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Some pediatricians are stunned by the possibility that vaccines proven to save kids’ lives could be banned in a second Trump administration. “I have watched a child die in the hospital of a vaccine-preventable illness because her parents refused to vaccinate her. Many parents today have not witnessed that — yet,” said Dr. Catherine Ohmstede, a pediatrician at Novant Health in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, kindergarten vaccination rates had been falling in the U.S. for years before Trump embraced Kennedy and his anti-vaccine views. Amy Pisani, CEO of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, Vaccinate Your Family, said she worries about the outcomes of the latest anti-vaccine sentiments.

Persons: Trump, Donald Trump, he’ll, Robert F, Kennedy Jr, Kennedy, doesn’t, he’s, he’d, “, ”, Catherine Ohmstede, ” Ohmstede, Adam Ratner, Rochelle Walensky, That’s, Deanna Behrens, “ I’m, Amy Pisani Organizations: NBC News, Health, Centers for Disease Control, Children’s, NYU Langone, CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics Locations: U.S, Charlotte , North Carolina, New York City, Illinois

☆ Opinion | Rochelle Walensky on the Rocky Road to Normal
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

You have Anthony Fauci and Vivek Murthy saying that 99.2 or 99.5 percent of deaths were unvaccinated, when in those months the share of vaccinated deaths was about 10 times that high. They’re important deaths. But the character of the kind of person who was dying is different. And the backdrop of immunity was different, and the case fatality rate of different variants changed over time, as well. And I think about all of the messaging that we did over the last three years.

Persons: It’s, We’re, Anthony Fauci, Vivek Murthy Organizations: CNN Locations: Covid

☆ Departing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky Warns of Politicized Science
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Sarah Toy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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Persons: Dow Jones Organizations: rochelle Locations: walensky

☆ CDC recommends RSV vaccines from Pfizer, GSK for adults 60 and older
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended that adults ages 60 and above receive a single dose of RSV vaccines from Pfizer and GSK after consulting their doctors. "These vaccines provide an opportunity to help protect older adults against severe RSV illness at a time when multiple respiratory infections are likely to circulate," the CDC said in a statement. The virus is a common respiratory infection that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but more severe cases in older adults and children. Each year, RSV kills 6,000 to 10,000 seniors and a few hundred children younger than 5, according to CDC data. But the panel raised concerns about the lack of efficacy data on subgroups of the elderly population at the highest risk of severe RSV.

Persons: Rochelle Walensky, Michael Melgar Organizations: Disease Control, Pfizer, GSK, CDC, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Spokespeople Locations: U.S

☆ Outgoing CDC director says the US is not prepared for the next pandemic because parts of the public health system still use 'old fax machines'
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Katie Hawkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US isn't prepared for the next pandemic, the outgoing CDC director wrote in a New York Times op-ed. This is partly because local public health systems are still using outdated, unreliable technology. "Some of our public health data systems‌‌ are reliant on old fax machines," Dr. Rochelle Walensky wrote. She concluded with a call for support from the public and US lawmakers in improving public health infrastructure. "It is not enough to support public health when there is an emergency," Walensky wrote.

Persons: Dr, Rochelle Walensky, —, Walensky, Michael Ciaglo, underfunding, Joe Biden, Biden, Mandy Cohen, Cohen Organizations: New York Times, Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Guard, Times, New York Times . Healthcare, Colorado Department of Public Health, Environment, Reuters, CDC, North Carolina's Department of Health, Human Services Locations: Washington, Austin , Texas, Denver , Colorado

☆ C.D.C. Director Rochelle Walensky Shares a Message About Covid and Public Health - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Rochelle P. Walensky | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

All of this is made easier with strong institutions and a strong public health work force. Some estimates suggest we are 80,000 public health workers short across the ‌United States to meet basic public health needs. ‌To this day some of our public health data systems‌‌ are reliant on old fax machines‌. The responsibility of the public health community and its leaders to articulate strategy and communicate regularly with the public has also never been more apparent. We felt our primary audience was mostly health scientists, academics and public health practitioners, and our initial pandemic messages were frequently speaking to those scientifically attuned.

Persons: leaders‌, ‌, underfunding Organizations: ‌, Chickasaw Nation Locations: U‌nited, United States, Bronx, Montana, Chickasaw, Oklahoma, Guam

☆ The cult of Emily Oster
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Sarah Todd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +30 min

Emily Oster is sitting in the back of a car, checking her Garmin watch as we lurch through rush-hour traffic toward the Holland Tunnel. A self-described expert in data, Oster uses her economics training to dig into studies on things like circumcision and screen time and translate them for popular consumption. There doesn't seem to be much of a gap between the way Oster presents herself in her books and newsletters and the way she conducts her life. Unsurprisingly, economics informs every aspect of the way Oster sees the world. When Oster was a toddler, her mother told a Yale colleague that Oster often talked to herself before falling asleep.

