Bug and health up & downsides from Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH
Dr. Katelyn Jetelina publishes my 'bible' on epidemiology and national health progress (or not). Here's where she says we are now on the flu, COVID, measles and more.
Katelyn Jetelina is a public health enthusiast with a passion for making science accessible—readable and easy to put into action. She has a master’s degree in public health and a PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and serves as a scientific consultant to organizations like the CDC. By day she’s an epidemiologist, data scientist, consultant, and wife, and mom to two adventurous little girls. By night (and occasionally nap time), she is the founder and writer of Your Local Epidemiologist, a Substack with readers in all 50 states and 126 countries.
Click for her latest dispatch from the communicable disease trenches, including our latest communicable disease formerly known as HHS.
Highlights
Flu season is finally ending. It was an unusually rough season with the highest number of hospitalizations in the past 15 years. Final death counts are still pending; unfortunately, it was also likely high, especially among kids.
Measles : As we reported yesterday, the first three months of 2025 had more cases than the total in most recent years. It’s ugly, spreading, and will be worse long before it’s better, with 38 states undervaccinated. She also has a deep dive from Yale with info on Canada as well. She notes the Texas cases alone are now up to 476, 73 of which were just over three recent days—giving you an idea of how quickly it’s spreading. And now, children given supplemental doses of cod liver oil and Vitamin A from their parents—as recommended by RFK Jr—are showing up in area hospitals for liver toxicity, which can cause permanent liver damage or death.
HHS news
Fall vaccine plan, or...??? An external FDA advisory committee for vaccines determines the flu vaccine formula about this time for the coming winter/spring flu season. Secretary Kennedy canceled this meeting, so we don’t have a U.S. recommendation for the formula for flu or COVID. Worrisome, but there’s still time, and WHO has a recommendation.
ACIP—the external advisory committee for the CDC, which Secretary Kennedy put on hold—has been rescheduled for mid-April. The committee’s purpose is to determine vaccine policy: who should get vaccines (as opposed to what is in the vaccines). This recommendation is very important for insurance coverage. The mid-April meeting covers other vaccines—the flu and Covid vaccine policy is reserved for the June meeting.
Jetelina says we’ll have vaccines, but the larger question is whether they will be covered by insurance again.
Most concern news: Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s top vaccine official under both Trump 1 and Biden was told to resign or be fired; he stepped down Friday. He helped lead Operation Warp Speed that very quickly developed the highly successful COVID vaccine, and had bipartisan support In his resignation letter, Marks warned Secretary Kennedy is not interested in scientific facts, citing “misinformation” and “lies”. (I wonder how many kids we’ll have to lose before RFK gets tired of trying to be right about his theories, instead of starting with the question of “how did this happen.”)
Public health alert: Last week, Utah became the first state to ban fluoride in drinking water. At highest risk will be low income families who can’t afford good dental care. See an earlier Jetelina post on this here and one from us here.
Course reversal on long COVID research: Finally, some good news. Like other shoot-from-the-hip DOGE activites, RECOVER funding on long COVID has now been restored thanks to advocate push-back and bipartisan support from four key senators.