Flu vaccines show benefits for the heart in new studies

Flu vax linked to heart health

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

Three new studies show high-dose flu vaccines carry a lower risk of myocarditis and cardiovascular events, and flu vaccination offers protection against acute heart failure when administered to hospitalized patients. 

Although the protective effects may be small, the first two studies describe high-dose vaccines outperforming standard seasonal influenza vaccines in older adults. 

Currently, high-dose vaccines are recommended for use in adults 65 years and older, and they contain roughly four times the antigen—the part of the vaccine that produces antibodies against influenza virus—as standard-dose flu vaccines.

Myocarditis risk lower with high-dose vaccine

In the first study, based on findings from the Pragmatic Randomized Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of High-Dose Influenza Vaccines (DANFLU-2 trial) in JAMA Network Open, the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis, or inflammation of the cardiac muscle or membrane around it, was lower in people receiving the high-dose inactivated flu vaccine than in those getting a standard-dose vaccine.

Influenza is a known risk factor for developing myocarditis or pericarditis, and this large Danish study looked at the prevalence of the inflammatory condition across three flu seasons, from 2022 to 2025. Of 332,438 participants randomized, 331,143 did not have a history of myocarditis or pericarditis.

It’s Almost Flu Season. Should You Still Get a Shot, and Will Insurance Cover It?

Yes and Probably

Madison Czopek, PolitiFact 

The Onion

For parents of school-aged children, the fall to-do list can seem ever-growing. Buy school supplies. Fill out endless school forms. Block off parent-teacher nights. Do the kids’ tennis shoes still fit?

Somewhere, at some point, you might remember flu shots. Get your flu shot. Get their flu shots. Or should you? Can you? Is that still a thing?

Amid political chatter about vaccines and the government entities that oversee them, it’s understandable to wonder where all this leaves the 2025-26 flu vaccine.

In short: Yes, the flu shot is still a thing. And four doctors we spoke to said they recommend you get your flu shot this year. (See the source list below this article.)

Here are some answers to common questions:

RFK Jr. is increasing your risk of dying from cancer

Kennedy bans funding for vaccines that show the most promise at stopping cancer

By Brian Moench, Utah News Dispatch

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Mark Twain’s quip perfectly describes the entire Trump Administration, but none more so than medical crackpot, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Perched with his brain worm on top of Health and Human Services, Kennedy probably affects your health more than your family doctor. But unlike your doctor, Kennedy has no medical degree, no hospital privileges, never cared for a patient, never discovered a drug, never published a research paper, and wouldn’t know which end of a stethoscope to use if his life or yours depended on it. 

Nonetheless he has opinions, and he’s enforcing them on you, on all of us. This makes as much sense as pilots flying airplanes who have never seen a cockpit or placing the future of the United States in the hands of Donald “Windmills Cause Cancer” Trump.

Many actual medical experts believe vaccines have done more good for humanity than any other public health advance in history.  COVID vaccines saved nearly 20 million lives globally in their first year alone. They also reduced the risk of severe, debilitating outcomes and long COVID after infection.  But Kennedy knows “for sure” that decades of knowledge accumulated by the entire world’s medical community is wrong, and he’s eager to straighten us out.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have been under development for 30 years. Compared to older technologies they are cheaper, can be mass produced faster, and can be changed more quickly to address inevitable virus mutations like with COVID. 

This technology also has great promise to treat cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and diabetes.  Two American scientists won the Nobel Prize for their mRNA discoveries.  To real scientists, mRNA vaccines are not controversial.  Without them COVID would probably still be spreading death and disability across the globe.

In May Kennedy yanked $590 million from developing pandemic flu vaccines such as bird flu.  Rick Bright, who led Health and Human Services Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority during Trump 1.0, said, "Disinvesting from mRNA strips us of one of the fastest tools we have to contain the next pandemic.”

