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Despite no evidence that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism, a quarter of US adults still think it does, and the false belief is fueling rising measles cases amid falling vaccination rates, finds a survey by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC).

New study analyzes how vaccine content shared on Facebook influences people’s decision to vaccinate.

This analysis considers strategies implemented by Rhode Island to increase its adult flu vaccination rate. Identifying such initiatives highlights how a strong commitment to public health can positively impact flu vaccination.

This study used recently released nationally representative data with new measures on health information seeking to estimate the prevalence and predictors of adult social media users’ perceptions of health mis- and disinformation on social media. The perception by social media users that false and misleading health information on social media is highly prevalent may lend greater urgency to mitigate the spread of false or misleading health information that harms public health.

Ghana has experienced recent polio outbreaks. Behavioral insights can be used to understand behavior and create demand for the polio vaccine.

More than two decades after a promising vaccine for Lyme disease was pulled from the market, more tools to protect against the tick-borne illness—including a new shot—are on the horizon. 

A new report released by UNICEF finds that 67 million children across the world missed out on either some or all routine vaccinations between 2019 and 2021, and 48 million children didn't receive a single dose during this time period. 

Last week, WHO revised its COVID-19 vaccine guidance to recommend that countries focus on vaccinating and boosting individuals who are at high risk for severe disease. Some people have used this news to wrongly claim that the international health agency now recommends ending COVID-19 vaccination for healthy young people. This editorial explains exactly what WHO’s new guidance says, why it was revised, and what it means for children and teens.

This Technical Brief provides a summary and review of experiences with new and adapted digital solutions for COVID-19 vaccine delivery at the global, regional and country level to ensure that the lessons, challenges and successful application of digital health information innovations are captured as part of Gavi’s Digital Health Information Strategy.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has approved the R21 malaria vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. 

Researchers from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) announced new results from the KEN SHE study conducted in Kenya that shows that a single-dose of HPV vaccine is highly efficacious in preventing persistent infections of the virus over three years. The randomized, multicenter, double-blind, controlled trial included 2,275 women between the ages of 15-20, who were randomly assigned to receive either a single dose of the bivalent or nonavalent HPV vaccine or the control vaccine.

The pan-European VACCELERATE network aims to implement the first transnational harmonized and sustainable vaccine trial Volunteer Registry, being a single entry point for potential volunteers of large-scale vaccine trials across Europe. This work exhibits a set of harmonized vaccine trial-related educational and promotional tools for the general public, designed and disseminated by the pan-European VACCELERATE network.

Scientists in Germany say they’ve been able to make a nasal vaccine that can shut down a COVID-19 infection in the nose and throat, where the virus gets its first foothold in the body. 

Africa’s Lake Victoria is the world’s second largest freshwater lake and its largest tropical lake. This awe-inspiring ecosystem supports a stunning variety of bird, aquatic and animal species. Unfortunately, the same ecosystem is also an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes that carry malaria. 

School-located influenza vaccination programs (SIVP) can effectively promote childhood seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV). However, the longitudinal effects of continuation and discontinuation of the SIVP on parents’ vaccine hesitancy remained unknown.

The world is facing a red alert for children’s health: Routine vaccination coverage dropped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. UNICEF’s latest report, The State of the World’s Children 2023: For every child, vaccination, explores the reasons behind this red alert and the steps we as a global community must take to make sure that no child is left behind. 

Commissioned by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), this resource informs the Navigating Infodemics and Building Trust during Public Health Emergencies workshop by providing an overview of infodemic management tools that have been developed at the international, national, state, and local levels, such as The Public Good Project's Project VCTR and Vaccine Demand Observatory (VDO).

OVID-19 hesitancy among women planning to become pregnant, who are pregnant, and who are breast-feeding is still a global phenomenon. Unfortunately, there is a lack of national educational programs that provide those groups of people with the information they need about the vaccine. 

Misinformation is a growing threat to public health. But with rapidly evolving guidance and information-sharing at the speed of a click, it can be difficult to effectively combat. Join the Public Health Communications Collaborative on Tuesday, March 28, 1-2pm ET / 10-11am PT to hear industry experts discuss misinformation trends in public health, the critical differences between misinformation and disinformation, and when and how to respond to misinformation across channels. Public health communicators will leave with actionable insights to take back to their departments and communities.

