US has reclosed its southern border after a flesh-eating parasite is seen further north in Mexico
Mexico's president was critical Thursday, suggesting that the U.S. is exaggerating the threat to its beef industry from the parasite, the New World screwworm fly. The female flies lay eggs in wounds on warm-blooded animals, hatching larvae that are unusual among flies for feeding on live flesh and fluids instead of dead material.
American officials worry that if the fly reaches Texas, its flesh-eating maggots could cause large economic losses, something that happened decades ago. The U.S. largely eradicated the pest in the 1970s by breeding and releasing sterile male flies to breed with wild females, and the fly had been contained in Panama for years until it was discovered in southern Mexico late last year.
The U.S. closed its southern border in May to imports of live cattle, horses and bison but announced June 30 that it would allow three ports of entry to reopen this month and another two by Sept. 15. However, since then, an infestation from the fly has been reported 185 miles (298 kilometers) northeast of Mexico City, about 160 miles (258 kilometers) further north than previously reported cases. That was about 370 miles (595 kilometers) from the Texas border.
'The United States has promised to be vigilant,' U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement Wednesday announcing the border closing. 'Thanks to the aggressive monitoring by USDA staff in the U.S. and in Mexico, we have been able to take quick and decisive action to respond to the spread of this deadly pest.'
In Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum said authorities there were following all established protocols to deal with the northernmost case. Mexican authorities said the country has 392 infected animals, down nearly 19% since June 24.
'From our point of view, they took a totally exaggerated decision to closing the border again,' Sheinbaum said. 'Everything that scientifically should be done is being done.'
Three weeks ago, Rollins announced plans for combating the parasite that include spending nearly $30 million on new sites for breeding and dispersing sterile male flies. Once released in the wild, those males would mate with females, causing them to lay eggs that won't hatch so that the fly population would die out.
The USDA hopes a new fly factory will be operating in southern Mexico by July 2026 to supplement fly breeding at an existing complex in Panama. The agency also plans to open a site in southern Texas for holding sterile flies imported from Panama, so they can be released along the border if necessary.
Also Thursday, U.S. Reps. Tony Gonzalez, of Texas, and Kat McCammack, of Florida, urged the Trump administration to quickly approve the use of existing anti-parasite treatments for New World screwworm fly infestations in livestock. They said labeling requirements currently prevent it.
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The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Monday briefing: The ‘toxic cocktail' of climate denial, federal cuts and the Texas floods
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The floods struck as the climate crisis worsens, and as the Trump administration's hollowing out of federal agencies has left critical services such as the National Weather Service under severe strain. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is also facing continued threats of defunding. Yet, despite the scale of devastation, there has been little public reckoning over climate breakdown or the erosion of essential public services. Instead, conspiracy theories have abounded. To understand how this catastrophe unfolded and the political response to it, I spoke to Oliver Milman, the Guardian US environment reporter. That's after the headlines. Israel-Gaza | An Israeli airstrike has killed at least 10 people, including six children, who were waiting to collect water in Gaza, Palestinian health officials have said. Dozens of others were killed in Gaza over the weekend in a separate strike that hit a home and a shooting near a food aid distribution site. Health | Health officials have urged people to come forward for the measles vaccine if they are not up to date with their shots after a child at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool died from the disease. UK news | Charlotte Church, veteran peace campaigners, Trade unionists, activists and politicians, are among hundreds who have signed a letter describing the move to ban the group Palestine Action as 'a major assault on our freedoms'. Spain | Several people were hurt in a second night of anti-migrant unrest in the town of Torre Pacheco in south-east Spain after a pensioner was beaten up, authorities said. NHS | Health secretory Wes Streeting will meet representatives from the British Medical Association this week as he looks to avert five days of strikes by resident doctors. The devastating floods began in the early hours of 4 July, Independence Day in the US. 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'You've got more moisture in the atmosphere, and more energy because it's getting hotter, and therefore you're getting more of these extreme precipitation events happening in several places around the world, including parts of the eastern US. But the western half of the US seems to be getting more drought,' Oliver said. 'So, very crudely speaking, half the country's not getting enough rain, and the other half is getting too much in these intense downpours.' He pointed to some interesting statistics from the Environment Protection Agency: of the 10 heaviest precipitation single-day events in US history going back to 1910, nine have happened since 1995. 