The US response to the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak has concluded with no cases among American passengers but plenty of questions on the responses from Trump administration officials.

The US's response to the outbreak ended on Sunday, June 21, with the final 42-day monitoring period wrapping up for passengers of the virus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius. But without explanation, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the end of the response today, June 24, with a press release dated June 23.

Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted how HHS acted "swiftly" to respond to the outbreak and credited federal efforts for preventing "sustained transmission of hantavirus... in the United States," despite no Americans bringing the virus into the country for sustained transmission to be possible.

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The Army, Navy, and Air Force are once again requiring basic trainees to get vaccinated against influenza after the virus quickly swept through an Air Force base in Texas, sickening at least 222 recruits and hospitalizing four.

The outbreak flared just two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abandoned a decades-long requirement for flu shots. The requirement was intended to keep armed forces healthy in their bases, which provide ideally tight conditions for a variety of pathogens, including influenza, to run rampant. Mandates stem from centuries of intertwining histories of militaries, war, and human pathogens that have firmly established the danger that infectious diseases pose to armed forces.

But in April, Hegseth claimed that flu shot requirements were "not rational" and said removing the requirement was "restoring freedom" to military members.

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In an extremely odd case, a single 79-year-old patient was granted early access to Eli Lilly's powerful, still-experimental obesity drug retatrutide through the Food and Drug Administration's "compassionate use" program—raising immediate questions if that sole patient is President Donald Trump, according to a report by Stat News.

Lilly's retatrutide is a highly anticipated next-generation obesity drug that targets GIP and glucagon hormones in addition to GLP-1. It is currently in late-stage trials to treat obesity, diabetes, sleep apnea, and other conditions. Data from a Phase 3 trial that Lilly released in May indicates that patients with obesity (but without diabetes) who took the drug for 80 weeks lost 28 percent of their weight, an amount comparable to bariatric surgery.

Millions of Americans with obesity are eager to get the drug, with options being limited so far to enrolling in a clinical trial or trying to obtain it by dodgy methods.

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For our weary eyeballs, strained and tired from long periods locked onto screens, rest and relaxation can do wonders. But a man in Scotland came up with an eye-popping plan to try to pamper his pooped peepers.

Ophthalmologists discovered it when the man, who was in his 20s, appeared at an eye treatment center in Edinburgh. He told them he had noticed increasing floaters and flashing lights in his right eye over the previous six days. According to a BMJ Case Report, the man said he hadn't had any eye or head injuries before the vision problems began, and that his family didn't have a history of eye disorders that might explain them. Besides having mild near-sightedness and needing glasses, he usually didn't have any problems with his eyes, he said.

When the doctors—Niamh O’Connell ‍‍and Ashraf Khan—took a close look, they were surprised to find that both of his eyes were in terrible shape. In his right eye, he had multiple retinal tears, widespread retinal bruising, and a condition called retinal dialysis—a retinal break at a junction in the front of the eye—that is usually seen after a significant eye injury. In his left eye, he had more widespread bruising and six full-thickness rips in his retina.

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Independent advisors for the Food and Drug Administration on Friday voted 9–0 in support of approving Moderna's seasonal mRNA flu vaccine, which a Trump appointee at the agency initially tried to block from even being reviewed.

In an all-day meeting, members of the FDA's advisory committee—known as VRBPAC for Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee—pored over data and presentations on the vaccine, which is dubbed mRNA-1010 and branded as mFlusiva. The presentations included a review from FDA scientists, which was supportive of the vaccine.

Data from a Phase 3 trial including over 40,000 adults age 50 and older found the mRNA vaccine was around 27 percent more effective against seasonal flu than a standard flu shot. A smaller Phase 3 trial, involving data from nearly 3,000 people age 65 years and older, showed the shot produces stronger immune responses than a high-dose flu vaccine, which is recommended for this age group. The safety profile of the vaccine was also generally good.

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The Food and Drug Administration this week cleared a second carcass-feasting fly species for use in maggot wound therapy, according to an announcement from Cuprina Holdings, a Singapore-based company that has dubbed its new therapeutic larvae MediFly Maggots.

With the clearance, Cuprina appears to be the only company to have FDA clearance to sell two species of fly larvae—and it's abuzz with the potential to dominate the global maggot market.

The new species is Lucilia cuprina, or Australian sheep blowfly. It's a close relative of Lucilia sericata, or the common green bottle fly, which is the fly species most often used for wound therapy, often called biosurgery or maggot debridement therapy (MDT). L. sericata is the only other fly with FDA clearance, which the agency first granted in 2004 to Ronald Sherman, who is now Cuprina’s Medical and Scientific Director.

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A gene therapy for Huntington's disease has a new path toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration after the ouster of several Trump officials, particularly Vinay Prasad, who rejected the therapy in a shocking move one former FDA official called "truly evil."

Huntington's disease is an inherited condition that typically strikes in middle age and causes nerve cells in the brain to gradually break down. There are currently no treatments for the disease, and many afflicted die in their 50s and 60s.

