A studyby KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and National University Hospital (NUH) has revealed that COVID-19 transmission from mothers to their newborns is low.
The study involving 371 women who had COVID-19 infection during pregnancy and their newborns found that only four infants or 1.1 per cent of the babies were diagnosed with COVID-19 after birth, of which three (1.1 per cent) were from mothers who were COVID-19 vaccinated and one infant (1.3 per cent) was from a mother who was not vaccinated.
Our study assures expectant parents and healthcare professionals that COVID-19 transmission from mother to baby is extremely low. In comparison to international reports, the incidence of transmission is also at a much lower rate. This is likely attributed to the higher vaccination rate amongst our pregnant population, which also explains the comparatively lower occurrence of moderate to severe symptoms and a lesser need for interventions in vaccinated pregnant women who were infected with COVID-19.
Dr Yeo Kee Thai, Senior Author of the Study,Senior Consultant, Department of Neonatology, KKH
Vaccinated pregnant women infected with COVID-19 were found to have milder disease effects (1.8 per cent moderate/severe disease vs 8 per cent moderate/severe disease) and were less likely to require intensive care as compared to unvaccinated pregnant women who were infected (1.4 per cent vs 8 per cent). Amongst the group, one of the unvaccinated pregnant patient who was infected with COVID-19 had required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support.
The study also found that pregnant women infected with the Omicron variant had milder symptoms (98.3 per cent vs 92.3 per cent), and were less likely to require intensive care (1.0 per cent vs 9.0 per cent), or need mechanical ventilation (0.3 per cent vs 3.8 per cent) as compared to those infected with non-Omicron variants.
Newborns of pregnant women infected with the Omicron variant were also less likely to require intensive care (3.8 per cent vs 14.1 per cent).
This study is part of KKH's ongoing efforts to build evidence-based perspectives for the limited studies on COVID-19 in Singapore and Asia. The study took place from December 2019 to February 2022, covering the period from when the virus was first identified to the emergence of the Omicron variant in late 2021. Based on timing of the infections and the reported circulating variants, the identified variants were Wild-type (2.2 per cent), Alpha (0.8 per cent), Delta (18.1 per cent) and Omicron (79.9 per cent).
The research participants were categorised into two groups vaccinated and unvaccinated as COVID-19 vaccination was made available to pregnant women in June 2021. Among the 353 pregnant women who provided their COVID-19 vaccination status, 278 (78.8 per cent) had received one or more dose before or during their pregnancy and 75 (21.2 per cent) were unvaccinated.
Dr Yeo added, "As we appreciate these encouraging findings, pregnant women remain a vulnerable group susceptible to severe outcomes from SARS-CoV-2. Hence, it is crucial that our pregnant women keep up to date with their COVID-19 vaccination, to keep their families safe."
While this study was not designed to focus on the effects of maternal COVID-19 vaccination in newborns, other studies including an earlier KKH-led study revealed that COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy was found to be up to 44.4 per centeffective in protecting infants against SARS-CoV-2 infection up to six months after birth.
Source:
Journal reference:
Lim, A. M., et al. (2024). Perinatal outcomes of pregnancies affected by COVID-19 in Singapore: A cohort study.Annals Academy of Medicine Singapore. doi.org/10.47102/annals-acadmedsg.2023278.
Medical research
Researchers say jabs substantially reduce for up to a year the chances of serious cardiovascular complications
Covid vaccinations substantially reduce the risk of heart failure and potentially dangerous blood clots linked to the infection for up to a year, according to a large study.
Researchers analysed health records from more than 20 million people across the UK, Spain and Estonia and found consistent evidence that the jabs protected against serious cardiovascular complications of the disease.
Covid vaccines, including those from Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna, proved highly effective at preventing severe disease in the pandemic, but medicines regulators also recorded increases in some rare heart and clotting conditions, similar to those found with other vaccines such as flu shots.
The latest study sought to investigate the overall impact of a Covid vaccination, given that infection with the virus itself is known to significantly raise the risk of heart failure and various other serious cardiovascular problems.
What we show in this very large study is that people who are vaccinated are at a very much reduced risk of these complications post-Covid, said Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, a professor of pharmaco- and device epidemiology at the University of Oxford and a senior author on the study.
Writing in the journal Heart, the researchers describe how the adenovirus-based Covid vaccines produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca and Janssen, and the mRNA-based vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, were most protective against Covid-related heart failure and blood clots in the first month after contracting the virus.
In that period, the risk of heart failure was 55% lower, and the risks of blood clots in the veins and arteries were down 78% and 47% respectively, compared with rates in unvaccinated people.
While the protective effects of the vaccines waned over the longer term, those who received Covid shots remained at lower risk of Covid-related heart failure and blood clots than unvaccinated individuals for up to a year, the researchers found.
Three to six months after infection, the risk of heart failure in vaccinated people was 39% lower than in unvaccinated people, with the risk of blood clots in the veins and arteries down 47% and 28% respectively. From six to 12 months post-infection, the risks of the same complications were 48%, 50% and 38% lower, respectively, for vaccinated people.
The protective effect arises from the vaccines reducing the severity of the disease when people experience breakthrough infections, when the virus takes hold despite a person being vaccinated.