'We're clearly getting more and more of these events. There's been research done showing they're becoming more common in Texas and will continue to as the world heats up,' Oliver added. The geography of central Texas also made the floods more catastrophic. 'It's hilly and has these canyons, lots of rivers, and not much topsoil. So when rain hits, it flies off the ground very quickly. It's known as 'Flash Flood Alley' in some places, so that was a factor. The rain hit, and the devastation followed.' What impact have Donald Trump's cuts had? The other factor, which Oliver likened to a toxic cocktail, is the political situation in the US. 'The Trump administration has essentially tried to gut the federal workforce: firing scientists, firing weather forecasters, trying to eliminate large sections of the scientific agencies that deal with climate change. So you had a situation where a lot of National Weather Service offices, which track storms and issue warnings, were critically understaffed,' Oliver explained. Democrats have called for an investigation into whether the sweeping cuts introduced by the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), once led by Elon Musk, played any role in the disaster. The Trump administration has dismissed any suggestion that its policies had an impact. 'The Trump administration has pushed back quite hard and said this was an act of God, there were adequate resources, and so on,' Oliver said. Yet, understaffing was an issue and there was a disconnect between the meteorologists issuing warnings and the emergency services, he said. 'The National Weather Service issued a warning about dangerous flood conditions at 1.14am [on 4 July], but there wasn't – and it's still unclear why – coordination with emergency services to evacuate people, to mobilise resources in enough time. A lot of people are pointing fingers at the cuts Trump has made to the coordination services usually handled by the federal government.' And it's not just Trump that people are focusing on. The week before the floods, Texas senator Ted Cruz, ensured that the 'big, beautiful bill', a Republican spending bill pushed through and signed by Trump on Independence Day, would include particular cuts. 'It does a lot of things: cuts the social safety net, people lose health care, gives tax breaks to the wealthy, removes food assistance, guts support for clean energy,' Oliver said. 'But one thing it also did was remove a $150m fund to improve weather forecasting at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Cruz personally inserted the language to cut that and then, tragically, just days later this storm hit his home state and killed many people. So there are a lot of questions being asked about his role and whether those cuts played a significant role.' Republicans have largely fallen into line on the Texas floods, lavishing praise on Trump, while avoiding questions around the effect of Doge. Has this moved the dial on the climate emergency? In Texas, the reaction on the ground has been one of disbelief and devastation, Oliver said. 'There's a lot of 'thoughts and prayers' rhetoric in Texas right now, a sense of rallying to help those in need. 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'They have questioned the cause [of the flood], whether it's weather modification, cloud seeding, some nefarious machine. There's this irony: we are modifying the weather – it's called climate change. But it's not the kind of weather modification they're talking about.' Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Oliver isn't surprised by this reaction. 'People are now able to live in their own realities, sealed off from facts,' he said. 'Whatever people believed before the storm, the storm just reinforced it. That's become a recurring theme, not just in disasters but in politics more broadly. People are very entrenched here. I know that's also an issue in the UK and Europe, but in the US things feel paralysed. I don't know if this will move anyone's opinion.' 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The Guardian
21 hours ago
- The Guardian
DoJ drops charges against Utah doctor accused of destroying Covid vaccines
The US Department of Justice dropped charges on Saturday against Michael Kirk Moore, the Utah doctor accused of destroying more than $28,000 worth of government-provided Covid-19 vaccines and administering saline to children instead of the shot. Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, announced the news in a statement on the social media platform X, saying the charges had been dismissed under her direction. 'Dr Moore gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so,' Bondi said. 'He did not deserve the years in prison he was facing.' According to a 2023 press release from the US attorney's office in Utah, Moore distributed at least 1,937 fraudulent vaccination record cards in exchange for either direct payment or required donations to a specific charity. The minors he gave saline shots to were under the impression, at the request of their parents, that they were receiving a Covid-19 shot. Moore ran the operations from a plastic surgery center in Midvale, Utah, and was charged, along with three other co-defendants, with conspiracy to defraud the United States. Far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene thanked Bondi in a statement on X and called Moore a 'hero who refused to inject his patients with a government-mandated unsafe vaccine'. The Utah senator Mike Lee also weighed in, saying on X that he was glad Moore could remain a free man and that countless Americans endured lies and lockdowns during the pandemic. Moore was indicted by the justice department in 2023. