On March 27, 2025, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced plans to dramatically transform the department. HHS is the umbrella agency responsible for pandemic…
Tag: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
5 years of COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while CDC, NIH and WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a crisis
Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, began as a “cluster of severe…
CDC layoffs strike deeply at its ability to respond to the current flu, norovirus and measles outbreaks and other public health emergencies
In just a few short weeks, the Trump administration has brought drastic changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health. Beginning with the removal of websites…
A public health historian sizes up their records
Health care is a defining issue in the 2024 election – Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican contender Donald Trump have starkly different records on the issue. Rather than…
How HIV/AIDS got its name − the words Americans used for the crisis were steeped in science, stigma and religious language
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first used the term “AIDS” on Sept. 24, 1982, more than a year after the first cases appeared in medical records. Those early…
COVID-19, flu and RSV shots − an epidemiologist explains why all three matter this fall
The Food and Drug Administration approved and granted emergency use authorization on Aug. 22, 2024, for the newest, updated version of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and…
Infectious diseases spike when kids return to school − here’s what you can do about it
Ready or not, back-to-school season is here, and kids will be bringing home more than homework. They’ll be carrying germs, too. These viruses and bacteria will be agents that cause…
CDC greenlights two updated COVID-19 vaccines, but how will they fare against the latest variants? 5 questions answered
On Sept. 12, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the newly formulated COVID-19 vaccines for all Americans ages 6 months and up, hours after its expert advisory…
FDA’s greenlighting of maternal RSV vaccine represents a major step forward in protecting young babies against the virus
With the Food and Drug Administration’s Aug. 21, 2023, approval of the first vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, for use during late pregnancy, the U.S. will soon have…
More adults than ever have been seeking ADHD medications – an ADHD expert explains what could be driving the trend
As a woman in my 30s who was constantly typing “ADHD” into my computer, something interesting happened to me in 2021. I started receiving a wave of advertisements beckoning me…
