During a media call today, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra declared a Public Health Emergency (PHE) regarding the ongoing monkeypox virus (MPXV) outbreak in the USA.
As of August 3, 2022, the U.S. CDC reported forty-eight states and territories had confirmed 6,617 MPXV patients since late May 2022.
"We're prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility to help us tackle this virus," commented Sec. Becerra reported Politico on August 4, 2022.

The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) today published an update regarding the identification of a case of polio in a Rockland County resident on July 21, 2022.
Since then, NYSDOH launched wastewater surveillance, among other detection efforts, to check for signs of poliovirus. 
Following analysis from the Centers for U.S. Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the poliovirus was detected in samples from June 2022 in Rockland County. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues evolving, so is access to innovative monoclonal antibody (mAbs) treatments.
On July 27, 2022, the U.S. HHS and Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) announced they partnered with AstraZeneca to establish an additional pathway for providers to access the COVID-19 mAbs combination known as Evusheld for use with eligible patients.

Massachusetts General Hospital’s mobile COVID-19 vaccination van quadrupled its initial annual goal by providing more than 8,000 vaccinations within vulnerable communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This innovative vaccination service focused on Chelsea, Revere, and Everett near Boston, MA, and was made possible by a $1 million donation from the CVS Health Foundation in partnership with the Kraft Center for Community Health and Mass General’s Center for Community Health Improvement.

The WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus today transmitted the Report of the second meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country outbreak of the monkeypox virus (MPXV).
The Director-General declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) based on various inputs. 
He stated today that not determining a PHEIC would not mean “business as usual.”

The U.S. CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., announced her endorsement of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendation that Novavax's COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted, become available as a primary two-dose series option for most adults.
Novavax's protein-based COVID-19 vaccine will be available in the USA soon. To date, the U.S. government has agreed to order 3.2 million doses of the Novavax vaccine under these existing agreements.

The largest sustained decline in childhood vaccinations in approximately 30 years has been recorded in official data published today by WHO and UNICEF.
The percentage of children who received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP), a common marker for immunization coverage, declined by 5% between 2019 and 2021 to a low of 81%.
As a result, 25 million children missed out on one or more doses of DTP through routine immunization services in 2021 alone. 

According to research published this week in the Journal of Virology, coinfection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A viruses changes neither the trajectory nor the severity of influenza A infections, regardless of timing. 
But should a person contract the influenza A virus first, the response to that infection can significantly suppress the SARS-CoV-2 impact.

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced yesterday that it launched a phase 1 clinical study evaluating an investigational messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine to prevent infection with the Nipah virus. 
The mRNA-1215 vaccine candidate is manufactured by Moderna, Inc. and was developed in collaboration with NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center. 
mRNA-1215  will be tested in a dose-escalation clinical trial to evaluate its safety, tolerability, and ability to generate an immune response in 40 healthy adults in Maryland.

As a new wave of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variants dominates Europe, with increasing rates of hospital admissions, health agencies are endorsing a new round of COVID-19 vaccinations.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended today that second booster doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines be considered for people between 60 and 79 years old.
And for people with medical conditions putting them at high risk of severe disease.