What can be done to reduce misperceptions about COVID-19 vaccines? We present results from experiments conducted simultaneously on YouGov samples in 10 countries (N = 10 600), which reveal that factual corrections consistently reduce false beliefs about vaccines. 

Achieving herd immunity through mass vaccination remains an important strategy to adopt in the war against this disease since it is practically impossible for 60–70% of the population to achieve immunity through natural infection alone. Unfortunately, there have been widespread reports of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. This study aims to systematically review the literature to provide an up-to-date assessment of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates and also explore factors impacting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among adults in Nigeria.

During the pandemic healthcare professionals and political leaders routinely used traditional and new media outlets to publicly respond to COVID-19 myths and inaccuracies. This study examines how variations in the sources and messaging strategies of these public statements affect respondents’ beliefs about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. 

As the vaccine field trial approached, communities in multiple states pulled out of the experiment, forcing the scientist to scramble. What Jonas Salk needed—and what he got from TIME’s coverage—was an endorsement of his scientific bona fides. 

Childhood vaccination is a cost-effective, essential service to reach a larger population globally. Due to unclear reasons, new emergence and resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases increase. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify prevalence and determinants of childhood vaccination in Ethiopia. 

Some of the world's leading makers of flu vaccines say they could make hundreds of millions of bird flu shots for humans within months if a new strain of avian influenza ever jumps across the species divide. 

More than 200 current and former world leaders, Nobel laureates, civil society organizations, faith leaders, and health experts have united to call on governments to “never again” allow “profiteering and nationalism” to come before the needs of humanity in a pandemic, in a letter coordinated by the People’s Vaccine Alliance to mark three years since the World Health Organization (WHO) first characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic.

Vaccine hesitancy has become a widely debated topic during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the problem is as old as the practice of vaccination itself. Even when vaccination has demonstrably reduced the burden of disease, such as in the case of polio, misinformation and hesitancy persist. 

The COVID-19 vaccine’s release a year into the pandemic provided hope to the world as the new and deadly virus traversed the globe. Health agencies had the primary goal of providing quick and accurate vaccine information. However, millions of people could not understand the vaccine reports on their local government’s website and faced multiple barriers to being protected against the virus.

The objective of this study was to investigate whether COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is present among a Maltese Facebook audience, as well as to explore the ways in which digital communities engage with online news and misinformation, all while facing the effects of a global pandemic.

Technology is enhancing healthcare in Nigeria, as demonstrated by the use of GIS mapping in Kano State to improve vaccinators’ performance and address the resurgence of polio cases. GRID3 has built on the success of the GIS intervention introduced in 2012, utilising maps for effective polio and non-polio campaigns in the state. 

This study aimed to measure the level of vaccine hesitancy among the Saudi population using the WHO Vaccine Hesitancy Scale (VHS).

After six years without any detection of poliomyelitis cases, Angola reported a case of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) with paralysis onset date of 27 March 2019. Ultimately, 141 cVDPV2 polio cases were reported in all 18 provinces in 2019-2020, with particularly large hotspots in the south-central provinces of Luanda, Cuanza Sul, and Huambo. 

The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines was an extraordinary success for public health leaders, preventing an estimated 1.1 million deaths and 10.3 million hospitalizations in the United States between December 2020 and November 2021. Despite the proven safety and success of these vaccines, there was widespread hesitancy and reluctance to uptake.

The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new opportunities for health communication, including an increase in the public’s use of online outlets for health-related emotions. People have turned to social media networks to share sentiments related to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of major adverse cardiac events (MACE) and long-term cardiovascular sequelae after recovery.1 However, the association of vaccination on cardiovascular outcomes following infection has not been elucidated in the United States.  

The recent declaration of a public health emergency in New York State after a case of paralytic poliomyelitis caused by a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), along with cVDPV detection in wastewater both in New York and in London, is a sobering reminder that polio still represents a threat even in countries that have not seen it for decades.