The message overall is that if you are vaccinated, your risk of having post-Covid cardiovascular and thromboembolic complications is reduced quite dramatically, Prieto-Alhambra said. Particularly for people who are at high risk, or are scared of having cardiovascular complications or blood clots, this is very reassuring.
{{topLeft}}
{{bottomLeft}}
{{topRight}}
{{bottomRight}}
{{.}}
One-timeMonthlyAnnual
Other
Monday marks the 4-year anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring the global COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic.
Over that period, millions of Americans have been hospitalized and have died from the virus.
Additionally, a high percentage of adults have developed long COVID while the infections of thousands of children have led to an inflammatory condition.
Here's a look at the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. by the numbers:
As of the week ending March 2, there were 15,141 weekly new hospital admissions for COVID-19. according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While this is on par with the number of weekly hospitalizations at the beginning of April 2024, this is much lower than the peak of 150,650 weekly hospitalizations recorded the week of Jan. 22, 2022, during the omicron wave.
Over the course of the pandemic, more than 6 million Americans have been hospitalized, CDC data shows.
The CDC has said fewer people are hospitalized due to the availability of vaccines and boosters as well as the availability of antirural drugs that decrease the risk of severe illness for those at-high risk, including molnupiravir and Paxlovid.
Since the pandemic began, more than 1.18 million Americans have died from COVID-19, according to CDC data. The U.S. crossed the 1 million mark on May 12, 2022.
During the week of March 2, there were 576 weekly deaths, which is the lowest number recorded since summer 2023 and several times lower than the peak of 25,974 weekly deaths recorded the week ending Jan. 9, 2021.
Experts have previously said the U.S. is in a much better place than it was at the start of the pandemic but some reasons hundreds of people may be dying every week include not enough people accessing treatments or getting vaccinated as well as waning immunity.
In early fall, the federal government recommended an updated vaccine that is targeted against variants that are currently circulating, which are related to XBB, an offshoot of the omicron variant.
There are formulations made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for those aged 6 months and older, and a formulation made by Novavax for those aged 12 and older.
However, as of Friday, just 22.6% of adults aged 18 and older and 13.5% of children under age 18 have received the vaccine, according to CDC data.
This is lower than the nearly half of adults who said they planned to get the vaccine in a poll conducted by the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor in September.
In some good news, 42.4% of adults aged 65 and older, which is the group at highest risk of severe illness and death, have gotten vaccinated.
As of Feb. 26, 9,655 children in the U.S. have developed MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, according to CDC data.
MIS-C is an inflammatory condition that is caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
It typically occurs between two to six weeks after infection and presents a combination of symptoms, including inflammation of various parts of the body along with gastrointestinal symptoms, rash and fever.
Since the start of the new year, just two cases of MIS-C have been reported, much lower than the peak in winter 2021 when more than 200 cases were being reported every week.
Some children with MIS-C end up hospitalized and, if they are sick enough, can spend time in intensive care units. Additionally, at least 79 children have died of MIS-C so far.
Millions of Americans say they've had long COVID, and many are still battling it, federal data shows.
Long COVID is a condition that occurs when patients still have symptoms at least four weeks after they have cleared the infection. In some cases, symptoms can be experienced for months or years. The WHO first posted a clinical case definition of the condition in October 2021.
According to the most recent federal Household Pulse Survey, between Jan. 9, 2024 and Feb. 5, 2024, 6.8% of U.S. adults currently have long COVID and 17.6% have had long COVID.
Using 2020 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, this means 17.5 million adults currently have long COVID and 45.4 million people have ever had long COVID.
Emergency plans are no good if they are on the shelf and forgotten
The New Jersey Department of Health created a Pandemic Influenza Plan in 2015, which the report stated was extremely accurate in predicting what would eventually happen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It included specific recommendations about actions that could be taken; organizational structures for emergency management; and detailed factual, legal, and regulatory resources that could be consulted, the report found.
Yet, no one knew the plan existed when the pandemic hit.
Several people in government told us they thought some other agency ought to have an Emergency Preparedness Manager, the report stated. In fact, that position exists (and is staffed) in the other agency, but the people we spoke with were unaware of that fact.
According to the report, communities were polarized over the decision to mask, socially distance or get vaccinated.
The decision[s][were] freighted with political overtones, the report found. Lives were lost to the misinformation both deliberate and unintentional which surrounded the pandemic.
Masking was discouraged in the early days of the pandemic in favor of surface cleaning. Officials did not know that COVID-19 could be transmitted through the air at the time.
Even if state officials were aware of that fact, the report found the states stockpile of facemasks and other personal protective equipment was insufficient and that global supply chain breakdowns prevented quick acquisition of additional supplies.
While New Jersey had a small stockpile of old masks left over from a prior health crisis, these were expired, the report stated. As a result, many who should have had access to multiple masks per day were required to improvise and either re-use masks meaning that the masks themselves could be carrying the virus into a new environment or go without.
The report suggests that had mask supplies been adequate, the state could have emerged from lockdowns and closures sooner.
New Jersey could have re-opened many indoor locations sooner with universal masking, it stated. The State could also have allowed public use of outdoor recreation sooner, assuming that there was an adequate supply of masks and people opted to use them.
Despite the findings, New Jersey is credited for implementing measures such as mask mandates and social distancing guidelines that resulted in dramatic improvements over the course of the pandemic.
By the Delta and Omicron Wave, New Jersey became one of the states with the lowest death rates, the report stated.
