Vaccine News & Notes — March 2024

Popular vaccine website for the public redesigned

Immunize.org is a prominent vaccine organization focused on supporting healthcare providers and working to decrease barriers to immunizations. One of the ways they approach the latter goal is by educating the public through a variety of resources and mechanisms, including the VaccineInformation.org website, which was recently redesigned and updated to include new information.

VaccineInformation.org includes sections related to vaccine basics, the diseases prevented by vaccines, and information sorted by age (infants & children, preteens, teens and adults). Each of the age-based sections include not only information about which vaccines might be needed but also resources, personal testimonies and videos.

The redesigned site now also includes information about COVID-19, mpox, RSV and dengue vaccines.

Check out the updated site today!

Dr. Offit discusses why we are seeing measles outbreaks in new video

“Why are we seeing measles outbreaks?” is a short video in which Dr. Offit discusses recent cases of measles throughout the U.S. In the video, Dr. Offit describes the history of measles vaccine and school requirements related to receipt of the vaccine. He also describes how contagious measles is and why we are seeing outbreaks despite previous elimination of measles from the U.S., ending with this plea:

“Medicine is hard enough. There's a lot of things we don't know. There's a lot of things we can't do. This we know. Measles can cause children to suffer or be hospitalized and die, and it's a preventable disease. And there is no reason not to prevent it. It's a safe and effective vaccine, and we need to make sure that our children are immunized.”

Find out more:

• Watch the video or read the transcript.
• Find more measles-related information and resources in our news article.

Looking for a book to read?

If you enjoy reading biographies, medical narratives or other nonfiction books, you might enjoy Breaking Through: My Life in Science by Katalin Karikó. Dr. Karikó won the Nobel Prize for her work with messenger RNA (mRNA), which allowed for quick progress in the development of COVID-19 vaccines. In her autobiography, Dr. Karikó describes her childhood, career training and scientific research evaluating the potential to use mRNA for the treatment or prevention of disease.

Find out more about the book in this recent Vaccine Education Center article.