A newly published paper in The Lancet shows that an experimental vaccine against Marburg virus (MARV) was safe and induced an immune response in a small, first-in-human clinical trial. The vaccine, developed by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, could someday be an important tool to respond to Marburg virus outbreaks. 

Fewer required doses, more affordable vaccines 

Recently, scientists at the Hutch and around the world celebrated an important milestone in the fight against COVID-19: the identification of antibodies as correlates of protection for COVID-19 vaccines. 

Vaccine opponents have spent over a year insisting, without any evidence, that COVID-19 vaccines are killing and injuring hundreds of young athletes. 

Based on the results of the present study, rate of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was about 50% and its most common reported reason was fear of probable side effects of vaccine on the fetus.

African health officials worry that as the mpox outbreak wanes in wealthy countries, so too will the global interest in research and funding.

Malaria contributes to an enormous global burden of disease and mortality, especially in children. Approximately one in every four global cases and deaths from malaria occurs in Nigeria. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence and correlates of community hesitancy to the malaria vaccine, including the reasons for the hesitancy, following the approval of the RTS,S malaria vaccine by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Vaccination against the COVID-19 virus is currently the best option to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic worldwide. However, in addition to logistical and economic barriers, hesitancy to be vaccinated threatens to jeopardize efforts to contain the disease. 

COVID-19–associated mortality among persons aged ≥60 years exceeded 80% of total COVID-19 mortality in 2020 and 2021 across all income groups; however, the median reported completed primary series coverage among older adults in 2022 was 76%, substantially below the WHO goal, especially in middle- and low-income countries. Efforts are needed to increase COVID-19 primary series and periodic booster dose coverage among older adults as recommended by WHO and national health authorities.

Serotype 2 oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV2) can revert to regain wild-type neurovirulence and spread to cause emergences of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV2). After its global withdrawal from routine immunisation in 2016, outbreak response use has created a cycle of VDPV2 emergences that threaten eradication 

This protocol presents a common methodology to estimate vaccine effectiveness (VE) for COVID-19, using established health data registries in participating EU/EEA Member States.

Experts have raised the alarm that a dengue fever epidemic is set to hit Malaysia starting this year — with cases expected to peak in 2024 and 2025 — and are urging authorities to strengthen interventions and the public to take preventative steps. 

A small new study—this one analyzing antibodies in infants' stool samples—provides further evidence that the breast milk of women vaccinated against COVID-19 may help protect babies who are too young to receive the vaccine, according to findings published today in the Journal of Perinatology. 

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continued to mutate and spread in 2022 despite the introduction of safe, effective vaccines and medications. Vaccine hesitancy remains substantial, fueled in part by misinformation.

Digital media has remained problematic during COVID-19 because it has been the source of false and unverified facts. This was particularly evident in the widespread misinformation and confusion regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Past research suggested infodemics, conspiracy beliefs, and religious fatalism as potential threats to public COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

The Omicron-adapted COVID-19 vaccine booster developed by Pfizer and BioNTech sharply reduced hospitalizations among older patients, Israeli researchers said on Monday, in some of the first evidence of the jab's real-world effectiveness.

Updates on COVID in China, the U.S., and everything in-between

Since the start of the covid-19 vaccination rollout, repeated concerns have been raised about global vaccine inequity. While much of the world now has access to vaccines, both the United Nations’ Data Futures Platform and the World Health Organization maintain that regional access to vaccines and their global uptake remain issues.

This research round-up summarizes several new scientific developments regarding COVID-19.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has unveiled plans to speed up the licensing and use of effective novel vaccines against tuberculosis (TB), the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 and the 13th leading cause of death worldwide.  

A recent article published by the Infectious Disease Special Edition highlights the safety and efficacy demonstrated by Sanaria's non-replicating whole parasite PfSPZ malaria vaccine candidate. 

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has unveiled plans to speed up the licensing and use of effective novel vaccines against tuberculosis (TB), the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 and the 13th leading cause of death worldwide.  

This study aimed to examine the effects on maternal and perinatal outcomes of COVID-19 during pregnancy, and evaluate vaccine effectiveness, when omicron (B.1.1.529) was the variant of concern.  