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, which also included conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property, and the conversion, sale, conveyance, and disposal of government property. The fake vaccination records were sold under Moore's scheme for $50 each, and operations allegedly ran between May 2021 and September 2022. Attorneys for Moore argued that the regulations set at the time by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were unconstitutional. The charges against Moore were brought in when Biden was president, but Covid-19 conspiracists and skeptics have been embraced in the new administration under Trump. Recently, the Trump administration canceled a $766m award to Moderna on the research and development of H5N1 bird flu vaccines, and officials announced new restrictions and regulations for Covid mRNA vaccines. The US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has for decades baselessly sowed doubt about vaccine safety, contrary to scientific research, thanked Moore in a statement on X back in April. 'Dr Moore deserves a medal for his courage and his commitment to healing,' Kennedy Jr said.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
‘Tremendous uncertainty' for cancer research as US officials target mRNA vaccines
As US regulators restrict Covid mRNA vaccines and as independent vaccine advisers re-examine the shots, scientists fear that an unlikely target could be next: cancer research. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines have shown promise in treating and preventing cancers that have often been difficult to address, such as pancreatic cancer, brain tumors and others. But groundbreaking research could stall as federal and state officials target mRNA shots, including ending federal funding for bird flu mRNA vaccines, restricting who may receive existing mRNA vaccines and, in some places, proposing laws against the vaccines. The Trump administration has also implemented unprecedented cuts to cancer research, among other research cuts and widespread layoffs at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). At least 16 grants involving the word 'mRNA' have been terminated or frozen, according to the crowdsourced project Grant Watch, and scientists have been told to remove mentions of mRNA vaccines from their research applications, KFF Health News reported in March. Researchers fear that therapeutic cancer vaccines will get 'swept up in that tidal wave' against mRNA vaccines, Aaron Sasson, chief of surgical oncology at Stony Brook University, said in April. When it comes to mRNA breakthroughs, 'the next couple of years are the most critical', Elias Sayour, a professor for pediatric oncology research at the University of Florida, said. 'If the progress we've made to date – which has been prodigious – if that is just stopped or stymied, it can absolutely affect the trajectory and the arc,' he said. The uncertainty around mRNA specifically, and research broadly, could also discourage researchers and institutions from beginning new projects, he said. 'If we continue to seize on these gains in the next 10, 20 years, I do see a scenario where we've completely transformed how we take care of a large swath of human disease,' he said. Research on mRNA cancer vaccines has been under way for more than a decade, with more than 120 clinical trials on treating and preventing cancers. mRNA shots have shown promise for preventing the return of head and neck cancer; lymphoma; breast cancer, which accounts for 11.6% of all cancer deaths in the US; colorectal cancer; lung cancer; and kidney cancer, among others. Pancreatic cancer has a 10% survival rate and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the US, but in a small study, about half of the patients who received an mRNA vaccine did not see their cancer return, and they still had strong immune responses three years later. Early mRNA vaccine trials also indicated the recurrence of melanoma could be cut in half. And a small study co-authored by Sayour on glioblastoma showed the vaccines started affecting the tumors within 48 hours. Like any vaccine, mRNA cancer vaccines train the body to recognize and destroy harmful cells. Unlike foreign pathogens, such as infectious diseases, cancer is caused by the growth of the patient's own cells. Some cancer vaccines are highly personalized, using a patient's own cancer cells to treat their tumors or train their immune system to kill off those dangerous cells if they recur. 'The ability to create specific vaccines for patients has tremendous, tremendous promise, but that was technology not possible five or 10 years ago,' said Sasson. 'It really is a shift in the paradigm of how we treat cancers.' Researchers are also investigating vaccines that would target cancer cells more broadly by identifying 'fingerprints' of certain cancers, said Sayour. Additionally, the vaccines could be created for other conditions, such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, he said. 'It has potential to get rid of a lot of the chronic morbidity we see from disease, to cure diseases that are degenerative, to overcome cancer evolution and cure patients,' Sayour said. 