'Dangerous Anti-Vaccine Fanatic' RFK Jr. Shredded by Medical Experts After Pulling Support for mRNA Research

mRNA vaccine stopped COVID and could help fight cancer, HIV, bird flu, and other plagues except Bobby Junior just pulled the plug on research.

Brad Reed

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is facing heavy criticism from medical professionals after he announced on Tuesday that he was ending financial support for research into mRNA vaccines.

In his announcement, Kennedy said that he was canceling $500 million worth of research aimed at using mRNA technology to develop new vaccines. Instead, he said the Department of Health and Human Services would prioritize "the development of safer, broader vaccine strategies, like whole-virus vaccines and novel platforms that don’t collapse when viruses mutate."

mRNA technology is the basis for major vaccines that were developed earlier this decade to protect against Covid-19. A 2022 study referenced on the National Institutes of Health's website estimates that Covid-19 vaccines prevented 14.4 million deaths in their first year of availability.

Given the success of these vaccines, many medical experts expressed shock and horror at Kennedy's decision to pull the plug on funding further research.

"I don't think I've seen a more dangerous decision in public health in my 50 years in the business," Mike Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, told The Associated Press in an interview. Osterholm also emphasized that mRNA vaccines allow for rapid production, which he said was a critical factor in combating pandemics.

Avian flu exacts heavy financial toll on dairy industry

Trump and Bobby Junior cancel vaccine development

Mary Van Beusekom, MS

Decreased milk production, death, and early removal from a single herd of adult dairy cows infected with the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) cost an estimated $737,500, even before considering ongoing altered herd dynamics or reproductive losses, according to a study published this week in Nature Communications.

Cornell University researchers evaluated the effects of HPAI on a herd of 3,876 dairy cows living on a farm in Ohio that experienced an outbreak in spring 2024 after the transfer of 42 healthy-looking lactating cows from a Texas farm. The team analyzed animal- and herd-level data collected before, during, and after the outbreak (March 8 to June 7). 

The ongoing US HPAI outbreak began in 2022, leading to the deaths of nearly 175 million birds. The virus spilled over into mammals and, in March 2024, dairy cattle. So far, 1,074 herds in 17 states have been infected.

RFK Jr’s Vaccine Policies Undermine Coverage — and Trust

Robbing us of our best defense against infectious disease

By Joshua Cohen

In June, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ousted all 17 members of a panel that makes vaccine recommendations to the U.S. government. “A clean sweep is necessary to reestablish public confidence in vaccine science,” said Kennedy, who accused the panel members of, among other things, having conflicts of interest due to ties with pharmaceutical companies.

Many vaccine experts were dismayed. Members of the panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, must follow strict rules regarding conflicts. Further, some of Kennedy’s hand-picked replacements have made false claims about vaccine safety and efficacy. One panel member, for example, stated that the Covid mRNA shots — credited with saving millions of lives — instead caused “unprecedented” harm.

This change in the composition of the panel, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, could have a direct impact on insurance coverage, said Charlotte Moser, a former ACIP member who co-directs the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. ACIP recommendations are linked to specific legislation, she wrote in an email to Undark. 

The Affordable Care Act, for example, requires that nearly all insurers cover the ACIP-recommended vaccines, and the Vaccines for Children Program, created by Congress in the 1993 in the wake of a measles epidemic, provides these vaccines free of charge for children who are uninsured or whose families may be unable to afford them.

Beyond the ACIP, Kennedy unilaterally announced that the CDC's recommendation to routinely vaccinate healthy children and pregnant women against Covid-19 would end (a move that has since been called into question). Kennedy’s announcement coincided with a major policy shift at the Food and Drug Administration, which in May stopped recommending Covid-19 boosters for healthy people under 65, citing uncertain benefits from the shots. All of this could have significant implications for how Americans receive and pay for vaccines.

