COVID-19 does affect the brains of babies before being born. New study says the virus killed some fetuses during pregnancy and altered development of surviving infants later in life.
news-cafe.eu/?go=news&n=13809
#covid #virus #vaccination #immunization #health #healthcare #science #medicine #research
#Immunization
and concerns about seizures and epilepsy are frequently cited by hesitant parents. Routine vaccines and their aluminum adjuvants are not linked to epilepsy Read the full article: www.jpeds.com/article/S002... #PublicHealth #VaccineSafety #Pediatrics #Epilepsy #Immunization
Discover how vaccines safeguard your child from Diphtheria, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, and Polio. Learn about immunity, safety, and why timing matters for health.
https://medium.com/@daffodil.ability/how-vaccines-protect-your-child-from-diphtheria-tetanus-hepatitis-b-polio-6a4cb439347b?postPublishedType=repub
Ideas Engine: What is The Geneva Learning Foundation’s insights mechanism?
It’s a cliché to claim that data is the “new oil”, a resource to be mined. We collect it from the field, refine it with experts, and utilize it for decision-making. However, we rarely ask what this extractive model does to the workers and communities that provide the raw materials. This is a summary of how and why we developed the Ideas Engine to collect and share insights.
The flow of data remains largely one-way. We ask local actors to report on vaccination coverage, disease outbreaks, or supply shortages. Yet, all too often, this valuable information travels up the chain without ever returning to the people who generated it in a way they can use.
What if the act of reporting was, in itself, an act of learning? What if the input mechanism was designed not just to feed a database, but to inform the practitioner? What if this recognized the significance of qualitative experiences that are usually dismissed as anecdotes?
This shift in perspective is the driving force behind The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Ideas Engine, first launched in July 2020 with a group of more than 600 practitioners who designed the COVID-19 Peer Hub with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
This mechanism is helping us move beyond the traditional survey model to create a system of reciprocal value. Every piece of data shared becomes a tool for empowerment, connection, and locally-led change.
Ideas Engine: moving beyond mining the frontline
Epidemiologists are trained to dismiss experience as anecdotal, to minimize bias, and to extract clean data. We treat the local actor as a sensor or a passive instrument to measure coverage or disease incidence. But a local actor is not a sensor. She is a professional with the capacity to think, act, and learn. And yet, data reported by local actors are treated with suspicion, generally assumed to be unreliable for multiple reasons.
When we treat a community volunteer or a district medical officer merely as a source of data, we do more than miss the context. We strip them of their agency. We reduce a thinking, adapting professional operating in a complex adaptive system to an anonymous row in a dataset.
This is an epistemic injustice. It assumes that knowledge resides in the center, with experts who analyze the data, while the periphery become an anonymous source or informant.
When we treat people and communities as data sources, we also fail to capture the tacit knowledge that explains the numbers. We miss the story of how a nurse in Kano negotiated with a community leader to allow vaccinators entry. We miss how a district officer in Bihar adapted cold chain logistics during a flood.
The Insights mechanism that led to developing the “Ideas Engine” is not a survey tool designed to extract information for the center. It is a pedagogical pattern designed to build power at the periphery. It supports local actors’ inherent capacity to learn from each other, while offering global actors a rare opportunity: the chance to listen, to act on what they hear, and to question governing assumptions that drive global strategies.
Our Insights mechanism is designed to capture this layer of reality. It operationalizes what learning theorists like Diana Laurillard describe as a conversational framework, but applies it outside classrooms and at a massive scale. Instead of a teacher-student dialogue, we facilitate a peer-to-peer dialogue across borders. This draws on George Siemens’s connectivism, where learning happens by connecting nodes of information across a network. We then add a critical layer of structure to ensure those connections lead to action. This embodies Cope and Kalantzis’s vision of active knowledge production, where the learner is not a consumer of content, but a creator of it. Last but not least, we draw on the insights from the work of Karen E. Watkins and Victoria Marsick to map the capacity for change or “learning culture” that set outer boundaries that local actors operate within.
