You can view Dr. Klotman’s Week 257 video address here. This week Dr. Klotman opens with a lucid explanation of how the Trump II regime’s 15% cap on indirect costs for NIH research grants is crippling research institutions.
The public health highlights are:
- Childhood vaccination requirements have been loosened in many states – Texas among them. The result is much lower vaccination rates among young schoolchildren – lower than what is needed to ensure herd immunity.
- So, it comes as no surprise that the Measles outbreak in Gaines County, Texas is the largest that the state has seen in the last 30 years.
- Influenza season is near its peak. ER visits for influenza are high – mostly Influenza A (H1N1 and H3N2)
- COVID activity is low compared to the levels that we saw during the pandemic – largely as a result of immunity acquired through either infection, vaccination or both.
- The SARS-CoV-2 virus has not changed much since the emergence of the XEC strains
- More bird flu spillover events (from bird to cattle) have been documented – most dairy infections have been caused by an earlier H5N1 strain that caused mild disease in humans. The latest avian strain is much more pathogenic.
Personal Notes:
- I’m still wearing my N95 mask to public venues like the grocery store because despite having gotten my Flu and RSV vaccinations, I know that research shows that vaccines in folks my age provide protection only for 20-40% of us; the rest of us don’t muster an immune response adequate to prevent symptomatic infection.
- The CDC has cancelled the annual February meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP – a panel of academic experts in vaccinology) that makes national recommendations regarding new vaccines and immunization schedules. This is the result of the Trump administration’s idiocy and the elevation of Robert (Lysenko) F Kennedy to head the health agencies. Forgive them Father; they know not what they do. 🙁