Nathan Lo

Panel Votes to End Recommendation for Hepatitis B Shots for All Newborns

A dystopian reality: unqualified decision makers with disregard for basic concepts in epidemiology, clinical medicine, and the evidence-to-decision guidelines process on full display at ACIP - leaving American children to bear the harm. (A few ACIP members excluded) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/h...

CDC’s vaccine advisory panel faces a crisis of its own making “ACIP has drifted toward inflating speculative risks while downplaying well-established vaccine benefits,” write former CDC officials Demetre Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan, and Debra Houry.

The health of Americans is at risk as those in power abandon evidence and process, and elevate anecdote and rhetoric in their place. Excellent article (if sad to read) www.statnews.com/2025/12/03/a...

Controversial Louisiana surgeon general tapped for CDC leadership role Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham has spoken against Covid shots and ended mass vaccination campaigns. Now he's in a position to make national health decisions.

- He stopped the policy of encouraging flu immunization in Louisiana
- Delayed reporting on a pertussis outbreak that killed two children in Louisiana.
-Promoted false information on covid vaccine harms.
He is now number 2 at CDC.
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

New leader tapped for CDC had stopped pushing vaccines amid flu surge Ralph Abraham, a Louisiana health official who stopped promoting mass vaccination vaccines, has been appointed as the CDC's principal deputy director

BREAKING: Louisiana health official who ordered his health department to stop promoting mass vaccinations during a surge in flu cases this winter has been tapped to be the new number 2 at @CDCgov. My story.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

RFK Jr. Says He Instructed CDC to Change Vaccines and Autism Language on Website In an interview, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited gaps in vaccine safety research. His critics say he is ignoring a larger point: Vaccines save lives.

Breaking News: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism. The move underscores his determination to challenge scientific orthodoxy — in this case, that vaccines save lives — and bend the health department to his will.

Nowcasting epidemic trends using hospital- and community-based virologic test data - Nature Communications Population-level distributions of SARS-CoV-2 viral load can correlate with epidemic trends. Here, the authors use viral loads to nowcast epidemic growth rates over two-week periods and investigate how...

New study shows that shifts in SARS‑CoV‑2 Ct value distributions can help nowcast epidemic trends, revealing both strong potential and key real‑world limitations for Ct‑based surveillance. From CCDD alumni TY Lim & @jameshay.bsky.social and faculty @yhgrad.bsky.social at bit.ly/4o37EaN

“Since 1998, independent researchers have conducted more than 40 high-quality studies involving over 5.6 million people. The conclusion is clear and unambiguous: There’s no link between vaccines and autism." -Dr. Susan Kressly, AAP President on recent changes to the CDC's website

How awful. This is outright health disinformation, lying to the American people. Not only is there massive evidence showing no link between vaccines & autism, there’s not even a plausible mechanism based on what we’ve learned about the genetics of autism, some environmental exposures in pregnancy

Honored to receive the Ashford medal from @astmh.bsky.social. Much credit goes to my mentors, collaborators, colleagues, and our team @utah.edu @uofuhealth.bsky.social @uofumandi.bsky.social. Even more gratifying was seeing my trainees recognized for their work earlier in the day. #GlobalHealth.

Canada loses measles elimination status — as does the entire Americas region Canada has formally lost its measles elimination status, the country’s public health agency announced, triggering the loss of that status throughout all of the Americas.

As expected, Canada has lost its measles-free status because of the long-running outbreak there. With it goes the #measles elimination status of the entire zone of the Americas, the only division of the #WHO to ever have achieved measles elimination. www.statnews.com/2025/11/10/m...

The Erosion of Harm Reduction | NEJM The U.S. administration has continuously chipped away at public health interventions addressing substance use disorders and the opioid crisis, including vital harm-reduction activities.

The Erosion of Harm Reduction | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Paul Bollyky, MD, DPhil, as the new Division Chief of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at Stanford Medicine.

Dr. Bollyky has been a dedicated member of our division, bringing deep expertise and a vision for advancing infectious disease research and care.

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'

Well reported story on the PBS News Hour about science cuts and the ongoing and potential brain drain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO...

