Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

A senior CDC staffer said it’s been difficult for the agency to mount a sufficient response to the measles outbreak in Texas that has already killed two children. “We are scraping to find the resources and personnel needed to provide support to Texas and other jurisdictions,” said David Sugerman, a senior scientist on the measles response team. His comments were made at the conclusion of a meeting between the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Tuesday, weeks after the Trump administration began broad firings across health agencies. Sugerman said that the CDC was preparing to deploy another team to Texas this week, after 15 agency staff provided on-site assistance last month. The CDC has also been having biweekly national measles calls with public health partners and biweekly calls with partners in Mexico and Canada. There have been 712 total cases reported so far in 2025, 93% of which are associated with outbreaks. Texas reported 20 new cases on Tuesday. But there could be more. “We do think that there is under-testing and therefore under-diagnosis and underreporting, which leads to a smaller denominator than likely is there,” he said. ACIP chair Keipp Talbot previewed the presentation by saying, “I find it absolutely devastating that we’re having this update today.” “There’s no reason why we have healthy children dying of measles in the US when this vaccine is amazing,” she said. “It’s highly effective and has very long lasting immunity.” The outbreak has thrust HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into handling the spread of a vaccine-preventable illness. One of the biggest concerns during Kennedy’s Senate confirmation process, from members of both parties, was that Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine advocate, would encourage vaccine hesitancy that could spur such outbreaks. Kennedy has oscillated between commending the benefits of the measles vaccine while also touting less proven treatments. He recently gave his clearest answer yet, promoting the vaccine in a television interview with CBS News this month , but has also taken a number of other steps seemingly aimed at undermining confidence in vaccines. “The federal government’s position, my position, is people should get the measles vaccine,” he told CBS. But he emphasized that the government should not be mandating vaccines, which runs counter to longstanding public health policy across the US . The FDA’s liaison for Tuesday’s meeting was Tracy Beth Høeg, who was recently named special assistant to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. Høeg was reportedly asked to assess Novavax’s approval package for its Covid-19 vaccine, after top FDA official Sara Brenner stepped in to halt a decision. A source familiar with the application previously told Endpoints News that the company was in discussions with the FDA about a label, usually the final step in the approval process. But the approval deadline came and went without an update from the agency. “There will be an update coming out publicly very soon,” Høeg told committee members Tuesday. In response to a question from Endpoints, Novavax referred to a prior statement saying that it had conducted a “robust” trial showing the vaccine was safe and effective. Novavax’s shot was found to be nearly 90% effective in a Phase 3 study that included more than 14,000 patients in the efficacy analysis. In the CBS television interview this month, Kennedy implied that Novavax’s vaccine doesn’t work because it’s a single-antigen vaccine, despite other such vaccines being on the market.