This includes people like me: I'm 60 and relatively healthy. Without the FDA recommendation, insurers may no longer cover products for groups deemed low-risk, so I may have to pay the full price, around $240 or more, when I get vaccinated this fall. If more changes are ahead, the cost to individuals could quickly add up. According to the CDC, the out-of-pocket cost for a pediatric hepatitis B vaccine can run you $28, while a measles, mumps, and rubella jab is around $95. Meningococcal shots are between roughly $166 and $237, and human papilloma virus immunization tops $300.

Flu vaccine averted up to 42% of US flu cases in 2022-23, despite lower uptake

Vaccination confers direct, indirect benefits

Mary Van Beusekom, MS

New research estimates that protection from influenza vaccine in the United States was 33% to 42% in 2022-23 and also benefitted unvaccinated people, despite a second study noting a decline in vaccine coverage from 2022 to 2024, even among groups with a history of strong uptake.

For the first study, published last week in JAMA Network Open, University of Pittsburgh researchers simulated different levels of flu virus transmissibility, vaccine effectiveness (VE), and vaccine uptake among the 1.2 million residents of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in 2010 to estimate the burden of flu and direct and indirect benefits of vaccination under different conditions. 

The team noted that case numbers vary widely even within an influenza subtype in different seasons, likely due to factors such as immunity from previous infections, antigenic drift, and vaccine protection in the current season, which depends on match to circulating strains and vaccine uptake.

The investigators ran agent-based simulations using the Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious, and Recovered model and overall vaccine uptakes of 22% to 71% from August 2022 to May 2023. The median participant age was 40.6 years, and 51% were female.

"Vaccination also provides indirect benefit, effectively shielding unvaccinated portions of the population from infection by decreasing the number of exposures unvaccinated individuals receive," the study authors wrote. "Both direct and indirect benefits decrease the number of infections required to reduce the effective reproduction rate [number of people an infected person will transmit the virus to] to less than 1 and halt transmission." 

Is bird flu gone or just ignored?

If you ignore a problem, does it go away?

By Arjun V.K. Sharma

From the outset of the Trump administration, bird flu, or H5N1 avian influenza, has flown rather conspicuously — and in fact quite mysteriously — under the radar. So much so that this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the end of its emergency response to bird flu, citing the lack of reported human cases. Updates, previously issued weekly, will now arrive monthly. But something isn’t adding up.

At the end of 2024, infections in the United States were surging. From Ohio to California, and in a swath of intervening states, diagnoses were being made in growing numbers of farmworkers who came into contact with infected cattle and poultry. Most suffered a mild spectrum of symptoms — low grade fevers, muscle aches, inflammation in their eyes. As cases swelled, an older man in Louisiana fell critically ill. 

He would eventually become the first person in the U.S. to succumb to the virus since initial human cases were reported to the World Health Organization in 1997. We seemed then, for a moment, to be at a tipping point: bound to unleash something both larger and deadlier than we could foreseeably contain, and destined to dust off the cobwebs of a life grimly lived, again, under a pandemic.

And yet, none of that came to pass. Instead, since February, the CDC, which still monitors infections in humans, has not recorded a single new case in the U.S. The count remains the same — stuck firmly at 70.

Rationalizing the lull in infections has been puzzling. Researchers have tied wild birds, the virus’s largest reservoir, and their spring and fall migrations to periods of greater spread of contagion. Cuts to staff who monitored the virus, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Center for Veterinary Medicine, might also be playing a role. But these ideas dismiss the deeper and more fundamental problem around our present grasp of bird flu. 

As an infectious diseases physician who works primarily with immigrant populations, my perspective often sits at the nexus between the people a novel disease affects and the apparatuses that exist to control it. Lately, the actions of each arm of that equation, no longer motivated by the ethos of a collective concern, are fractured by individual ambitions and epitomize our faltering response.

Cases, in all likelihood, are being missed, in part because detecting infections is simply challenging.

Scientific American chart on vaccines recommended for adults

 Save your life, get your shots!

Kennedy is not a doctor or a scientist, but he got the job as America’s top public health officer. Now he’s making the wrong choices for all of us.

