(TNND) — Most Americans are confident that childhood vaccines are safe and effective.

But new polling shows many Americans are skeptical of the shots. And there are gaps in sentiment along demographic and political lines.

A Pew Research Center survey conducted last month and published Tuesday found 63% of Americans have high confidence in the effectiveness of childhood vaccines.

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Last week, the two top officials at the National Institutes of Health—the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research—debuted a new plan to help Americans weather the next pandemic: getting everyone to eat better and exercise.

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Meet the heroes keeping global progress alive

On a Friday morning in October, about 100 high school and college students gathered in a Utah ballroom to play a game. Some students were assigned specific roles and given costumes to wear. “Government officials” slung ties over their T-shirts; “store clerks” sported aprons; and a trio of “journalists” wore fedoras and carried fake microphones.

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The United States may be heading into its second severe flu season in a row, driven by a mutated strain called subclade K that’s behind early surges in the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan.

Last winter’s season was extreme, too. The US had its highest rates of flu hospitalizations in nearly 15 years. At least 280 children died of influenza, the highest number since pediatric death numbers were required to be shared in 2004.

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A physician–scientist involved in the equitable-access initiative examines its achievements and discusses what can be done better when the world faces the next pandemic.

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A resident of Washington state has contracted a new form of bird flu — the first case of its kind.

The source of infection remains unknown, setting this case apart from most other infections linked to farmworkers or diseased animals.

Virologists warn each human infection gives the virus a chance to mutate, potentially becoming more transmissible between people.

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After a summer hiatus, bird flu cases are once again ticking up in the United States. During the government shutdown, public health tracking systems stopped sharing updates, including CDC’s FluView and the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), both of which provide early warning of outbreaks.

We have been flying blind in the face of a potentially catastrophic pandemic threat.

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Local production is a global priority for increasing access to routine, outbreak, and pandemic vaccines and leads to a variety of direct and indirect benefits for countries. This study aimed to characterize the enabling environment for the sustainable production of influenza vaccines, including for epidemic and pandemic preparedness.

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As I stepped into line to pick up my badge for the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) conference last weekend in Austin, Texas, a gregarious man approached holding two tall plastic tubes he said contained “clots” from Covid vaccinated bodies. After 36 years in the Air Force, he told me, he’d been pushed out for refusing the shot. Now in retirement, he calls funeral homes and surveys undertakers to document alleged vaccine harms.

When the world was in a health crisis, Dr. Seth Berkley didn’t just watch—he was at the centre of the storm. In this episode of the Public Health Insight Podcast, we rewind to his early days and trace his path through global health’s toughest challenges.