Regardless, the report also recognized the other negative consequences in addition to the lives lost.
Shutdowns had disastrous effects on business and commerce, it said. School closures not only led to lost learning for students, but huge burdens on families with school-age children whose parents had to figure out how to keep their children happy, healthy, and learning.
Among the recommendations, the report calls on state officials to create emergency plans and train on them, invest in improving health equity in the state, and build partnerships with community organizations, the health care industry, local health departments, and beyond.
The report also recommends improving collaboration and communication during an emergency response and investing in technology to support a response.
Why would a mother reject safe, potentially lifesaving vaccines for her child?
Popular writing on vaccine skepticism often denigrates white and middle-class mothers who reject some or all recommended vaccines as hysterical, misinformed, zealous or ignorant. Mainstream media and medical providers increasingly dismiss vaccine refusal as a hallmark of American fringe ideology, far-right radicalization or anti-intellectualism.
But vaccine skepticism, and the broader medical mistrust and far-reaching anxieties it reflects, is not just a fringe position.
Pediatric vaccination rates had already fallen sharply before the COVID-19 pandemic, ushering in the return of measles, mumps and chickenpox to the U.S. in 2019. Four years after the pandemics onset, a growing number of Americans doubt the safety, efficacy and necessity of routine vaccines. Childhood vaccination rates have declined substantially across the U.S., which public health officials attribute to a spillover effect from pandemic-related vaccine skepticism and blame for the recent measles outbreak. Almost half of American mothers rated the risk of side effects from the MMR vaccine as medium or high in a 2023 survey by Pew Research.
Recommended vaccines go through rigorous testing and evaluation, and the most infamous charges of vaccine-induced injury have been thoroughly debunked. How do so many mothers primary caregivers and health care decision-makers for their families become wary of U.S. health care and one of its most proven preventive technologies?
Im a cultural anthropologist who studies the ways feelings and beliefs circulate in American society. To investigate whats behind mothers vaccine skepticism, I interviewed vaccine-skeptical mothers about their perceptions of existing and novel vaccines. What they told me complicates sweeping and overly simplified portrayals of their misgivings by pointing to the U.S. health care system itself. The medical systems failures and harms against women gave rise to their pervasive vaccine skepticism and generalized medical mistrust.
I conducted this ethnographic research in Oregon from 2020 to 2021 with predominantly white mothers between the ages of 25 and 60. My findings reveal new insights about the origins of vaccine skepticism among this demographic. These women traced their distrust of vaccines, and of U.S. health care more generally, to ongoing and repeated instances of medical harm they experienced from childhood through childbirth.
As young girls in medical offices, they were touched without consent, yelled at, disbelieved or threatened. One mother, Susan, recalled her pediatrician abruptly lying her down and performing a rectal exam without her consent at the age of 12. Another mother, Luna, shared how a pediatrician once threatened to have her institutionalized when she voiced anxiety at a routine physical.
As women giving birth, they often felt managed, pressured or discounted. One mother, Meryl, told me, I felt like I was coerced under distress into Pitocin and induction during labor. Another mother, Hallie, shared, I really battled with my provider throughout the childbirth experience.
Together with the convoluted bureaucracy of for-profit health care, experiences of medical harm contributed to one million little touch points of information, in one mothers phrase, that underscored the untrustworthiness and harmful effects of U.S. health care writ large.
Many mothers I interviewed rejected the premise that public health entities such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration had their childrens best interests at heart. Instead, they tied childhood vaccination and the more recent development of COVID-19 vaccines to a bloated pharmaceutical industry and for-profit health care model. As one mother explained, The FDA is not looking out for our health. Theyre looking out for their wealth.
After ongoing negative medical encounters, the women I interviewed lost trust not only in providers but the medical system. Frustrating experiences prompted them to do their own research in the name of bodily autonomy. Such research often included books, articles and podcasts deeply critical of vaccines, public health care and drug companies.
These materials, which have proliferated since 2020, cast light on past vaccine trials gone awry, broader histories of medical harm and abuse, the rapid growth of the recommended vaccine schedule in the late 20th century and the massive profits reaped from drug development and for-profit health care. They confirmed and hardened womens suspicions about U.S. health care.
The stories these women told me add nuance to existing academic research into vaccine skepticism. Most studies have considered vaccine skepticism among primarily white and middle-class parents to be an outgrowth of todays neoliberal parenting and intensive mothering. Researchers have theorized vaccine skepticism among white and well-off mothers to be an outcome of consumer health care and its emphasis on individual choice and risk reduction. Other researchers highlight vaccine skepticism as a collective identity that can provide mothers with a sense of belonging.
The perceptions mothers shared are far from isolated or fringe, and they are not unreasonable. Rather, they represent a growing population of Americans who hold the pervasive belief that U.S. health care harms more than it helps.
Data suggests that the number of Americans harmed in the course of treatment remains high, with incidents of medical error in the U.S. outnumbering those in peer countries, despite more money being spent per capita on health care. One 2023 study found that diagnostic error, one kind of medical error, accounted for 371,000 deaths and 424,000 permanent disabilities among Americans every year.
Studies reveal particularly high rates of medical error in the treatment of vulnerable communities, including women, people of color, disabled, poor, LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming individuals and the elderly. The number of U.S. women who have died because of pregnancy-related causes has increased substantially in recent years, with maternal death rates doubling between 1999 and 2019.