RFK Jr.’s Deadly War on Science

Steven Harper for Common Dreams

During an NBC interview on November 6, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was cleaning up his lifelong anti-vaccination act as he lobbied to become Health and Human Services secretary in the Trump administration.

“If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away,” he said. “People ought to have choice…”

Kennedy is not a doctor or a scientist, but he got the job as America’s top public health officer. Now he’s making the wrong choices for all of us.

What Happened

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) report to Kennedy. As with flu shots, the agencies have approved and recommended Covid-19 vaccines as they have been adjusted annually to deal with the evolving virus.

On May 20, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, announced a new obstacle to FDA approval of any Covid-19 vaccine. For healthy Americans under 65, it must be subjected to large scale and time-consuming clinical trials. That data will replace the prior requirement of evidence showing only an immune response, which was the basis for approving the initial “Project Warp Speed” vaccines and all subsequent boosters.

Makary and Prasad asserted that they’re merely requiring “gold-standard data on persons at low risk.” But by not requiring such randomized, placebo-controlled trials for the elderly and other high-risk groups, they’re conceding that the vaccine prevents infection.

Even trying to follow the new requirement poses problems. It’s unethical to perform a clinical study that would give some people a worthless placebo instead of a vaccine, according to Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the University of Pennsylvania:

[W]e have a vaccine that works, given that we know that SARS-CoV2 continues to circulate and cause hospitalizations and death, and there’s no group that has no risk.

Order the Bobby

HHS cancels funding for Moderna’s candidate H5 avian flu and pandemic vaccines

RFK Jr. makes sure we WILL NOT BE READY for a bird flu epidemic

Lisa Schnirring

In a startling pandemic preparedness development, Moderna announced that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has terminated a $590 million award it received in January for late-stage development of a candidate mRNA vaccine against H5 avian influenza and the development of other prepandemic vaccine candidates.

In the same announcement, Moderna reported positive interim phase 1/2 clinical data for its candidate vaccine targeting H5 avian influenza.

Contract awarded under Biden administration

Moderna received the HHS contract for an H5 vaccine in a $176 million base award in July 2024 amid a rising number of H5N1 infections in US residents, mostly agricultural works. On January 17 in the final days of the Biden administration, officials announced a $590 million contract to fund the development of vaccines against potential pandemic flu viruses.

Following the transition to the Trump administration, the HHS in early March signaled that it was evaluating the contract.

The move comes amid continued circulation of H5N1 in US dairy cattle, poultry flocks, wild birds, and other mammals, as well as animal outbreaks in other countries and sporadic H5N1 infections in a few Asian countries, such as Cambodia and Vietnam.

HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is allied with groups that are skeptical about vaccines, especially mRNA formulations, which has shaped his recent policy decisions about COVID vaccines.

If you love your cats, don’t let them eat birds

Spike in avian flu cases in cats triggers worry about human spillover

Mary Van Beusekom, MS

We let Joey yell at the birds but NEVER
to eat them (photo by Will Collette)

University of Maryland scientists are calling for increased surveillance of avian flu in domestic cats after a global review of 20 years of published data reveals a dramatic uptick in feline infections—and the number of ways cats are being infected—after the emergence of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b in other mammals.

"Infections among mammalian species in frequent contact with humans should be closely monitored," the researchers wrote yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. "Domestic cats are susceptible to AIV [avian influenza virus] infection and provide a potential pathway for zoonotic spillover to humans."

The team conducted a systematic review of scientific literature from 2004 to 2024 to track the epidemiology and global distribution of AIV in cats. 

'New and unknown transmission routes' 

The review identified 48 articles that detailed 607 AIV infections in 12 feline species (ranging from pet cats to tigers), 302 of them resulting in death, in 18 countries. Half of the cases were from Asia, followed by Europe (25%) and North America (16.7%). H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b infections were reported in Finland, France, Poland, the United States, Italy, Peru, and South Korea in five species (135 domestic cats, 2 bobcats, and 1 lynx, caracal, and lion).

