Science

The Texas Tribune reports: The number of measles cases has risen to 400, a spike of 73 cases over the last three days, as the historical outbreak continues to rage on in West Texas, according to state officials on Friday. Of those, 41 patients have been hospitalized. State officials have been releasing updated measles numbers every Tuesday and Friday. The …

CBS News reports: The entire staff of the federal government’s Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off, multiple federal health officials told CBS News Friday. The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions. Much of the …

Nature reports: The massive changes in US research brought about by the new administration of President Donald Trump are causing many scientists in the country to rethink their lives and careers. More than 1,200 scientists who responded to a Nature poll — three-quarters of the total respondents — are considering leaving the United States following the disruptions prompted by Trump. …

Nature reports: The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have begun cancelling billions of dollars in funding on research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has killed more than 7 million people globally, including more than 1.2 million people in the United States, and continues to infect …

The Washington Post reports: A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current and former federal health officials. The Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to conduct the …

CBS News reports: President Trump has decided to pick Dr. Susan Monarez to be the new nominee to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sources familiar with the decision tell CBS News, making permanent the acting role she has served at the public health agency in recent months. Monarez would be named in place of Dr. David Weldon, …

The Texas Tribune reports: The number of measles cases has risen to 309 as the historical outbreak continues to rage on in West Texas and three new counties report infections, according to state officials on Friday. Of those, 40 patients are hospitalized. As of Friday, most of the measles cases –– 211 –– were centered in Gaines County, about 90 …

Space.com reports: SpaceX is poised to land its Crew Dragon Freedom from the International Space Station with the two crewmates who launched on it and two astronauts who arrived at the space station last June on Boeing’s Starliner, which landed uncrewed without them. SpaceX’s Crew-9 is scheduled to splash down on Tuesday (March 18) at about 5:57 p.m. EDT (2157 …

Health News reports: National Institutes of Health officials have urged scientists to remove all references to mRNA vaccine technology from their grant applications, two researchers said, in a move that signaled the agency might abandon a promising field of medical research. The mRNA technology is under study at the NIH for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, including flu and …

NPR reports: Four astronauts are scheduled to make a trip to the International Space Station later this evening. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers will launch to the station aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. Also on board is Takuya Onishi, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov. This is the second attempt to …

MedPage reports: Measles outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico are now up to nearly 300 cases, and two unvaccinated people have died from measles-related causes. Texas state health officials said Friday there were 36 new cases of measles since Tuesday, bringing Texas’ total to 259. Five more people were hospitalized, for a total of 34. The outbreak has spread …

The Guardian reports: Johns Hopkins University announced it was planning to cut more than 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration slashed $800m in grants to the renowned academic institution. The funding for the positions had come from USAID, which the administration has gutted with massive cuts. A total of 247 domestic US workers and another 1,975 positions abroad in 44 …

USA Today reports: For the first time in years, a total lunar eclipse will dazzle American spectators tonight, complete with a view of the resulting glowing red “blood moon.” Beginning late Thursday, March 13 into the early hours of Friday, March 14, the Earth will pass between the sun and moon, resulting in the phenomena that will be viewable in …

The Associate Press reports: A launch pad problem prompted SpaceX to delay a flight to the International Space Station to replace NASA’s two stuck astronauts. Concerns over a critical hydraulic system arose less than four hours before the Falcon rocket’s planned evening liftoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. As the countdown clocks ticked down, engineers evaluated the hydraulics used to …

CBS News reports: The White House is withdrawing former Florida Rep. Dave Weldon’s nomination to be the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a White House official confirmed Thursday. The reason is not yet clear. Weldon, a vaccine critic, was set to appear before the Senate’s health committee on Thursday for his confirmation hearing. He is a physician …

The Los Angeles Times reports: Scientists are sounding alarms about a genetic mutation that was recently identified in four dairy cow herds, nearly one year after H5N1 bird flu was first reported in Texas dairy cattle. The change is one that researchers have dreaded finding because it is associated with increased mammal-to-mammal transmission and disease severity. “That is the mutation …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration is canceling studies about ways to improve vaccine trust and access, a move that comes in the midst of a large measles outbreak fueled by unvaccinated children. Researchers with grants from the National Institutes of Health to study why some people have questions or fears about vaccines and how to help those who …

Lubbock’s ABC affiliate reports: its latest update, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) said there were 223 cases of measles across the South Plains. Twenty-nine patients were hospitalized, according to DSHS. According to DSHS, 80 of the cases did not have a measles vaccine, and 138 had an “unknown status.” Vaccine details for 11 cases were still pending. …

NBC News reports: Since the World Health Organization characterized Covid as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, scientists don’t fully understand why some people develop disabling chronic conditions after the initial viral infection. The U.S. may be coming through the first post-pandemic winter without a major surge in cases, but each infection carries a risk of developing long Covid. Some …

The Texas Tribune reports: The number of measles cases has risen to 198 as the historical outbreak continues to rage on in West Texas, according to state officials on Friday. Of those, 23 patients are hospitalized. As of Friday, most of the measles cases – 137 – were centered in Gaines County, about 400 miles west of Dallas on the …