The prevalence of medical harm points to the relevance of philosopher Ivan Illichs manifesto against the disease of medical progress. In his 1982 book Medical Nemesis, he insisted that rather than being incidental, harm flows inevitably from the structure of institutionalized and for-profit health care itself. Illich wrote, The medical establishment has become a major threat to health, and has created its own epidemic of iatrogenic illness that is, illness caused by a physician or the health care system itself.
Four decades later, medical mistrust among Americans remains alarmingly high. Only 23% of Americans express high confidence in the medical system. The United States ranks 24th out of 29 peer high-income countries for the level of public trust in medical providers.
For people like the mothers I interviewed, who have experienced real or perceived harm at the hands of medical providers; have felt belittled, dismissed or disbelieved in a doctors office; or spent countless hours fighting to pay for, understand or use health benefits, skepticism and distrust are rational responses to lived experience. These attitudes do not emerge solely from ignorance, conspiracy thinking, far-right extremism or hysteria, but rather the historical and ongoing harms endemic to the U.S. health care system itself.
By Amy Maxmen March 12, 2024
Gayle Borne has fostered more than 300 children in Springfield, Tennessee. Shes cared for kids who have rarely seen a doctor kids so neglected that they cannot speak. Such children are now even more vulnerable because of a law Tennessee passed last year that requires the direct consent of birth parents or legal guardians for every routine childhood vaccination. Foster parents, social workers, and other caregivers cannot provide permission.
In January, Borne took a foster baby, born extremely premature at just over 2 pounds, to her first doctors appointment. The health providers said that without the consent of the childs mother, they couldnt vaccinate her against diseases like pneumonia, hepatitis B, and polio. The mother hasnt been located, so a social worker is now seeking a court order to permit immunizations. We are just waiting, Borne said. Our hands are tied.
Tennessees law has also stymied grandmothers and other caregivers who accompany children to routine appointments when parents are at work, in drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinics, or otherwise unavailable. The law claims to give parents back the right to make medical decisions for their children.
Framed in the rhetoric of choice and consent, it is one of more than a dozen recent and pending pieces of legislation nationwide that pit parental freedom against community and childrens health. In actuality, they create obstacles to vaccination, the foundation of pediatric care.
Such policies have another effect. They seed doubt about vaccine safety in a climate rife with medical misinformation. The trend has exploded as politicians and social media influencers make false claims about risks, despite studies showing otherwise.
Doctors traditionally give caregivers vaccine information and get their permission before delivering more than a dozen childhood immunizations that defend against measles, polio, and other debilitating diseases.
But now, Tennessees law demands that birth parents attend routine appointments and sign consent forms for every vaccine given over two or more years. The forms could have a chilling effect, said Jason Yaun, a Memphis pediatrician and past president of the Tennessee chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
People who promote parental rights on vaccines tend to downplay the rights of children, said Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy researcher at the University of California Law-San Francisco.
Drop in Routine Vaccination Rates
Misinformation coupled with a parental rights movement that shifts decision-making away from public health expertise has contributed to the lowest childhood vaccine rates in a decade.
This year, legislators in Arizona, Iowa, and West Virginia have introduced related consent bills. A Parents Bill of Rights amendment in Oklahoma seeks to ensure that parents know they can exempt their children from school vaccine mandates along with lessons on sex education and AIDS. In Florida, the medical skeptic leading the states health department recently defied guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by telling parents they could send unvaccinated children to a school during a measles outbreak.
Last year, Mississippi began allowing exemptions from school vaccine requirements for religious reasons because of a lawsuit funded by the Informed Consent Action Network, which is listed as a leading source of anti-vaccine disinformation by the Center for Countering Digital Hate. A post on ICANs website said it could not be more proud in Mississippi to restore the right of every parent in this country to have his or her convictions respected and not trampled by the government.
Even if some bills fail, Reiss fears, the revived parental rights movement may eventually abolish policies that require routine immunizations to attend school. At a recent campaign rally, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said, I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate.
The movement dates to the wake of the 1918 influenza pandemic, when some parents pushed back against progressive reforms that required school attendance and prohibited child labor. Since then, tensions between state measures and parental freedom have occasionally flared over a variety of issues. Vaccines became a prominent one in 2021, as the movement found common ground with people skeptical of covid-19 vaccines.
The parental rights movement didnt start with vaccines, Reiss said, but the anti-vaccine movement has allied themselves with it and has expanded their reach by riding on its coattails.
When Lawmakers Silence Health Experts
In Tennessee, anti-vaccine activists and libertarian-leaning organizations railed against the states health department in 2021 when it recommended covid vaccines to minors, following CDC guidance. Gary Humble, executive director of the conservative group Tennessee Stands, asked legislators to blast the health department for advising masks and vaccination, suggesting the department could be dissolved and reconstituted at your pleasure.
Backlash also followed a notice sent to doctors from Michelle Fiscus, then the states immunization director. She reminded them that they didnt need parental permission to vaccinate consenting adolescents 14 or older, according to a decades-old state rule called the Mature Minor Doctrine.
In the weeks that followed, state legislators threatened to defund the health department and pressured it into scaling back covid vaccine promotion, as revealed by The Tennessean. Fiscus was abruptly fired. Today I became the 25th of 64 state and territorial immunization program directors to leave their position during this pandemic, she wrote in a statement. Thats nearly 40% of us. Tennessees covid death rate climbed to one of the nations highest by mid-2022.
