The chair of a federal vaccine advisory panel under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his stance clear on vaccines in a podcast last week—and that stance was so alarming that the American Medical Association was compelled to respond with a scathing statement.

Kirk Milhoan, who was named chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in December, appeared on the aptly named podcast "Why Should I Trust You." In the hour-long interview, Milhoan made a wide range of comments that have concerned medical experts and raised eyebrows.

Early into the discussion, Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist, declared, "I don't like established science," and that "science is what I observe." He lambasted the evidence-based methodology that previous ACIP panels used to carefully and transparently craft vaccine policy.

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A 20-year-old man in Taiwan went to a dermatology clinic for a strange rash that had developed across his shoulders and chest. The raised, red, and itchy condition had been bothering him for a full month. By this point, he had also developed patches of pigmented skin interlaced with the red rash.

According to a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine, a skin biopsy showed swelling between his skin cells and inflammation around blood vessels, but testing came up negative for other common signs of skin conditions, leaving doctors with few leads. The doctors ultimately came to a diagnosis not by analyzing his skin further but by hearing about his diet.

The man's chest and shoulders, showing his rash and hyperpigmentation. Credit: New England Journal of Medicine, 2026

The man told doctors that two months prior to his clinic appointment—a month before his rash developed—he had switched to a ketogenic diet, which is a high-fat but very low-carbohydrate eating pattern. This diet forces the body to shift from using glucose (sugar derived from carbohydrates) as an energy source to fat instead.

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As of today, the US is no longer a member of the World Health Organization—and it leaves the United Nations health agency with hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid bills, according to reporting by Stat News.

A year ago today, the US informed the WHO of its intent to exit, setting the clock for a one-year withdrawal period mandated in a 1948 joint resolution of Congress. But, in practice, the withdrawal was immediate, with the Trump administration cutting all ties with WHO upon the announcement. In explaining his reasoning for leaving the WHO, Trump referenced his long-standing complaints about the agency’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, dues payments, and alleged protection of China. Trump had attempted to extract the US from WHO during his first term, but the Biden administration rescinded the withdrawal on the first day in office, well before the one-year notice period was reached.

The joint resolution also stipulated that the US would have to pay its financial obligations in full before departing. But, that too has not been honored by the Trump administration. According to Stat, the US owed the WHO $278 million in dues, which are a percentage of each member state’s gross domestic product. That dues payment covered the country's 2024–2025 membership, as WHO runs on a two-year budget cycle.

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In a small clinical trial, customized mRNA vaccines against high-risk skin cancers appeared to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and death by nearly 50 percent over five years when compared with standard treatment alone. That's according to Moderna and Merck, the two pharmaceutical companies that have collaborated on the experimental cancer vaccine, called intismeran autogene (mRNA-4157 or V940).

So far, the companies have only reported the top-line results in a press release this week. However, the results align closely with previous, more detailed analyses from the trial, which examined rates of recurrence and death at earlier time points, specifically at two years and three years after the treatment. More data from the trial—a Phase 2 trial—will soon be presented at a medical conference, the companies said. A Phase 3 trial is also underway, with enrollment complete.

The ongoing Phase 2 trial included 157 patients who were diagnosed with stage 3 or stage 4 melanoma and were at high risk of having it recur after surgical removal. A standard treatment to prevent recurrence after such surgery is immunotherapy, including Merck's Keytruda (pembrolizumab). This drug essentially enables immune cells, specifically T cells, to attack and kill cancer cells—something they normally do. But, in many types of cancers, including melanoma, cancer cells have the ability to bind to receptors on T cells (called PD-1 receptors), which basically shuts the T cells down. Keytruda works by physically blocking the PD-1 receptors, preventing cancer cells from binding and keeping the T cells activated so they can kill the cancer.

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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health alert to clinicians Tuesday, warning that the savage, flesh-eating parasitic fly—the New World Screwworm—is not only approaching the Texas border, but also felling an increasing number of animals in the bordering Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

The advisory, released through the agency's Health Alert Network, directs doctors, veterinarians, and other health workers to be on the lookout for patients with wounds teeming with ferocious maggots burrowing into their living flesh. The alert also provides guidance on what to do if any such festering wounds are encountered—namely, remove each and every maggot to prevent the patient from dying, and, under no circumstance allow any of the parasites to survive and escape.

The New World Screwworm (NWS) is a fly that lays its eggs—up to 400 at a time—in the wounds, orifices, and mucus membranes of any warm-blooded animal. The eggs hatch into flesh-eating maggots, which look and act much like screws, twisting and boring into their victims while eating them alive.

