News & Events

Most VFC providers open, offering vaccinations Melissa Jenco, News Content Editor July 09, 2020 As schools consider re-entry, a new survey found many pediatric practices are open and offering vaccinations children may have delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Resumption of vaccination activities is critical to protecting children and adolescents from vaccine-preventable diseases as well as […]

by Kasra Zarei The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been proven to prevent certain types of oral and genital cancers and other health problems. However, in a study published this week in Lancet Public Health, researchers found that more than half of the parents of adolescents who have not received the HPV vaccine had no intention […]

July 21, 2020 Given the COVID-19 pandemic, there are risks and difficulties attendant on requiring immunization of children to enter and attend school. During last winter, spring and continuing to the present, preventive medical visits, including those associated with the administration of vaccines, have been postponed to mitigate the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 […]

LONDON (AP) — More than 70 rich countries have signed up to a global coronavirus vaccine initiative intended to ensure that any effective shots are fairly distributed around the world – but which may also allow them to buy more vaccines to stockpile for their own citizens. In a statement on Wednesday, the vaccines alliance […]

(New York Times) By Denise Grady An experimental coronavirus vaccine made by the biotech company Moderna provoked a promising immune response against the virus and appeared safe in the first 45 people who received it, researchers reported on Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. Moderna’s vaccine, developed with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy […]

(AMA, by Tanya Albert Henry) Telehealth is taking care of many patient needs, but with flu season nearing doctors won’t be able to vaccinate patients through cyberspace. And with COVID-19 continuing to surge, it will be more important than ever to vaccinate patients against the flu to reduce the number of people using the nation’s […]

Researchers studied more than 1.1 million youths and found that 2- to 5-year-olds who were born in September or later were more likely to receive influenza vaccination and less likely to have influenza, compared with those born in earlier months who had check-ups before that year’s seasonal vaccine was available. However, the findings in the […]

by Kasra Zarei, Posted: July 6, 2020 In Philadelphia, there has been a significant drop in the number of pediatric and adult routine immunizations administered since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, compared with the same time last year, according to the city’s Public Health Department. The Philadelphia Immunization Program, part of the city’s health department, […]

(Reuters) – COVID-19 vaccine candidates will enter late-stage clinical studies by the end of the month, with others beginning in August, September and October, the U.S. government’s top infectious diseases expert said on Thursday. The news comes as Moderna Inc (MRNA.O), which is at the forefront of the country’s vaccine development efforts, reiterated earlier in […]

(UNICEF) by Maryanne Buechner Today, relatively few Americans grasp the seriousness of polio, measles and tetanus, thanks to the success of routine immunization. But those whose lives have been touched by these diseases can never forget how damaging they can be — and how important it is to keep vaccinating. It was late February, 1960 […]

(NYTimes)- By Jan Hoffman and Ruth Maclean As poor countries around the world struggle to beat back the coronavirus, they are unintentionally contributing to fresh explosions of illness and death from other diseases — ones that are readily prevented by vaccines. This spring, after the World Health Organization and UNICEF warned that the pandemic could spread swiftly when children gathered for […]

(Wired)- AS RESEARCHERS, PHARMA companies, and governments around the world are racing to make a vaccine against the pandemic coronavirus in record time, there’s a growing concern that many Americans won’t want it when it arrives. In a series of recent polls, only about half of US adults say they would get a Covid-19 vaccine, even though more than 1,000 […]

(CNBC) The coronavirus vaccine will be provided free of charge to Americans who can’t afford it, the Trump administration announced Tuesday. Any American who is “vulnerable, who cannot afford the vaccine and desires the vaccine, we will provide it for free,” a senior administration official told reporters during a press briefing Tuesday morning.  The administration […]

In the history of medicine, rarely has a vaccine been developed in less than five years. Among the fastest to be developed was the current mumps vaccine, which was isolated from the throat washings of a child named Jeryl Lynn in 1963. Over the next months, the virus was systematically “weakened” in the lab by her […]

(HealthDay News) — Delayed vaccination enabled the initial spread and increased infectious contact facilitated transmission of measles in the 2018 to 2019 outbreak in New York City, according to a study published in the May 27 issue of Science Advances. Wan Yang, Ph.D., from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York […]

(American Medical Association)- Once a winning COVID-19 vaccine emerges from the dozens in development, the only way it will truly be successful is if enough people get the vaccine to create herd immunity. Ensuring that success starts now, authors write in a JAMA Viewpoint essay, “Planning for a COVID-19 Vaccination Program.” The health care system must deliver […]

(Vox)- If you’d asked me, when our baby was born in November, how likely it was that I’d decide to delay his vaccinations against the doctor’s recommendations for several months, I’d have told you there was absolutely no chance. I report on global health; I know that the diseases vaccination has virtually eradicated in the […]

NEW YORK (AP) — It may end up being a bad flu season for kids, but early signs suggest the vaccine is working OK. The vaccine has been more than 50% effective in preventing flu illness severe enough to send a child to the doctor’s office, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said […]

(NPR) COVID-19 isn’t the first health crisis the United States has faced that experts say a vaccine will be needed to resolve: In the 1950s, people lived in fear their children might be stricken with infantile paralysis, better known as polio — and they were eager for scientists to find a solution. “There was a […]

CNN (5/22) reported that “as many as 80 million babies worldwide are missing out on routine childhood vaccines because of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said Friday.” This “pandemic has disrupted vaccination programs in at least 68 countries, according to a joint news release by WHO, the global vaccine initiative Gavi, the United […]

By SARAH OWERMOHLE Meeting the overwhelming demand for a successful coronavirus vaccine will require a historic amount of coordination by scientists, drugmakers and the government. The nation’s supply chain isn’t anywhere close to ready for such an effort. The nation is already grappling with a shortage of the specialized glass used to make the vials that […]

(Reuters Health) – Many pediatricians don’t use standing orders for vaccinations because they believe physicians should be involved in discussing vaccines with patients and they’re concerned that patients might receive the wrong vaccine, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers conducted an internet and mail survey among a nationally-representative sample of pediatricians from June to September 2017. […]

 (HealthDay News) — Children whose mothers have mental illness are significantly less likely to receive vaccinations through age 5 years, according to a study published online April 24 in the European Journal of Epidemiology. Cemre Su Osam, from University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues used the Clinical Practice Research Datalink to identify 479,949 […]

By Peter Jamison  As scientists around the world race to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, the pandemic is also stoking a surge of activity among activists who argue that such a vaccine must be resisted. Leaders of the anti-vaccination movement, who in recent years have seen their efforts frustrated as U.S. states have adopted stricter laws […]

CNN (5/8) reported that “childhood vaccinations have plunged since the [COVID-19] pandemic began spreading through the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.” The agency “reported a ‘notable decrease’ in the number of vaccines ordered through a federal program that immunizes half of all kids in the country.” The CDC […]