Thanks to Terrance Tao and other scientists at various career stages for having the courage to speak out.

Watch and share!

1/7

Updated Evidence for Covid-19, RSV, and Influenza Vaccines for 2025–2026 | NEJM Changes in the vaccine advisory process in the United States have disrupted immunization guidance, which reinforces the need for independent evidence review to inform decisions regarding immunizati...

NEW @nejm.org: We synthesized 511 recent studies on Covid-19, RSV & flu vaccines for 2025-26. With federal advisory processes disrupted, clinicians & the public need rigorous, independent evidence synthesis.

Here's what we found: 🧵
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Check out this analysis of vaccine data in @nejm.org by @jakescottmd.bsky.social and colleagues!

Meta-analysis of COVID, RSV, flu vaccines for fall provides 'sea of data' showing efficacy, safety

Thank you, @cidrap.bsky.social, for covering our new @nejm.org review of Covid-19, RSV, and influenza immunizations.

Check it out: cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/meta-analysis-covid-rsv-flu-vaccines-fall-provides-sea-data-showing-efficacy-safety

JAMA research letter, published online October 29, 2025, shows geographic distribution of healthcare professionals sponsored for H-1B visas in the US. Four US maps display percentages for physicians, advanced practice providers, dentists, and other health care workers.

H-1B visa–sponsored physicians are twice as prevalent in rural counties and nearly 4 times as common in high-poverty areas, highlighting the potential harm of rising visa costs to health care access.

ja.ma/47Iw84h

Louisiana officials waited months to warn public of whooping cough outbreak After a whooping cough outbreak killed two infants, Louisiana health officials waited months to officially alert physicians or do public outreach. That's not the typical public health response.

The thing about outbreaks of infectious diseases is that you can only hide them for so long. Time literally is containment.
And the whistle always blows once people start to die ( in this instance babies). This is why we have public health surveillance and reporting.
www.npr.org/sections/sho...

The National Academy of Medicine elected 90 new members, including 10 international, including our chair,
@euanashley.bsky.social in recognition of his efforts to help lay the foundation for the use of the human genome in medicine. Congratulations, Euan!

Read more: med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...

Vaccine-Preventable Infectious Diseases Within US Immigration Detention Centers This case series examines epidemiological patterns of 3 vaccine-preventable diseases within US Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities.

My husband Dean's nice paper in @jama.com open. Detention is a setup for disease transmission. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade - Nature mRNA vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 also sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Come check out our work at #IDweek2025

Bottazzi

A forest plot of the subgroup analysis of all-cause mortality among infants 1 to 11 months of age at the time of mass administration.

Mass administration of azithromycin to children younger than 5 years has been reported to decrease child mortality. In the LAKANA trial, limited to infants 1 to 11 months of age in Mali, azithromycin did not reduce infant or child mortality. Full trial results: nej.md/3W9ykeD

#MedSky #PedSky

Just here to remind everyone that while the federal government is shutdown, all study sections at the NIH are currently on hold. Another blow to science and to early career scientists like myself with young labs and research groups. Very hard to remain positive about this career path.

Modeling the Health Impact of Discontinuing COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy in the US This decision analytical model study estimates the number of avertable COVID-19 hospitalizations in US infants younger than 6 months and pregnant persons with vaccinations during pregnancy.

Pregnancy doubles the risk of severe COVID-19.
Infants < 6 months old have approx = risk of severe disease as those 65-74 yrs old.

➡️ Pregnancy = priority for COVID 💉

Modeling the Health Impact of Discontinuing COVID-19 Vaccination During Pregnancy in the US : jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

NEW: @CDCgov hit hard by massive firings that several staff describe to me as a “bloodbath.”
Among those RIFd:
—leadership of the center for immunization and respiratory diseases;
—leadership of global health center
—leadership of the measles outbreak response; 1/4

In the era of widespread population immunity , among veterans COVID vaccines still reduced the risk for COVID related emergency room visits, hospitalization and death in the 2024-2025 vaccination season, especially in older veterans >65 years.
www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....