Gee, it's a mystery! If you're an idiot.
As tuberculosis cases rise in the US and worldwide, health officials puzzle over the resurgence of a disease once in decline
https://www.alternet.org/tuberculosis-2671337939/
Fuck Joe Rogan and every other prominent voice who wants children to get sick and die for their own boneheaded contrarian amusement too.
Director of HHS convinces people to expose their children to measles and then not to take them to a doctor
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/03/director-of-hhs-convinces-people-to-expose-their-children-to-measles-and-then-not-to-take-them-to-a-doctor
"Instead, experts from within the FDA, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Defense gathered Thursday to go over surveillance data from the US and around the world about flu viruses that are currently circulating.
The FDA is recommending that flu vaccines for the 2025-26 season be trivalent, protecting against two strains of influenza A and one of influenza B."
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/health/fda-flu-vaccine-recommendations/index.html
"Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters on Capitol Hill that she was so troubled about Weldon’s vaccines stance that she shared her concerns with the White House, and she was not surprised that his nomination had been pulled."
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/13/dave-weldon-vaccine-skeptic-cdc-00228884
JAMA:
March 14, 2025
Revising US MMR Vaccine Recommendations Amid Changing Domestic Risks
"...The committee outlines a few special cases for the administration of a third lifetime dose, including during an ongoing measles or mumps outbreak and among high-risk groups (eg, health care workers and immunocompromised individuals). Additionally, for children aged 6 to 11 months scheduled to travel internationally, the committee recommends an additional early dose (ie, a third dose) of the MMR vaccine before travel, administered before initiating their routine 2-dose series at age 12 months. Historically, disease importations from unvaccinated children traveling internationally to endemic regions has been the major source of US measles cases. However, multiple recent US measles outbreaks, coupled with low vaccination rates, signal a growing domestic hazard..."
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2831828
Just went and got another TdaP vaccination, even though my last one was only five years ago and the current recommendation is to get one every ten years.
My reasoning:
- Who knows what vaccination availability will look like in five years.
- Regarding pertussis: "Researchers ... were able to figure out that in the first year after TdaP, its effectiveness is about 70%. By four years out, that protection is less than 10%."
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/protection-from-the-tdap-vaccine-doesnt-last-very-long-201602099202
Thanks to @deirdresm for alerting me to the waning pertussis immunity.
Took a couple stickers from CVS while I was at it, although it didn't take any bravery to get this vaccination.
Measles is unlike other viruses: What to know about long-term complications.
From NBC News: "The virus targets certain types of immune cells in the body, destroying them in the process."
How about some promising Covid-vaccine-related news? It's all early on, but it's still nice to see — and maybe buried amidst all the other news.
Nasal COVID-19 vaccine based on WashU technology to enter U.S. clinical trials
https://medicine.washu.edu/news/nasal-covid-19-vaccine-based-on-washu-technology-to-enter-u-s-clinical-trials/
Newly Discovered Antibody Protects Against All COVID-19 Variants
https://news.utexas.edu/2024/09/03/newly-discovered-antibody-protects-against-all-covid-19-variants/
(Of course, who knows what will happen with any vaccine work and/or availability given this administration.)
I don't think Americans are going to eat their way to good health with beef tallow french fries. I could be wrong.
"He asked three local churches if he could set up a mobile testing site on their property. They all refused...His team did create a drive-up testing site at a county events building next to the city park, and not far from the Masonic lodge. But he said that it gets very few visitors—about two or three a day. As a result, no one really knows the outbreak’s total size."
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/03/texas-measles-outbreak-death-family/681985/
“The goal is to cast vaccines into the shadows. That has deadly consequences.”
Legislators are bent on dismantling our vaccine safety net even as this deadly disease sees a frightening resurgence in our state. https://www.texasobserver.org/measles-outbreak-anti-vax-legislation/
Shot (article subhead): Oklahoma says the cases ‘don’t pose a public health risk.’”
Chaser (from the article itself)
“In the latest data, only 88 percent of Oklahoma's kindergartners were up, significantly below the 95 percent target to prevent community spread.”
My MMR titers are all in the immune range. Earlier today I texted our GP to get the hub’s titers checked cuz 
.
From: @chu
https://climatejustice.social/@chu/114145545019510168
From: @chu
https://climatejustice.social/@chu/114145545019510168
"NPR tracked down that 2009 report, spoke with those involved with the CDC's vaccine advisory committee at the time, and learned that Kennedy's statement about it is inaccurate.
"Right now, what we're getting is a total misrepresentation of a 20-year-old report, about a process that was already being improved before that report was issued," says Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director from 2009 to 2017."
"On recent podcast episodes, Edwards said that after practicing for several years, he came to believe that vaccines and modern medicine were not responsible for historical declines in infectious disease deaths. Instead, he credited sanitation, nutrition and other lifestyle factors — factors that were instrumental in decreasing mortality, but do not account for how vaccines have reduced or eliminated infectious diseases."
Propublica: National Cancer Institute Employees Can’t Publish Information on These Topics Without Special Approval
Vaccines. Fluoride. Autism. Communications involving these and 20 other “controversial, high profile, or sensitive” topics will get extra scrutiny
https://www.propublica.org/article/national-cancer-institute-flagged-topics-vaccines-autism-rfk-jr
Dammit. It's all well and good to live in a state that believes in science except when a virus jumps state lines and you're immunocompromised.
Measles have made it to the DMV (Maryland so far, but outbreak suspected at Dulles Airport, so who knows...). 
"Five years after the start of the worst health crisis in living memory, there is a national conversation waiting to be had about the roles of the individual, society and the state in such a crisis. What is my responsibility to myself and to my community, and what is the responsibility of the state towards us? At each level there is room for improvement, but we’re not addressing it. Let’s hope we can have that conversation before we’re tested again, but first the more strident – and misguided – voices have to pipe down."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/09/covid-five-years-right-narrative-outbreak
waiting for summer 
