Tag Archives: vaccinations

A new high in hospitalizations

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

This is fine. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported Monday a pandemic high 11,351 hospitalizations from COVID-19. This surpasses the previous all-time high of 10,893, which occurred on July 22. The record comes in the midst of a … Continue reading →

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Next in line for the vaccine

Posted on December 26, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Attention will shift to more vulnerable populations. Texans who are 65 years old and older, and those who are at least 16 with certain chronic medical conditions will be next in line for the COVID-19 vaccine, the Texas Department of … Continue reading →

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Another poll about the COVID vaccine

Posted on December 20, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

A little better. Texans now appear a little more likely to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus than a few months ago, according to a new survey. The survey, conducted by the Episcopal Health Foundation, found 63 percent of people … Continue reading →

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We still need more than the vaccines

Posted on December 19, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The vaccines are great, don’t get me wrong, and they couldn’t have come at a better time, but they’re going to take awhile to be administered, and in the meantime a whole lot of people are still getting sick and … Continue reading →

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More people in Houston than you think have had COVID

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

About one in seven, which is an awful lot. Nearly 1 in 7 Houstonians have been infected with the coronavirus, city officials announced Monday, the infection’s true prevalence according to a study of antibodies in blood samples taken from people … Continue reading →

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Can we get enough people vaccinated?

Posted on December 16, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

It’s going to take a lot of work. In poll after poll, alarming numbers say they don’t plan to be inoculated with the vaccine, whose 95 percent efficacy rate in trials exceeded everyone’s expectations. It’s scientists’ nightmare: create one of … Continue reading →

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Here comes the vaccine

Posted on December 15, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Houston’s first doses have arrived. Months of waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in Houston are almost — but not quite — over, as hospitals prepare to move the first doses from sealed subzero shipments and into the arms … Continue reading →

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The vaccine distribution challenge

Posted on November 24, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Having a vaccine for COVID-19 is wonderful. Being able to make it available to everyone who needs it is a big challenge. With cases spiking to over 10 million, the virus is everywhere, and spreading deeply into every corner of … Continue reading →

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Prevention > treatment

Posted on November 21, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I mean, more treatments for COVID is a good thing, but you know what’s better? Not getting COVID in the first place. Maybe we can try doing better on that? Gov. Greg Abbott traveled to Lubbock on Thursday to tout … Continue reading →

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Our vaccination rates are down, too

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

I wish I had a snappy intro for this, but I just don’t. The summer months are typically the busiest of the year in Dr. Kenya Parks’ office, a steady flow of parents trotting in their little ones to receive … Continue reading →

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Anti-vaxxers gonna anti-vaxx

Posted on June 8, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

Every step of the way, they are an obstacle to public health. The Texas group that lobbies against vaccine mandates is now launching a campaign against COVID-19 contact tracing, the public health measure used for decades around the world to … Continue reading →

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Perspective on the anti-vaxx situation

Posted on July 18, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Maybe it’s not as bad as we think. It’s certainly true that pockets of vaccine refusal persist in this country, as they have for many years. If those pockets are now experiencing greater numbers of measles cases, it may be … Continue reading →

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Bankrolling the anti-vaxxers

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is why we can’t have nice things. A wealthy Manhattan couple has emerged as significant financiers of the anti-vaccine movement, contributing more than $3 million in recent years to groups that stoke fears about immunizations online and at live … Continue reading →

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See ya, Stickland

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Good riddance. State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, a firebrand conservative Republican from Bedford and one of the most vocal members of the Texas House, announced Monday he will not run for reelection in 2020. Stickland, first elected to represent House District … Continue reading →

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Our vaccine exception rates keep going up

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

A small change to the law in 2003 has had a big effect over time. As measles cases hit a 25-year high in the United States, Texas medical experts fear the state could see the next outbreak of a vaccine-preventable … Continue reading →

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Our measles risk

Posted on May 26, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Do I spend too much time worrying about stuff like this, or do I not spend enough time on it? Harris County is one of the nation’s most vulnerable counties to a measles outbreak, according to a new study based … Continue reading →

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Measles, schmeasles

Posted on May 7, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Eh, no biggie. With U.S. measles cases this year reaching historic levels since being practically eradicated nearly 20 years ago, a host of bills targeting vaccination policies in Texas don’t appear to be gaining traction in the Legislature. The U.S. … Continue reading →

