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25 stories from Planck Standard. Latest: September 19, 2026.
The outbreak, centered in Lancaster County's Amish and Mennonite communities, is the worst in the country since 1991. Health Secretary Debra Bogen says the CDC's refusal to acknowledge the deaths 'undermines our response.'
Pennsylvania has logged 676 cases across 37 counties, and fewer than 1% of the patients were fully vaccinated. Nationally, the U.S. has passed 3,000 cases in its worst measles year since 1991.
Updated vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer and Sanofi target the XFG variant behind roughly 40% of U.S. cases. Who has to pay for them is the part nobody can answer.
A Minneapolis grower recalled its five-ounce containers after federal health officials tied a rare double outbreak to a single farm. Illnesses began May 31.
The state health department reported nine confirmed Vibrio vulnificus infections in 2026, all requiring hospitalization, against a ten-year average of seven cases and one death per year.
Dr. Erica Schwartz, a retired Navy rear admiral and former deputy surgeon general, takes over an agency that has gone nearly a year without a Senate-confirmed leader since Susan Monarez was forced out 29 days into the job.
The CDC says 36 people have been hospitalized in a Salmonella Javiana outbreak traced to peppers imported from Mexico. Colorado and Minnesota each have at least 110 cases.
The 2026 total has already passed last year's, and 93% of the infections are in people who were never vaccinated. Officials expect the country to lose its measles elimination status this year.
Federal health officials say shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico is the likely source of a parasite outbreak that has hospitalized 94 people, even after one lab test came back a false positive.
Cases of cyclosporiasis, an intestinal illness that causes explosive, weeks-long diarrhea, have already blown past the entire 2025 total, with Michigan hit hardest and no contaminated food yet identified.
The largest cyclospora outbreak in Michigan history has driven the U.S. total past 1,000 confirmed cases, with roughly 40 hospitalizations and investigations underway in 28 other states.
Enhanced health screenings target passengers from Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Uganda amid ongoing outbreak concerns.
CDC announces plans to block legal permanent residents who traveled to Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan citing limited screening capabilities.
The CDC said Stafford and five other high-risk American contacts have been evacuated to Germany, with a sixth in the Czech Republic, after the WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
Three deaths and 27 active outbreaks, with Idaho and Montana now showing sustained transmission for more than 12 months — the WHO's threshold for revoking elimination.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declined to commit to supporting CDC Director Erica Schwartz on vaccine policy while denying responsibility for ongoing measles outbreak.
Lawmakers confronted Kennedy with documented CDC messaging rollbacks as the U.S. faces losing its measles elimination status for the first time since 2000.
A retired rear admiral with an MD, JD, and MPH who served as deputy surgeon general and Coast Guard chief medical officer, Schwartz is the first nominee with mainstream support from public health groups.
Erica Schwartz nomination comes as health agency faces multiple leadership shakeups under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President nominates Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director while the agency faces leadership upheaval under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s controversial tenure.
With 71 confirmed American human cases since 2024 and the virus spreading through dairy herds across the country, researchers are sounding alarms about the most serious pandemic threat since COVID-19.
Health secretary's changes to advisory committee structure could allow vaccine skeptics to gain influence over national immunization policy.
Internal research demonstrating vaccine effectiveness remains unpublished despite completion as administration officials intervene.
A new MMWR study identified 233 deaths and 538 hospitalizations linked to kratom in 2025 alone, driven by concentrated 7-hydroxymitragynine products that bind opioid receptors 13 times more powerfully than morphine.
Health Secretary's vaccine skepticism poses challenges for Trump administration as top health jobs remain unfilled and court blocks policy changes.