Pennsylvania's health department issued an alert Monday after seeing rising numbers of measles infections among pregnant women, including cases of congenital measles not documented in the US for decades. As of October 19, the state had logged 1,286 measles cases across 42 counties this year, with 247 hospitalizations and six reported deaths. Separate reporting has put measles-in-pregnancy cases at 53, including one newborn death linked to congenital infection.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-19
Measles cases in the United States have risen past 4,200 in 2026, prompting the Pan American Health Organization to examine whether the country has again become endemic for the disease. The U.S. had declared measles eliminated in 2000, and PAHO is expected to issue a determination on that status at a meeting next month.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-16
PopVax dosed the first participants in a Phase 1 trial of PVX-001, a broadly protective COVID-19 vaccine candidate, in Melbourne on 31 August 2026. The trial will enroll 36 healthy adults to test safety and immune response breadth; as of 6 October, 14 participants had been dosed with no serious adverse events reported. The vaccine uses PopVax's own protein design, mRNA-VLP architecture, and fridge-stable lipid nanoparticle delivery, built in-house over 4.5 years, and will be open-sourced once the trial concludes.
chronicles.popvax.com
· 2026-10-10
Rolling Stone reports that CDC director's office staff instructed the agency's budget office in late September to earmark $1.6 million for a vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau that was suspended in January after being widely criticized as unethical. The trial, which would expose newborns to hepatitis B risk, is to be run by Danish researchers Christine Stabell Benn and Peter Aaby, who are currently under investigation by Danish authorities for alleged scientific misconduct. HHS did not respond to a request for comment.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-09
The Department of Health and Human Services announced an agency-wide initiative under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. focused on identifying vaccine-related injuries. The plan includes a new NIH clinic for patients reporting post-vaccination health problems, which quietly opened October 5 with Kennedy in attendance, plus a proposal to pay doctors for submitting reports to the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-08
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a disaster emergency on Monday in response to a measles outbreak, as national case counts reached their highest level in 35 years. Hochul said no one should become seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-06
Researchers analyzed more than 85 million U.S. medical records and found that people vaccinated against chickenpox in childhood had a reduced likelihood of developing shingles decades afterward. The study adds to evidence connecting varicella vaccination with long-term protection against the related shingles virus.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-02
A report on the Make America Healthy Again Summit, hosted under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., describes it as sponsored by corporate interests and featuring attendees including people convicted of or awaiting trial for serious crimes. The piece frames the event as emblematic of Kennedy's broader approach to leading U.S. health policy despite his history of promoting vaccine skepticism and other fringe health claims.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-10-01
At a Make America Healthy Again event, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Vice President JD Vance that artificial intelligence would free Americans from reliance on public health experts. Kennedy claimed AI tools are 'better informed than any doctor' and predicted they would contradict official guidance on masks, social distancing and vaccine transmission. A test of Google's Gemini chatbot on masks contradicted Kennedy's claim, confirming that masks do reduce spread of respiratory infections.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-30
At the Make America Healthy Again Conference, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Vice President JD Vance that AI chatbots are now 'better informed' than human physicians, according to the New York Times. He said AI could let ordinary Americans challenge public health guidance on masks, social distancing and vaccines, and claimed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told him it would be 'malpractice' for a doctor to prescribe without consulting AI first.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-30
A study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, published in The Lancet Oncology, estimates that infectious agents caused about 2.3 million new cancer cases worldwide in 2024, or roughly one in eight of all cases. Helicobacter pylori bacteria accounted for the largest share at 760,000 stomach cancer cases, mostly in eastern Asia, followed by HPV with nearly 750,000 cases concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, and hepatitis B and C viruses linked to many liver cancer cases. Researchers also expanded their list of infection-linked cancers by 16 additional types.
cbc.ca
· 2026-09-29
Heidi Overton, Trump's nominee to lead the FDA, testified before the Senate health committee and repeatedly stated the MMR vaccine is safe and effective, directly contradicting Trump's earlier claim that it was 'quite lethal.' When Sen. Maggie Hassan pressed her on whether the president could ever be wrong, Overton avoided answering directly.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-25
GoKawiil