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Vaccine trends and misinformation among older adults
Vaccine uptake for influenza, COVID-19, RSV and shingles among adults over age 60 remains low, according to data from the University of Michigan and the CDC. Older adults with multiple chronic conditions are especially vulnerable to these diseases. Meanwhile, emergency department visits and hospitalizations for some of these viruses are increasing, CDC tracking data points…
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Vaccine injury compensation in the U.S.: Current practices and future prospects
The U.S. has relied on the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program since 1986 to ensure that individuals who have experienced a verified injury related to a vaccine have an opportunity to receive compensation without the difficulties and legal fees of pursuing individual litigation against companies or healthcare institutions that likely would not succeed with the…
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Covering measles in 2026: Updated data, guidance and reliable sources
Editor’s note: This article was updated on Feb. 3, 2026, to include more recent and relevant information for the 2026 measles outbreak. It’s been just over a year since a measles outbreak began in west Texas that eventually exceeded 800 cases and contributed to some of the 48 additional outbreaks in 44 states in 2025,…
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A conversation on ‘The Cure for Everything’: Where American public health is and where it’s headed
For the first time in a century, American life expectancy is declining, an unprecedented trend for a wealthy nation and one driven largely by preventable causes of early death. The foundations of public health reforms — sanitation, clean water, safe housing, pollution control, workplace safety, and more — doubled America’s life expectancy between the mid-1800s and…
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Big changes to the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule: What you need to know
This week, the CDC changed the agency’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule to nearly match that of Denmark, a country that bears little similarity to the U.S. in population, health care system, and public health approach. The move shifts six vaccines from “recommended” to “shared clinical decision-making.” Hosted by Tara Haelle and offered in conjunction with…
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Covering the big changes in the CDC’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule
The CDC has unilaterally changed the national recommended childhood immunization schedule to nearly match Denmark’s, reducing the number of fully recommended vaccines from 17 to 11. The decision follows a directive from President Trump to review the vaccine schedules of other high-income countries and assess the U.S. schedule based on current scientific evidence. However, infectious…
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Get to know the parts of a medical conference
If you’ve never been to a medical conference before, making sense of the schedule ahead of time can be overwhelming at first. We covered in our last tip sheet what a medical conference is and how it fits into regular health reporting, but now we’ll dig deeper to help you understand what all the different…
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