Senate Grills CDC Nominee Susan Monarez on Agency Cuts

THURSDAY, June 26, 2025 (HealthDay News) —  The woman tapped to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says she supports science, vaccines and public health programs — but she dodged key questions about recent cuts to the agency during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Susan Monarez, 50, told senators ...

CDC Pulls Vaccine Slide After Expert Cites Study Doesn’t Exist

A presentation scheduled for a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine meeting today claimed that a vaccine preservative could cause long-term brain effects — but the study it cited doesn’t appear to exist.

The slide, posted online Tuesday, cited a 2008 paper titled "Low-level neonatal thimerosal exposure:...

Illinois Reports First West Nile Virus Case of 2025

Illinois has confirmed its first human case of West Nile virus this year, health officials say.

The person, who lives in southern Illinois, was hospitalized with complications from the mosquito-borne virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This is the earliest West Nile virus case reported in Il...

Online Videos For Kids Rife With Junk Food Messaging

Kids watching YouTube videos are being hammered with messages promoting junk food like candy, sugary drinks, fast food and sweet or salty snacks, a new study says.

About 75% of 6- to 8-year-olds and 36% of 3- to 5-year-olds were fed promotions for junk food while watching YouTube or YouTube Kids videos they chose on their own mobile device...

Typos, Slang Trip Up AI Medical Assessments

Common human typing errors can trip up artificial intelligence (AI) programs designed to aid health care workers by reviewing health records, a new MIT study says.

Typos and extra white spaces can interfere with AI’s ability to properly analyze patient records, researchers reported this week at an Association for Computing Machinery ...

Wastewater Can Accurately Predict COVID-19 Surges

Keeping tabs on COVID-19 outbreaks is as easy as tracking a city’s wastewater, a new study says.

Levels of the COVID virus, SARS-CoV-2, found in wastewater samples accurately predicted by a week the rise and fall of case counts in a community, researchers reported June 23 in the The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

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