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California health officials on Tuesday reported a possible case of bird flu in a child with mild symptoms. The child lives in Alameda County, part of the San Francisco Bay Area, and tested positive for the virus despite having no known contact with an infected animal. Officials with the California Department of Public Health said in a news release that they are investigating whether the child could have been exposed to wild birds. It's considered a “possible” case until the positive test is confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Burke, 11/19)

Raw milk has become a common rallying point for right-wing media and wellness influencers — and a cause that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could supercharge as President-elect Trump's Health and Human Services secretary nominee. The dairy product has had a niche following that transcends partisanship for decades. But federal health officials say the lack of heating and pasteurization poses risks like exposure to harmful bacteria like E. coli and listeria — a concern that's been amplified by bird flu spreading among dairy cattle. (Daher, 11/20)

A new study published today in JAMA Network Open shows 1 in 20 US adults were hospitalized within 28 days of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection during the during the 2016 to 2022 RSV seasons. A second study, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases estimates the cost of RSV infections and hospitalizations in US infants to be $1.6 billion annually, with infants 3 months and younger accounting for 43% of the costs. (Soucheray, 11/19)

Sixty percent of Americans say they probably won’t get an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves against the virus heading into the winter months when risk of contraction is higher, with more Democrats showing a willingness to receive another dose than Republicans, the Pew Research Center said Tuesday. Another 24 percent said they probably will get an updated vaccine, while 15 percent said they had already done so, according to an October survey. (Andersen, 11/19)

The rise of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from fringe figure to the prospective head of U.S. health policy was fueled by skepticism and distrust of the medical establishment—views that went viral in the Covid-19 pandemic. People once dismissed for their disbelief in conventional medicine are now celebrating a new champion in Washington. Scientists, meanwhile, are trying to figure how they could have managed the pandemic without setting off a populist movement they say threatens longstanding public-health measures. (Whyte, 11/19)

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, where Colombia stretches down to touch Peru and Brazil, Hospital San Rafael is overwhelmed. It’s a sweltering spring afternoon, and the rows of white plastic chairs inside the clinic are packed. They have been for days. Some patients are slumped in their seats, eyes closed, breathing slowly. Others, masks at their chins, yell after children running through the hallway. The humidity makes 90F feel well over 100. A few people are fanning themselves with medical records. (Griffin, 11/20)

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that it has granted emergency use listing for Japan’s LC16m8 mpox vaccine, the second mpox vaccine to receive the designation since the group declared a public health emergency of international concern regarding outbreaks in Africa. The step paves the way for countries to receive doses and for children, hit hard by the virus in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi, to receive doses. Japan had stockpiled the vaccine, which was used in 1974 to vaccinate children. (Schnirring, 11/19)