This mechanism remixes these theoretical frameworks to life on the outer cusp of chaos. It operates in humanitarian emergencies, disasters, war zones, and extreme poverty, engaging tens of thousands of participants where traditional systems fracture.
Reciprocity as justice, not transaction
In traditional marketing, there is a concept called give-to-get. You give a free resource to get an email address. This is transactional. Our philosophy is different. We believe that giving back is a requirement of justice.
When a health worker in a conflict zone takes thirty minutes to share a story about overcoming vaccine hesitancy, they are performing unpaid labor for the global good. If we do not return that value to them rapidly and in a usable form, we are participating in the same extraction we claim to oppose.
Learn more: Why answer Teach to Reach Questions?
Our Insights mechanism is therefore built on a specific architecture of reciprocity. It cycles value back to the contributor at every stage of the process. This ensures that the mechanism serves the practitioner first, and the hierarchy is positioned in support of the practitioner. This distinct ethical framework is what allows us to maintain high levels of engagement and trust over time.
The architecture of the Ideas Engine: from reflection to action
The mechanism is a complex assembly of pedagogical scripts, technical workflows, and community engagement loops. It functions as the central operating system for our learning programs, feeding both the Teach to Reach events and the Impact Accelerator.
1. The input: reflections, not reporting
Standard data collection asks for statistics. How many children did you vaccinate? This triggers compliance. Our questions ask for narratives. Tell us about a time you faced a challenge. What did you do?
This phrasing is intentional. It forces the user to pause and reflect on their own practice. This is metacognition. It transforms them from a data subject into a knowledge producer.
2. The immediate return: collections of experiences
Our insights team reads every contribution. The team then does the grueling work of producing a collection of Shared Experiences. This is a compendium with hundreds and sometimes thousands of peer stories. It is filtered only to remove nonsensical or AI-generated content.
We strive to share this back with the community as quickly as possible. This validates tacit knowledge. It tells the health worker that their experience matters enough to be shared with the world rapidly. It is also that a health worker facing a cholera outbreak today is more likely to benefit if the latest experiences are shared when and where they are needed, not on a scholarly publishing calendar that may take months or years. (Our process includes peer feedback, and we posit it actually resolves some of the challenges being faced by academic publishing.)
3. The synthesis: thematic insights reports
While the raw collection is fast, we then use more conventional qualitative research techniques to produce thematic insights reports, also known as “eyewitness reports”. Each report distills dozens, hundreds, or thousands of contributions into short summaries of what we learned from them, on a specific topic or challenge. Written for the community, they identify patterns that no single individual could see on their own. These reports also turn out to be surprisingly relevant and useful for non-local actors.
4. The dialogue: dynamic event-driven knowledge translation
Knowledge in action is dynamic, by definition. The Ideas Engine is about turning knowledge into action. This is why we host Insights Live. These are rapid-fire livestreamed sessions where the data comes alive, with contributors, guides on the side, and anyone else interested joining to discuss how they are putting to use what we are learning together.
We invite the contributors themselves to take the floor as our guests of honor. A lot of what happens in these live session – who speaks, what we learn – we cannot and do not predict in advance. It is emergent. This is more akin to jazz improvisation, rather than the rigid classical music orchestration of presentation webinars. We invite global partners and funders to listen. This reverses the usual power dynamic. We then turn these livestreamed events into podcasts. This ensures that even those with low bandwidth or no time to watch a screen can access the learning.
5. The application: closing the loop
Knowledge is useless if it cannot be shared. This is why we provide tools for dissemination. For example, we prepare short slide decks that contributors can use to present insights to their colleagues and teams.
Crucially, this includes a feedback facility. We track not just who downloaded the deck, but who presented it and what their colleagues said. This allows us to measure the ripple effect of the insight, including actual use and, in some cases, how the use of an insight led to changes in practice and tangible improvements in outcomes.
