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Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill on Monday called on vaccine manufacturers to develop separate shots for measles, mumps and rubella instead of the current vaccine, which combines the three. O’Neill wrote in a post on X that manufacturers should replace the MMR vaccine with “safe monovalent vaccines,” which only target one virus. His statement referenced a recent comment from President Donald Trump, who advised people last month on Truth Social to “break up the MMR shot into three totally separate shots.” (Bendix, 10/6)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said it had officially recommended updated coronavirus vaccines, creating a new system to get a shot that’s slightly more complicated than in previous years. The agency approved a federal vaccine advisory panel’s recommendation last month urging people to first consult a clinician before getting the coronavirus shot. The move marked a shift from previous CDC policy that made vaccines widely available to nearly all Americans without question or cost. (Ovalle, 10/6)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Wary Of RFK Jr., Colorado Started Revamping Its Vaccine Policies In The Spring

As Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s dismantling of federal vaccine policy continues to roil the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some Democratic-led states have struck out on their own, setting up new systems to help them assess the science and maintain immunization access for their residents. Four western states — California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington — have created a collaborative to preserve access to vaccines. Several northeastern states have done the same. (Daley, 10/7)

To prevent measles outbreaks, public health systems and clinicians should look below the 35,000-foot view of state- and county-level vaccination rates against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and instead aim their focus on at-risk school districts and schools, according to a statewide analysis of Texas counties. ... The national MMR kindergarten coverage rate that year was 92.7%. (Rudd, 10/6)

Cidara Therapeutics, Inc announced it has received up to $339 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to fund work on CD388, a non-vaccine preventive for both pandemic and seasonal flu. (Soucheray, 10/6)

A meta-analysis of 51 studies published today in JAMA Network Open estimate a 28–percentage-point increase in influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) from a second inactivated dose for vaccine-naive children younger than 3 years. But no significant increase was observed when the age range was broadened to those younger than 9 years. (Van Beusekom, 10/3)

An uncommon heart-rhythm disorder occurs in nearly 1 in 3 adults with severe long COVID, most of them middle-aged women, Swedish researchers write in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. In contrast, the condition affected less than 1% of the Swedish population before the pandemic. (Van Beusekom, 10/6)

Psychiatrists have joined other public health groups in calling for the removal of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary. Two psychiatry organizations — the Southern California Psychiatry Society and the recently formed grassroots Committee to Protect Public Mental Health — have released statements saying that the actions of the leader of the Department of Health and Human Services have increased stigma, instilled fear and hurt access to mental health and addiction care. (Chatterjee, 10/6)