(TNND) — A dozen leading medical groups lent their support to the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2026 childhood vaccine recommendations, which run counter to recently revised recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, published its updated vaccine schedule Monday, weeks after the CDC trimmed the list of shots it advises all children receive.

The AAP recommends routine immunizations against 18 diseases, including RSV, hepatitis B, the annual flu shot, and others that the CDC now only recommends for high-risk groups or in consultation with a doctor.

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COVID-19 offered a difficult lesson about the devastation a virus can bring to our world. In his latest book, Fair Doses: An Insider's Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity, Dr. Seth Berkley provides us the fascinating backstory of vaccines: how they came about, why they’re important, and how they have been made globally available. But our quest for vaccine equity remains ongoing. Dr. Berkley, an internationally-recognized infectious disease epidemiologist, offers an insider’s view of the challenges of developing and disseminating vaccines for a broad swath of illnesses, from Ebola to AIDS to malaria and beyond.

Seth Berkley, MD, is an infectious disease epidemiologist currently advising vaccine, biotechnology, and technology companies, and is Adjunct Professor and Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center at Brown University. He co-founded COVAX, a global vaccine initiative; and founded and served as CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.COVID-19 offered a difficult lesson about the devastation a virus can bring to our world. In his latest book, Fair Doses: An Insider's Story of the Pandemic and the Global Fight for Vaccine Equity, Dr. Seth Berkley provides us the fascinating backstory of vaccines: how they came about, why they’re important, and how they have been made globally available. But our quest for vaccine equity remains ongoing. Dr. Berkley, an internationally-recognized infectious disease epidemiologist, offers an insider’s view of the challenges of developing and disseminating vaccines for a broad swath of illnesses, from Ebola to AIDS to malaria and beyond.

Seth Berkley, MD, is an infectious disease epidemiologist currently advising vaccine, biotechnology, and technology companies, and is Adjunct Professor and Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center at Brown University. He co-founded COVAX, a global vaccine initiative; and founded and served as CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

NYC Health + Hospitals Launches Special Pathogens Biopreparedness Map to Monitor and Prepare for Outbreaks

New interactive map will help healthcare providers screen patients based on their travel history and potential exposure to special pathogens and other biothreats

The public health care system’s Biopreparedness Program, established after the 2014 Ebola outbreak, is a national leader in infectious disease preparedness and response

The United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization became official Thursday, formalizing a fissure between the Trump administration and the Geneva-based global health agency that dates back to the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the date on which the WHO was informed that President Trump had decreed that the U.S. would terminate its membership in the organization, something he tried to do during his first term in office. According to a joint congressional resolution passed in 1948 to allow the United States to join the WHO, the country had to give a year’s notice before withdrawing. (The joint resolution also stipulated that the country had to pay outstanding bills before leaving, a condition that has not been met.)

After a year of ongoing measles outbreaks that have sickened more than 2,400 people, the United States is poised to lose its status as a measles-free country. However, the newly appointed principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ralph Abraham, said he was unbothered by the prospect at a briefing for journalists this week.

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Scott Rivkees still remembers two cases from his first week as a pediatric intern at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1982.

The first was a patient with chickenpox or varicella encephalitis, a virus that causes brain inflammation. The second was a child with bacterial meningitis, a severe infection that causes inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord. The infection can produce seizures and deafness and lead to death.

It’s been a year since a measles outbreak began in West Texas, and international health authorities say they plan to meet in April to determine if the U.S. has lost its measles-free designation.

Experts fear the vaccine-preventable virus has regained a foothold and that the U.S. may soon follow Canada in losing the achievement of having eliminated it.

The reevaluation is largely symbolic and hinges on whether a single measles chain has spread uninterrupted within the U.S. for at least 12 months.

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On Jan. 5, Brown University Health — the largest hospital system in Rhode Island — announced that all of their facilities would require patients, visitors and staff to wear a N95 or Level 2 surgical mask. The new guidelines, effective Jan. 6, follow increased rates of respiratory viruses in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

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It has been a full year since one of the worst measles outbreaks in recent U.S. history began ripping through West Texas. The highly infectious disease has continued to burn across multiple U.S. states, Mexico and Canada since Texas reported an outbreak in children in January 2025. The U.S. had been virtually free of the disease for more than a quarter-century thanks to highly effective and safe vaccines, but now experts say we’re on track to losing that status if officials determine measles has spread continuously for a year.

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Flu cases are ticking down, but experts warn the U.S. isn’t out of the woods yet. Fifteen more children died from the flu in the week ending Jan. 10, bringing the total of pediatric deaths to 32.

On Friday, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an over 18% drop in confirmed flu cases, compared to the previous week. Doctor visits for respiratory illnesses also decreased by more than 5% and hospitalization rates went down by nearly 55%. Influenza deaths rose by 2%.

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