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Texas Gave 15,000 More MMR Shots This Year — Now It Has More Measles Cases Than the Entire US Had in 2024
Texas administered 15,000 more measles vaccinations this year compared to 2024 — and now there’s a growing measles outbreak that has surpassed the total number of cases reported across the entire U.S. last year. The news follows this website’s February report that measles cases in Gaines County, Texas, had jumped 242% following a health district campaign to hand out free measles vaccines.
A measles outbreak after higher vaccination rates in Texas calls into question the shot’s claimed effectiveness and underlying design. Between Jan. 1 and March 16 last year, 158,000 measles vaccines were administered in the state, according to CBS News. During the same time this year, 173,000 measles doses were given. There are now more measles cases in Texas than there were across the U.S. in all of 2024.
On Friday, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported 309 cases have been identified in the state since late January. That’s compared to only 285 cases nationwide last year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Dr. Fauci Speaks About Declining Vaccination Rates at New Orleans Book Fest
More than five years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the people who led the country through the health crisis — Dr. Anthony Fauci — spoke at this year’s New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.
Fauci was the former chief medical adviser for presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. During his panel, he spoke about the decisions to implement specific COVID-19 safety procedures and the importance of making decisions based on medical data and science. He said what concerns him currently is the decline in vaccination rates across the board, especially for measles.
The CDC says 92% of kindergarteners in the U.S. are vaccinated for measles, a 3% drop over a five-year period. Health experts, including Fauci, say it’s causing the disease to spread faster than it has in decades, especially among children.
“Are we willing to accept death from a preventable disease among our children?” Fauci asked.
Vaccine Stocks Fall After Key FDA Official Resigns in Protest of RFK Jr.
Shares of major vaccine makers dropped on Monday after a key U.S. health official resigned in protest of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on immunization.
The departure of Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) top vaccine regulator, has raised fresh fears about whether the Trump administration will quickly approve and promote critical shots. In his position, Marks oversaw the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines and rules for the use of emerging treatments like cell and gene therapies.
Shares of Moderna and Novavax dropped more than 11% and 6%, respectively, in early trading. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF slid nearly 5%. Shares of Pfizer, which has broader businesses to insulate it from damage to its vaccine portfolio, lost about 2%. Some Wall Street analysts said Marks’ departure could undermine the FDA’s mission of ensuring safe and effective treatments reach patients in the U.S. That could put even more pressure on a struggling biotech sector.
As Measles Cases Rise, Some Parents Become Vaccine Enthusiasts
As a measles outbreak in West Texas and New Mexico continues to grow, and other states report outbreaks of their own, some pediatricians across the U.S. say they are seeing a new trend among concerned parents: vaccine enthusiasm.
“Our call center was inundated with calls about the MMR [measles, mumps, rubella] vaccine,” says Dr. Shannon Fox-Levine, a pediatrician in Broward County, Fla. She says parents are asking if their child is up to date on their vaccinations. Or “should they get another vaccine? Should they get an extra one? Can they get it early?”
Measles spreads quickly in communities where vaccination rates are low, and vaccine hesitancy has been on the rise across the U.S. in recent years. Kindergarten vaccination rates have not bounced back to their pre-pandemic levels. Fox-Levine says the recent interest in the MMR vaccine — which protects against measles, mumps and rubella — is a refreshing change in a state where vaccine hesitancy has been growing.
Health Council: No COVID-19 Vaccine Needed for Adults Under 50 Who Get Flu Shot
The Dutch Health Council has recommended that people aged 18 to 49 who receive the annual flu vaccine should not get the COVID-19 shot this fall. According to the council, the risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 for this group is now lower than in previous years, making the added benefit of the vaccination limited, RTL reports.
However, the council has advised that the COVID-19 vaccine should still be offered to those 60 years and older, individuals with high medical risks, and those in their 50s who receive the flu shot. Additionally, healthcare workers in direct contact with vulnerable patients should continue to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
For those in higher-risk groups, the Health Council emphasized that vaccination remains a crucial defense. “These groups have a significantly increased risk upon infection, and vaccination provides effective protection against the virus,” a spokesperson stated.
In the most recent vaccination campaign, from September to December, more than 2.5 million people received their COVID-19 shot, slightly fewer than the previous year.
AstraZeneca, Pfizer Rebuked Over Breaking UK Drug Marketing Rules on LinkedIn Use
The PMCPA has dug into the industry’s LinkedIn activities once again. AstraZeneca received the harshest censure in the latest set of cases, taking a telling-off over one of its own posts, while Pfizer escaped with a slap on the wrist after its employees got too liberal with their LinkedIn likes.
A who’s who of leading drugmakers have run afoul of the restrictions on social media in recent months, with the latest PMCPA reviews moving the number of completed LinkedIn cases since the start of last year above 25. The PMCPA, pharma’s marketing self-regulatory body in the U.K., has found drugmakers have broken the medicine promotion rules, often because their employees liked posts by third parties.
The latest AstraZeneca case is a little different. The PMCPA began looking into the topic after receiving a screenshot of an AstraZeneca LinkedIn post from an anonymous complainant. The post included a brand name, “Calquence,” and the drug’s indication “CLL,” an abbreviation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
One Dose of Experimental Drug Nearly Wipes out Stealthy Cholesterol in ‘Remarkable’ Trial
A single dose of an experimental drug dramatically reduced levels of a deadly form of cholesterol, often thought to be untreatable, for up to one year. Lipoprotein(a) is a type of cholesterol that lurks in the body, undetected by routine tests and undeterred by existing drugs, diet or exercise.
The findings, cardiologists say, are a critical step toward treating the millions of Americans genetically predisposed to abnormally high levels of lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a).
“It’s remarkable,” said Dr. Eric Brandt, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Michigan Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center in Ann Arbor, who wasn’t involved with the new research.
“These drugs have the potential to nearly eliminate that lipoprotein.” People with high levels of Lp(a) — some 64 million adults in the U.S. — are at extremely high risk of cholesterol buildup in their arteries. That buildup raises their odds of heart attack, stroke and early death from cardiovascular problems.
