Helen Branswell

3 days ago | statnews.com | Helen Branswell

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his lieutenants have sent multiple signals in recent weeks that they envisage a world in which far fewer people are urged to get Covid-19 shots each fall. It is a vision that they seem likely to try to realize. But others have actually started that process.

6 days ago | statnews.com | Helen Branswell

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows there was a substantial drop in hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus this winter among very young children, who are at the highest risk of becoming severely ill if they contract RSV. This past winter was the first during which new options for protecting babies from the virus became widely available in the United States, though the products were first introduced in a limited way in advance of the 2023-2024 season.

1 week ago | statnews.com | Helen Branswell

Philanthropist Bill Gates announced Thursday that he will wind down his massive charity in 20 years, doubling spending over that time to accelerate the work it hopes to achieve. Gates made the announcement on the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Gates Foundation, the third largest player in international philanthropy. He said the foundation would spend $200 billion between now and 2045, when its operations will wind down.

1 week ago | statnews.com | Helen Branswell

When word broke this week that the Department of Health and Human Services was investing half-a-billion dollars on a National Institutes of Health project to develop a vaccine platform for pathogens that could trigger pandemics, a number of scientists who work in the field of vaccinology had decidedly mixed feelings. That HHS and NIH are going to continue to invest in efforts to make vaccines that could reduce the impact of future pandemics was good news, many thought.

1 week ago | flipboard.com | Helen Branswell

NowExperts warn about the possibility of a new pandemic in 2025 as bird flu spreads across all 50 states, impacting American dairy and poultry farms with dozens of people infected. Here's what to know. Bird flu, also known as H5N1, has been around for decades. But the discovery in 2024 that the virus …