The Vaccine Intelligence Report: May 6-12

The Vaccine Intelligence Report—brought to you by Vaccinate Your Family—provides clear, fact-based updates on vaccine policy, research, and public health each week. This report is part of Viral Truths, a resource designed to cut through the noise, offering concise information to help navigate the evolving immunization landscape.

THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE

  • FDA Commissioner Makary has resigned, marking the latest in a series of leadership disruptions across HHS agencies
  • A new systematic review found no evidence linking aluminum in vaccines to autism or other chronic health conditions, adding to a significant body of evidence
  • Kennedy is spearheading an HHS-wide initiative to examine his long-held theories related to the harms of vaccines
  • Several vaccine bills under consideration in New Hampshire have lost momentum, reflecting greater resistance in the legislature
  • A new study found that HPV vaccination rates vary widely across states, reflecting factors such as healthcare access, public trust, and immunization policy
  • Measles continues to spread across the country, reaching nearly 2,000 cases in 2026, and the U.S. will very likely lose its measles elimination status in November
  • New research studies highlight the promise of an mRNA flu vaccine—which performed better than the standard vaccine in a clinical trial—and the risk of declining childhood vaccination rates, which could lead to outbreaks of rotavirus and other dangerous diseases

NEED TO KNOW

FDA Commissioner Makary Resigns Amid Agency Turmoil

  • Dr. Marty Makary, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), resigned yesterday (May 12), following months of instability and internal conflict at the agency. The announcement comes after reports that President Trump had previously approved a plan to fire the Commissioner.
    • Makary, who was seen as an ally of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., had served in the role since March 2025. His tumultuous tenure at the FDA was marked by significant staff turnover, leadership disputes, and conflicting policy decisions.
  • According to the President, Kyle Diamantas, the FDA’s top food regulator, will serve as the Acting Commissioner. Diamantas joined the FDA in February 2025 and previously worked as a corporate lawyer, representing companies on issues like infant formula recalls. He is not a medical doctor—a credential most FDA leaders hold.
    • The Administration is reportedly considering former FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and former Acting Commissioner and Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Brett Giroir to serve as Makary’s permanent replacement. A new FDA Commissioner will require Senate confirmation, which could prove challenging.
    • Makary’s departure marks the latest in a series of high-profile departures and leadership disruptions across HHS. For example, the department currently lacks Senate-confirmed leadership at both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Office of the Surgeon General.
  • Makary was scheduled to testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee today (May 13) on a range of topics including agency staffing shortages, controversial FDA initiatives, and reports that FDA officials blocked vaccine related studies—that hearing has now been postponed following his resignation.

Independent Review Finds No Evidence Supporting Claims About Risk of Aluminum in Vaccines Amid New HHS Inquiry

  • A new systematic review published in The BMJ found no evidence that aluminum-adjuvanted vaccines are associated with autism, asthma, type 1 diabetes, or other serious or long-term health conditions.
    • The review, which included 59 studies such as randomized controlled trials and large cohort studies, found that higher-quality evidence consistently showed no causal association between aluminum-containing vaccines and chronic health outcomes.
  • Aluminum has been used in vaccines for nearly a century to strengthen the immune response and improve protection, allowing for fewer doses and lesser quantities of the vaccine.
    • The review adds to a broader evidence base—including a large Danish study of more than 1.2 million children—that has found no link between aluminum exposure from childhood vaccination and autism, asthma, autoimmune conditions, or dozens of other health outcomes.
  • The findings come as aluminum has become a recurring focus of the Administration and vaccine skeptics, who claim that vaccine ingredients may contribute to autism or other chronic health conditions.
  • Kennedy is reportedly spearheading an HHS-wide initiative to examine his longstanding claim that vaccines may be contributing to rising rates of chronic disease.
    • The effort is led by Martin Kulldorff, who temporarily led the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and now serves as Chief Science Officer at HHS. Dr. Sara Brenner, Kennedy’s new Senior Counselor, and Stefanie Spear, one of the Secretary’s closest advisors, are also involved in the project.
  • Kennedy has asked HHS researchers to pursue new studies on several of his theories, including claims that vaccines are linked to autism and that thimerosal—a mercury-based vaccine preservative—is harmful, despite significant evidence to the contrary.
    • Through the CDC alone, the project is estimated to cost approximately $50 million in appropriated funds. This is on top of the significant investment the U.S. government has made in investigating and answering these questions previously.
  • Public health and vaccine experts have expressed concern that the effort could be used to further erode public confidence in vaccines by reopening questions that have already been extensively studied.

