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The White House’s pullback on vaccine policy is a key strategic decision ahead of the midterm elections and is sidelining Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, according to a close ally of the US health secretary. Robert Malone, former vice chair of a government panel that sets immunization policy, criticized the Trump administration’s efforts to silence discussions about vaccines on a podcast from the Informed Consent Action Network that posted on Friday. ICAN was founded by Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine activist and former communications director for Kennedy’s 2024 presidential bid. (Nix, 3/27)

After a tough flu season, today’s respiratory virus update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers a bit of good news: Doctors are seeing fewer people with influenza. Cases of flu are declining in most of the country. While influenza A is on its way out, rates of influenza B—which tends to peak later in flu season—vary by region. Levels of influenza A in wastewater are low. Influenza B is not monitored in wastewater. (Szabo, 3/27)

The newest COVID variant is officially named variant BA.3.2, but it has been given the nickname of “Cicada.” It earned the nickname because BA.3.2 is an offshoot of the BA 3 variant, which hasn’t circulated widely for nearly four years, lying dormant as cicadas do. (Whiteside and Bink, 3/29)

Vaccination coverage among US children remained high for most routine immunizations through age two years in recent years, but declines in several vaccines—particularly influenza and the hepatitis B (HepB) birth dose—highlight growing gaps in vaccine coverage, according to a report yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Bergeson, 3/27)

Measles cases in the United States have climbed to 1,575, with 88 new infections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in its weekly update today. The CDC confirmed 2,285 measles cases for all of last year, the most since 1991. The United States could top that number this spring. The country will likely lose its measles elimination status—which it gained in 2000—in November, when officials assess the data. Measles is widely considered to be one of the world’s most contagious diseases. (Wappes, 3/27)

In Mexico, a sweeping measles outbreak has triggered a sweeping response — a campaign to vaccinate 2.5 million people a week. In the capital, posters are plastered with QR codes for people to look up the nearest spot for vaccination. (Silver, 3/28)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sought to woo the MAGA base Saturday evening at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual base-rallying gathering that only a few years ago might have viewed some of Kennedy’s policy stances as too left-leaning. Kennedy said the Democratic Party “had lost its bearings” and that Trump was more aligned with him than liberals on fighting chronic disease, which is at the center of the health secretary’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. (Paun, 3/28)

Republicans hope the Make America Healthy Again movement becomes a permanent fixture of a big GOP tent. But the party can’t count on its support heading into midterm elections this November. New results from The POLITICO Poll show both broad frustration and dissatisfaction with the Trump administration on health priorities and opportunities for Democrats to make inroads with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA supporters. (Ollstein, Doherty, Brown and Paun, 3/30)

In his quest to overhaul the food system, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to close a loophole that allows food and dietary supplement companies to independently determine whether new ingredients are safe. But the plan is facing stiff pushback from the industry, with lawyers and executives already warning of lawsuits before an official proposal has been unveiled. (Jewett, 3/27)

From Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s food pyramid to online influencers, beef has become more than just a source of protein. (Miller, 3/30)