'mRNA could be the healthcare that the movable-type printing press was for human knowledge.' Yet federal and state decision-makers have targeted mRNA vaccines in recent months. Vinay Prasad, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reportedly overrode scientists at the agency to limit some Covid vaccines, including a new mRNA shot from Moderna, to children older than 12. Prasad also introduced similar limitations on the Covid shot from Novavax, which does not use mRNA. On Thursday, the FDA approved the original Covid mRNA vaccine from Moderna for children between the ages of six months and 11 years – but they narrowed its use to children with at least one underlying condition. (The vaccine for people older than 12 was approved in 2022.) Prasad argued, in two memos recently released by the FDA, that the risks of Covid had dropped, while 'known and unknown' side-effects could outweigh the benefits of getting vaccinated. Covid remains a leading cause of death in the US, with 178 deaths in the week ending 7 June, the last week for which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers complete data. At the meeting of the CDC's advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) in June, two of the new vaccine advisers – appointed by the health and human services (HHS) secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, after he fired the previous 17 advisers – broached the safety of Covid mRNA vaccines, indicating future scrutiny of these shots. Vicky Pebsworth, a registered nurse who has volunteered for years with the National Vaccine Information Center, said she was 'very concerned' about side-effects from the Covid mRNA shots and asked for more data on safety, including 'reproductive toxicity'. Shortly before being appointed to the ACIP, Pebsworth and the founder of the National Vaccine Information Center argued that the FDA should not recommend mRNA Covid-19 shots for anyone 'until adequate scientific evidence demonstrates safety and effectiveness for both the healthy and those who are elderly or chronically ill'. At the June ACIP meeting, Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, said he believed mRNA side-effects were 'being reported at rates that are far exceeding other vaccines even when you normalize to the number of doses, which does suggest something, I think'. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Previously, Levi argued: 'The evidence is mounting and indisputable that mRNA vaccines cause serious harm including death, especially among young people. We have to stop giving them immediately!' Another new ACIP adviser, Robert Malone, has also repeatedly argued against mRNA vaccines. In 2021, Kennedy, then chair of the anti-vaccine organization Children's Health Defense, petitioned the FDA to revoke all approvals, and ban future approvals, of all Covid vaccines. He has called Covid shots the 'deadliest vaccine ever made'. In May, Kennedy changed Covid vaccine recommendations from 'should' to 'may' for children, and eliminated the recommendation for pregnant women entirely. Also in May, the US canceled $766m in contracts for research on mRNA vaccines against H5N1 bird flu. Investment in the mRNA vaccine was not 'scientifically or ethically justifiable', Andrew Nixon, the HHS communications director, said in statements to the media, adding that the 'mRNA technology remains under-tested'. Millions of mRNA vaccines have been given around the world, and the vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in multiple studies. Bans or limitations on mRNA vaccinations have been introduced in seven states. One such bill in Idaho sought to pause 'gene therapy immunizations' for 10 years – a category in which they incorrectly place Covid vaccines, and which could affect other therapeutics. Similarly, in Washington state, commissioners in Franklin county passed a resolution urging the local health facility to stop providing and promoting gene-therapy vaccines; they also incorrectly included Covid mRNA shots in this category. 'There's this scorched-earth mentality now, but I'm hopeful that once the dust settles, we'll be able to reinstate or allow vaccine work for cancer purposes to proceed,' Sasson said. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US, and two in five people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in their lifetime. There are currently only two FDA-approved vaccines that prevent cancer – hepatitis B and human papillomavirus (HPV) – and both have been targeted by anti-vaccine activists. In January, Trump hosted the launch of Stargate AI at the White House. The project could eventually identify cancers and develop mRNA vaccines in days, Larry Ellison, the chair of the tech company Oracle who is involved with the project, said at the launch. The project will be funded by private, not federal, dollars, but the work on cancer would draw upon research on cancer and mRNA, among other fields. Yet the Trump administration has slashed other critical funding for cancer research, prevention and treatment. The administration canceled more than $180m in grants through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the first three months of its term, and proposed cutting $2.7bn from the cancer center in the next NIH budget. The administration has cut back funding for some family planning providers, which frequently offer screenings for HPV and other cancer markers. Lawmakers have also made enormous cuts to Medicaid and insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which could mean uninsured and underinsured people wait longer for cancer treatment – or forgo it entirely. 'There's the potential for great harm, for massive public health issues to be set aside during this really broad approach of canceling research,' said Sasson. 'There's significant harm that's going to happen by these sweeping changes.' For scientists who still have funding or those who are entering the field, 'there's tremendous uncertainty as to what the future will look like', Sasson said. But he is optimistic that mRNA vaccines for cancer and other illnesses will be able to move forward. Scientists are often portrayed as 'just trying to survive' funding cuts, but that's not entirely accurate, said Sayour, before adding: 'I don't think many people in my field do this because they're just trying to survive. I would want nothing more, honest to God, than to put myself out of business. We do this because we want to make a difference.' Sayour echoed concerns about both indirect and direct forces shaping progress on mRNA vaccines. 'But I also want to be optimistic that our best days are ahead of us,' he said.
