Heating Up:

• A warehouse fire in LA is still burning, causing extremely poor air quality in large parts of the area. (NBC)
  
  
• So far, heat seems to be the biggest health issue at the World Cup. (ABC)
  
  
• An unexpected health risk related to big heat waves? Drowning deaths, as people swim in unsupervised locations to escape the heat. (Washington Post)
  
  
• Misinformation about sunscreen is disproportionately more likely to go viral on TikTok than accurate info. (PLOS) 

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Health News:

• Clover Hill expanded their Listeria recall to include all cheese products on the market. (FDA)
  
  
• Ebola cases in DRC rose nearly 40% last week, with over 200 total deaths and 1000+ cases. (AP, Bloomberg)
  
  
• Over 200+ troops have gotten the flu at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after the DOD stopped requiring annual flu vaccines. (NY Times, San Antonio Express)
  
  
• A CDC report found 402 foodborne disease outbreaks caused by marine toxins (mostly scombroid and ciguatoxin in fish) from 2011-2023, resulting in 1,280 illnesses and one death. (MMWR)
  
  
• Australia reported its first H5N1 bird flu case in a seabird, meaning the virus has now spread to every continent. (BBC)
  
  
• It’s been a full year since Utah’s measles outbreak started, with over 680 people sick across multiple cities and nearly every county in the state. (AP)
  
  
• An FDA panel recommended Moderna’s new mRNA flu shot for older adults, but it still needs FDA approval and a nod from the CDC’s ACIP advisory panel, which has been blocked from meeting by a judge. (NBC)
  
  
• Some good news: Hantavirus quarantine ended for all 18 Americans who were aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship. No U.S. cases were associated with the outbreak. (NY Times)
  
  

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Best Question:

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Will mRNA flu shots be available this fall?   

If you’re 50 or older, it’s possible that you’ll be eligible to get a new mRNA flu vaccine from Moderna as early as this fall, depending on what happens this month with FDA and CDC approval. This is the same vaccine that the FDA first refused to even review, until reversing course after pushback. 

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This week, an FDA advisory panel voted to recommend Moderna’s new vaccine for adults 50 and older, but there are still two major hurdles before it’s actually available for Americans. It needs to be formally approved by the FDA and then it generally must also be formally recommended by the CDC’s advisory committee, the ACIP, which has been temporarily blocked from meeting by a court order. It remains to be seen whether an ACIP recommendation will still be required given these unusual circumstances. 

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The new vaccine may be particularly advantageous in years when there’s a mismatch between the strains included in the standard flu vaccine (usually a group of 3 strains decided in the winter or early spring), and the actual strains that end up circulating during the flu season. Reformulating a standard flu shot can take many months with egg- and cell-culture based technologies, but mRNA tech allows manufacturers to make quick changes to address new mutations in the flu virus that’s going around. Experts say mRNA technology could cut the time in half or even a third, from six months down to two or three.

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We’ll be keeping an eye on this over the next month or two, and we’re happy to answer more questions about it if these become a viable option for this fall.  

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Sources: Medpage Today, NBC

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Best Read:

After the pandemic, the government is spending $150 million on new technology to ensure cleaner indoor air. This article focuses on healthcare, daycares, and schools but we see a clear argument that investing in these technologies could provide a strong ROI for businesses - from reducing outbreaks to increasing employee productivity. 

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Buildings May Soon Have ‘Immune Systems’ That Fight Airborne Disease - The New York Times (Gift Article)