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Amid rising measles cases internationally and in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today issued an alert to health providers urging them to ensure that children as young as 6 months old receive the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine before traveling internationally. (Schnirring, 3/18)

Spring may be around the corner but the flu – specifically, influenza B – is surging. While samples of influenza A have decreased since the winter-time peak, influenza B has been detected in 96% of samples, so far, in March compared with 66% of samples in February, according to WastewaterSCAN data. (Rodriguez, 3/18)

Four years into the COVID-19 pandemic, few Americans are especially concerned about catching the disease. A recent poll from Pew found that only 20 percent of Americans consider the virus to be a major health threat. Only 10 percent are concerned about becoming very ill or hospitalized. Less than a third have received an updated COVID-19 vaccine. Pew did not ask how many people still wear masks. But for many with disabilities and chronic illnesses, it is impossible to move on. (Luterman, 3/18)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Health Workers Fear It’s Profits Before Protection As CDC Revisits Airborne Transmission

Four years after hospitals in New York City overflowed with covid-19 patients, emergency physician Sonya Stokes remains shaken by how unprepared and misguided the American health system was. Hospital leadership instructed health workers to forgo protective N95 masks in the early months of 2020, as covid cases mounted. “We were watching patients die,” Stokes said, “and being told we didn’t need a high level of protection from people who were not taking these risks.” (Maxmen, 3/19)

Most of the Supreme Court’s justices on Monday seemed to question states’ arguments that the Biden administration coerced social media giants to regulate Covid-19 content and thereby violated Americans’ freedom of speech. (Owermohle, 3/18)