last year, Jamieson and colleagues identified attributes the public values beyond expertise, including transparency about unknowns and self-correction. Researchers might have better managed expectations around covid vaccines, for example, by emphasizing that the protection conferred by most vaccines is less than 100% and wanes over time, requiring additional shots, Jamieson said. And when the initial covid vaccine trials demonstrated that the shots drastically curbed hospitalization and death but revealed little about infections, public health officials might have been more open about their uncertainty.

As a result, many people felt betrayed when covid vaccines only moderately reduced the risk of infection. We were promised that the vaccine would stop transmission, only to find out that wasnt completely true, and America noticed, said Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chair of the Republican-led coronavirus subcommittee, at a July hearing.

Jamieson also advises repetition. Its a technique expertly deployed by those who promote misinformation, which perhaps explains why the number of people who believe the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin treats covid more than doubled over the past two years despite persistent evidence to the contrary. In November, the drug got another shoutout at a hearing where congressional Republicans alleged that the Biden administration and science agencies had censored public health information.

Hotez, author of a new book on the rise of the anti-science movement, fears the worst. Mistrust in science is going to accelerate, he said.

And traditional efforts to combat misinformation, such as debunking, may prove ineffective.

Its very problematic, Jamieson said, when the sources we turn to for corrective knowledge have been discredited.

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How Fringe Anti-Science Views Infiltrated Mainstream Politics And What It Means in 2024 - KFF Health News - Kaiser Health News

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging health care providers to be on alert for patients with symptoms of measles a virus declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 after nearly two dozen cases have been reported across the country in the past month.

Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 23, the CDC has been notified of 23 measles cases, including seven direct importations by international travelers and two outbreaks with more than five cases each, according to a letter the federal agency sent to clinicians last week.

Most of the cases were among children and teenagers who had not been vaccinated against the virus, and nine of them were reported by the health department in Philadelphia a city a two-hour drive from Baltimore. Additionally, the Virginia Department of Health notified people earlier this month that they may have been exposed to measles if they were at Dulles International Airport on Jan. 3 or at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 4.

The outbreak may be scary, said Dr. Theresa Nguyen chair of pediatrics at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson but its important for parents not to panic.

Instead, she said, the message is, Get your children vaccinated.

The measles vaccine used today which also protects people against mumps and rubella was approved by the Food and Drug Administration more than 50 years ago. But the nationwide MMR vaccination rate has fallen by two percentage points over the past two school years, after sitting firmly at 95% for 10 years. In Maryland, the child vaccine exemption rate increased by 0.4 percentage points from the 2021-22 school year to the 2022-23 school year.

Measles, a very contagious, viral illness characterized by a cough, runny nose and pinkeye, hasnt been endemic in the U.S. in more than 20 years. But in 1998, the progress made in convincing parents to vaccinate their children was jeopardized by the publication of a flimsy study that suggested getting the MMR vaccine may predispose a child to developing autism.

The journal that published the study has since retracted it, and Andrew Wakefield the papers lead author is now barred from practicing as a physician in the United Kingdom. But the vaccine hesitancy seeded by his research persists today, Nguyen said. And since the coronavirus pandemic, vaccine hesitancy has only grown, she added.

Nguyen recently sent a letter of her own to GBMCs pediatricians, asking them to be aware of the increase in cases and to add measles to the list of viruses that may explain a childs fever or cough.

It also needs to be easy for families to vaccinate their children, said Dr. Esther Liu, chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie.

The hospitals community outreach program is working with a local elementary school to help parents ensure that their children are caught up on their vaccines before an outbreak begins, Liu said.

The CDC recommends that all children get two doses of MMR vaccine. Children should receive the first dose when theyre 12 to 15 months old and the second dose when theyre 4 to 6 years old.

However, Liu said, its important for parents to know that their child can be vaccinated when theyre as early as 6 months old if they are planning to travel to a country where measles is common, their child has been exposed to the virus, or there is an outbreak nearby.

For parents who are nervous about vaccines, Liu recommended that they check out healthychildren.org a parenting website run by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The website has easy-to-understand and well-researched articles about a number of topics, including the risks and benefits of vaccines.

Despite the recent measles outbreaks, the virus is much less common than it once was. Between 1989 and 1991, outbreaks many of them clustered in areas where immunization rates were low sickened more than 55,000 Americans and killed 123.

