A new series for the rapid communication of important public health data
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.