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Harvard Poll Shows 1 in 5 Adults Do Not Support Routine Childhood Vaccine Requirements
Approximately 1 in 5 U.S. adults do not support routine childhood vaccine requirements, according to a new poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation. However, approximately 79% of parents said childhood vaccination, such as for measles, mumps, and rubella, should be necessary to attend school.
“At this point, public opposition to childhood vaccine policies is often more about parental rights than vaccine safety,” Gillian SteelFisher, director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program and principal research scientist at Harvard Chan School, said in a news release.
For those who support routine vaccine requirements, 90% cite vaccine effectiveness and 87% cite family responsibilities to keep schools safe. Only 49% cited trust in government agencies approval as a reason for their support.
Further, 84% of those who support vaccines said they believe diseases, such as measles, will come back if vaccines are no longer required; 81% said vaccine requirements are important to protect children who cannot get vaccinated; 80% believed they are proven safe because they are well tested; and 78% said they are proven safe because they have been around so long.
Mass. Public School District Says Students Not up-to-Date on Vaccines Can’t Return to Class in Fall
Newton Public Schools students who are not up to date on their vaccinations cannot return to school in the fall, the superintendent said in a recent memo. Superintendent Anna Nolin’s memo to the School Committee, dated June 16, states that Newton Health and Human Services and the City of Newton Nursing Division found 182 students were not up to date on their vaccines.
Nolin says during the pandemic, the previous superintendent waived student vaccine requirements. Of those 182 students, Nolin says 42 were not vaccinated against measles, which raises concern due to recent outbreaks in other parts of the country.
Several Newton residents approached by Boston 25 News on Thursday declined to comment on the matter.
Nolin’s memo states that students will not be allowed to return to class until requirements are met, saying it’s the state’s requirements for school attendance.
Exemptions from these requirements include a written statement from a doctor that immunization would not be in the best interests of the child, or by the student’s parent or guardian stating that vaccination or immunization is contrary to the religious beliefs of the student or parent/guardian, the memo states.
Florida Is the First State to Require That High School Student-Athletes Get Life-Saving EKGs
A new Florida law taking effect Tuesday will mandate that all high school student-athletes take an electrocardiogram (EKG) before they can compete on school sports teams. The Second Chance Act is the first of its kind — Florida is the first and only state to require high school student-athletes to get at least one EKG.
The test, which is painless and only takes a few minutes to complete, detects heart conditions that can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death. Although athletes don’t need to get tested until the 2026-27 school year, results taken any time in the two years before the fall 2026 deadline will be accepted.
School districts are mandated under the new law to provide low-cost EKGs to all student-athletes in Grades 9-12, and families can opt out for religious or medical reasons or if their school does not provide an EKG at $50 or less.
Breakthrough Video Game Unlocks New Insights Into How Children With Autism Learn
A fast, engaging video game is opening new doors in understanding how children with autism learn. Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University have developed a racing game called HaptiKart. “Children with autism very often show motor skill difficulties that parallel their difficulties with social skills,” says Dr. Stewart Mostofsky.
Dr. Stewart Mostofsky says researchers recognized that this game gives them a better understanding of the differences in how children with autism learn by looking at how they learn motor skills, which is also how most learn social skills.
“While they tend to show a decreased ability to rely on visual input to learn motor skills, they show an increased tendency to rely on what’s called proprioceptive feedback, which is feedback from their own muscles, in their own bodies,” he says.
HaptiKart is a five-minute racing video game that helps doctors figure out if a child learns better through physical sensations or verbal cues.
Regular Exercise Helps Ease Kids’ Depression and Anxiety
Regular exercise is one of the best therapies for children and teens suffering from mood disorders, a new study suggests. Researchers found anxiety and depression decrease when kids take part in structured exercise programs. They reviewed data from 375 clinical trials involving more than 38,000 kids five to 18 years of age.
According to the results, anxiety levels dropped when participants engaged in low-intensity resistance training, such as lifting weights. And depressive symptoms improved with moderate-intensity workouts combining aerobic and strength exercises.
The benefits were strong whether the participants worked out one or three days per week.
The researchers say these findings suggest exercise could help improve kids’ moods without the use of drugs like antidepressants. The lead investigator says, “Exercise is a low-cost, widely accessible strategy that could make a real difference to children’s mental health.”
The UK’s Plan to Genetically Test All Newborns Sounds Smart — Until It Creates Patients Who Aren’t Sick
By 2030, every baby born in the U.K. could have their entire genome sequenced under a new NHS initiative to “predict and prevent illness”. This would dramatically expand the current heel-prick test, which checks for nine rare genetic conditions, into a far more extensive screen of hundreds of potential risks.
On the surface, the idea sounds like an obvious win for public health: spot problems early, intervene sooner and save lives. But genetic testing on this scale carries real risks, especially if the results are misunderstood or poorly communicated. The new plan builds on a recent NHS pilot study that sequenced the genomes of 100,000 newborns in England to identify more than 200 genetic conditions. However, these tests don’t provide clear cut answers. They don’t offer a diagnosis or certainty, just an estimate of risk.
Some families may come to see a child flagged as “at risk” as a patient-in-waiting. In extreme cases, they may treat a probability as a certainty; assuming, for instance, that a child “has the gene” and will inevitably become ill. That assumption could reshape how children are raised, how they’re treated and how they could see themselves.
