The latest data on respiratory illness in the United States shows that shoppers and merry-makers are spreading more than just holiday cheer: They’re also passing around germs. In many cases, it’s a new virus variant that’s been causing early and busy flu seasons in Asia, Australia and Europe.

The US is on the cusp of finding out what this flu variant, called subclade K, will do. For the week ending December 6 — the first full week after the Thanksgiving holiday — the proportion of doctor’s visits for symptoms including fever plus a cough or sore throat rose to 3.2%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When Susan Monarez was sworn in to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country’s premier public-health agency, many researchers across the country breathed a sigh of relief.

Trained as a microbiologist and immunologist, Monarez had been a non-partisan government scientist for nearly 20 years. She was an unexpectedly uncontroversial choice by US President Donald Trump, who had previously put forward (but later withdrew the nomination for) Dave Weldon, a physician and vaccine sceptic who worked as a Republican member of Congress from 1995 to 2009.

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Dr. Brian Chow, an infectious disease specialist, is among the most qualified people in the country to speak about the importance of hepatitis B vaccinations.

He received advanced training at Brown University and was an attending physician at Tufts Medical Center. While there, he witnessed a young patient die of liver cancer that stemmed from a hepatitis B infection, a death that could have been prevented had the man received a common vaccine for the disease as a baby.

Prof Wilmot James during a meeting in Mexico with the Helena Group on the intersections between synthetic biology and artificial intelligence. Wilmot has been at the forefront of the fight pandemics, catastrophes and biological warfare.

In the 1980s, researchers tested a new hepatitis B vaccine candidate on over 10,000 people, finding it well tolerated with no reports of serious adverse events. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Engerix-B to prevent potentially deadly hepatitis B infections in 1989. In 1986, it had approved another vaccine Recombivax HB; its label points to studies involving more than 1,000 people. The US government has been recommending these vaccines for all newborns since 1991 and cases of hepatitis B in people 19 years old and younger have dropped 99 percent since it did. Yet despite this efficacy and the numerous safety studies conducted before after the vaccines were licensed, anti-vaccine activists have targeted the long-used immunizations as inadequately researched. The lawyer Aaron Siri, who has worked closely for and with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for years, sought in 2020, for instance, to have the licenses for the vaccines suspended or withdrawn.

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Hear from the co-chairs of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (HLIP) as they share insights from their new report, Closing the Deal: Financing Our Security Against Pandemic Threats, which outlines practical and bold steps to take pandemic threats off the table.

The G20 first established the Panel in 2021 to rethink how global preparedness is financed. This year, the Panel was reconvened by the South Africa G20 Presidency under the Joint Finance and Health Task Force to address the global pandemic financing gap at a time of profound challenges for global health and health security. The U.S. National Academy of Medicine served as the Panel’s Secretariat.

As the global health architecture undergoes major changes, drivers of pandemic risk continue to rise. The next pandemic is not a theoretical concern—it could happen at any time. Yet, despite mounting threats, countries remain severely underinvested in pandemic preparedness and response. The Panel’s new report serves as a blueprint for rapid, coordinated action.

In this virtual public briefing, hear about the Panel’s five key recommendations and learn what actions can be taken now to prevent biological catastrophe and achieve a high return on investment in global health security.

Vaccines have greatly improved public health, but their continued use is being hampered by misinformation, distrust, and inequity. On this episode, Dr. Seth Berkley discussed his book, Fair Doses.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in 17 states, according to new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The states with either "growing" or "likely growing" cases of COVID-19 were situated in the Midwest and Northeast of the country.

The CDC noted in its report though that its current estimates may be impacted by "holiday reporting effects and should be interpreted with greater uncertainty."

On this episode of "Halteres Presents", hosts Mickey Urdea and Rich Thayer are sitting down with Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, the Director of the Pandemic Center and Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health, to comb through the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and to assess America's readiness for pathogens both natural and from a bioterrorism weapon. This at times sobering conversation covering surveillance methods to curtail disease outbreaks, how to combat health-related misinformation, and improving American prosperity through global health security initiatives can hopefully kickstart the precautions necessary to prevent the worst case scenarios. Please enjoy this episode of "Halteres Presents".

Africa is home to the youngest population on Earth. By 2060, nearly 800 million children will live on the continent – an extraordinary demographic force that should be our greatest asset. But a landmark new study published this month in PLOS Global Public Health delivers a stark reality check: the children’s hospitals responsible for caring for this generation are stretched, strained and in many places simply not equipped to meet their needs.

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