Originally launched to track major pandemic outbreaks in the US and around the world, Brown University School of Public Health’s Pandemic Tracker now helps with a wide range of public health efforts. Led by Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center and professor of epidemiology at SPH, the tracker helps public and policy makers stay on top of disease outbreaks during a time of economic strain and political polarization.

Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown, provides commentary on measles vaccination and travel concerns.

For the first time since the COVID vaccines became available in pharmacies in 2021, the average person in the U.S. can’t count on getting a free annual shot against a disease that has been the main or a contributing cause of death for more than 1.2 million people around the country, including nearly 12,000 to date this year. “COVID’s not done with us,” says Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University. “We have to keep using the tools that we have. It’s not like we get to forget about COVID.”

The federal government announced Wednesday that it is canceling a contract to develop a vaccine to protect people against flu viruses that could cause pandemics, including the bird flu virus that's been spreading among dairy cows in the U.S., citing concerns about the safety of the mRNA technology being used. Ashish Jha and Jennifer Nuzzo comment.

With the United States facing its largest single measles outbreak in 25 years, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will direct federal health agencies to explore potential new treatments for the disease, including vitamins, according to an H.H.S. spokesman. The decision is the latest in a series of actions by the nation’s top health official that experts fear will undermine public confidence in vaccines as an essential public health tool.