Decades of scientific evidence haven’t found a link between autism and vaccines, but that doesn’t appear to stop the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from reportedly planning to study the issue.

The Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) upcoming Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting on March 13 was abruptly canceled via email on Wednesday. The committee was to consider the selection of strains to be included in the influenza virus vaccines for the 2025–2026 flu season. This is the second vaccine-related advisory meeting canceled since Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. took over at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The first measles death has been reported in West Texas amid the outbreak that has infected more than 100 people, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday morning.

Melissa Whitfield, a spokesperson for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, confirmed the death to AP. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday appeared to downplay the seriousness of the West Texas measles outbreak that has killed a school-age child.

The child’s death, the first from the disease in a decade in the United States, was confirmed by Katherine Wells, director of public health at the health department in Lubbock, Texas. The child had not been vaccinated against the measles.

Montana’s state legislature will vote on a bill to ban mRNA vaccines, the latest indication of soaring vaccine hesitancy on the political right in the US following the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a vaccine skeptic — to lead the nation’s health and medical science agencies as part of the new Trump administration.

With the Thursday confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the spotlight is on the new secretary’s plans to "Make America Healthy Again."

"The future of public health is about to change forever," Kennedy’s team wrote in an email announcing his confirmation. "This is a turning point for our nation. With RFK Jr. at the helm, the battle for accountability and real health reform is just getting started."

The ascension of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Health and Human Services secretary gives the longtime activist against vaccines broad control over federal health policy, including the government's stance on vaccines.

Despite Kennedy's assurances during confirmation hearings that he is not "anti-vaccine," his questioning of settled science on the overall safety of vaccines and his unwillingness to declare vaccines safe and effective in those hearings worries many doctors and people...

The U.S. government has awarded $176 million to Moderna (MRNA.O), opens new tab to advance development of its bird flu vaccine, the company said on Tuesday, as concerns rise over a multi-state outbreak of H5N1 virus in dairy cows and infections of three dairy workers since March.

Shares of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company rose more than 2% to $118.32 in early trade.

Here’s the latest news about a global outbreak of H5N1 bird flu that started in 2020, and recently spread among cattle in U.S. states and marine mammals across the world, which has health officials closely monitoring it and experts concerned the virus could mutate and eventually spread to humans, where it has proven rare but deadly.

Pharmaceutical giants Moderna and Merck announced promising results from a clinical trial testing a combined treatment of an mRNA vaccine and immunotherapy for skin cancer. Melanoma patients who received monthly mRNA vaccines and Merck’s Keytruda immunotherapy had lower chances of cancer recurrence and spread, as well as higher survival rates, than those who received Keytruda alone.