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) will invest up to $50 million over 10 years to help Senegal's Institut Pasteur expand Africa's ability to produce vaccines at scale

Vaccine confidence and coverage decreased following a death temporally but not causally related to measles vaccination in Ukraine in 2008. Large measles outbreaks including international exportations followed. This study characterizes this vaccine safety incident and quantifies health and economic costs.

After Omicron emerged as a highly contagious variant of concern, the majority of the world accepted a harm reduction strategy: get vaccines in as many arms as possible, then slowly open up. In many countries, this turned out to be a good public health strategy to reduce death, minimize stress on healthcare systems, improve quality of life, improve the economy, etc. However, China continues to attempt a zero-COVID strategy—very, very tight restrictions—in an attempt to stop all transmission.

The growing vaccine hesitancy among parents has serious implications for disease eradication and future viral outbreaks. Understanding the perceived barriers and facilitators to pediatric vaccine uptake is important to maintain the health of our youth and communities.

Measles vaccination coverage has steadily declined since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, a record high of nearly 40 million children missed a measles vaccine dose: 25 million children missed their first dose and an additional 14.7 million children missed their second dose, a joint publication by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports. This decline is a significant setback in global progress toward achieving and maintaining measles elimination and leaves millions of children susceptible to infection. 

The quality of interactions between health workers (HWs) and caregivers is key in vaccine acceptance. To optimize this, HWs need knowledge about the best vaccine communication practices in person and on social media. Most pre-service curricula do not include such approaches. COVID-19 necessitated the International Pediatric Association (IPA) to shift from in-person train the trainer workshops to developing an online Vaccine Trust Course to address these gaps.

This document summarizes the results of the WHO-commissioned full value proposition for new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines. The assessment was commissioned to provide early evidence for national and global decision-makers involved in TB vaccine development and implementation, who include stakeholders involved in vaccine research, financing, regulation and policymaking, manufacturing, introduction, and procurement. The goal is to accelerate the development of effective vaccines against TB and their rapid introduction into countries.

Infectious disease outbreaks are growing worse and more common—and climate change is at least partly to blame.

An analysis released Tuesday by U.K. health officials indicates that even one dose of the monkeypox vaccine provides strong protection against the virus.

In the era of COVID-19 and mass vaccination programs, the anti-vaccination movement across the world is currently at an all-time high. Much of this anti-vaccination sentiment could be attributed to the alleged side effects that are perpetuated across social media from anti-vaccination groups. 

Like certain Southern Hemisphere countries during the 2022 influenza season, Northern Hemisphere countries might face influenza activity with atypical timing and intensity during the 2022–23 season. Health authorities should encourage all eligible persons to seek influenza vaccination and take precautions to reduce transmission of influenza (e.g., avoiding close contact with persons who are ill). 

The WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2022 provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease, at global, regional and country levels. This is done in the context of global TB commitments, strategies and targets.

Everyone ages 5 and older can now get an Omicron booster. 

Misinformation, stigma, and health disparities have stalled HPV vaccination

The literature on the association between religion and immunization coverage is scant, mostly consisting of single-country studies. Analyses in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to assess whether the proportions of zero-dose children vary according to religion remains necessary to better understand non-socioeconomic immunization barriers and to inform interventions that target zero-dose children.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health systems globally. We estimated the effect of the pandemic on the coverage and timeliness of routine childhood immunization in India through April 2021.

We are seeing a tsunami of respiratory illnesses and, in its wake, severe disease and overcrowded hospitals. This is mainly driven by RSV, with flu picking up steam. COVID-19 infections have yet to start rising, but we still expect these to uptick soon.

Globally, 165 countries use the powerful pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) to prevent a serious form of pneumonia, as well as meningitis and other near-fatal illnesses. But what of the 55 million children living in the remaining 29 countries where these vaccines are not available to all? 