Does the Ideas Engine actually make a difference?
Does this actually work? Is it better than a survey? The data suggests yes.
In an independent analysis by the University of South Australia’s Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, researchers examined our Ideas Engine. This was a core component of this mechanism during the COVID-19 Peer Hub. The report revealed the scale of engagement that this proprietary method generates.
- Scholars contributed 1,103 ideas and 3,061 comments. This is an average of 2.77 comments per idea.
- 80.2% of participants reported using the Ideas Engine.
- Of those who used it, 92.9% reported finding ideas that were useful for their work.
- Perhaps most importantly, the analysis of citations showed that two-thirds of the citations in action plans were to ideas from peers working at different levels of the health system.
This proves that the mechanism does not just collect data. It successfully bridges the gap between knowledge and action by connecting practitioners across hierarchies.
Photo: The Geneva Learning Foundation Collection © 2020
This article was updated on 6 January 2026 to reflect what we have learned since 2020.
#BillCope #connectivism #continuousLearning #DianaLaurillard #immunization #KarenEWatkins #knowledgeManagement #MaryKalantzis #peerLearning #TheGenevaLearningFoundation #VictoriaMarsick
"...OLYMPIA – On January 5, 2026, the Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed a decision memorandum to revise the Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule and significantly reduce the number of vaccinations routinely recommended for all U.S. children. This decision did not follow established procedure for vaccine policy recommendations and threatens an increase in vaccine-preventable diseases in children nationwide. Children getting sick from the diseases prevented by recommended immunizations leads to missed school for children, missed work for parents, and even hospitalization and death in some children.
The current American Academy of Pediatrics Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule is based on established vaccine safety and effectiveness evidence. AAP recommendations consider:..."
2/x
The West Coast Health Alliance continues to recommend vaccination in alignment with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule
Cape Town R User Group: applied infectious disease modeling and DTPBoost to support DTP booster decisions
They also discuss DTPBoost, an R-based tool developed with partners including CDC and AFENET to support DTP booster vaccination strategy decisions
The #Trump admin plans to shift the federal govt away from directly recommending most #vaccines for #children & suggest they receive fewer shots to more closely align with Denmark’s #immunization model…. [but they’re totes cool with dictating what #women & #trans folk can do medically].
#PublicHealth #science #medicine #law #Trump #RFKJr #eugenics #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #HealthInsurance
From #WHO: "Message by the Director of the Department of #Immunization, #Vaccines and Biologicals at WHO - November/December 2025"
#CDC approves major child #vaccine change, rejects controversial one
The CDC formally approved a major change to the childhood #immunization schedule by dropping the long-standing recommendation for all newborns to get a #hepatitisB vaccine.
#PublicHealth #HealthCare #science #medicine #Trump #RFKJr #ConspiracyTheories #disinformation #law #policy #regulations #insurance #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #SocialCleansing #eugenics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/12/16/hepatitis-b-vaccine-birth-cdc-recommendation/
#Parents in the #USA: the #CDC is no longer a reliable source for #health information, particularly regarding #vaccines and #vaccination. This has been documented elsewhere.
The #WHO is more reliable, although conservative.
WHO recommendations for routine #immunization - summary tables: https://www.who.int/teams/immunization-vaccines-and-biologicals/policies/who-recommendations-for-routine-immunization---summary-tables
Detailed immunization schedule for #children (table 2) as a pdf: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/immunization/tables/immunization-routine-table2.pdf
The Advisory Committee on #Immunization Practices [#ACIP] approved the change despite fierce objections from #medical groups who said the recommendation had proved a successful #PublicHealth strategy, nearly eradicating the dangerous #virus among #US #children.
