Welcome to Wellness on Mass. I'm Dr. Nicole Sapphire, and this is your weekly rundown.

We're going to talk about something that is creating a lot of confusion right now, and frankly,

it really shouldn't be this complicated, vaccines. I know, we've talked about it before,

but it just keeps coming up over and over in the news cycle. A federal judge has now blocked

RFK Jr's attempt to overhaul the childhood vaccine. A federal judge has now blocked RFK Jr.'s attempt to overhaul

the childhood vaccine schedule that was put forth by the CDC, not because of the science,

but because of how it was done. The court is saying the process didn't follow the rules. So for now,

we're reverting back to the prior CDC recommendations, the one before President Trump came to the White House and before

RFK Jr. was secretary of HHS. Here's the problem. The public doesn't necessarily follow the

legal nuance. They follow headlines. And what people are hearing is something's changed,

something got reversed, maybe something isn't safe. That kind of mixed messaging

erodes trust, and we are seeing the consequences happen in real time. We are already dealing with

declining vaccination rates in certain communities. And now we're seeing measles cases rise again.

Yes, all the kids who are getting measles right now, that's not a direct reflection of RFK Jr.

changing anything on the vaccine schedule in the last year. The reality is vaccination rates have

been declining since 2019. Yes, before COVID. But I can tell you right now, they're certainly

not getting any better. They're getting worse. And the messaging is mixed and confusing.

This isn't just the U.S.

issue. We're seeing a rise in measles in Mexico, Canada, throughout North America,

and we're also hearing about reports in the U.K. that there are meningitis causes increases.

Menigitis is another communicable disease, bacterial meningitis specifically, that we in the United States

recommend that adolescents get the vaccine for as they congregate in college dorm rooms, because

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