Persons: Emily Oster, doesn't, Oster, Taylor Swift, Spock, —, Mandy Moore, Emily DiDonato, Amy Schumer, " Oster, Emily, Aisha McAdams, Claudia Goldin, who's, Lori Feldman, " Feldman, Winter, It's, reopenings, Timothy Caulfield, Oster's Brown, OSTER, She's, Sheryl Sandberg's, Brown, Denis Tangney Jr, graham, Eminem, Sharon Oster, Ray Fair, Jesse Shapiro, Katherine Nelson, Carl, Choate Rosemary Hall, John F, Kennedy, Glenn Close, Ivanka Trump, Goldin, Steven Levitt —, Oster —, Paul Farmer, Steven Levitt, Oster's, Levitt, Robert Barro, demographer Monica Das Gupta, Joseph Delaney, she'd, I've, Matt Notowidigdo, Chicago Booth, hadn't, Udo Salters, Patrick McMullan, Shapiro, Jessica Calarco, Dr, Anthony Fauci, Donald Trump, Calarco, Rochelle Walensky, Delaney, University of Manitoba epidemiologist, Abigail Cartus, Justin Feldman, Delivette Castor, they're, COVID, Castor, Notowidigdo, Carter, you'd, she's, there's Organizations: Garmin, Brown University, New York Times, American Academy of Pediatrics, Yorker, Yale School of Management, Yale, Harvard, Connecticut, Choate, University of Chicago, Forbes, Wall, Publicly, University of Manitoba, Getty, Oster, Centers for Disease Control, Columbia University, Harvard Business School Locations: Holland, Montclair , New Jersey, Montclair, Harvard, Providence , Rhode Island, New Haven , Connecticut, China, Canada, Chicago, Ohio, New Jersey

☆ CDC advisory panel backs use of GSK and Pfizer RSV vaccines in adults 60 and older
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The virus is a common respiratory infection that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but more severe cases in older adults and children. Pfizer and GSK on Wednesday both presented new clinical trial data to the panel, which provided a first glimpse of their shots' durability after one RSV season. That's down from more than 85% at the end of the first season in older adults. For less severe RSV disease, efficacy declined to 67.2% over two seasons from 82% after one season. The shots would help the U.S. combat the upcoming RSV season in the fall after an unusually severe RSV season last year.

Persons: Rochelle Walensky, That's, Michael Melgar, Melgar Organizations: Centers for Disease Control, Pfizer, GSK, Food and Drug Administration, CDC, Northern, Seniors Locations: Los Angeles, United States

☆ Biden to appoint Mandy Cohen to lead the CDC
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Dr. Mandy Cohen speaks at a news conference at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, Nov. 10, 2021. "Dr. Cohen is one of the nation's top physicians and health leaders with experience leading large and complex organizations, and a proven track-record protecting Americans' health and safety," Biden said in a statement Friday. President Joe Biden on Friday said he will appoint Dr. Mandy Cohen to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She led the CDC through the Covid vaccine rollout, as well as the delta and omicron waves of Covid. Walensky cited the end of the Covid emergency in her resignation letter to Biden.

Persons: Mandy Cohen, Dr, Cohen, Biden, Joe Biden, Rochelle Walensky, Walensky, Ashish Jha, Monica Bertagnolli, Sen, Bernie Sanders Organizations: Emergency, Center, Congress, North, North Carolina's Department of Health, Human Services, Medicare, Services, for Disease Control, CDC, White, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Washington Post Locations: Raleigh , North Carolina, North Carolina's, U.S

☆ Dr. Mandy Cohen: Biden chooses the next CDC director
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Betsy Klein | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

And as Cohen takes on what’s become an increasingly politicized role at the CDC, Biden heralded her capacity to work across the aisle. I look forward to working with Dr. Cohen as she leads our nation’s finest scientists and public health experts with integrity and transparency,” the president said. Cohen will hit the ground running as leader of the world’s finest public health organization saving lives every day. Walensky announced her departure from her government role last month in the days before the Covid-19 public health emergency lifted. As she prepares to step into the role, Cohen inherits an agency wracked with challenges and low morale.