By the time two state legislators introduced a bill to reverse the Mature Minor Doctrine, the health department was silent on the proposal. Despite obstacles for foster children who would require a court order for routine immunizations, Tennessees Department of Childrens Services was silent, too.
Notably, the legislator who introduced the bill, Republican Rep. John Ragan, was among those simultaneously overseeing a review of the agency that would determine its leadership and budget for the coming years. Children belong to their families, not the state, said Ragan as he presented the bill at a state hearing in April 2023.
Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson spoke out against the bill. It doesnt take into account people and children who are neglected, he told Ragan. We are legislating from a point of privilege and not recognizing the people who are not privileged in this way.
Rather than address such concerns, Ragan referenced a Supreme Court ruling in favor of parental rights in 2000. Specifically, judges determined that a mother had legal authority to decide who could visit her daughters. Yet the Supreme Court has also done the opposite. For instance, it sided against a legal guardian who removed her child from school to proselytize for the Jehovahs Witnesses.
Still, Ragan swiftly won the majority vote. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, signed the bill in May, making it effective immediately. Deborah Lowen, then the deputy commissioner of child health at the Department of Childrens Services, was flooded with calls from doctors who now face jailtime and fines for vaccinating minors without adequate consent. I was and remain very disheartened, she said.
A Right to Health
Yaun, the Memphis pediatrician, said he was shaken as he declined to administer a first series of vaccines to an infant accompanied by a social worker. That child is going into a situation where they are around other children and adults, he said, where they could be exposed to something we failed to protect them from.
We have had numerous angry grandparents in our waiting room who take kids to appointments because the parents are at work or down on their luck, said Hunter Butler, a pediatrician in Springfield, Tennessee. I once called a rehabilitation facility to find a mom and get her on the phone to get verbal consent to vaccinate her baby, he said. And its unclear if that was OK.
Childhood immunization rates have dropped for three consecutive years in Tennessee. Nationwide, downward trends in measles vaccination led the CDC to estimate that a quarter million kindergartners are at risk of the highly contagious disease.
Communities with low vaccination rates are vulnerable as measles surges internationally. Confirmed measles cases in 2023 were almost double those in 2022 a year in which the World Health Organization estimates that more than 136,000 people died from the disease globally. When travelers infected abroad land in communities with low childhood vaccination rates, the highly contagious virus can spread swiftly among unvaccinated people, as well as babies too young to be vaccinated and people with weakened immune systems.
Theres a freedom piece on the other side of this argument, said Caitlin Gilmet, communications director at the vaccine advocacy group SAFE Communities Coalition and Action Fund. You should have the right to protect your family from preventable diseases.
In late January, Gilmet and other child health advocates gathered in a room at the Tennessee Statehouse in Nashville, offering a free breakfast of fried chicken biscuits. They handed out flyers as legislators and their aides drifted in to eat. One pamphlet described the toll of a 2018-19 measles outbreak in Washington state that sickened 72 people, most of whom were unvaccinated, costing $76,000 in medical care, $2.3 million for the public health response, and an estimated $1 million in economic losses due to illness, quarantine, and caregiving.
Barb Dentz, an advocate with the grassroots group Tennessee Families for Vaccines, repeated that most of the states constituents support strong policies in favor of immunizations. Indeed, seven in 10 U.S. adults maintained that public schools should require vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella, in a Pew Research Center poll last year. But numbers have been dropping.
Protecting kids should be such a no-brainer, Dentz told Republican Rep. Sam Whitson, later that morning in his office. Whitson agreed and reflected on an explosion of anti-vaccine misinformation. Dr. Google and Facebook have been such a challenge, he said. Fighting ignorance has become a full-time job.
Whitson was among a minority of Republicans who voted against Tennessees vaccine amendment last year. The parental rights thing has really taken hold, he said, and it can be used for and against us.
We encourage organizations to republish our content, free of charge. Heres what we ask:
You must credit us as the original publisher, with a hyperlink to our kffhealthnews.org site. If possible, please include the original author(s) and KFF Health News in the byline. Please preserve the hyperlinks in the story.
Its important to note, not everything on kffhealthnews.org is available for republishing. If a story is labeled All Rights Reserved, we cannot grant permission to republish that item.
Have questions? Let us know at KHNHelp@kff.org
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine at Harvard University since 2003, announced on social media Monday that he was "fired" by the university.
"I am no longer a professor of medicine at Harvard," Kulldorff wrote in a lengthy essay in the City Journal, also posting the news on his X account. "The Harvard motto is Veritas, Latin for truth. But, as I discovered, truth can get you fired."
Kulldorff was a prominent opponent of vaccine mandates and school closures during COVID-era debate about the regulation of schools and businesses. He, along with Professor Sunetra Gupta at Oxford University and Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya, released the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020, which "argu[ed] for age-based focused protection instead of universal lockdowns, with specific suggestions for how better to protect the elderly, while letting children and young adults live close to normal lives."
