BOILING FROG
Childhood vaccination rates fall again
U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates fell last year, continuing a yearslong decline that started during the pandemic, according to federal data posted Thursday.
The share of children exempted from vaccine requirements also rose to an all-time high, from 3.7% to 4.1%. The rise led to the third record-breaking year in a row for exemptions, the vast majority of which are for non-medical reasons. And as the U.S. experiences its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades, with more than 1,300 cases so far, 92.5% of 2024-25 kindergartners got their required measles-mumps-rubella shots, down slightly from last year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traditionally releases the vaccination coverage data in its flagship publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. This year, the agency quietly posted the data online and — when asked about it — emailed a statement. Read more here.
EUGENICS
Good genes, bad jeans?
This week, the internet was sent into a tizzy over an American Eagle ad campaign, in which actress Sydney Sweeney explains, "genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue." A narrator then says "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans" as the American Eagle logo flashes, riffing on the homophones "genes" and "jeans."
Many online commentators picked up on the eerie similarities between the language in the advertisement, and the rhetoric of the eugenics movement — which believed you could solve social problems by making it more difficult for those with "less desirable traits" to reproduce. Whatever your feelings about the Sweeney ad, the idea that genetics are central to who we are is increasingly becoming part of our culture again. It's ad campaigns, popular song lyrics and new genetic testing services.
There's also a resurgence of eugenic ideas in the scientific literature and in President Donald Trump's rhetoric. His communications director has even come out to defend the Sweeney ad from backlash. Click here if you'd like to read a story about Trump's talk about "bad genes," and if you want a backstory on the origins of the eugenics movement, listen to this podcast episode.
FRIEND-SHAPED?
Raccoons are not our friends
Some people find these masked bandits cute. Having battled with raccoons over garbage, I do not. And as a health reporter, I know they carry some significant human health risks. CDC's online journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, reported on one such risk for children this week, a rare disease called baylisascariasis, which results from the ingestion of roundworms that infected raccoons excrete in copious amounts in their feces. These roundworms can cause permanent neurological damage, and even death.
Two L.A. County children were diagnosed with the condition last September by a savvy doctor. One was a 14-year-old autistic child with a history of pica (an impulse to eat non-food items like soil), the other was a previously healthy 15-month-old. Once diagnosed, the children were treated with an anti-worm agent and corticosteroids. The older child recovered, but a three-month delay in diagnosing the younger child resulted in cognitive, motor, and visual impairments.
Given the ubiquity of raccoons in urban settings, doctors should consider baylisascariasis in young children and people with developmental disabilities if they show signs of progressive neurological deterioration or eosinophilic meningitis, the authors said. — Helen Branswell
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