STATE POLICY SPOTLIGHT

New Hampshire Vaccine Bills Lose Momentum in Senate

  • Several vaccine-related bills in New Hampshire have slowed or narrowed as they move through the legislature, reflecting growing resistance in the Senate to broader efforts to roll back state vaccine policies.
  • Efforts to reduce immunization requirements have lost momentum.
    • HB 1719—which would remove hepatitis B from the vaccines required for school and daycare attendance—was referred to interim study by the Senate last Thursday (May 7), effectively delaying the bill until at least 2027.
    • The Senate is expected to vote on HB 1219 soon, which would eliminate certain immunization requirements for foster parents caring for infants or children with special needs.
  • Lawmakers continue to consider changes related to vaccine exemptions.
    • The Senate amended HB 1584 to remove language that would have allowed parents to submit any written statement for a religious vaccine exemption, while retaining provisions requiring the state to include exemption information in vaccine-related materials. A full Senate vote on the amended bill is expected in the coming weeks.
    • HB 1022, which would create a new, simplified religious exemption form, remains under consideration in committee.
  • A bill restricting school vaccination clinics is advancing with amendments.
    • HB 1449—which would restrict school vaccination clinics—advanced with amendments allowing exceptions for influenza vaccine clinics and public health emergencies. The bill now returns to the House.
  • The developments follow the February defeat of HB 1811, a broader proposal that would have eliminated nearly all immunization requirements in the state.

HPV Vaccination Rates Vary Widely by State, Reflecting Broader Vaccine Policy Divides

  • A new JAMA Pediatrics research letter found substantial variation in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates across states, with adolescents living in states with higher levels of educational attainment, lower uninsured rates, and stronger preventive health care access more likely to initiate HPV vaccination.
    • States including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire had higher average vaccination rates than states such as Mississippi, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
  • Researchers and public health experts said geographic variation in HPV vaccination rates likely reflects factors including healthcare access, public trust in vaccines and medical providers, and broader state policy environments surrounding immunization. School HPV immunization requirements could also influence greater uptake in certain states.
  • The findings come as state legislatures continue to debate vaccine-related policies, including school vaccine requirements, exemption rules, and parental consent provisions. Between 2021 and 2025, lawmakers have introduced more than 2,500 vaccine-related bills nationwide.

OUTBREAK OUTLOOK

News on respiratory virus season, measles, pertussis, and other vaccine-preventable and infectious disease outbreaks.

Measles Spread Continues, as Scientists Report Early Progress on First Measles Treatment

  • As of May 8, the U.S. has reported 1,967 measles cases in 2026—an increase of 44 cases in the last week.
    • Officials in Michigan reported two measles cases last week, marking the state’s second measles outbreak this year and bringing its 2026 total to 13 cases.
    • Pennsylvania’s Lebanon County has recorded 12 measles cases this year, resulting in three hospitalizations and accounting for half of the state’s 24 cases.
      • School exemptions for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) immunization requirements in Pennsylvania—which allows philosophical exemptions in addition to those for medical or religious reasons—have doubled in the past five years.
    • Texas measles cases have climbed to 181 this year, with the first case reported in Travis County since 2025.
    • Utah remains the current U.S. measles epicenter. The state recorded 25 new measles cases in the past week, bringing its 2026 total to 466 cases.
      • State officials explain that many cases in the ongoing outbreak are linked to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a historically vaccine-hesitant community with low vaccination rates.
    • States reporting high numbers of cases in 2026 include Arizona (94), Florida (150, as of May 2), Virginia (24), and Washington (43).
  • Scientists are advancing what could become the first treatment for measles. The antibodies being developed show promise in neutralizing the measles virus, though they remain in preclinical development.
    • Public health experts said a successful antiviral could eventually help prevent serious outcomes in immunocompromised patients and infants too young to receive the vaccine. They emphasized that any future treatment would complement—not replace—measles vaccination, which remains the single most effective method of prevention against measles infection.

U.S. Loss of Measles Elimination Status Increasingly Likely

  • A new analysis published in The Lancet warned that the U.S. is “highly likely” to lose its measles elimination status upon the Pan American Health Organization’s (PAHO) upcoming November 2026 review if current transmission trends continue.
  • Based on 2025 case numbers, the authors find that the U.S. has already failed to meet four of seven measles elimination indicators.
    • For example, to retain elimination status in a given year, a country should have fewer than a median of four outbreaks—last year, the U.S. had 48 outbreaks.
  • The authors also concluded that the U.S. is unlikely to meet the remaining three.
    • For example, a country with measles elimination status will have population immunity above the 95% threshold. During the 2024-2025 school year, U.S. kindergarten vaccination coverage was 92.5%.
  • Researchers cited declining childhood vaccination rates and growing clusters of under-immunized communities as two key reasons for sustained spread, and noted that “strengthening vaccination efforts, reducing exemption rates, and interrupting ongoing local transmission will be essential to reverse this trajectory.”