Persons: Joe Biden, Mandy Cohen, Rochelle Walensky, Dr, Cohen, ” Biden, what’s, Biden, Jeff Zients, Zients, “ Dr, ” Cohen, Walensky, –, Obama, ”, Andy Slavitt, “ She’s, Slavitt, Republican Sen, Richard Burr of, she’s, … I’ve, Mandy, ” Burr, Burr, “, ” Slavitt, Roy Cooper, Cohen “, Trump, Cooper, she’ll Organizations: CNN, US Centers for Disease Control, White House, CDC, North, North Carolina’s Department of Health, Human Services, Trump, Biden, Centers, Medicare, Medicaid Services, Yale School of Medicine, Harvard, of Public Health, The Washington Post, Center for Strategic, Studies, America’s Health Security, Republican, White, Democratic North Carolina Gov, Center for Health Sector Management, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business Locations: North Carolina’s, Chan, “, North Carolina, Richard Burr of North Carolina, North Carolinians

☆ Biden Is Said to Pick Former North Carolina Health Secretary to Lead C.D.C.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Sheryl Gay Stolberg | Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The selection of Dr. Cohen, which was first reported by The Washington Post, is not final. Dr. Cohen did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If chosen by Mr. Biden, Dr. Cohen, an internist, would replace Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, an infectious disease expert who announced last month that she would step down at the end of June. Dr. Walensky led the C.D.C. through difficult times; the agency had grown demoralized under President Donald J. Trump and drew fierce criticism under both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.

Persons: Biden, Mandy Cohen, Dr . Cohen, Cohen, Mr, . Cohen, Rochelle, Walensky, Donald J, Trump Organizations: Centers for Disease Control, The Washington Locations: North Carolina

☆ U.S. Covid public health emergency ends, leaving behind a battered health system
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. public health emergency declared in response to Covid-19 comes to an end Thursday more than three years after the pandemic began. The Biden administration's decision to end the emergency comes as deaths and hospitalizations have declined dramatically due to the availability of vaccines, antiviral treatments and widespread exposure to the virus. The end of the emergency will bring significant changes in how the U.S. responds to the virus. After the emergency ends, the CDC will no longer be able to compel labs to report Covid test results. While public health experts agree the U.S. has many more tools to fight Covid today, they warn the virus will remain a persistent threat to the elderly, the vulnerable and the nation's fragmented, battered health-care system.

☆ As Covid Emergency Ends, U.S. Response Shifts to ‘Peacetime’ Mode
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Sheryl Gay Stolberg | Noah Weiland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Thursday, three years and 100 days after the Trump administration declared the coronavirus a public health emergency, the Biden administration will allow the emergency declaration to expire, ushering in a new era when the government will treat Covid-19 like any other respiratory ailment. If the coronavirus pandemic was a war, the United States is about to officially enter peacetime. State health officials, tasked with tracking the coronavirus, are burned out, their departments understaffed. President Biden’s coronavirus response team will soon disband. But the officials say they are operating on a tight budget; Congress has refused to give the administration any new money for the pandemic response.

☆ Opinion: Why I’m not reassured by our victory over Covid-19
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Opinion Kent Sepkowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s note: Kent Sepkowitz is a physician and infectious disease expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. CNN —At long last, the Covid-19 pandemic has entered its whimper phase. Last week, the World Health Organization decided to end the Covid-19 global health emergency. The US public health emergency is scheduled to end on Thursday, and beginning the following day, vaccination against Covid-19 will no longer be required for non-US travelers entering the States. Infectious diseases don’t ever really go away; they just change a little, then change some more till one day, they return bigger and fiercer than ever.

☆ CDC Director Walensky to Step Down
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Sarah Toy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rochelle Walensky is stepping aside after more than two years as CDC director. Photo: Tony Luong for The Wall Street JournalRochelle Walensky will be stepping down as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in June, the CDC said. Dr. Walensky decided to step aside, after more than two years in the job, as the Biden administration prepares to end next week the national health emergency around Covid-19.

☆ Walensky to Resign as C.D.C. Director
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Apoorva Mandavilli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will step down from her position on June 30, she announced on Friday. In an agencywide meeting, Dr. Walensky admitted to mixed emotions about her decision and broke down in tears, according to people on a conference call with her. “I took on this role with the goal of leaving behind the dark days of the pandemic and moving the C.D.C. — and public health — into a much better and more trusted place,” she said in an email to agency staff that followed the call. It was unclear who would lead the agency after her departure.

☆ CDC Director Rochelle Walensky will resign in June
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Friday announced she will resign at the end of June, ending a tenure marked by repeated change to adapt to an evolving coronavirus crisis. "The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency marks a tremendous transition for our country, for public health, and in my tenure as CDC Director," Walensky wrote in the letter. The U.S. public health emergency will end Thursday. The World Health Organization on Friday declared an end to the global Covid health emergency. "Dr. Walensky leaves CDC a stronger institution, better positioned to confront health threats and protect Americans," the president said.

