Louisiana Bans State Funded Promotion of COVID-19, Influenza and Mpox Vaccines
In December 2024, Louisiana’s Department of Health issued a directive barring public health workers from promoting COVID-19, influenza, or mpox vaccines.1 This includes prohibiting staff from sending press releases, giving interviews, holding vaccine events, creating social media posts, or even displaying signs in clinics indicating that vaccines are available.2 The policy, which officials declined to […]
What’s Really Happening With Mpox
The World Health Organization (WHO) acted as expected earlier this month and declared Mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). So, a problem in a small number of African countries that has killed about the same number of people this year as die every four hours from tuberculosis has come to dominate international […]
Doctors Question Monkeypox Vaccine Effectiveness
Results of a new study have scientists questioning just how much protection the monkeypox vaccine actually offers. Scientists in the Netherlands found two shots of the [monkeypox] vaccine being used in the U.S. and other parts of the world yield very low levels of neutralizing antibodies against the monkeypox virus. This has them concerned people […]
WHO Declares Monkeypox a Global Health Emergency
On Aug. 14, 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox (mpox) a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). “Today, the Emergency Committee met and advised me that in its view, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. I have accepted that advice,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,1 2 3 […]
