Family nurse practitioner Carol Ramsubhag-Carela prepares a syringe with the Mpox vaccine before inoculating a patient at a vaccinations site on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Africa's public health body said Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023 it hopes Mpox vaccines will finally arrive on the continent "in another two weeks, tops" after months of seeking doses. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)
An 18-member panel has recommended that adults at risk of contracting mpox should be vaccinated as a precaution.
The Centers for Disease and Control still needs to decide whether or not the agency will accept the recommendation, but if it does, adults over the age of 18 would be advised to get vaccinated.
"The recent outbreak has highlighted again the risks that infectious diseases can present to our communities, the importance of a robust public health response at the state and local level, the value of engaged partners and communities in responding to public health threats and the impact that a vaccine can have in helping bring an outbreak under control," Dr. Melinda Wharton, the CDC associate director for vaccine policy, told CNN.
The vote comes after an mpox outbreak swept the U.S. in the summer of 2022 and popped up in other countries where no cases had been reported for decades.
The Jynneos mpox vaccine, which is a two-dose treatment, has an efficacy rate of 83 percent and was approved for emergency use in August when nearly 450 new cases were being reported daily. The highest reported cases were among sexually active gay and bisexual men.
While the amount of daily reported cases has dwindled drastically since the previous summer — down to just two per day — it is still higher than what the U.S. reported in recent years.
"We do not think that this outbreak is over, and that's very important to keep in mind," Dr. Agam Rao, medical officer in the CDC's Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, said.
2021 was an exciting year for space innovations, but 2022 could hold even more in store. Cheddar took a deep dive into the space mission on tap for the year ahead.
The United States purchased over 600,000 doses of a monoclonal antibody treatment from Glaxosmithkline and Vir Biotechnology, bringing the total worldwide doses purchased to 1.7 million. This comes as the country attempts to ramp up treatment options as cases of the omicron variant continue to surge. Dr. Asha Shah, Director of Infectious Diseases at Stamford Health joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
As the pandemic slammed the brakes on the nation's economy in 2020, America's greenhouse gas emissions reached their lowest levels in at least three decades. However, as the world, and the economy re-opened, 2021 told a much different story as emissions surged. Biden's flagship 'Build Back Better' act involves billions in spending on electric cars and renewables, in an effort to cut U.S. emissions, experts are still skeptical that the nation will meet the current 2030 target. Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, joins Cheddar News.
Amid the omicron surge, a new debate has emerged about whether or not throat swabs are more effective than nasal swabs for COVID testing. Dr. William Schaffner, MD, professor of infectious diseases, Vanderbilt Medical Center, sat down with Cheddar's News Wrap to weigh in on the dispute. "Should there be a change? You've got to do the studies, show that in the field [a throat swab] works as well or better than the nasal specimen," he said. "Let's not do it off our hips, as we say."
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is declaring a state of emergency after Monday's winter storm left hundreds of drivers stranded on the interstate for more than 24 hours.
The snow also knocked out power for many residents, with more than 100,000 outages remaining days later.
Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley national laboratory, discusses recent weather disasters.
As the need for COVID-19 testing increases, so does the price of the tests themselves. An agreement with The White House and several major companies to sell the tests at a lower cost has now expired, sending prices up as retailers struggle to keep kits on shelves. Dr. Thomas McGinn, executive VP of physician enterprise at Common Spirit Health, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
A new report shows 2021 saw a surge in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, indicating that the country remains far off track from meeting President Biden's climate change targets. Biden previously pledged to cut the nation's emissions in half by 2030, and now experts warn that immediate action must be taken in order to get the nation back on track. Zeke Hausfather, director of climate and energy at The Breakthrough Institute on U.S. Emissions and Global Temperatures, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Electric vehicles are quickly becoming an accessible way for consumers to slash emissions as legacy automakers begin to electrify their fleets and world leaders including President Joe Biden push for broad EV adoption. But consumers have concerns about EV range, the availability of charging stations, and more. What if it were both helpful to consumers — and feasible from a climate change standpoint — to keep hybrid models that run on gas on the market? Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute & Toyota Motor Corporation's Chief Scientist joins Cheddar Climate to discuss his team's research about 'carbon return on investment,' how Toyota is electrifying its fleet, and more.
According to a recent analysis compiled by The Washington Post, more than four in 10 Americans lived in areas hit by climate-related disasters in 2021. Jonathan Porter, Chief Meteorologist at AccuWeather, joined Cheddar Climate to discuss what this means and what can be done to prevent severe weather events from becoming even worse.
It's a painfully cold week across a large portion of the U.S. with more than 185 million Americans experiencing below-freezing temperatures on Monday and 10 million of them dealing with dangerous sub-zero temps.