New Research Highlights Promise of mRNA Flu Vaccines and Risks of Declining Childhood Immunization

  • Results from a Phase 3 clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that Moderna’s mRNA-based seasonal influenza (flu) vaccine generated stronger immune responses than a standard-dose flu vaccine in adults age 50 and older, meeting key efficacy and safety endpoints across multiple influenza strains.
    • Researchers reported particularly strong protection against influenza A strains, which are typically associated with more severe seasonal outbreaks. Safety findings were consistent with prior mRNA vaccine studies, with most side effects described as mild to moderate and short-lived.
    • The findings could support broader use of mRNA technology beyond Covid vaccines and may help improve seasonal flu vaccine effectiveness, which can vary significantly year to year because of strain-matching challenges.
  • A new preprint study warns that even modest declines in U.S. childhood rotavirus vaccination rates could result in thousands of additional pediatric hospitalizations and the return of large seasonal outbreaks.
    • Researchers modeled the potential impact of reduced vaccine uptake following recent changes to federal childhood vaccine recommendations and immunization policy discussions.
    • While the study has not yet been peer-reviewed, the findings underscore broader concerns that declining childhood vaccination coverage could allow vaccine-preventable diseases—many of which have become less visible due to longstanding immunization programs—to reemerge.

REALITY CHECK

These fact checks respond to several recent claims made by different groups and individuals.

CLAIM: U.S. children receive too many vaccines—far more than children in other countries.

  • REALITY: The CDC’s recommended childhood immunization schedule includes routine immunization against 16 vaccine-preventable diseases and two annual seasonal vaccines (Covid and flu)—an approach that is broadly consistent with recommendations in many other high-income countries.
    • A review of childhood immunization schedules across 30 countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows that most European countries recommend vaccines protecting against 15 or more diseases.
    • Austria and Greece recommend vaccination against 17 diseases, while South Korea and Brazil recommend protection against 18 diseases.
  • Differences in the number, timing, and spacing of vaccine doses across countries reflect variations in disease risk, healthcare infrastructure, and public health policy—not evidence that one schedule is inherently safer or better than another. For example:
    • Many high-income countries operate under different healthcare conditions than the U.S., including universal healthcare coverage, near-universal well-child visit attendance, comprehensive national immunization registries, and centralized school-based vaccination programs.
    • Some countries may use fewer booster doses or longer intervals between doses because they experience different disease transmission patterns or lower rates of certain infections. Vaccine schedules are tailored to each country’s specific public health needs and epidemiology.
  • The U.S. childhood immunization schedule is developed specifically to reflect the country’s disease burden, healthcare access patterns, outbreak history, and population-level risks. Recommendations are reviewed regularly by medical and public health experts to ensure vaccines are given at ages when children are most vulnerable to serious disease and when protection will be most effective.

CLAIM: The CDC was justified in blocking the publication of a study showing the benefits of Covid vaccines because the study design was flawed and, therefore, the findings were not reliable.

