Hello and welcome to the Osterholm Update, a podcast on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases with Dr. Michael Osterholm.

Dr. Ostrome is an internationally recognized medical detective and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, or CIDRAP, at the University of Minnesota. In this podcast, Dr. O. Strom

draws on nearly 50 years of experience investigating infectious disease outbreaks to provide

straight talk on the latest infectious disease and public health threats. I'm Chris Dahl,

reporter for CidWap News, and I'm your host for these conversations.

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Osterarm Update podcast.

As the U.S. continues to wrestle with the measles outbreak in Texas and rising cases

in multiple states,

a new national tracking poll indicates that myths and false claims about the measles' mumps Rubella vaccine are making their way into the mainstream and causing confusion for the public.

And while a large majority of those polled said they're confident that the MMR vaccine is safe,

at least half of respondents said they didn't

know whether the false claims, some of which have been promoted by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, are true or false.

Now, surveys are just a snapshot in time of public opinion, but the findings are noteworthy because 2025 is on track to be the worst year for measles in the U.S. in more than two decades.

And they raise the possibility that we could start to see a further erosion in MMR vaccination rates in this country if myths about the safety of the vaccine persist.

The ongoing measles outbreak and the threat of declining vaccination rates are among the topics we'll be covering on this May 1st episode of the Ostroma update.

We'll also continue our examination of the potential impacts from the latest round of federal health agency, job, and funding cuts,

provide an update on the status of the Novavax COVID vaccine, bring you the latest on COVID in H5N1, answer an ID query about

the Trump administration's new COVID website, and tell you about Sidrap's new vaccine

integrity project.

We'll also bring you the latest installment of this week in public health history.

But before we get started, as always, we'll begin with Dr.

Ostrome's opening comments and dedication.

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