GoKawiil
Tech News
The American Academy of Pediatrics has renewed its stance against unpasteurized milk, citing increased outbreaks linked to raw milk sales in 27 states. This comes as misinformation and political influences threaten established public health measures like vaccination and pasteurization. Despite federal bans, state laws have relaxed, leading to a resurgence of preventable illnesses among children.
The OpenAI Foundation, the nonprofit created in October 2025 during OpenAI's governance restructuring, has begun distributing part of its committed $25 billion in philanthropic funding. Recent grants include a $125 million package for open health and life-sciences data, covering $40 million for a University of North Carolina cancer vaccine project, $500,000 to repurpose data from failed biotech firms, and $15 million for research on drug transport across biological membranes, following an earlier $100 million commitment to Alzheimer's disease research. Jacob Trefethen, the foundation's head of life sciences, says this is an early phase of a broader, faster-moving funding effort.
The CDC has begun allowing states to order 2026–2027 COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program, ending a delay of nearly a month despite FDA approval of the shots in late August. HHS initially said procurement decisions had not been finalized, and an unnamed source told The Washington Post the holdup partly stemmed from unfinished clinical guidance requiring outside expert review.
Scientists are developing intranasal vaccines designed to trigger immunity directly in the nose and upper airway, the entry point for many respiratory pathogens. Unlike injected vaccines that mainly prevent severe illness, these formulations aim to stop infection and transmission before a virus can spread further.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent Catholic bishops a letter arguing there was no valid religious basis for refusing to grant vaccine exemptions in Catholic schools, and threatened to cut state scholarships and vouchers if they didn't comply. The bishops publicly rejected his theological reasoning and legal claims, stating that Catholic teaching supports vaccination and that they don't need to justify church doctrine to the state.
MIT scientists created a new vaccine adjuvant made of mRNA encoding two genes that push immune cells into a more active state via specific signaling pathways. Delivered in lipid nanoparticles in mouse models of bladder, colon, lung and skin cancers, the adjuvant slowed or eliminated tumors even without a cancer-specific vaccine, and worked even better alongside one or with checkpoint inhibitor drugs.
A free interactive tool called 'What's the Risk?' launched in early August, letting users visually compare the risks of vaccines against the diseases they prevent, as well as everyday hazards like car crashes, drowning and lightning strikes. It was built by the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy alongside Unbiased Science, a public health platform led by scientist Jessica Steier. Currently it covers measles, MMR vaccine and RSV-related products, with plans to expand comparisons over time.