Odds rising that bird flu will make the jump to humans

Global Experts say action is needed now. Of course, under Trump and RFK Jr., we won't

By Global Virus Network

Leading scientists have published a call-to-action urging global governments to address the escalating H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in North America, which has infected both animals and humans and resulted in significant agricultural losses.

The Global Virus Network (GVN), an international coalition of leading human and animal virologists spanning more than 80 Centers of Excellence and Affiliates in over 40 countries, has published a detailed analysis and urgent call-to-action in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas regarding the ongoing H5N1 avian influenza outbreak in North America.

In their publication, the GVN emphasizes the need for immediate and coordinated global action. They urge governments to strengthen disease surveillance, enforce biosecurity protocols, and proactively prepare for the possibility of human-to-human transmission of the virus.

“Understanding the current landscape of H5N1 infections is critical for effective prevention and response,” said Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, chief medical officer of the GVN and dean of the USF Health College of Public Health at the University of South Florida, USA. “The virus’ ability to infect both animals and humans, combined with recent genetic changes, underscores the importance of proactive surveillance and rapid response measures.”

The H5N1 outbreak has so far impacted nearly 1,000 dairy cow herds and led to over 70 human infections, including the first confirmed U.S. fatality. The virus presents a significant threat to the U.S. poultry industry, particularly in regions with dense farming operations and inconsistent protective measures.

The Bird Flu Virus Is Mutating Fast – And Scientists Say Our Vaccines May Not Be Enough

H5N1’s Rapid Evolution Poses a Growing Threat

By University of North Carolina at Charlotte

A research team at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has used advanced computational modeling to study how the H5N1 bird flu virus interacts with the immune system. Their findings show that the virus is evolving in ways that help it evade immune defenses, whether from past infection or vaccination, in mammals.

Published on March 17 in eBioMedicine (a journal within The Lancet family), the study highlights urgent concerns. As avian influenza continues to spread globally, it poses not only a serious risk to agriculture but also an increasing threat to human health.

Worsening Antibody Affinity Raises Concerns

The researchers found a clear trend: antibodies are becoming less effective against newer strains of H5N1. This “worsening antibody affinity” suggests that future versions of the virus may be even more difficult for the immune system to recognize and fight, raising the risk of transmission to and among humans.

The study’s lead author is Colby T. Ford, Ph.D., a visiting scholar in data science at UNC Charlotte’s CIPHER center and founder of Tuple, LLC, a biotechnology consulting firm based in Charlotte.

Crucially, Ford explains, this rapid adaptation means that “if one makes an H5N1 vaccine with a previous vaccine candidate virus, the vaccine will have less efficacy, based on our measurements of how much the virus has evolved in recent years” As such, the team’s research approach provides guidance for keeping pace with a rapidly adapting viral threat.

Raw, unpasteurized milk can harm you, despite what RFK Jr. says

U Penn survey shows only 56% of Americans understand drinking raw milk is risky

Stephanie Soucheray, MA

A new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania shows that 56% of US adults know that drinking unpasteurized, or raw, milk is less safe than drinking pasteurized milk, but there have been no significant changes in public perceptions of raw milk in the past 6 month, despite detections of H5N1 avian flu virus in unpasteurized milk. 

The survey involved 1,700 adults during the first weeks of February this year, and its findings are statistically unchanged from APPC's July 2024 survey.

Only 4% of survey respondents report having consumed raw or unpasteurized milk in the past 12 months, while another 2% are not sure whether they had drunk raw milk.

5 years of COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while CDC, NIH and WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a crisis

How will we cope with the next pandemic as President Musk chain-saws public health and medical research?

Katherine A. Foss, Middle Tennessee State University

Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, began as a “cluster of severe pneumonia cases of unknown cause” reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It had spread to 118,000 cases reported in 114 countries by March 11.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general at the time, said in a media briefing that day that “the WHO is deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction.” He urged leaders to move quickly to scale up their emergency responses, saying that “all countries can still change the course of this pandemic.”