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A generally healthy 63-year-old man in the New England area went to the hospital with a fever, cough, and vision problems in his right eye. His doctors eventually determined that a dreaded hypervirulent bacteria—which is rising globally—was ravaging several of his organs, including his brain.

According to the man, the problems started three weeks before his hospital visit, when he said he ate some bad meat and started vomiting and having diarrhea. Those symptoms faded after about two weeks, but then new problems began—he started coughing and having chills and a fever. His cough only worsened from there.

At the hospital, doctors took X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans of his chest and abdomen. The images revealed over 15 nodules and masses in his lungs. But that's not all they found. The imaging also revealed a mass in his liver that was 8.6 cm in diameter (about 3.4 inches). Lab work pointed toward an infection, so doctors admitted him to the hospital and provided oxygen to help with his breathing, as well as antibiotics. But his chills and cough continued.

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© NEJM 2026

A generally healthy 63-year-old man in the New England area went to the hospital with a fever, cough, and vision problems in his right eye. What his doctors eventually figured out was that a dreaded hypervirulent bacteria—which is rising globally—was ravaging several of his organs, including his brain.

According to the man, the problems had started three weeks before his hospital visit, when he said he ate some bad meat and started having vomiting and diarrhea. Those symptoms faded after about two weeks, but then new problems began; he started coughing and having chills and a fever. His cough only worsened from there.

At the hospital, doctors took X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans of his chest and abdomen. The images revealed over 15 nodules and masses in his lungs. But, that's not all they found. The imaging also revealed a mass in his liver that was 8.6 cm in diameter (about 3.4 inches). Lab work pointed toward an infection. So, doctors admitted him to the hospital and provided oxygen to help with his breathing, as well as antibiotics. But his chills and cough continued.

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Pharmaceutical executives are finally saying how they really feel about the extreme anti-vaccine agenda Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been ruthlessly implementing—and it's not pretty.

According to reporting from Bloomberg at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference that ended today in San Francisco, pharmaceutical executives who had previously been careful to avoid criticizing the Trump administration appear to have reached a breaking point, with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla offering some of the most candid comments.

"I am very annoyed. I'm very disappointed. I'm seriously frustrated," Bourla said. "What is happening has zero scientific merit and is just serving an agenda which is political, and then antivax."

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A measles outbreak in South Carolina that began in October is now wildly accelerating, doubling in just the past week to a total of 434 cases, with 409 people currently in quarantine.

Amid the outbreak, South Carolina health officials have been providing updates on cases every Tuesday and Friday. On Tuesday, state health officials reported 124 more cases since last Friday, which had 99 new cases since the previous Tuesday. On that day, January 6, officials noted a more modest increase of 26 cases, bringing the outbreak total at that point to 211 cases.

With the 3-month-old outbreak now doubled in just a week, health officials are renewing calls for people to get vaccinated against the highly infectious virus—an effort that has met with little success since October. Still, the health department is activating its mobile health unit to offer free measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccinations, as well as flu vaccinations at two locations today and Thursday in the Spartanburg area, the epicenter of the outbreak.

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A New York man is suing Prenuvo, a celebrity-endorsed whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provider, claiming that the company missed clear signs of trouble in his $2,500 whole-body scan—and if it hadn't, he could have acted to avert the catastrophic stroke he suffered months later.

Sean Clifford and his legal team claim that his scan on July 15, 2023, showed a 60 percent narrowing and irregularity in a major artery in his brain—the proximal right middle cerebral artery, a branch of the most common artery involved in acute strokes. But Prenuvo's reviews of the scan did not flag the finding and otherwise reported everything in his brain looked normal; there was "no adverse finding." (You can read Prenuvo's report and see Clifford's subsequent imaging here.)

Clifford suffered a massive stroke on March 7, 2024. Subsequent imaging found that the proximal right middle cerebral artery progressed to a complete blockage, causing the stroke. Clifford suffered paralysis of his left hand and leg, general weakness on his left side, vision loss and permanent double vision, anxiety, depression, mood swings, cognitive deficits, speech problems, and permanent difficulties with all daily activities.

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For years, the Food and Drug Administration provided an informational webpage for parents warning them of the dangers of bogus autism treatments, some promoted by anti-vaccine activists and "wellness" companies. The page cited specifics scams and the "significant health risks" they pose.

But, under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who has numerous ties to the wellness industry—that FDA information webpage is now gone. It was quietly deleted at the end of last year, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed to Ars Technica.

The defunct webpage, titled "Be Aware of Potentially Dangerous Products and Therapies that Claim to Treat Autism," provided parents and other consumers with an overview of the problem. It began with a short description of autism and some evidence-based, FDA-approved medications that can help manage autism symptoms. Then, the regulatory agency provided a list of some false claims and unproven, potentially dangerous treatments it had been working to combat. "Some of these so-called therapies carry significant health risks," the FDA wrote.