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There’s only one solution to the anti-vax crisis

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

They have to be beaten at the ballot box. There’s no other way. On the South steps of the Texas Capitol, state Rep. Briscoe Cain prayed that the children standing beside him would not be mocked for their parents’ decision … Continue reading →

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The anti-vaxxers keep on coming

Posted on March 23, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Eternal vigilance, and some more problematic legislators getting booted out of office, are required. Among the new Texas proposals is an “informed consent” bill filed by state Representative Bill Zedler, an outspoken anti-vaccine member of the House Public Health Committee. Zedler drew national … Continue reading →

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Can we turn the anti-vax tide in the Lege this session?

Posted on March 4, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

It sure would be nice, and this needs to be the primary goal. In Texas, children are required to have certain sets of vaccinations before they can be enrolled in public school – including the vaccine for measles. But parents … Continue reading →

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Measles comes back to Houston

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

We all vaccinated our kids, right? Five cases of measles have been confirmed in the greater Houston area, a regional cluster that makes Texas the eleventh state this year to report the highly contagious disease until recently thought virtually eliminated … Continue reading →

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Ebola treatment progress

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

This is encouraging. Texas scientists who developed an effective vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus are now reporting promising results with new medication to better treat full-blown cases of the disease. In a laboratory study published this week, researchers at … Continue reading →

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Where the anti-vaxxers are

Posted on June 30, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

A lot of them are right here. Four Texas cities, including Houston, rank among the 15 metropolitan “hotspots” of vaccine exemptions, more than any other state, according to a new study. The study found Austin, Fort Worth and Plano also … Continue reading →

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The anti-vaxxers had another good legislative session

Posted on June 26, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Sure would be nice if we could put a stop to this. It was mid-April, more than halfway through the legislative session, and Texans for Vaccine Choice was finally getting the fight it had been spoiling for. On April 11, … Continue reading →

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Bill to allow discrimination in adoptions and foster care passes the House

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Shameful. Under House Bill 3859, which advanced on a 94-51 vote, providers would be protected from legal retaliation if they assert their “sincerely held religious beliefs” while caring for abused and neglected children. The measure would allow them to place … Continue reading →

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Making vaccination information public

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

I support this. While most parents in Texas vaccinate their children, the number of parents opting out of immunizations for non-medical reasons is on the rise. Since Texas changed its laws to allow parents to opt out citing a conscientious … Continue reading →

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Still talking vaccines and measles

Posted on February 26, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Because it keeps needing to be talked about. Earlier this month, Dr. Peter J. Hotez, a pediatrician at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, detailed a disturbing prediction for 2017 in … Continue reading →

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Trump and the anti-vaxxers

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

In case you needed another reason to dislike Donald Trump. President Trump’s embrace of discredited theories linking vaccines to autism has energized the anti-vaccine movement. Once fringe, the movement is becoming more popular, raising doubts about basic childhood health care among politically … Continue reading →

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Plague vaccines

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Cool. More than six centuries after the Black Death wiped out more than a third of the population of Europe, a University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston team has shown that in experiments with rodents, their three vaccines effectively … Continue reading →

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The coming measles outbreak

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I hope we’re wrong about this. Peter Hotez used to worry mostly about vaccines for children in far-away places. An infectious diseases researcher at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, Hotez is developing shots against diseases in poorer countries … Continue reading →

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We’re going to be fighting about vaccinations for a while

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

I wish it weren’t so, but it is. Texas is one of 18 states that allow non-medical exemptions to the vaccines required for school attendance. California had a similar law allowing non-medical exemptions, until last year when it enacted a law that … Continue reading →

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Too many kids are not getting vaccinated

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

We let this happen, thanks to the fervor of a vocal minority. The number of Texans who exempt their children from vaccination for non-medical reasons rose nearly 9 percent last school year, continuing a now 12-year-long trend that public health … Continue reading →

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Anti-vaxxers gain ground in Texas

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

There’s a lesson in here that we need to learn. On a Friday night little over a year ago, a Texas mother of three was attending a school dance when she got a text message that stopped her cold. A … Continue reading →

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Fighting pertussis

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Sure hope these folks can make a lot of progress in their work. Of the more than 30,000 children hospitalized with pertussis in the United States each year, 10 to 20 will die. Worldwide, pertussis infects more than 16 million … Continue reading →

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