
The federal government has drastically scaled back the number of recommended childhood immunizations, sidelining six routine vaccines that have safeguarded millions from serious diseases, long-term disability, and death.

Utah’s proposed ban became an important case study demonstrating the overlapping concerns between airborne pathogens and environmental air pollution. It highlighted the necessity of building coalitions between environmental, health and disability, and civil liberties groups in resisting mask bans as climate change is on track to worsen a variety of environmental public health threats, not…

As the federal shutdown continues, states have been forced to fall back on their own resources to spot disease outbreaks — just as respiratory illness season begins.

While some anti-mask policies have failed — a win for workers — there is a larger effort to ban masks in the U.S. on state and local levels. And more businesses may attempt to ban masks in the workplace even though these policies may violate laws that protect masks as accessibility devices. The Sick Times…

To offer guidance on finding and interpreting infectious disease data during these confusing times, managing editor Betsy Ladyzhets talked to Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of the popular newsletter, Force of Infection.

In the arc of the bird flu in the U.S., 2024 to early 2025 was an explosive time. But then, last month, the CDC announced that it was ending its emergency response to the virus.

My infection months before came and went mildly, but it soon became obvious that my sluggishness and pain were not caused by caffeine, thesis stress, or hangovers. It was Long COVID.

Recent policy changes around COVID-19 vaccines are already sowing chaos and confusion and restricting vaccine access — including for people who should still be eligible to receive them.

A growing body of research shows that Long COVID, combined with a lack of government support, leads to financial insecurity and housing instability.

Advocates pushed back against threatened funding cuts and won continued support for Long COVID work in the Minnesota legislature’s final 2026–27 budget.





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