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A senior US public health official called on Americans to get vaccinated against measles as outbreaks continue in multiple states and concerns grow that the country could lose its measles elimination designation. Dr Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, spoke in support on Sunday of the measles vaccine. “Take the vaccine, please,” said Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “We have a solution for our problem.” (Dunbar and agencies, 2/8)

Health officials are warning that confirmed cases of measles may have spread at this year's National March for Life rally and concert in Washington, D.C. Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators converged upon the National Mall and other locations in the nation's capital for the annual event at the end of January. The DC Department of Health says it's working to identify people who are at risk. (Wright, 2/8)

There have been at least 733 confirmed measles cases reported across the nation, the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Friday. In just a few weeks, the United States reported four times as many cases than typically seen throughout an entire calendar year, the CDC said. Before last year, which had a record breaking 2,276 cases, the U.S. averaged 180 cases annually since measles was declared eliminated in 2000. The record numbers come as South Carolina is dealing with the largest outbreak recorded in recent memory. (Benadjaoud, 2/6)

New cases of measles are popping up across Florida, with 15 illnesses confirmed statewide, according to data from the Florida Department of Health. But other cases, including 20 in Collier County and one in Pinellas County, don't show up on the department's website. It updates every Thursday, and by then the information is many days old. As of Monday, the case count ends Jan. 31. (Sheridan, 2/9)

On covid and flu vaccines and mistrust of the CDC —

Members of the federal vaccine panel chosen by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are setting their sights on the next targets: the mRNA Covid shots, and vaccines offered to pregnant women. The panel, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, already has imposed some limits on access to Covid vaccines and has rescinded recommendations for some routine childhood shots. Several of the panelists have said — contrary to scientific consensus — that they believe the Covid shots are dangerous and should be taken off the market. (Mandavilli, 2/6)

The effectiveness of this season’s flu vaccine in Canada is 40% against medically attended infection with influenza A(H3N2) viruses, 37% against newly emerged and predominant subclade K of the H3N2 strain, and 31% against the H1N1 influenza A strain, an interim analysis estimates. (Van Beusekom, 2/6)

Public trust in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remains near its lowest point since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a KFF Tracking Poll published today. “Six years ago, 85% of Americans, and 90% of Republicans, trusted the CDC. Now less than half trust the CDC on vaccines,” KFF President and CEO Drew Altman, PhD, said in a news release. “The wars over COVID, science, and vaccines have left the country without a trusted national voice on vaccines, and that trust will take time to restore.” (Bergeson, 2/6)

On tuberculosis and E. coli —

Two cases of tuberculosis and 18 cases of COVID-19 were recently identified at a massive immigration detention center in El Paso, according to city officials and a Democratic congresswoman. (Deguzman and Kriel, 2/7)

A new study by federal and state health researchers indicates invasive Escherichia coli infections are a growing problem in the United States and becoming harder to treat. The study, by scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local public health departments, published this week in JAMA Network Open, found an estimated annual incidence rate of more than 74 extraintestinal invasive E coli infections per 100,000 population, with urinary tract infections (UTIs) accounting for more than half of the associated infection types identified by blood culture. (Dall, 2/6)