Gene therapy company UniQure developed a one-time treatment, AMT-130, that aims to lower brain levels of the mutant protein behind the disease, called huntingtin. Data from a small, early trial suggested the drug could slow the progression of the disease up to 75 percent, and patients and advocates have closely watched the drug's development in hopeful anticipation.

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Although most Americans have eschewed seasonal COVID-19 vaccines, the updated shots continue to show significant protection against cardiovascular disease, especially for those over age 75 and those with underlying medical conditions. That's according to a new study that pulled data from more than 1 million patients in a US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health system.

The finding builds on previous data showing that the vaccines significantly lower the risk of COVID-19-associated cardiovascular risks, particularly heart attacks and strokes. But it wasn't a given that the benefit would hold up over time—as the virus evolved, the vaccines were updated, population-level immunity increased from previous infection and vaccination, and risk of severe outcomes fell.

The new study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that the 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine continued to protect against COVID-19-associated "major adverse cardiovascular events" (MACE), which include cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke, and hospitalization for heart failure.

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Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted a long, enraged social media response to a New York Times article reporting that health department insiders think Kennedy is disengaged from the work of his sprawling agency. His response, however, seems to back the Times' claim.

The report, published Sunday, June 7, relied on accounts from a dozen people who have had direct contact with Kennedy during his time as health secretary. Collectively, the sources indicate that Kennedy has little interest in the details of the health department's work and little direct interaction with career staff. Kennedy misses critical, regularly scheduled meetings with agency leaders, is sometimes "checked out" in the meetings he attends, and has been out of the loop on key decisions, such as the firing of Tracy Beth Høeg, a political appointee elevated to top drug regulator at the Food and Drug Administration. In his stead, Kennedy often refers people to his protective, longtime assistant, Stefanie Spear, who colleagues say has slowed department operations and fueled some significant leadership departures.

On Wednesday night, Kennedy responded to the report with an 871-word diatribe on social media against the reporter, veteran journalist Sheryl Gay Stolberg, and the Times. His key argument was that much of the story could be refuted by a look at his jam-packed public calendar.

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Nearly a month into the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, cases continue to rise as officials are still trailing the virus in their response efforts.

As of Thursday, June 11, the DRC has reported 676 confirmed cases, 136 deaths, and 119 suspected cases. Uganda is reporting 19 confirmed cases and two deaths.

The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebolavirus, is already the third largest Ebola outbreak on record. But health experts fear that it could grow much larger and had been quietly spreading for months before the outbreak was declared on May 15.

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Amid intense backlash, the head of the American Diabetes Association posted a video Wednesday apologizing for the organization's decision on Friday to forcefully remove five leading diabetes scientists from the association's annual meeting.

The scientists were ejected for handing out copies of an April editorial—published in the ADA's own journal Diabetes Care—that sharply criticizes the Trump administration for the damage and destruction it's wreaking on biomedical research. The five scientists included Steven Kahn, professor of medicine at the University of Washington, who is the editor-in-chief of Diabetes Care and a co-author of the editorial. It also included former ADA President Desmond Schatz of the University of Florida.

The scientists were distributing the editorial outside the conference's opening speech, which was originally scheduled to be given by Jay Bhattacharya, head of the National Institutes of Health under Trump. Bhattacharya canceled at the last minute, and senior NIH official Rick Woychik took his place.

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For the first time, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) has released its own recommendations for maternal vaccination, providing formal guidance that diverges from that of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amid unprecedented policy changes and meddling from anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

ACOG President Camille Clare blamed "changing national recommendations coupled with rampant vaccine misinformation" for the confusion among patients and health care professionals about vaccines during pregnancy.

"It is incredibly important for the public to have access to reliable, evidence-based information on maternal immunizations from a trusted source. ACOG is proud to be that source," Clare said in a statement.

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Ravenous, flesh-eating flies have busted through containment barriers and have now reemerged in the US. On Monday and Tuesday, the US Department of Agriculture reported three new cases, bringing the tally to five.

One of the cases is in a dog, though it's unclear where it became infected; the dog lives in New Mexico, had its infection reported in Texas, and may have recently traveled to Mexico, where the flies are also spreading. But the other four US cases were all in Texas—and all in calves—two in Zavala County and two in La Salle County.

Almost all the attention over screwworm's resurgence has focused on the threat to livestock, like the calves and, in turn, the financial risk to the cattle industry. The fly's voracious, screw-shaped larvae can fell cattle if given the chance, and preventing infestations requires intense vigilance. The USDA has estimated that if the flies stage a comeback rivaling isolated outbreaks of the past, they could cost Texas producers $732 million per year and the Texas economy $1.8 billion.

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The Food and Drug Administration this week posted what critics call an "underwhelming" epilogue to the devastating outbreak of botulism in babies, which was linked to spore-contaminated formula made by ByHeart. Despite clear tracking of the contamination, the regulator still doesn't know how the bacteria arrived in the formula—or how to prevent it from happening again.

"The FDA's investigation into the root cause is ongoing with a focus on ingredients," the agency reported.

In the void, three companies at the center of the investigation are left pointing fingers at each other, with none publicly taking responsibility for the contamination.

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