HARVARD RESPONDS TO CONGRESS, DETAILS 'RIGOR' REVIEWING PLAGIARISM ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CLAUDINE GAY
Epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine at Harvard University since 2003, announced Monday that he was "fired" by the university on social media. (Getty Images)
"The declaration made clear that no scientific consensus existed for school closures and many other lockdown measures. In response, though, the attacks intensifiedand even grew slanderous," Kulldorff wrote, recounting criticism against him and other professors for refusing to say that lockdown measures were a scientifically guided measure.
Kulldorff wrote that "[b[odily autonomy" was an argument against COVID vaccine mandates, calling those measures "unscientific and unethical" and restating his support for natural immunity from COVID and other diseases.
"The beauty of our immune system is that those who recover from an infection are protected if and when they are re-exposed," Kulldorff explained, also referencing a controversial "consensus" memorandum released by three members of Harvard's faculty for The Lancet, a prestigious scientific journal. That memo "question[ed] the existence of COVID-acquired immunity."
Kulldorff concluded that while most of Harvard's faculty still "diligently pursue truth in a wide variety of fields," truth has "not been the guiding principle of Harvard leaders."
"Nor have academic freedom, intellectual curiosity, independence from external forces, or concern for ordinary people guided their decisions," he added.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN SUBPOENAS HARVARD LEADERS FOR 'FAILING TO PRODUCE' SUFFICIENT DOCS IN ANTISEMITISM PROBE
Kulldorff,, along with Professor Sunetra Gupta at Oxford University and Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya (pictured above), released the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020, which "argu[ed] for age-based focused protection instead of universal lockdowns, with specific suggestions for how better to protect the elderly, while letting children and young adults live close to normal lives." (Getty Images)
He wrote that Harvard must bring back "academic freedom" and stop "cancel culture" if it wanted "to deserve and regain public trust."
"When scientists have different takes on topics of public importance, universities should organize open and civilized debates to pursue the truth," Kulldorff argued. "Harvard could have done thatand it still can, if it chooses."
"Almost everyone now realizes that school closures and other lockdowns, were a colossal mistake. Francis Collins has acknowledged his error of singularly focusing on COVID without considering collateral damage to education and non-COVID health outcomes," the scientist continued. "Thats the honest thing to do, and I hope this honesty will reach Harvard. The public deserves it, and academia needs it to restore its credibility."
"My hope is that someday, Harvard will find its way back to academic freedom and independence," he wrote.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Harvard University did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Two more measles cases are confirmed in an outbreak at a Chicago migrant shelter, and health officials in Arizona's Coconino County reported two new cases, one confirmed and one probable.
Illinois and Arizona are among 17 US jurisdictions that have already reported cases this year, part of a global rise in cases occurring amid vaccination gaps.
At an Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) media briefing on measles today, Sarah Lim, MD, a medical specialist with the Minnesota Department of Health, said that, in the first months of 2024, the country has had almost as many measles cases as it did for all of 2023.
She said a drop in vaccination rates in the wake of the COVID pandemic gives the highly contagious measles virus the potential to trigger large outbreaks.
Joshua Barocas, MD, with the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said many cases are mild, but measles can be a devastating disease, with deaths that are fully preventable. He said the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is a safe and highly effective vaccine that can help people and their communities.
"There's no shame in getting caught up now. Now is the time," he said. "We need to welcome people with open, nonjudgmental arms."
The two new cases at the migrant shelter in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago are both adults and bring the number of cases confirmed at the location to four, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced yesterday. The two latest patients are in stable condition.
The two earlier cases at the shelter both involved children, one of whom has recovered and another who is hospitalized and reported to be in good condition.
The CDPH said it and its health partners have assessed nearly all residents of the shelter and administered the MMR vaccine to more than 900 shelter residents. Another 700 residents were found to be immune from previous vaccination or earlier infection and are allowed to leave and enter the shelter again.
Newly vaccinated residents have been instructed to stay at the shelter for 21 days from the date of vaccination, a period when the vaccine confers full immunity.
Chicago officials had earlier reported another unrelated measles case. The five infections reported this year are the city's first in 5 years.
In Arizona, health officials in Coconino Countyhome to Flagstaffyesterday reported one confirmed and one probable measles case.
They identified five locations where people may have been exposed: three medical locations, a fitness center, and a fabric store.
Kim Musselman, MSW, the county's health and human services director, said, "Unvaccinated individuals are at highest risk of developing the disease if exposed. The best protection against measles is to receive the measles vaccine."
In February, three earlier cases were reported by Arizona officials, all in Maricopa County.
Bartsch SM, OShea KJ, Ferguson MC, Bottazzi ME, Wedlock PT, Strych U, et al. Vaccine efficacy needed for a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine to prevent or stop an epidemic as the Sole intervention. Am J Prev Med. 2020;59(4):493503.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID Data Tracker [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2023 Nov 30]. Available from: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker.
Callaghan T, Moghtaderi A, Lueck JA, Hotez P, Strych U, Dor A, et al. Correlates and disparities of intention to vaccinate against COVID-19. Soc Sci Med. 2021;272:113638.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Kelly BJ, Southwell BG, McCormack LA, Bann CM, MacDonald PDM, Frasier AM, et al. Predictors of willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. BMC Infect Dis. 2021;21(1):17.
Google Scholar
Viswanath K, Bekalu M, Dhawan D, Pinnamaneni R, Lang J, McLoud R. Individual and social determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake. BMC Public Health. 2021;21(1):818.
