Vaccine Safety, Efficacy & Contrasts

Scientists at Stanford Medicine have unveiled a bold new kind of “universal” vaccine that could one day protect against everything from COVID-19 and the flu to bacterial pneumonia and even common allergens. Instead of targeting a specific virus or bacterium, the nasal spray vaccine supercharges the lungs’ own immune defenses, keeping them on high alert for months. In mice, it slashed viral levels, prevented severe illness, and even blocked allergic reactions.

Anti-vaxxers claim Big Pharma profits immensely from vaccines. However, there will be greater profits treating vaccine-preventable diseases.

Science Changes. That’s the Point. A response to yesterday’s NYT op-ed on trusting science Happy New Year, everyone. This is our first Substack of 2026 — we are breaking the seal! I hope folks …

Aluminum salts have been used as adjuvants in vaccines for nearly a century, enhancing the immune response to purified antigens and ensuring durable protection against serious infectious diseases. Despite their longstanding record of safety and effectiveness, aluminum adjuvants have become a focus of public concern, with claims linking them to developmental, neurologic, allergic, and autoimmune diseases. This review summarizes the immunologic rationale for aluminum adjuvants and evaluates the evidence for proposed safety risks. Aluminum salts have consistently been demonstrated over nearly a century of use to enhance the immune responses elicited by vaccines while also being well-tolerated by nearly all who take them. Pharmacokinetic studies show that aluminum released from intramuscular vaccines is slowly absorbed and efficiently cleared by the kidneys, contributing minimally to systemic levels. Large-scale clinical and epidemiologic studies consistently demonstrate no association between aluminum-adjuvanted vaccines and autism spectrum disorder, neurotoxicity, allergic disease, or autoimmune disease. Clinically, vaccines adjuvanted solely with aluminum salts generally do not result in systemic reactogenicity, though local reactions are common. Collectively, the evidence strongly supports the safety of aluminum adjuvants and their necessity in certain vaccines. Clinicians can reassure caregivers that aluminum-containing vaccines provide clear benefits, with risks largely limited to transient local reactions and no systemic toxicity signal in large clinical and epidemiologic studies.

A new study from South Korea is being touted on social media as proof that COVID vaccines cause cancer. The people saying this either haven't read the paper ...

No rabies shot for you, Baxter.

Infection poses greatest threat during third trimester, according to study analyzing more than 18,000 births during pandemic peak

Children born to women who were infected with COVID-19 during their pregnancies are more prone to autism, Massachusetts General Hospital researchers reported.

Back in the real world...

The 511-study analysis is at odds with recent HHS recommendations

A groundbreaking study reveals that cancer patients who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy lived dramatically longer than those who didn’t. Researchers from the University of Florida and MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered that the vaccine’s immune-activating properties may boost cancer-fighting responses, acting like a nonspecific “flare” that reawakens the immune system.

Researchers found that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines significantly increased survival in lung and skin cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. The vaccine appears to prime the immune system in a powerful, nonspecific way, enhancing cancer treatment outcomes. If confirmed, the discovery could lead to a universal cancer vaccine and transform oncology care.

The CDC no longer broadly recommends the Covid-19 vaccine, but US residents will still be able to get one if they want.

lol

I’m not infertile, but I experience recurrent miscarriages. I worry about how many more I can take

COVID is tied to a greater prevalence of some neuro-ophthalmic complications than is influenza, but COVID vaccines are linked to a lower risk for posterior-segment complications, a new study shows.

COVID-19 mRNA vaccines induce robust humoral immune responses with differences in epitope recognition and antibody-mediated functional properties.

Data can easily be manipulated to show a causation that doesn’t exist.

Patients hospitalized with COVID-linked acute kidney injury are more likely to survive if they are vaccinated than if they are not, a recent study suggests.

Of all the jerks out there peddling anti-vaccine propaganda, the worst offender is Andrew Wakefield. He's been at it for almost 30 years, being the original ...

Ontario study

A CDC report finds that pregnant women with COVID-19 at delivery face a nearly 2X risk of stillbirth, and a 4X risk from the Delta variant.

In The Panic Virus, Mnookin interviews parents, public-health advocates, scientists, and anti-vaccine activists to task: How do we decide what the truth is?