Vaccines Archives - Page 4 of 42

The GOP Still Can’t Agree on a Health Plan

Episode 425

Dec. 4, 2025

Senate Democrats were promised a vote by mid-December on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Republicans still can’t decide whether they want to put forward their own alternative or what that might include. Meanwhile, the CDC and FDA are roiled by debates over vaccines. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Aneri Pattani about her project tracking opioid settlement payments.

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Under Kennedy, America’s Health Department Is in the Business of Promoting Kennedy

Under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services increasingly uses its social media channels to promote Kennedy himself and his agenda. Interviews with over 20 former and current employees provide a look inside an agency where personality and politics steer communications with the public.

By Darius Tahir

Dec. 4, 2025

A photo of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a Senate hearing.

RFK Jr. Wants To Delay the Hepatitis B Vaccine. Here’s What Parents Need To Know.

A CDC panel is reconsidering the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Renewed doubt could lead to fewer kids getting vaccinated, leaving them vulnerable to an incurable, preventable virus that can be acquired by indirect contact with infected blood.

By Jackie Fortiér

Dec. 2, 2025

A mobile health van with a yellow a-frame side out front reading "do not enter"

South Carolina’s Measles Outbreak Shows Chilling Effect of Vaccine Misinformation

When a measles outbreak emerged in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in October, health officials announced that most cases were tied to one public charter school, where only 17% of the 605 students enrolled during the 2024-25 academic year provided documentation showing they had received their required vaccinations.

By Lauren Sausser

Nov. 26, 2025

What the Health? From KFF Health News

Trump Almost Unveils a Health Plan

Episode 424

Nov. 25, 2025

Just weeks before some tax credits for Affordable Care Act premiums expire, the Trump administration floated a plan to extend the enhanced aid — but it was met with immediate GOP pushback. Meanwhile, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise its website to suggest childhood vaccines might be linked to autism. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Joanne Kenen and Joshua Sharfstein about their new book, “Information Sick: How Journalism’s Decline and Misinformation’s Rise Are Harming Our Health — And What We Can Do About It.”

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A photo of a young boy receiving a vaccine in his arm.

Kennedy Sharpens Vaccine Attacks, Without Scientific Backing

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims that the aluminum ingredients in vaccines cause a variety of harmful reactions, from allergies to autism. Scientists say that’s wrong and warn of risks if they’re removed. Here are some of the basics.

By Céline Gounder

Nov. 24, 2025

The Week in Brief

The Covid Contrarian Clubhouse Makes Its Mark on Trump’s Washington

Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.

By Rachana Pradhan

Nov. 21, 2025

A close-up photo of the header of the CDC website.

What To Know About the CDC’s Baseless New Guidance on Autism

A reshaped CDC website suggesting that vaccines cause autism has appalled the medical community.

By Arthur Allen

Nov. 21, 2025

A closely cropped shot of a preschool-aged girl coughing while holding a thermometer.

Waning Immunity and Falling Vaccination Rates Fuel Pertussis Outbreaks

New details from health officials suggest the whooping-cough surge may be part of a national pattern driven by slipping vaccine coverage and waning immunity, with infants bearing the brunt of the consequences.

By Céline Gounder

Nov. 20, 2025

A Small Texas Think Tank Cultivated Covid Dissidents. Now They’re Running US Health Policy.

Fueled by covid backlash, a libertarian author created the Brownstone Institute in 2021. In recent months, people with ties to the group have catapulted to the highest levels of U.S. government, exercising significant authority over access to vaccines and scientific research.

By Rachana Pradhan

Nov. 19, 2025

Conflicting Advice on Covid Shots Likely To Ding Already Low Vaccine Rates, Experts Warn

About 1 in 4 American adults got a covid vaccine shot during the 2024-25 virus season, a fraction health care experts warn could be smaller this year as millions wrestle with conflicting advice from the government and trusted medical organizations about the value of a shot.

By Phillip Reese

Nov. 14, 2025

A close up of photograph of an unrecognizable doctor using stethoscope while listening to the belly of a pregnant woman.

Is Covid During Pregnancy Linked to Autism? What a New Study Shows, and What It Doesn’t

Massachusetts researchers examine how growth and learning are subtly shaped among children whose mothers had covid while pregnant.

By Céline Gounder

Nov. 5, 2025

Louisiana Took Months To Sound Alarm After Two Babies Died in Whooping Cough Outbreak

Louisiana health officials appear to have deviated from the usual steps for public health communications amid a whooping cough outbreak after it killed two infants.

By Rosemary Westwood, WWNO

Nov. 4, 2025

At The Hollow in Florida, the ‘Medical Freedom’ Movement Finds Its Base Camp

Florida’s surgeon general, spiritual healers, and Trump allies push their cures in a swampy outpost of anti-government absolutism and mystical belief.

By Arthur Allen

Oct. 31, 2025

What the Health? From KFF Health News

Happy Open Enrollment Eve!

Episode 420

Oct. 30, 2025

A standoff in Congress is keeping much of the government shut down as open enrollment begins in most states for Affordable Care Act plans. Democrats are demanding Republicans agree to extend ACA tax credits, but there has been little negotiating — even as customers are learning what they’ll pay for coverage next year. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is telling states they can’t pass their own laws to keep medical debt off consumers’ credit reports. Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Maya Goldman of Axios, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more.

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A photo of Joseph Ladapo standing at a podium with the American and Florida flags behind him. A sign on the podium reads "The Free State of Florida."

Doctors Muffled as Florida Moves To End Decades of Childhood Vaccination Mandates

Florida has announced plans to end mandatory vaccination. Now scientists are assessing which of several diseases deadly to children — whooping cough, measles, polio, rubella, mumps, diphtheria, and tetanus — are likely to make a resurgence and when.

By Arthur Allen

Oct. 27, 2025

A photo of gloved hands putting a bandage on a patient's arm after giving them a vaccine.

Despite the Hoopla, Vaccines Should Be in Reach This Cough-and-Cold Season

Recommendations surrounding covid vaccinations and other such shots have been confusing. Ultimately, though, little has changed. Here’s what you need to know.

By Michelle Andrews

Oct. 22, 2025

What the Health? From KFF Health News

Starting To Feel the Shutdown’s Bite

Episode 417

Oct. 9, 2025

The government shutdown continues with no end in sight, and while it theoretically should not affect entitlement programs, the lapse of some related authorizations — like for Medicare telehealth programs — is leaving some doctors and patients high and dry. Meanwhile, the FDA quietly approved a new generic abortion pill. Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also, Rovner interviews Sarah Grusin of the National Health Law Program.

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A photo of a young child getting vaccinated.

Wary of RFK Jr., Colorado Started Revamping Its Vaccine Policies in the Spring

Amid concerns that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining trust in vaccines and public health science, some states are seeking new sources of scientific consensus and changing how they regulate insurance companies, prescribers, and pharmacists. Colorado has been at the front of this wave.

By John Daley, Colorado Public Radio

Oct. 7, 2025

Inside the High-Stakes Battle Over Vaccine Injury Compensation, Autism, and Public Trust

The evidence is unequivocal: Vaccines do not cause autism. Yet adding autism to the list of conditions covered by a federal payout program, as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems inclined to do, could threaten its financial viability. Such a move also would suggest that the science is unsettled, that vaccines may be riskier than diseases, which is a fallacy.

By Céline Gounder

Oct. 6, 2025

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