The federal government is once again distributing free COVID-19 tests from its stockpile, opening access for Americans to order four more kits at no cost. Ordering for this iteration of COVID-19 test distribution opened on Sept. 25, and the U.S. Postal Service will start shipping the free tests in early October, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week. You can orde...

The CDC announced it’s awarding an estimated $262.5 million, pending the availability of funds, over the next five years to establish a national network of 13 infectious disease forecasting and analytics centers.   The purpose of the CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) is to “improve the nation’s ability to prepare for and respond to infectious disease threats using data...

President Joe Biden last week unveiled a new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a step he said was part of an effort “to send a clear message about how important this issue is to me and the country.   An official told reporters on a call Thursday previewing the announcement that the office’s mandate will be twofold – it will be tasked with implementing and expediting last year’s B...

In partnership with ASTHO and NPHIC, the Harvard Opinion Research Program recently conducted a series of surveys to understand the public’s evolving views of COVID-19 and other infectious disease. This new ASTHO’s podcast featuring Dr. Gillian SteelFisher, Director of Global Polling at the Harvard Opinion Research Program, shares the results from the surveys. ASTHO additionally offers a helpful...

The advisory committee on immunizations for the CDC voted to recommend an RSV vaccine designed to give newborn infants protection against the virus before they’re born. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 11-1 in favor of approving Pfizer’s Abrysvo for use in pregnant women during weeks 32 through 36 of gestation.   The vaccine is designed to induce antibodies ...

The 20th annual State of Obesity 2023: Better Policies for a Healthier America report, released today by Trust for America's Health (TFAH), finds that obesity rates are up sharply over the past two decades and continue to climb. Since TFAH's initial report, published in 2004, the national adult obesity rate has increased by 37 percent and the national youth obesity rate increased by 42 percent....

With sexually transmitted infection (STI) incidence rising markedly worldwide, public health increasingly emphasizes treatment as prevention. While condoms were once integral to public health campaigns aimed at preventing STIs, particularly at the height of the AIDS crisis, this is much less the case today.   The U.S. tallied 2.5 million STIs in 2021, many of which could have been averted wit...

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have made an important finding about Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Ae. aegypti mosquitoes do not succumb to dengue, yellow fever, Zika and other harmful viruses when infected and continue to move and feed normally, passing their viral cargoes on to humans.   In the new study, resea...

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, world leaders proposed a bold idea. They envisioned a pandemic treaty that would obligate countries to work together to prevent future health emergencies. The World Health Assembly set the deadline for such an accord: May 2024. But negotiations have seized up around a series of issues like how would such a treaty be enforced and how would it be financed. ...