The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) is a series of epidemiological science periodicals published by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It appears to be under threat.
Read in full: https://www.statnews.com/2025/10/21/cdc-mmwr-alternative-new-report-anno...
'The MMWR has been published weekly since 1952 and has become part of the bedrock of public health; historically it’s been where details of new outbreaks and emerging diseases are first reported. But many public health practitioners’ trust in the publication has been shaken. In the earliest days of the Trump administration, new articles could not be published because of a communications pause, making it the first time in the journal’s history that it missed publishing a new edition. Weekly editions have been paused again during the government shutdown, and earlier this month, much of the team behind the journal was laid off before being reinstated hours later.'
'The New England Journal of Medicine and the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy will begin publishing “public health alerts” in the coming month'. The alerts “will basically serve to be a way to convey the information that once was shared in the MMWR with all of us in a very timely way.”
This action may well be necessary to meet information needs, which are currently on pause during the government shutdown (but which might be expected to resume). However, does it give the green light for policymakers to shut down MMWR? Also it is not clear whether the new service will be open access.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org