It has been more than a year since the World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 pandemic. But while the virus no longer qualifies as a crisis, experts say it will only stay under control if people get vaccinated.

“Population immunity has moved us out of the pandemic,” said Dr. Manisha Patel, chief medical officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “Now the goal is to make sure we keep that immunity up because it does wane. And the way we keep it up is through vaccination. That is the safest way to keep our country healthy.”

Read more at American Heart Association News.

GSK Plc’s shingles vaccine was linked to a longer delay in dementia onset than a competing shot, a finding that suggests superior protective powers against one of the world’s most threatening conditions.

People who received the Shingrix vaccine lived an average of 164 days longer without a dementia diagnosis than those who got Merck & Co.’s Zostavax, according to a study published Thursday in the Nature Medicine journal. The Merck vaccine was linked to lower dementia risk in a study last year.

Read more at Time.

Routine vaccination rates for kindergarteners haven’t rebounded since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to KFF.

At the same time, exemptions from school vaccination requirements are climbing, possibly contributing to surging measles cases.

Shifts in public opinion and rising vaccine hesitancy rooted in misinformation are contributing to the lower vaccination rates, KFF reported. About three-quarters of states reported measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination rates below the 95% Healthy People 2030 target during the previous school year. Meanwhile, 10 states had more than 5% of kindergarteners claim a vaccine exemption during the 2022-2023 school year.

Read more at The Hill.

For nearly four months, the spread of bird flu in the nation’s dairy cattle has stoked fears that, if left unchecked, the virus could eventually unleash a pandemic.

The recent cluster of human cases connected to poultry farms in Colorado only underscores that the threat remains real.

Genetic sequencing of the virus collected from the sickened poultry workers closely resembles what’s circulating in dairy herds, suggesting that cattle somehow introduced the virus into the poultry flock.

At one massive poultry facility, workers culled the birds under particularly dangerous circumstances.

Read more at NPR.

The COVID summer wave is in full swing. With cases rising and new variants continuing to pop up, it’s normal to wonder about your potential for long COVID. Scientists are slowly learning more about the condition, including how to try to prevent it in the first place. Now, new research suggests there’s a clear way to lower your risk of developing long COVID: the COVID-19 vaccine.

That’s the main takeaway from a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. For the study, researchers analyzed medical records of nearly 450,000 people from the Department of Veterans Affairs health system who had COVID-19 diagnosed between March 1, 2020, and Jan. 31, 2022. Those patients were compared with around 4.7 million people who weren’t diagnosed with COVID-19 during the same time.

Read more at Prevention.

Reported cases of whooping cough are rising

The number of people reported with whooping cough, a bacterial respiratory illness, has been increasing in the United States. According to CDC preliminary data as of June 1, 2024, reported cases are more than twice as high this year compared to the same time period last year. Note that these numbers can change as health departments and CDC finalize the data.

Read more at CDC.

It’s almost time for the kids to head back to class! The Colorado Springs Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has a plan to help maintain student well-being in the upcoming academic year.

The Colorado Springs Hispanic Chamber has launched a new community outreach initiative in collaboration with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and Julissa Soto Latino Health Equity Consulting. Soto shared the essence of the “One School, One Vaccine at a Time” (Una Escuela, Una Vacuna a la Vez) campaign on FOX21’s lifestyle show.

Read more at Fox 21.

Routine vaccination rates for kindergarten children ticked down during the COVID-19 pandemic and have yet to rebound while exemptions from school vaccination requirements have increased, likely contributing to a recent surge in measles cases. At the same time, vaccine hesitancy, fueled in part by vaccine misinformation, increased during the pandemic, and public opinion on vaccine requirements has become increasingly partisan. Vaccine policies have emerged as an election issue, with both former President Trump and Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. embracing anti-vaccination attitudes and contributing to vaccine misinformation. This is in sharp contrast to current President Biden who has supported vaccine mandates and taken action to expand access to vaccines for both children and adults. This issue brief further explores this changing landscape by examining the latest trends in children’s routine vaccination rates, the factors contributing to recent vaccination trends, and policy approaches to increasing vaccination rates as children head into a new school year. Key takeaways include:

Read more at KFF.

Meningococcal meningitis can strike healthy individuals unexpectedly and result in the death of one in 10 infected people, sometimes causing long-term health problems including brain damage and loss of limbs. Although rare, meningitis disproportionately affects college students.

Because meningitis serogroup B (MenB) has caused all meningococcal meningitis outbreaks on U.S. college campuses since 2011, according to the CDC, undergraduate researchers at Quinnipiac University conducted a survey to examine MenB knowledge among their peers, to encourage vaccination. Their findings, presented by Katrina Etts, BS, at ASM Microbe 2024 in Atlanta, indicate a significant lack of awareness about the risk for MenB.

Read more at Infectious Disease Special Edition.

Four poultry workers in Colorado who recently contracted bird flu bring the total of human cases in the U.S. to at least nine. 

Though that number is small, disease researchers say commonalities between the cases — all but one of which were reported in the last four months — are enough to start assembling a picture of how the virus may affect people. 

The U.S. cases have been relatively mild and limited to farm workers who had handled infected animals — a sign that the virus in its current state isn’t a major threat to humans. 

Read more at NBC.