THURSDAY, April 3, 2025 -- Health experts are warning that whooping cough , also known as pertussis, is making a dangerous comeback. Cases are rising across the country, and Louisiana recently reported that two infants have died -- the state’s first deaths from the illness since 2018. “For infants, it’s really rather terrifying,” Dr. John Schieffelin , an associate professor of pediatrics at Tulane University, told CNN . “They’re just coughing so much, they can’t eat, they can’t drink, and they often get a pneumonia, which means we have to put them on a ventilator. They just never stop coughing.” Whooping cough is a contagious illness that causes long, painful coughing fits. Many have to be placed on ventilators due to pneumonia and nonstop coughing, Schieffelin added. So far this year, Louisiana has reported 110 cases of pertussis. That’s close to the 154 total cases reported for all of 2024, CNN reported. The U.S. saw more than 35,000 cases last year -- the most in over 10 years. Ten people also died, including six babies under 1 year old, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Experts say that low vaccination rates and fading immunity are driving the surge. “When you start to see these outbreaks … it tends to be as a result of that increased circulation of the microbe in the community, as well as populations with no immunity or reduced immunity that are susceptible to the infection,” Lisa Morici , a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Tulane University School of Medicine, told CNN . Children should get the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis, or DTaP, vaccine at 2, 4, 6 and 15-18 months, and again at 4 to 6 years of age. A booster (Tdap) is recommended at age 11 or 12, and again every 10 years for adults, according to the CDC . Pregnant women are urged to get the Tdap vaccine during their third trimester . This helps protect babies too young to get vaccinated, according to the CDC. The CDC says this prevents 78% of cases in newborns and is 91% effective at preventing hospital stays. Schieffelin also recommends "cocooning," a tactic in which family members and caregivers get vaccinated to help protect infants. Declining vaccination rates are a big concern, experts say. Fewer kindergartners in the U.S. are getting the DTaP shots, leaving many kids at risk. Some experts also blame a lack of access to care. “Especially in a state like Louisiana, we’ve got a lot of poverty. We’ve got a lot of rural populations, and not everyone has access to regular medical care,” Jennifer Herricks , founder of Louisiana Families for Vaccines, told CNN. Some are also worried about the messages about vaccination that are coming from the government. “The State of Louisiana and [Louisiana Department of Health] have historically promoted vaccines for vaccine preventable illnesses through our parish health units, community health fairs, partnerships and media campaigns,” state Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham wrote in a memo. “While we encourage each patient to discuss the risks and benefits of vaccination with their provider, LDH will no longer promote mass vaccination.” Dr. Jennifer Avegno , director of the New Orleans Health Department, warned about the consequences. “When you cast aspersions or doubt about the safety and efficacy of one vaccine, I think it really has a ripple effect for all vaccines,” she noted. Abraham has since shared pertussis vaccine guidance online, but Avegno fears that it may be too late. “I’ve been encouraged that our state Department of Health is putting out good messaging about pertussis, but I worry that it’s going to get sort of lost in the shuffle,” Avegno said. “It’s maybe too little, too late.” Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

TUESDAY, April 1, 2025 -- Hundreds of U.S. research projects aimed at boosting vaccine confidence have been shut down -- just as preventable diseases like measles and flu are on the rise. Since Jan. 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has canceled more than 1,600 research grants. Around 300 of those were for vaccine-related projects, making it one of the biggest areas affected by the cuts. In a viewpoint published Monday in the medical journal JAMA , three pediatricians warn the cuts could have dangerous consequences. "The lives of individuals in the U.S. are at stake," Dr. Douglas Opel , Dr. Sean O'Leary and Dr. Melissa Stockwell wrote. Opel, a pediatrician at the University of Washington, had been studying ways to build vaccine confidence in Native American and Alaska Native communities, according to CNN . But, the viewpoint noted that a letter from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stated: “It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research activities that focuses gaining scientific knowledge on why individuals are hesitant to be vaccinated and/or explore ways to improve vaccine interest and commitment.” Opel told CNN : “This was a broad swath of work that was terminated, all focused on trying to understand the needs of individuals and communities regarding vaccines.” Stockwell, chief of child and adolescent health at Columbia University, was leading a study on using text messages to increase flu and COVID vaccine rates in kids. Her team had already spent nearly $1 million setting up the project. Now, Stockwell said, they won’t be able to see the results. “What made it particularly devastating was that it wasn’t only my grant, but it was this community of researchers across the country … It was all happening to us simultaneously,” she added. The researchers say the timing couldn’t be worse. One recent study published in the journal Vaccine found that 1 in 5 U.S. parents are hesitant about vaccines. Meanwhile, cases of measles, flu and whooping cough are on the rise. “It really makes no logical sense,” O'Leary, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, told CNN . “We think of measles as the canary in the coal mine of vaccine-preventable diseases, because it’s so contagious that it’s the first one when you see immunization coverage in general drop. It’s the first one you’re going to see pop up.” A growing measles outbreak is causing concern. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr . recently wrote that parents should talk to their doctors about the MMR vaccine. He didn't recommend it but acknowledged it can help protect both individuals and communities, CNN reported. The grant termination letters said that the “NIH is obligated to carefully steward grant awards to ensure taxpayer dollars are used in ways that benefit the American people.” Every dollar spent on childhood vaccines saves about $10 in future health costs, according to the group Vaccinate Your Family , which was co-founded by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. For the NIH to no longer be supporting them is chilling, Opel said. “It’s just absolutely unequivocal how important and beneficial vaccines are to the American public.” Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.