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Organ donations from the recently deceased dropped last year for the first time in over a decade, resulting in fewer kidney transplants, according to an analysis issued Wednesday that pointed to signs of public mistrust in the lifesaving system. More than 100,000 people in the U.S. are on the list for an organ transplant. The vast majority of them need a kidney, and thousands die waiting every year. (Neergaard, 1/14)

A majority of counties across the U.S. are seeing a steady rise in vaccine exemptions for religious or personal beliefs among children entering kindergarten, a trend that has accelerated since the pandemic, according to a new study. The research, published Wednesday in JAMA, is based on a data investigation by NBC News with Stanford University. Mustafa Fattah, medical fellow with NBC News, is lead author on the study. (Ozcan, 1/15)

Pediatric hospitals — Children’s National in Washington, D.C., Texas Children’s, Children’s Seattle, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — told STAT they would be following the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidance, a plan mirrored by several other pediatric groups throughout the U.S. (Payne, 1/15)

Pfizer’s Albert Bourla, leader of the first company to launch a vaccine that’s widely credited with saving millions of lives during the Covid pandemic, was the most forthright. “I am very annoyed. I’m very disappointed. I’m seriously frustrated,” Bourla said during a lunch with journalists, discussing efforts to curtail use of the Covid shots. “What is happening has zero scientific merit and is just serving an agenda which is political, and then antivax.” (Muller, Smith and Thornton, 1/14)

Amid substantial changes in federal vaccine policy, New Jersey lawmakers passed a bill this week that would give the state Department of Health the authority to rely on expert recommendations beyond the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine panel. The bill has received backlash from parents rights groups and Republican legislators who say the state Department of Health is trying to become the sole authority on vaccines and bulldoze parents’ decision-making power. But its supporters dispute that framing and argue that parents will remain in charge of what vaccines their children receive. (Roman, 1/14)