After finally recovering from that cold and struggling to catch up this week, I don’t have enough time for a full newsletter. Sorry about that! I’ve still be keeping up with all sorts of stories, so let me share them with you quickly:
Consumer Reports has published a piece on the radioactive shrimp recalls. This is a great write-up on the details of this situation and what the FDA has been doing in response.
The current acting head of the CDC is tweeting that pharmaceutical companies should develop three vaccines, one for measles, mumps, and rubella, to replace the combined MMR vaccine series. There is no data to support this recommendation, but making people get more shots will likely prevent people from becoming fully vaccinated against these pathogens. I personally don’t think pharmaceutical companies should spend millions to make these!
Speaking of infectious disease, there is a significant rise in pertussis infections in infants and children in the US. How significant is this rise? The CDC reports an estimated six times the cases in 2024 compared to 2023. Sadly, the Mississippi State Department of Health announced an infant death caused by pertussis infection in September.
In the US, gonorrhea and chlamydia have a higher number of infections per year than other STIs, but in the past 5 years total cases have trended down. Unfortunately, syphilis is trending up in that same time period. This video can give you a quick overview of syphilis—Dr. Fran, the obstetrician and gynecologist in the video, makes great informative videos on a variety of sexual health topics! You can also check this CDC page for info on syphilis.
Here’s a combination of confusing CDC news from this week: the CDC has both committed to remove the COVID-19 vaccine recommendation for anyone older than 6 months and also expanded COVID-19 vaccine access for pregnant people. These two stories tie back to the botched ACIP meeting last month, in which even the ACIP panel members didn’t seem to know what they were doing. Well, that meeting has now brought us to this weird place with the COVID-19 vaccine. The confusion around eligibility will definitely prevent people from even trying to get vaccinated. If you haven’t gotten yours for this year, please look into getting one for yourself and your family!
Thankfully, people are standing up against the Trump admin’s H-1B visa fee that threatens to worsen the shortage of physicians. Here’s hoping their lawsuit gains some ground against the administration’s attacks on healthcare.
Quick question… is it, uh, good when six former surgeon generals all band together to say that RFK Jr is uniquely dangerous to American health? I think it’s good for them to say it, but I’m not holding my breath that RFK Jr will be leaving the administration any time soon…
Trump and his admin keep saying drug prices are going to go down hundreds of percent. I don’t even want to link anything here, if you really want to gaze into the maw of stupidity, you can look it up for yourself. Maybe it’s time we get excited for big pharma to start paying us to take their products! IDK, could be fun 🫠
What a week! That’s without even touching the government shutdown shenanigans. I’ll be manifesting the time and energy for a full return next week! See you then.
Professor Batty