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A third person has died in a rash of poisonings from wild, foraged mushrooms in California, health officials report.

Since November, a total of 35 people across the state have been poisoned by mushrooms, leading to three people receiving liver transplants in addition to the three deaths. Health officials in Sonoma County reported the latest death last week.

Michael Stacey, Sonoma's interim health officer, attributed the cases and deaths to an extraordinary boom in the prevalence of death cap mushrooms (Amanita phalloides), noting that in an average year, the state sees fewer than five mushroom poisoning cases.

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A measles outbreak in South Carolina that began in October continues to rage, with the state health department reporting Friday that nearly 100 new cases have been identified just in the last three days.

In a regularly scheduled update this afternoon, the health department said 99 cases were identified since Tuesday, bringing the outbreak total to 310 cases. There are currently 200 people in quarantine and nine in isolation. However, the outbreak is expanding so quickly and with so many exposure sites that health officials are struggling to trace cases and identify people at risk.

"An increasing number of public exposure sites are being identified with likely hundreds more people exposed who are not aware they should be in quarantine if they are not immune to measles," Linda Bell, state epidemiologist and the health department's incident commander for the measles outbreak, said in the announcement. "Previous measles transmission studies have shown that one measles case can result in up to 20 new infections among unvaccinated contacts."

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Anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins unveiled the delayed 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for America Wednesday, which is already drawing criticism for its ties to the meat and dairy industry.

Headlining with the advice to "eat real food," the new guidelines, which are updated every five years, are in a brisk, citation-free 10-page document. Overall, the new guidelines: lambaste added sugars and highly processed foods (though it doesn't clearly define them); ditch previous limits on alcohol while directing Americans to just drink "less"; beef up recommendations for protein, including red meat; and appear to embrace saturated fats while not actually changing the 2020–2025 recommendation for how much you should eat—which was and continues to be no more than 10 percent of total daily calories.

"We are ending the war on saturated fats," Kennedy said triumphantly in a White House press briefing Wednesday, despite the lack of a change. He went on to proclaim that "today, our government declares war on added sugar," though that too is questionable.

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The state of Utah is allowing artificial intelligence to prescribe medication refills to patients without direct human oversight in a pilot program public advocates call "dangerous."

The program is through the state's "regulatory sandbox" framework, which allows businesses to trial "innovative" products or services with state regulations temporarily waived. The Utah Department of Commerce partnered with Doctronic, a telehealth startup with an AI chatbot.

Doctronic offers a nationwide service that allows patients to chat with its "AI doctor" for free, then, for $39, book a virtual appointment with a real doctor licensed in their state. But patients must go through the AI chatbot first to get an appointment.

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Stranger Things has finally come to an end and left us with some big complicated feels about how it all went down. Both of us (Jennifer and Beth) are bona fide fans who have seen prior seasons multiple times, and we had remarkably similar reactions to the fifth season, especially the series finale. So we decided to co-write a review, discussing everything we liked about it as well as kvetching about the things we definitely didn't like—a shared "airing of grievances."

(WARNING: Many, many spoilers below in the interest of a thorough analysis.)

Season 4 ended with Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) opening the fourth gate that allowed the Upside Down to leak into Hawkins. We got an 18-month time jump for S5, Vol. 1, but in a way, we came full circle, since those events coincided with the third anniversary of Will’s (Noah Schnapp) original disappearance in S1.

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Under anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., federal health officials on Monday announced a sweeping and unprecedented overhaul of federal vaccine recommendations, abruptly paring down recommended immunizations for children from 17 to 11.

Officials claimed the rationale for the change was to align US vaccine recommendations more closely with those of other high-income countries, namely Denmark, a small, far less diverse country of around 6 million people (smaller than the population of New York City) that has universal health care. The officials also claim the change is necessary to address the decline in public trust in vaccinations, which has been driven by anti-vaccine activists, including Kennedy.

"This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health," Kennedy said in a statement.

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With the new year comes a new report of a deadly, puzzling infectious disease.

In a January 1 case study, health officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state of Louisiana revealed that a ninth metalworker contracted a rare, often fatal case of "welder's anthrax," a condition only first described in 2022.

The case occurred in September 2024 in an otherwise healthy 18-year-old male in Louisiana. He had no underlying health conditions or even any risk factors, such as smoking, vaping, or heavy alcohol use. But, just a week after developing a cough, the teen was admitted to an intensive care unit with severe pneumonia and respiratory failure, requiring intubation and mechanical ventilation.

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