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Ruiz JB, Bell RA. Predictors of intention to vaccinate against COVID-19: results of a nationwide survey. Vaccine. 2021;39(7):10806.
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Allington D, McAndrew S, Moxham-Hall V, Duffy B. Coronavirus conspiracy suspicions, general vaccine attitudes, trust and coronavirus information source as predictors of vaccine hesitancy among UK residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological Medicine. undefined/ed;112.
Fridman A, Gershon R, Gneezy A. COVID-19 and vaccine hesitancy: a longitudinal study. PLoS ONE. 2021;16(4):e0250123.
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Loomba S, de Figueiredo A, Piatek SJ, de Graaf K, Larson HJ. Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA. Nat Hum Behav. 2021;5(3):33748.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Lindholt MF, Jrgensen F, Bor A, Petersen MB. Public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines: cross-national evidence on levels and individual-level predictors using observational data. BMJ Open. 2021;11(6):e048172.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Momplaisir F, Haynes N, Nkwihoreze H, Nelson M, Werner RM, Jemmott J. Understanding Drivers of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Blacks. Clinical Infectious Diseases [Internet]. 2021 Feb 9 [cited 2021 Jul 6];(ciab102). https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab102.
Schmid P, Rauber D, Betsch C, Lidolt G, Denker ML. Barriers of influenza vaccination intention and behavior a systematic review of Influenza Vaccine Hesitancy, 20052016. PLoS ONE. 2017;12(1):e0170550.
de Figueiredo A, Simas C, Karafillakis E, Paterson P, Larson HJ. Mapping global trends in vaccine confidence and investigating barriers to vaccine uptake: a large-scale retrospective temporal modelling study. Lancet. 2020;396(10255):898908.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Harris KM, Maurer J, Lurie N. Do people who intend to get a Flu Shot actually get one? J GEN INTERN MED. 2009;24(12):1311.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Ye L, Fang T, Cui J, Zhu G, Ma R, Sun Y, et al. The intentions to get vaccinated against influenza and actual vaccine uptake among diabetic patients in Ningbo, China: identifying motivators and barriers. Hum Vaccines Immunotherapeutics. 2021;17(1):10618.
Article Google Scholar
Maurer J. Inspecting the mechanism: a longitudinal analysis of socioeconomic status differences in Perceived Influenza risks, Vaccination intentions, and vaccination behaviors during the 20092010 Influenza Pandemic. Med Decis Mak. 2016;36(7):88799.
Article Google Scholar
Galarce EM, Minsky S, Viswanath K. Socioeconomic status, demographics, beliefs and A(H1N1) vaccine uptake in the United States. Vaccine. 2011;29(32):52849.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
McEachan RRC, Conner M, Taylor NJ, Lawton RJ. Prospective prediction of health-related behaviours with the theory of planned behaviour: a meta-analysis. Health Psychol Rev. 2011;5(2):97144.
Article Google Scholar
Whiteman A. Demographic and Social Factors Associated with COVID-19 Vaccination Initiation Among Adults Aged65 Years United States, December 14, 2020April 10, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2023 Nov 30];70. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7019e4.htm.
Painter EM. Demographic Characteristics of Persons Vaccinated During the First Month of the COVID-19 Vaccination Program United States, December 14, 2020January 14, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2023 Nov 30];70. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7005e1.htm.
Diesel J. COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Adults United States, December 14, 2020May 22, 2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2023 Nov 30];70. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7025e1.htm.
Latkin C, Dayton L, Miller J, Yi G, Balaban A, Boodram B, et al. A longitudinal study of vaccine hesitancy attitudes and social influence as predictors of COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the US. Hum Vaccines Immunotherapeutics. 2022;18(5):2043102.
Article Google Scholar
Datar RS, Fette LM, Hinkelman AN, Hammershaimb EA, Friedman-Klabanoff DJ, Mongraw-Chaffin M, et al. Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination during JuneOctober 2021: a multi-site prospective study. Vaccine. 2023;41(20):320414.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Thompson HS, Manning M, Mitchell J, Kim S, Harper FWK, Cresswell S, et al. Factors Associated with Racial/Ethnic groupbased Medical Mistrust and perspectives on COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Participation and Vaccine Uptake in the US. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(5):e2111629.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Rane MS, Kochhar S, Poehlein E, You W, Robertson MM, Zimba R, et al. Determinants and trends of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Vaccine Uptake in a National Cohort of US adults: a longitudinal study. Am J Epidemiol. 2022;191(4):57083.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Thorpe A, Fagerlin A, Scherer L, Drews F, Butler J, Stevens V et al. Veterans Experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic (VISION-19). 2022 Apr 13 [cited 2022 Jun 28]; Available from: https://osf.io/63gte/.
