Prof Sheena Cruickshank

The State of US Vaccine Policy — Mar 5, 2026

Excellent round up of what is happening re vaccines in the states and how you can make your feelings known about the nomination of a surgeon general who is evasive about supporting vaccines

Expert meeting on US measles elimination status delayed to November A meeting of an international panel of experts that was set to review the United States' ​measles elimination status next month has been postponed until November, the Pan American ‌Health Organization...

The US was set to lose its measles free status but an intervention by HHS has delayed the discussion until AFTER midterms and action on this as they claim they need more time to look at data

Meanwhile the new nomination for surgeon general couldn’t bring herself to recommend measles vaccines or acknowledge no links between the vaccine and autism…

South Carolina measles outbreak: How much is it costing taxpayers to bring it under control? State health officials have tallied the cost of combatting the outbreak so far. The bills are still coming in.

Fortunately Carolina, at the epicentre of the largest current outbreak is taking action to combat this but at significant costs

Trump administration is failing to address spread of measles, experts say As number of cases climbs past 1,000, experts say CDC is not taking obvious steps amid funding cuts

CDC leadership and RFKJr is utterly failing to respond adequately to the measles epidemic continuing in USA, due to cuts in funding monitoring and reporting of infection has been cut back which further muddies the picture of how bad measles is in the States. 🧵 #HealthPolicy

😆

Trump ousts DHS secretary Kristi Noem and replaces her with Republican senator Noem’s tenure was marked by killings of US citizens by federal agents, a rumored affair and $220m spent on ads

About time. But what the hell is special envoy for the Shield of americas?

Measles meets ICE detention. What could possibly go wrong?

Gut physiology and environment explain variations in human gut microbiome composition and metabolism - Nature Microbiology An observational longitudinal clinical trial, incorporating a SmartPill and metabolomics, reveals the role of host factors in shaping the gut microbiome in healthy human adults.

Today we publish an (in my opinion) important paper in
@naturemicrobiol.bsky.social 🍾 showing that gut physiology and environment are factors explaining substantial variations in human gut #microbiome composition and #metabolism🦠
Fantastic work Procházková et al. 👏
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Finally, spring gearing up in the garden and even a bee enjoying the crocuses

5 Logical fallacies in the era of RFK Jr. Common rhetorical tricks that are trending right now

This is fantastic from Kristen Panthagani on the common disinformation tropes RFKJr uses to reduce trust in and now access to vaccines. Learn how to spot these common logical fallacies.

"I see nothing in the data"

Bhattacharya urges measles vaccination as US activity increases

As the US case number of measles spirals ever more (>1000already) following a year where over 2000 cases occurred, one statement on X by Bhattacharya urging vaccination is too little too late given the anti-vax policies RFKJr et al have pushed

Yikes!

😮😮

Nooooo!

😬😬😬😬

Noooooo!

Fun days with late night lectures - either my wifi disconnected or some idiot interfered with the lectern PC display set up. Oh the joys. The students were ever so kind but I hate those incidents when nothing works as it should! Gah. Please share your own teaching disasters & make feel less useless

It shouldn’t do but ACIP have been confused about Children’s Health Insurance Program and children eligible for that may have reduced access to free vaccines as kennedy recommending fewer vaccines but not clear as varies between states as some states sticking to physician association guidelines

However which ever way this goes- the degree of anti vaccine activism in the States is very concerning

Vaccine policy changes in the USA What could the latest changes in the States mean for vaccine access and uptake?

Personally i have mixed views about mandates but in a country where disinformation is presiding over health issues mandates could help reduce the number of unvaccinated kids going to school. However many states have so many exemptions it could be argued it will not matter so much

As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools

Kennedy allies are currently trying to coalesce groups to reject vaccine mandates for vaccines such as the MMR that protects against measles- this is despite the growing number of measles cases which could surpass last year’s total #PublicHealth 🧵

Measles outbreaks are costing the U.S. millions of dollars. The true losses can't be counted. As vaccination rates decline, the economic consequences will increase, research suggests.

If measles vaccination rates continue to drop just 1% annually for the next five years, the cost to the U.S. could reach $1.5 billion a year, according to a new report from the Yale School of Public Health.

Gorse was blooming - it was lovely. Still a muddy mire underfoot though

River with dog next to it

Spring finally here

This story has been puzzling, because im still not clear exactly what is meant to have happened where, or why DV insists there was egregious family voting but the council seems so sure nothing was raised with them on the day (bar one concern, I’m told, which apparently turned out to be innocent)

Is there a thing

Immunotherapy uses invisibility cloak to deliver direct hit to prostate cancer Immunotherapy uses invisibility cloak to deliver direct hit to prostate cancer

You can read even more about the trial of the VIR-5500 T-cell engager drug that we've been trialling in #ProstateCancer here ⤵️

#GU26

www.icr.ac.uk/about-us/icr...

T cell engager not T cell engaged- stupid spellchecker