Upcoming Webinar:

Are Workplaces Ready for Outbreaks in Times of Distrust?

Wednesday, October 8 | 2:00 PM ET (11:00 AM PT)

Managing workplace outbreaks isn’t what it used to be. Lower vaccine coverage and shifting trust have changed the playbook, and employers need new ways to keep employees and guests safe while avoiding business interruptions. 

Hear from Roslyn Stone, MPH and CEO of Zero Hour Health in conversation with Dr. Art Liang, longtime CDC leader, and Courtney Halbrook, Director of Environmental Health & Safety at TopGolf, as they discuss what outbreak response looks like in today’s atmosphere of doubt.  

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Register today!

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Vaccine Mayhem:

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• Vermont and D.C. are the latest states to take action to ensure COVID vaccine access. (CIDRAP)
  
  
• The President told parents not to follow the CDC-recommended vaccine schedule for their children in a White House autism event Monday. (STAT)
  
  
• HHS shared more information about “individual” and “shared clinical” decision making and what they mean for vaccine choices after Friday’s ACIP meeting. (HHS)

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Health News:

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• New World Screwworm was confirmed in a cow just 70 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. (CIDRAP)
  
  
• A 5th person has died in Louisiana this year from flesh-eating Vibrio infection. (CBS)
  
  
• 12 more brands of ground cinnamon have been recalled due to lead risk. (FDA)
  
  
• Pregnant women should not use cannabis due to evidence of the risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and other neurological or behavioral issues, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists announced this week. (NY Times)
  
  
• Meanwhile, President Trump announced with top health officials on Monday that the FDA is "strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary,” contradicting medical evidence. (ABC)

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• The FDA is revisiting rules for direct-to-consumer TV drug ads. (WSJ)
  
  
• A second death was reported in Iowa’s Legionnaires' outbreak that’s likely linked to cooling towers. (KCCI)
  
  
• Measles cases are up 31x in the Americas this year compared to last. (CIDRAP)
  
  
• Rwanda’s Marburg virus outbreak last year was traced to a person exposed to fruit bats at a mining site. (NEJM)

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Best Questions:

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Is Tylenol safe? Should we stop allowing employees to use it from our first aid kit? 

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Most businesses (and nearly all restaurants) have a stash of basic painkillers available for employees to use if they need it. But with all the news about Tylenol, the most well-known brand name for acetaminophen, we’ve gotten a lot of questions this week about whether it’s safe. 

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First, let’s be clear: this controversy that’s been all over the media this week is only about pregnant women and a possible, but unproven, link to autism. 

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So what’s the evidence? There were multiple early studies that showed a possible link between women who took Tylenol during pregnancy from legitimate sources - Harvard, Yale, etc. These showed a link but didn’t necessarily prove that Tylenol caused autism. Then, last year, a big Swedish study was published that looked at autism between siblings from the same families to help cut through all the noise of confounding factors - and there was no link found anymore. 

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Does that mean Tylenol is totally safe in pregnancy? Not necessarily. It just means that a lot more research is needed before we can confidently say one way or the other. 

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And in the meantime, there are some real downsides. There is some evidence that fevers during pregnancy are linked to autism, and Tylenol is one of the only fever-reducers considered safe to take during pregnancy. It’s also the primary pain relief option for most pregnant women; taking it away leaves them with almost no over-the-counter options. 

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All that said, Tylenol really isn’t a super safe drug. In fact, Dr. Jeremy Faust of Inside Medicine calls it “probably the single most dangerous over-the-counter medication on the market.” Millions of Americans use it safely, but there are thousands of people every year who develop liver damage and hundreds of people who die from overdoses of this everyday drug - including some unintentional ones. 

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In practice, we don’t think this means you should toss your Tylenol bottle from the office drawer just yet. But you may want to keep an eye on it, or keep it in smaller quantities that you refill more often, rather than making a large dose available. It’s smart to be a bit more careful with Tylenol, just not for the reasons making the news. 

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Sources: Inside Medicine, JAMA, NIH, ABC, YLE

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When is the best time to get COVID and flu shots this year?

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COVID shots just got downgraded from “recommended” to (and we’re paraphrasing here) “talk to your pharmacist or doctor to make your own choice,” but all signs indicate that they’ll still be covered for basically anyone 6 months and up who wants them, with the possible exception of pregnant women. 

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Despite our own headline on Friday, there actually are still 6 states where those under 65 will need a prescription to get a COVID shot: Utah, Nevada, West Virginia, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida. In the other 44 states, you don’t need a prescription to get a vaccine. That’s leaving a lot of people wondering when they should get their fall vaccines. 

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Get your flu shot by Halloween.
For flu, you can get it starting just about now, any time through Halloween, but no later than that. There’s some benefit to waiting a few weeks until you get the flu shot, since you want coverage to last through the season. If you find yourself at the pharmacy or doctor’s office, you can get it any time starting now. If you want to maximize for the best possible coverage, you can wait until October, but be sure to get it within that month. 

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Get your COVID shot now, before a big event, or in early November. 

For COVID shots, you may choose to get it right now. Even though COVID is showing signs of peaking, the back-end of a peak still means a lot of people will test positive over the next few weeks. If you have a big event or trip planned that you can’t miss, consider getting your shot sooner rather than later. Otherwise, you may wait until around early November to get your COVID shot, to maximize protection around the holidays and early January, when cases have tended to peak. All of that only applies if you’re the kind of person who will actually go to the pharmacy twice to squeeze the most immunity out of your doses - if you’re short on time, you can always get your COVID shot when you get your flu shot. 

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All of this only applies as long as you haven’t recently had COVID. In that case, wait 4-6 months from your most recent infection before you get an updated shot, since you’re well protected during that time. 

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Check with your pharmacy to cut through the noise. 

We’re hearing that COVID shots are still a bit hard to find in some of the states that haven’t yet taken action to ensure access, but that they’re much easier to find this week than they were earlier this month. There’s no problem with flu access this year. We’re hoping that this will become even smoother over the next few weeks so that everyone who chooses to get a vaccine can have one. 

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Sources: YLE, CBS

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Best Read:

We loved this interview with Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel prize winner and inventor of CRISPR technology, on the next frontier in medical innovation…

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Ideas Session | Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Prize Winner | The Atlantic Festival 2025

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