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has caused considerable morbidity and mortality worldwide. The protection provided by vaccines and booster doses offered a method of mitigating severe clinical outcomes and mortality. However, by the end of 2021, the global distribution of vaccines was highly heterogeneous, with some countries gaining over 90% coverage in adults, whereas others reached less than 2%. In this study, we used an age-structured model of SARS-CoV-2 dynamics, matched to national data from 152 countries in 2021, to investigate the global impact of different potential vaccine sharing protocols that attempted to address this inequity. We quantified the effects of implemented vaccine rollout strategies on the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the subsequent global burden of disease and the emergence of novel variants. We found that greater vaccine sharing would have lowered the total global burden of disease, and any associated increases in infections in previously vaccine-rich countries could have been mitigated by reduced relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions. Our results reinforce the health message, pertinent to future pandemics, that vaccine distribution proportional to wealth, rather than to need, may be detrimental to all.

Climate change is creating many pathways for zoonotic diseases to reach people. Four cases show how the climate crisis is altering disease threats and how the world can respond.

Welcome to Gavi’s 2021 Annual Progress Report, the first of the 2021–2025 strategic period. 

The exceptional decision reflects the grave state of the cholera vaccine stockpile

Plus, warnings of a bad flu season were right as outbreaks spread, and, in climate news, where have all the snow crabs gone?

The strength of people’s trust in their health leaders can determine how a country will fare in a pandemic. From the COVID-19 pandemic to the Ebola epidemic to the reemergence of monkeypox as a public health emergency, such trust has been low. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is in its second year and the Omicron BA.5 subvariant continues to drive cases in the United States, including among vaccinated people. But that doesn’t mean COVID-19 vaccines and boosters are ineffective. That seeming juxtaposition causes confusion among many patients. One physician vaccine researcher sets out to clear the air about how well COVID-19 vaccines work.

Omicron spinoffs are raising concerns worldwide. 

Here we go again. Pandemic fatigue coupled with the most contagious Omicron subvariants yet, BQ.1.1 and XBB, are driving yet another viral surge across the globe.

Here we go again. The start of a new wave. Eyes are on Western Europe, as hospitalizations are uniformly increasing. As we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, some are hospitalized “with COVID19,” but it’s important to note that the Germany’s numbers are reported purely as “for COVID19.” In other words, not only are infections increasing, but so is severe disease.

Some countries are now offering COVID vaccines for children as young as six months. Nature looks at how effective they are and why more kids haven’t had them.

Rampant Spanish-language health misinformation over the past two years may be fueling vaccine hesitancy in Spanish-speaking communities. 

One child dies every two minutes from malaria. Wider use of a new vaccine can make a dent in that devastating statistic.

A ridiculous amount of misinformation has recently surfaced online regarding COVID-19 vaccinations, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. This is due to a number of bad players intentionally spreading false information as well as some solid players poorly writing tweets. 

More than 2.5 years since the first COVID-19 cases were reported, the pandemic remains an acute global emergency. At the present time, there continue to be millions of people infected each week with SARSCoV-2, and in the first eight months of 2022, more than one million people were reported to have died from COVID-19). With access to and appropriate use of existing life-saving tools, COVID-19 can become a manageable disease with significantly reduced morbidity and mortality. Lives and livelihoods can be saved, but there is still work to be done.

Scientists hope the immunizations, delivered through the nose or mouth, will prevent even mild cases of illness.

Here’s an update on our three, global public health emergencies. I’ve included an update on flu, too.

Vaccine candidate provides two years of protection in young children when given as a booster, but larger trials are needed before it can be rolled out.

Emerging infectious diseases like monkeypox and polio capture many headlines, but parents of young children know it’s the “normal” viruses (now including COVID-19) that disrupt our daily lives the most.

The COVID pandemic exposed the fault lines in health systems and national routine immunisation programmes around the world. 

The U.S. is still recording hundreds of COVID-19 deaths per day.

The main risk factor for invasive cervical carcinoma is persistent infection by the high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection (STI) and has been linked to 15 different cancers. Cervical cancer is one of the most frequent cancers among women, particularly in resource-limited countries. 

As of July 22, 2,891 cases of monkeypox have been reported in the United States and 16,836 cases have been found globally. The rapid spread of the rare virus led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on July 23. In late June, the CDC had activated its Emergency Operations Center to monitor and coordinate the national public health response to monkeypox.