For comparison, between 2022 and 2023, 179 cases were reported to the CDC. Nguyen may have seen people with measles when she was a young child living in Vietnam, she said, but she certainly hasnt seen any patients with the virus since she became a physician.

But the success of vaccines considered to be one of the greatest public health advancements in history can have some ironic consequences, Liu said.

As parents, we want to protect our kids. Thats a very natural response, she said. Because we dont see the devastation of these actual illnesses because we have better control in this country, I think its easier to fear the vaccine more than the illnesses.

I really tell parents, she continued, Make sure you understand what it is that were trying to protect your child from.

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The U.S. has had 23 measles cases in the past month. - Baltimore Sun

NEW YORK -- The recent measles outbreak in Philadelphia is raising concerns about a similar situation happening here.

Our CBS News Innovation Lab has found measles vaccination rates aren't quite where they need to be across the country.

From Philadelphia to New Jersey, cases of measles are being reported, prompting concern among health experts nationwide.

"I think it's very alarming that these diseases we used to know are now coming back at a time when we actually have very effective vaccines against them," Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr said.

El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia Public Health, is an internationally renowned expert on infection disease and a professor at Columbia University. She remembers life before vaccines stopped the spread of dozens of deadly diseases.

"I've had people in my own family who've had polio, people in my own family with diphtheria and measles. So I have a personal experience with the devastation of these diseases. So it's ironic to me that now we have these vaccines, and we remain hesitant to take advantage of them," El-Sadr said.

She said vaccine hesitancy, often fueled by misinformation on social media and a widening distrust of medical experts post-pandemic, is becoming an epidemic of its own.

"Side effects of vaccines, do they work, do they not work. I think this vaccine hesitancy is alarming because it tells me if we don't address this hesitancy we're going to see more and more of these outbreaks in the future," El-Sadr said.

The question is: How?

"It's not just about going into a community with low vaccination rates and saying 'Go get vaccinated.' It's about saying 'What's important to you?'" New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said. "And then we can talk about how vaccination and childhood vaccinations are a foundational element of building health for our children."

Vaccination data analyzed by the CBS News Innovation Lab shows New York state has 98% MMR vaccination rate.

In Connecticut, the rate is 95.7%

In New Jersey, where health officials have documented a single case of measles, that number is 94%, which is just 1% below the rate needed for herd immunity. That's when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease, typically through vaccines. If enough people are resistant to the cause of the disease, it has nowhere to go.

"We all take actions to help prevent the spread of disease. So we want to ensure people who might have been in contact with that case have been vaccinated," New Jersey State Epedimiologist Tina Tan said.

Preventing the spread is essential, because measles is highly contagious.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if one person has measles, up to 90% of people close to that person who are not immune will also become infected.

"We want to be able to protect not only ourselves, but also our community at large," Tan said.

Health officials say the goal is complete immunity, meaning a 100% vaccination rate among children and adults, to ensure the diseases of our past stay there.

When we say 98% of people are vaccinated against measles, that might seem high, but even a fraction of a percentage point fewer people vaccinated can change what's known as herd immunity. Steven Stock will have more about that in a special report airing Tuesday.

Jessica Moore is an Emmy Award-winning anchor for the weekend evening newscasts on CBS 2 and WLNY 10/55. Moore joined the stations in July, 2016.

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How does the Tri-State Area fare when it comes to measles vaccination rates? - CBS New York

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After routine childhood vaccinations fell during the pandemic, public health officials across the country are working to get Canadian students back up to date on immunizations for serious yet preventable diseases.

In southwestern Ontario's Waterloo region alone, public health officials said they s ent letters to the families of 32,000 elementary and secondary school students, about a third ofpupils in the region's public and Catholic schools,notifying them that they are at risk of suspension over incomplete immunization recordsfor preventable diseases like measles, chickenpox and whooping cough.

When public health staffintroducedCOVID-19 testing and vaccinations during the pandemic in 2020, routine immunization programs for students across the country fell behind, according to a 2021 study. As well, 19 to Zero, anot-for-profit coalition of medical and public health experts that facilitates vaccination, conducted a national surveyin fall 2021thatpointed to 300,000 children who missed or delayed routine immunizations.

