BOSTON and MINNEAPOLIS, December 17, 2025—NEJM Evidence and the University of
Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), today launched Public
Health Alerts, a new series published in NEJM Evidence and on CIDRAP’s site. Public Health Alerts
deliver information and early warnings about emerging health threats, enabling swift, informed
responses across the U.S. and globally.
The first Public Health Alerts “Influenza Virus Characteristics in Department of Defense
Populations, 2024 – 2025” and “Detection of Community Transmission of Clade Ib Mpox Virus in
the United States” are now live and freely available to readers. Read more about this effort in a brief
editorial.
The mpox report provides details of an investigation of clade Ib cases among unvaccinated
individuals in the Los Angeles area.
The flu article looks at circulating influenza virus characteristics and vaccine effectiveness data
from 1,341 influenza viruses collected from service members and their beneficiaries, U.S. civilians,
and some foreign national populations between August 2024 and February 2025. The results
support the World Health Organization’s 2025-26 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccine strain
selections.
“Access to emerging public health data saves lives,” said infectious disease doctor, Eric J. Rubin,
MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of the New England Journal of Medicine and NEJM Group, publisher of
NEJM Evidence. “By providing this new, rigorous pathway for public health information, NEJM
Group is delivering on its commitment to equip physicians with reliable information to support
evidence-based care.”
Public Health Alerts are concise, data-driven dispatches that provide U.S. state and local health
departments, clinicians, researchers, and the public with early insight into disease outbreaks and
other urgent health events. The new collaboration between NEJM Evidence and CIDRAP fills a gap
in reliable data, offering expert-reviewed reports that translate frontline observations into
actionable public health evidence.
“Rapid, credible communication has always been essential to an effective public health
response,” CIDRAP Director Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, said. “With this new collaboration, we
hope to restore and strengthen that early-warning function, providing timely, evidence-based alerts
that can help local and state health leaders act quickly to protect the health of people in their
communities.”
Public Health Alerts, published in NEJM Evidence, are freely available at
https://evidence.nejm.org/browse/evidence-article-type/public-health-alerts, nejm.org/outbreaks
and www.cidrap.umn.edu/public-health-alerts. State and local public health officials have been
briefed and are encouraged to for consideration.
“Public health decisions are only as sound as the evidence available at the moment they are
made,” said Chana A. Sacks, MD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief of NEJM Evidence. “When a new outbreak
or evidence emerges, Public Health Alerts provide critical data that frontline clinicians and public
health leaders need to adjust their responses.”
ABOUT INFORMATION
About NEJM Evidence
NEJM Evidence, a monthly journal from NEJM Group, publisher of the New England Journal of
Medicine, presents innovative original research and fresh, bold ideas in clinical trial design and
clinical decision-making. NEJM Evidence expands the corpus of published research with a focus
on providing more context and critical evaluation of the methods and results to support clinical
decision-making and does so in a way that respects the time and commitment of the practitioner.
Additional information is available at https://evidence.nejm.org.
About CIDRAP
CIDRAP is a global leader in addressing public health preparedness and response to emerging
infectious diseases. It works to prevent illness and death from targeted infectious disease threats
through research and the translation of scientific information into real-world, practical
applications, policies, and solutions. One of the ways it does that is by making current information
widely available to educate and inform healthcare providers, public health professionals, business
leaders, students, opinion leaders, policymakers, media, and others across the nation and around
the world.
Journal
NEJM Evidence