Thorpe A, Scherer AM, Han PKJ, Burpo N, Shaffer V, Scherer L, et al. Exposure to Common Geographic COVID-19 prevalence maps and public knowledge, risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(1):e2033538.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Thorpe A, Gurmankin Levy A, Scherer LD, Scherer AM, Drews FA, Butler JM, et al. Impact of prior COVID-19 infection on perceptions about the benefit and safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Am J Infect Control. 2024;52(1):1258.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Levy AG, Thorpe A, Scherer LD, Scherer AM, Drews FA, Butler JM, et al. Misrepresentation and nonadherence regarding COVID-19 Public Health measures. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(10):e2235837.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Han PKJ, Scharnetzki E, Scherer AM, Thorpe A, Lary C, Waterston LB, et al. Communicating scientific uncertainty about the COVID-19 pandemic: online experimental study of an uncertainty-normalizing strategy. J Med Internet Res. 2021;23(4):e27832.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Thorpe A, Fagerlin A, Drews FA, Butler J, Stevens V, Riddoch MS, et al. Communications to promote interest and confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. Am J Health Promot. 2022;36(6):97686.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Thorpe A, Fagerlin A, Butler J, Stevens V, Drews FA, Shoemaker H, et al. Communicating about COVID-19 vaccine development and safety. PLoS ONE. 2022;17(8):e0272426.
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Charlson ME, Pompei P, Ales KL, MacKenzie CR. A new method of classifying prognostic comorbidity in longitudinal studies: development and validation. J Chronic Dis. 1987;40(5):37383.
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar
Dooling K, The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Updated Interim Recommendation for Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine United States, December 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2021 Jul 25];69. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm695152e2.htm.
Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. VA announces initial plans for COVID-19 vaccine distribution [Internet]. [cited 2021 Dec 2]. Available from: https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5580.
Morris NS, MacLean CD, Chew LD, Littenberg B. The single item literacy screener: evaluation of a brief instrument to identify limited reading ability. BMC Fam Pract. 2006;7(1):21.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
McNaughton CD, Cavanaugh KL, Kripalani S, Rothman RL, Wallston KA. Validation of a short, 3-Item Version of the subjective numeracy scale. Med Decis Mak. 2015;35(8):9326.
Article Google Scholar
Fagerlin A, Zikmund-Fisher BJ, Ubel PA, Jankovic A, Derry HA, Smith DM. Measuring numeracy without a math test: development of the subjective numeracy scale. Med Decis Making. 2007;27(5):67280.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Frew PM, Murden R, Mehta CC, Chamberlain AT, Hinman AR, Nowak G, et al. Development of a US trust measure to assess and monitor parental confidence in the vaccine system. Vaccine. 2019;37(2):32532.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Shea JA, Micco E, Dean LT, McMurphy S, Schwartz JS, Armstrong K. Development of a revised Health Care System Distrust Scale. J Gen Intern Med. 2008;23(6):72732.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Hartman RO, Dieckmann NF, Sprenger AM, Stastny BJ, DeMarree KG. Modeling attitudes toward science: development and validation of the credibility of science scale. Basic Appl Soc Psychol. 2017;39(6):35871.
Article Google Scholar
Piltch-Loeb R, Zikmund-Fisher BJ, Shaffer VA, Scherer LD, Knaus M, Fagerlin A, et al. Cross-sectional psychological and Demographic Associations of Zika Knowledge and Conspiracy beliefs before and after local Zika transmission. Risk Anal. 2019;39(12):268393.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Scherer LD, Zikmund-Fisher BJ. Eliciting medical maximizing-minimizing preferences with a single question: development and validation of the MM1. Med Decis Making. 2020;40(4):54550.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Thorpe A, Zhong L, Scherer LD, Drews FA, Shoemaker H, Fagerlin A. Demographic, structural, and psychological predictors of risk-increasing and mask wearing behaviors among US adults between December 2020March 2021. Patient Educ Couns. 2023;114:107792.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Betsch C, Schmid P, Heinemeier D, Korn L, Holtmann C, Bhm R. Beyond confidence: development of a measure assessing the 5C psychological antecedents of vaccination. PLoS ONE. 2018;13(12):e0208601.
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Karafillakis E, Larson HJ. The benefit of the doubt or doubts over benefits? A systematic literature review of perceived risks of vaccines in European populations. Vaccine. 2017;35(37):484050.
Article PubMed Google Scholar
Dror AA, Eisenbach N, Taiber S, Morozov NG, Mizrachi M, Zigron A, et al. Vaccine hesitancy: the next challenge in the fight against COVID-19. Eur J Epidemiol. 2020;35(8):7759.
Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Paul E, Steptoe A, Fancourt D. Attitudes towards vaccines and intention to vaccinate against COVID-19: Implications for public health communications. The Lancet Regional Health Europe [Internet]. 2021 Feb 1 [cited 2021 Jul 6];1. Available from: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(20)30012-0/abstract.
Freeman D, Loe BS, Yu LM, Freeman J, Chadwick A, Vaccari C, et al. Effects of different types of written vaccination information on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the UK (OCEANS-III): a single-blind, parallel-group, randomised controlled trial. Lancet Public Health. 2021;6(6):e41627.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
Ritter PL, Stewart AL, Kaymaz H, Sobel DS, Block DA, Lorig KR. Self-reports of health care utilization compared to provider records. J Clin Epidemiol. 2001;54(2):13641.
Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar
King JP, McLean HQ, Belongia EA. Validation of self-reported influenza vaccination in the current and prior season. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2018;12(6):80813.
Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar
COVID-19 Vaccines At VA.| Veterans Affairs [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jul 25]. Available from: https://www.va.gov/health-care/covid-19-vaccine/.
floridatoday.com wants to ensure the best experience for all of our readers, so we built our site to take advantage of the latest technology, making it faster and easier to use.
Unfortunately, your browser is not supported. Please download one of these browsers for the best experience on floridatoday.com