  • REALITY: This claim is misleading. Acting CDC Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya blocked The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) publication of a study on how well the Covid vaccine worked. The study used a well-established research design, known as “test-negative” design, which has long been used by the CDC and other leading researchers around the world to measure how well vaccines—including those for Covid and flu—perform in real-world settings.
    • In a test-negative study, researchers compare vaccination rates between people who seek care for similar symptoms but test positive versus negative for the specific disease, informing estimates on how much protection vaccination provides against outcomes like hospitalization or emergency visits.
  • The blocked study, carried out by the CDC’s own researchers, reportedly found that Covid vaccination reduced Covid-related emergency department visits by approximately 50% and hospitalizations by an estimated 55% among healthy adults during the 2025-2026 season.
  • Federal officials who blocked the study claimed the study’s “test-negative” design was unreliable, but experts note the approach used is standard, scientifically accepted, and consistent with approaches previously used in CDC analyses of vaccine efficacy.
    • For example, CDC researchers recently used the same general methodology in a flu vaccine efficacy study published in the MMWR—the agency’s flagship scientific publication—raising questions about why the Covid study was treated differently.
  • Public health experts underscore that observational study designs—like the one utilized in the recently blocked study—are especially common when evaluating vaccines that are already approved and widely available.
    • In these situations, randomized controlled trials are often unethical and impractical because they would require withholding vaccines that are already known to reduce severe outcomes from a subset of the study participants.
  • Importantly, these types of vaccine surveillance and efficacy studies are specifically designed to not only evaluate vaccine benefit, but also to identify potential rare safety risks that may emerge once vaccines are used by millions of people in real-world settings.
    • For example, using these types of real-world observational studies helped the FDA and CDC identify a rare increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome associated with shingles vaccination—a finding that ultimately led to an FDA label update while regulators gathered further evidence to conclude the vaccine’s benefits outweighed the rare risks.
  • The findings from the blocked Covid vaccine study are broadly consistent with a large body of evidence from around the world showing that Covid vaccines continue to provide meaningful protection against severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
  • Medical experts also emphasize that blocking publication of a study after it has already undergone scientific review is highly unusual and undermines transparency and trust by treating study findings differently based on political priorities rather than scientific evidence.
    • Public health leaders warn that the blocked Covid vaccine study appears to be part of a broader pattern. In recent months, federal officials have delayed or blocked the publication of multiple vaccine-related studies—including other Covid vaccine safety studies and shingles vaccine research—claiming flawed methodologies, despite the same study designs being widely used in prior FDA and CDC studies.

WHAT TO WATCH

Hantavirus Cruise Ship Outbreak Raises Questions About U.S. Preparedness for Emerging Infectious Threats

  • One American passenger returning to the U.S. from the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius has tested positive for hantavirus and a second is experiencing mild symptoms after an outbreak linked to the vessel sickened multiple passengers and killed three people.
    • There is currently no approved treatment or vaccine for hantavirus. Research on a potential vaccine has been underway for over a decade, but development has received limited funding and prioritization because outbreaks are historically rare and geographically contained.
    • Fewer than 900 hantavirus cases have been recorded in the U.S. since surveillance began in 1993, but infection can be severe. CDC estimates that roughly 38% of patients who develop hantavirus pulmonary syndrome die from the disease.
  • The cases are drawing renewed attention to U.S. preparedness for emerging infectious disease threats.
    • Experts have criticized the CDC’s limited public messaging surrounding the outbreak and raised broader concerns about preparedness capacity amid leadership turnover across public health agencies.
    • The outbreak also follows U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this year, a shift experts warn could complicate access to international outbreak intelligence and emergency response planning.
  • Investigators believe the outbreak involves the Andes strain of hantavirus, a rare variant capable of limited person-to-person spread through prolonged close contact. Hantavirus has an incubation period of one to eight weeks, increasing the importance of monitoring exposed travelers and close contacts for symptoms.
    • Federal officials declined to directly answer some questions about monitoring and movement protocols for returning American passengers.
  • CDC stated the risk to the American public remains “extremely low,” while Bhattacharya said the agency is in contact with the WHO and is equipped to manage potential cases.

Democrats Probe Withholding of Vaccine Safety Studies

  • Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote to Kennedy requesting information about reports that FDA and CDC officials delayed or blocked publication of several vaccine-related studies, including research examining the safety and effectiveness of Covid and shingles vaccines.
  • The lawmakers raised concerns that political appointees may have interfered with scientific publication and review processes, particularly after reports that some studies had already completed peer review or were scheduled for scientific presentation prior to being withdrawn or paused.
  • Committee Democrats warned that perceived political interference in vaccine research could undermine scientific integrity, damage public trust in federal health agencies, and disrupt ongoing vaccine development and surveillance efforts.

Moms.gov Launch Omits Maternal Vaccine Messaging

  • On Mother’s Day (May 10), the Trump Administration launched Moms.gov – which the Administration describes as a “first-of-its-kind resources that offers guidance and information to support the health and well-being of mothers and their families” that includes information on topics ranging from nutrition and preconception health to breastfeeding, mental health, and adoption.
  • Notably absent from launch materials, however, was any mention of maternal immunization or the critical role vaccines play in protecting pregnant women and infants from diseases like respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), flu, Covid, and pertussis (whooping cough), despite longstanding guidelines recommending vaccination during pregnancy, including from the CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG).
    • The initiative has also drawn scrutiny because accompanying HHS materials emphasize federal “conscience protections” and state-recognized vaccine exemptions, including religious objections to vaccination and newborn screening requirements.
  • Public health experts warn that omitting evidence-based vaccine guidance from maternal health messaging will contribute to confusion at a time when maternal vaccination coverage remains suboptimal and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable disease continue to rise across the country.

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