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President Donald Trump said Friday that he would be “demanding” drug companies further split up vaccines into five doses given in six-month intervals, and claimed that doing so would reduce autism rates. It was not immediately clear which immunizations he was seeking to break up. “The vaccine size will be much, much less,” he said. “I think you’re going to see a massive reduction in autism. And that’s a big deal, a very big deal. We’re going to be recommending that and actually demanding it.” (Roubein, 9/18)

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration must acknowledge that Trump’s claim that the measles vaccine is lethal is “absurd” when she appears before his committee later this week. “I need to hear that she understands that calling the measles vaccine lethal is absurd, and we need radical honesty,” Cassidy (R-La.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” when asked what he needs to be persuaded during Dr. Heidi Overton’s confirmation hearing later this week. (Beckford, 9/20)

An extra 2.7 million lives could be saved in the next pandemic if countries share vaccines in a less selfish way, a new study has found – although the death toll in richer countries would rise. Researchers modelling a hypothetical global outbreak of flu found that fast-tracking vaccine development could cut deaths from 58.5m to 23.9m. (Lay, 9/21)

San Diego State University is facing a mumps outbreak confirmed by county health officials, with all five cases linked to student-athletes on the same team. SDSU reported three confirmed cases and two probable cases among these students, who are no longer considered contagious but have raised concerns across campus. (Cheney, 9/18)

With 177 new cases added today, the US measles count has climbed to 3,471, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in its weekly update has yet to acknowledge any of the four measles-related deaths recently reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH), two in babies and two involving adults. (Wappes, 9/18)

Public health officials this week confirmed the first case of measles in Minnesota in several months amid a resurgence of the preventable disease across the country. (Work, 9/19)

An out-of-state traveler exposed people to measles at Denver’s Union Station and a Steamboat Springs hotel earlier this week, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said Friday. (Ingold, 9/18)

Even on weekends, Charlie Gladson, 14, grabs his backpack and wants to go to the bus stop. He loves school so much he would attend year round. “He thrives on the routine,” mom Maggie Gladson, of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, tells CIDRAP News. “He thrives on the challenges he gets at school.” (Holohan, 9/18)

Congo on Saturday began vaccinating healthcare staff against Ebola in Bunia, the epicenter of the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease in history as they are “particularly exposed and deeply involved in the response,” the provincial governor said. Health workers and other front-line workers in the Ebola response are being prioritized to receive the Ervebo vaccine that was effective in past Ebola outbreaks caused by a different, more common type of virus. Clinical trials are ongoing to find a licensed vaccine for the current outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which has no licensed vaccine or treatment. (Same Bagalwa, 9/19)

The malaria parasite is able to detect changes in its host's environment and respond by increasing the production of sexual forms capable of being transmitted to mosquitoes. A study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) identifies the molecular mechanism underlying this process. The findings, published in Nature Microbiology, answer what has been one of the major unanswered questions in malaria research for decades. (Clark, 9/19)

As the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns of a nationwide increase in animal rabies cases and human exposures, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced it is about to conduct its annual airdrop of millions of fishmeal-coated sachets of rabies vaccine over the Southeast to immunize wildlife against the deadly disease. Last week, the CDC issued a Health Alert Network advisory after observing a 17% increase in questions about human exposures to rabid or possibly rabid animals in July and August over the same period in 2025. (Van Beusekom, 9/18)

The first mRNA flu shot is now available, but not everyone is eligible. Moderna’s mFlusiva is the first flu vaccine in the United States to use messenger RNA technology, the same platform used in Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid shots. Scientists have long been interested in using mRNA against the flu because the vaccines can be made faster, potentially making it easier to keep up with changing flu strains. (Lovelace Jr., 9/18)