"The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency marks a tremendous transition for our country, for public health, and in my tenure as CDC Director," Walensky wrote to President Joe Biden in her resignation letter. "We have all benefited from her service and dedication to public health, and I wish her the best in her next chapter," Biden said in a statement. "For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations," she told CDC staff last summer. Public health experts said Walensky wrestled with political and technical challenges during her tenure. "Dr. Walensky was put into place at the CDC at a time when the agency was basically captive to politicians which clearly hampered her ability to lead," he said.

☆ The ‘Hurtful’ Idea of Scientific Merit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jerry A. Coyne | Anna I. Krylov | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Review & Outlook: CDC director Rochelle Walensky says she’s going to reshuffle the agency with an emphasis on 'action' and 'equity.' We finally learned of the journal’s existence, however, when we tried to publish a commentary about how modern science is being compromised by a de-emphasis on merit. Apparently, what was once anodyne and unobjectionable is now contentious and outré, even in the hard sciences. Merit isn’t much in vogue anywhere these days. Our intent was to defend established and effective practices of judging science based on its merit alone.

☆ How Randi Weingarten Landed at the Heart of America’s Political Fights
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Jonathan Mahler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

But Weingarten was friendly with McAuliffe from the Clinton days and was supporting his candidacy on Twitter and cable news, and the A.F.T. By the fall of 2021, America’s public schools were fully open, but mask mandates were still being hotly contested. gave more than $1 million to McAuliffe, and Weingarten even knocked on doors for him in Alexandria. The tabloid, which had been gleefully attacking Weingarten for years — dubbing her Whine-garten — trumpeted the story: “Powerful Teachers Union Influenced C.D.C. Senator Susan Collins of Maine grilled the C.D.C.’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, at a committee hearing over what she called the C.D.C.’s “secret negotiations” with the teachers’ union.

Childhood vaccinations across the U.S fallen for a second year in a row, leaving hundreds of thousands of kids vulnerable to otherwise preventable illnesses. But fears stoked by vaccine misinformation have also been a growing problem, O'Leary said. "We're still trying to understand the extent to which misinformation around Covid vaccines has spread to misinformation about other childhood vaccines," he said. In a December interview, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC's director, told NBC News that vaccine misinformation is one of the biggest threats to public health. About a third of kids ages 5 through 11 have had two doses of a Covid vaccine.

☆ Mpox has faded in the U.S. Who deserves the credit?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Today, reports of new cases are down to a trickle in the U.S. Health officials are shutting down emergency mobilizations. “It’s really impressive how that peak has come down to very, very low levels.”So who deserves the credit? Mpox cases began emerging in Europe and the U.S. in May, mostly among men who have sex with men. In early August, U.S. health officials decided to stretch the limited supply by giving people just one-fifth the usual dose. “The monkeypox virus essentially loses steam after a couple of rounds in humans,” Morse said.

☆ The US is releasing doses of flu medicine from the national stockpile amid a surge in cases
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Sarah Braner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

HHS said today that states can now access the national stockpile of Tamiflu, a flu antiviral. There's a shortage of the medicine, thanks to a rough start to this flu season. This comes as flu season continues to sweep across the US, with thousands of hospitalizations. States were given access to their own stockpiles last week, according to the statement. Rui Vieira/PA Images via Getty ImagesThis flu season is intense—and it started early.

☆ Man who threatened to kill CDC head pleads guilty to charges
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

— A Mississippi man who threatened to kill Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky has pleaded guilty to making threats in interstate commerce, federal prosecutors announced Monday. Robert Wiser Bates, 39, of Ridgeland, threatened to kill Walensky in voicemails left in July 2021 at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, court records said. He also said he would kill Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to the president. In August, a West Virginia man was sentenced to three years in federal prison after he sent emails threatening Fauci and another federal health official for talking about the coronavirus and efforts to prevent its spread. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The vast majority are either unvaccinated or have received just one of the two recommended doses of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, according to City of Columbus Public Health. The outbreak, the largest in the U.S. since 2019, is happening as resistance to school vaccination requirements is spreading across the country. The percentage of parents who said they were against vaccination requirements for school was even higher. "As I think about the challenges that we have to public health vaccine, misinformation is among the biggest threats," she said. "Here in Ohio, we have some pretty active anti-vaccine groups," said Tara Smith, a professor of epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health.

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