Public health agencies like the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention played critical roles throughout the pandemic in coordinating with local health departments to detect, trace and test for the virus. 

The WHO and CDC websites received unprecedented traffic as they became invaluable go-to sources for the most up-to-date resources on means of prevention, case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths. The National Institutes of Health was instrumental in its development of COVID-19 treatments and contributions to vaccine research.

Now, five years later, the Trump administration has cut more than 5,000 employees at the NIH and the CDC combined, and is withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO.

At the same time, the U.S. is facing outbreaks of tuberculosis, a resurgence of measles among unvaccinated communities, and the worst flu season in 15 years.

Much of the work of the WHO, CDC and other public health agencies occurs behind the scenes, only occasionally drawing public attention. To put these roles into perspective, it can be helpful to examine public health before these unifying entities existed.

In February 2025, the Trump administration laid off nearly 1,300 CDC workers, or 10% of its workforce. Some of those firings have since been rescinded.

MRNA Vaccines, Once a Trump Boast, Now Face Attacks From Some in GOP

MAGA-nuts are trying to undo the one good thing Trump did right during the COVID pandemic

Stephanie Armour 

Researchers racing to develop bird flu vaccines for humans have turned to a cutting-edge technology that enabled the rapid development of lifesaving covid shots.

There’s a catch: The mRNA technology faces growing doubts among Republicans, including people around Donald Trump.

Legislation aimed to ban or limit mRNA vaccines was introduced this year by GOP lawmakers in at least seven states. In some cases, the measures would hit doctors who give the injections with criminal penalties, fines, and possible revocation of their licenses.

Some congressional Republicans are also pressing regulators to revoke federal approval for mRNA-based covid shots, which President Donald Trump touted as one of the signature achievements of his first term.

The opposition comes at a critical juncture because vaccines using mRNA have applications well beyond avian flu and covid. They hold the promise of lifesaving breakthroughs to treat many diseases, from melanoma to HIV to Zika, according to clinical trials. The proposed bans could block access to these advances.

MRNA is found naturally in human cells. It is a molecule that carries genetic material and, in a vaccine, trains the body’s immune system to fight viruses, cancer cells, and other conditions. An advantage of mRNA technology is that it can be developed more quickly to target specific variants and is safer than developing a vaccine made from inactivated virus.

After US cancels flu committee meeting, pulls out of the World Health Organization, the world steps up

WHO advisers swap out H3N2 strains for next Northern Hemisphere flu vaccines

Lisa Schnirring

RFK Jr. is committed to alternative treatments

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced its advisory committee’s recommendations on strains to include for the Northern Hemisphere’s 2025-26 flu season, which swap out the H3N2 components but keep the current 2009 H1N1 and influenza B strains the same.

The three strains recommended for the trivalent vaccine are also the same as those recommended for the Southern Hemisphere’s 2025 season vaccine, which the group weighed in on at its meetings in September 2024. 

Today’s recommendations have separate H3N2 recommendations for egg-based and cell-based flu vaccines. Though the WHO recommends trivalent vaccines, some companies include a second influenza B strain targeting both lineages. The Yamagata lineage hasn’t circulated since 2020, and the recommendation for that strain remains the same as for previous seasons.

COVID-19 showed us how we can fight the next global outbreak

Can we count on Trump, Musk and RFK Jr. to learn these lessons?

Not based on what they've done so far

UC Davis Health

Pawel Kuczynski

 It’s been five years since COVID-19 made its appearance, shaking the world. Since then, things have gotten better, with new vaccines, therapies and a greater understanding of how the virus is spread. 

While COVID is still with us, we now regard it as a manageable disease. But as the current avian flu outbreak reminds us, the risk for a new pandemic is always present. UC Davis Health Chief of Infectious Diseases Stuart Cohen shares what lessons COVID has taught us that will help us better respond next time.