When large numbers of kids are missingthe protection vaccination provides, the outcome can be deadly, public health experts say.

Shannon MacDonald, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, co-authored the 2021 study as part of her research into supporting immunization best practices.

Meningococcal infection is one example of a disease that is preventable through routine vaccinations. MacDonald called meningococcus a disease that can kill children, youth and young adults.

MacDonald and her team found immunizationamong adolescentsin Alberta for meningococcal coveragefell from nearly 87 per centin the 2017-18 school year to about 55 per cent at the height of pandemic school closures in 2020-21.

MacDonald says thatsince schools are places where kids gather for much of the day, it's critical that public health knows who is and isn't vaccinated in case of an outbreak. That's when it's common practice for provinces and territories to keep vulnerable, unvaccinated students out of school.

"If you have low vaccine coverage in a school setting, all it really takes is one case of meningococcus or measles into a school setting and you potentially have an outbreak situation."

Ideally, MacDonald says, if a case appears in aschool, it doesn't spread because a substantial portion of studentsareprotected through vaccination coverage.

Bacteria that cause meningococcal disease are spread through direct contact with secretions from the nose and mouth. Symptomscan include fever, intense headache, nausea and often vomiting, stiff neck and a purplish,pinpoint rash. In rare cases it can lead tobrain or blood infections andresult incomplications like hearing loss, brain damage and loss of limbs.

David Aoki, director of infectious diseases and chief nursing officer for Region of Waterloo Public Health, attributes the high number of students with out-of-date immunization recordsto apause in vaccinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He says this led to more students starting elementary school needing vaccines they previously would have receivedbefore starting school.

"We are trying to play catch up," Aoki said.

In Alberta, there was initially a drop in coverage for infant vaccines that rebounded by fall 2020. But that wasn't the case for older children, particularly for immunizations that require more than one dose, saidMacDonald, the U of Anursing professor.

Depending on the province, students are typically supposed to receive two doses of HPV vaccines starting in Grade 6 or 7,one in the fall and one in the spring.

"HPV vaccine coverage in the first year of the pandemic plummeted to about five per cent of kids getting two doses of the vaccine instead of what we typically see, which is around 70 per cent of kids," MacDonald said of Alberta's coverage.

The rates fell for both HPVvaccine doses, according to Alberta's immmunization dashboard.

In Ontario and New Brunswick, immunizations are required to attend school, unless families receive an exemption. Since vaccination schedules and rules on immunizations that are needed to attend school differfrom province to province,it's difficult to compare rates.

There is no national vaccine registry. How vaccinations are rolled out is also different depending on the province. Alberta and Quebec, for instance, run largely school-based programs, whereas Ontario takes a more mixed approach, providing some vaccines through school programswhile others are delivered atphysicianoffices or bypublic health.

Epidemiologist Marilou Kiely of Quebec's public health institute called school-based programs an efficient and equitable way to reach children and teens with vaccinations.

Quebec's public health nurses conducted catch-up vaccination clinicsduring the summer and vaccination coverage largely recovered, shesaid.

"In 2021, we have seen that the general attitudes regarding vaccination were the same that we had in previous surveys," Kiely said.

She noted thatQuebec continues tomonitor the impact of the pandemic on vaccination coverage, including hesitancy.

In order to attend school in Ontario, students must be immunized against nine illnesses unless they have a valid exemption:

New Brunswick also requires students to have the same nine immunizations to attend school unless they have an exemption.

WATCH | The race to vaccinate against polio after New York outbreak:

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Receiving a notice from a local public health unit doesn't always mean the student hasn't been vaccinated, Aoki said, notingit could just be that theirrecords aren't up to date, for instance if they wereimmunizedby a family physician and didn't report it to public health.

Many parents may not realize they haveto send theirchild'supdated vaccination status to public health, a spokesperson for Windsor's public health unit said.

"We don't want to suspend," Aoki said, which is why parents are given months to get their children immunized and update their records. "We do this process to ensure safety."

WATCH | Thousands of Ont. students behind in vaccinations:

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Amina Zafar covers medical sciences and health topics, including infectious diseases, for CBC News. She holds an undergraduate degree in environmental science and a master's in journalism.

Originally posted here:

Routine vaccines for kids slipped during the pandemic. Now provinces are working to catch up - CBC.ca