The NB.1.8.1 COVID-19 variant was linked to a large surge of hospitalizations in parts of Asia earlier this year.

World-renowned infectious-disease epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff — who was fired from Harvard Medical School last year after refusing the COVID vaccine — just got a new gig. Kulldorff has been named a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices.

A former Harvard Medical School professor who claims he was fired for refusing to receive the Covid-19 vaccine was appointed on Wednesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory panel for immunization policy.

Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday he's naming eight new advisers to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine recommendations committee, after firing the committee's entire previous roster of 17 advisers.

Offit, who sits on the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), made the comments after criticizing Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for instructing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant women and children.

NB.1.8.1 — a new COVID-19 variant tied to a surge in China — now accounts for around 37% of cases in the U.S., according to variant proportion estimates from the CDC. Four notes:

The CDC says Taiwan's COVID-19 outbreak may have peaked and could wind down by late July as the number of medical visits starts to slow.

Since the first Covid-19 vaccines were authorized in December 2020, more than 672 million doses have been administered in the United States. For years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has broadly recommended up-to-date vaccination,