#PublicHealth #HealthCare #science #medicine #vaccines #Trump #RFKJr #AntiVax #ACIP #ConspiracyTheories #disinformation #law #policy #regulations #insurance #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #SocialCleansing #eugenics
https://apnews.com/article/vaccines-babies-hepatitis-b-10f8db54beb38c5cd39a94f8a3657752?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=2025-12-05-Breaking+News
Illinois has passed a groundbreaking law allowing the state to set its own vaccine guidelines and coverage policies, independent of federal recommendations. Signed by Gov. Pritzker as the CDC faces politicization and controversial decisions—like tightening COVID vaccine eligibility and debates over hepatitis B shots—Illinois aims to shield residents from misinformation and political interference. The law empowers Illinois’ public health department to rely on its own expert panel instead of CDC advice, challenging federal authority over immunizations. Will this move lead to more state-led vaccine policies or deepen divisions in public health? More here: https://wapo.st/4rSWB7x #Vaccines #PublicHealth #StateSovereignty #COVID19 #Immunization #Politics #HealthPolicy
#KirkMilhoan, a pediatric cardiologist & critic of #COVID #vaccination who recently took over as chair of the influential vaccine panel, said members meeting Thursday & Friday are broadly scrutinizing #vaccines recommended for #children. The wide-ranging discussions on the timing of vaccines & ingredients could signal major changes to how children in the #US are vaccinated [& paid for], marking the latest flash point in an accelerating reshaping of #immunization policy under #RFKJr.
Federal #vaccine advisers selected by “Health” Secy #RFKJr are planning to vote on ending the practice of vaccinating all newborns for #hepatitisB & to examine whether shots on the #childhood #immunization schedule are behind the rise of allergies & autoimmune disorders [they’re not], the newly appointed chair of the group told WaPo.
#PublicHealth #science #medicine #Trump #disinformation #law #policy #insurance #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #SocialCleansing #eugenics
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/12/02/acip-hepatitis-b-childhood-immunization-schedule/
Africa: Measles Deaths Down 88% Since 2000, but Cases Surge: [WHO] Global immunization efforts have led to an 88% drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2024, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly 59 million lives have been saved by the measles vaccine since 2000. http://newsfeed.facilit8.network/TPWL5m #Measles #Vaccination #GlobalHealth #Immunization #WHO
Dr. #RalphAbraham’s views on many issues align with those of “Health” Secy #RFKJr. He has endorsed avoiding #Tylenol in pregnancy except “when absolutely necessary” because of a debunked link to #autism. He has also backed ending routine #immunization for #hepatitisB at birth & removing from #vaccines ingredients like aluminum salts, which are added to enhance the immune response.
#PublicHealth #Health #science #medicine #policy #law #Trump #ConspiracyTheories #disinformation #eugenics #USpol
Public opinion is important, I guess, but I wouldn't want to pit scientific consensus against it.
"What do you care what other people think?"
—Richard Feynman
CIDRAP Minnesota: Surveys find strong confidence in childhood vaccines but deepening partisan divides; most adults reject COVID shot
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/surveys-find-strong-confidence-childhood-vaccines-deepening-partisan-divides-most-adults
Did you know that mRNA vaccines aren't just effective, but also offer a different level of protection? Stay informed about the latest vaccine updates and prioritize your health!
Watch at https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/3a214b71e1bd27c85f5f1aa703d14f15/health-matters-now-s1-e6-revolutionizing-vaccines-with-mrna-magic
#mRNAvaccines #immunization
A state historically leading in matters of public health falls off the rails.
"Minnesota has seen one of the nation’s sharpest drops in measles herd immunity among kindergartners, falling well below the threshold needed to prevent outbreaks. A rise in nonmedical exemptions, especially at private schools, is one factor behind the decline. …
"In the hopes of establishing an early warning system for outbreaks, the Minnesota Department of Health is starting to report measles detected in sewer samples, similar to the public health technique that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Minnesota now has one of the nation’s lowest kindergarten measles vaccination rates
https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-now-has-one-of-the-nations-lowest-kindergarten-measles-vaccination-rates/601471694?utm_source=gift
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