Latest news with #anti-vaccine
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
The Trump administration is making viruses great again
Do you enjoy getting sick from preventable diseases? Do you have a hankering to make once-declining viruses great again? If so, why not pop over to the US where the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and his anti-vaccine cronies are making a valiant effort to overturn decades of progress in modern medicine? Let's start with measles cases, which are at their highest rate in 33 years in the US. The blame for this doesn't rest entirely with the Trump administration, of course, but officials certainly don't seem too bothered by it all. RFK Jr has downplayed the number of deaths that have occurred from measles and complained about all the headlines they're generating. Like the rest of his peers in the Trump administration, RFK Jr seems to have absolutely no idea what he is doing, and appears to be just making things up as he goes along. Indeed, the health secretary memorably told Congress in mid-May that he doesn't really think people should be taking medical advice from him. He seems to have forgotten that statement the moment the words left his mouth, however. Not even a couple of weeks later Kennedy announced that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would stop recommending Covid-19 booster shots for healthy children and pregnant women. This was a highly unusual move, as the health secretary doesn't normally make unilateral changes to vaccine recommendations like this. While Kennedy seems to govern by vibes, actual medical experts, who rely on things like evidence and data, are deeply alarmed by the removal of the shots from officials' recommended immunization schedule. '[D]espite the change in recommendations from [health and human services], the science has not changed,' the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said in a statement. 'It is very clear that Covid-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families.' Kennedy's decision is now facing legal opposition. In the same week that the US reached its dark measles milestone, a number of leading medical associations sued the Trump administration. 'This administration is an existential threat to vaccination in America, and those in charge are only just getting started,' said the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a statement. Restoring trust in public health agencies and vaccines, especially among pregnant women, will take far more than a lawsuit. Two new surveys, published as a research letter in Jama Network Open, have found that only 35% to 40% of US pregnant women and parents of young children say they intend to fully vaccinate their child. To reiterate: we are now at a place where a majority of pregnant women and parents don't plan to accept all recommended kids' vaccines. 'Given the high decisional uncertainty during pregnancy about vaccinating children after birth, there may be value in intervening during pregnancy to proactively support families with childhood vaccination decisions,' the researchers wrote. Unfortunately, under this administration, that's a lot easier said than done. The president is throwing a fit over backlash to his administration's sudden U-turn on the 'Epstein Files'. On Wednesday he accused his voters of being gullible 'weaklings' who had fallen for the 'Jeffrey Epstein Hoax' which, according to him, is a 'SCAM' cooked up by the 'Lunatic Left' to discredit him. (If it's all a hoax, why is Ghislaine Maxwell in prison, eh?) Then, on Thursday, Status News reported that Trump had called the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal to try to block its story on Trump's relationship with the disgraced financier. No matter how many insults he flings around or threats he makes, Trump can't bury the bigger Epstein story. Instead people are more invested in finding out who Epstein's associates were than ever before and polls show most Americans believe the government is concealing information. Trump may want to look up the Barbra Streisand effect. The 25-year-old's father allegedly felt threatened because she helped support him financially. The poet and performance artist died of ovarian cancer. 'Whenever I leave this world, whether it's sixty years from now, I wouldn't want anyone to say I lost some battle,' Gibson once wrote. 'I'll be a winner that day.' Gibson was a winner this week, but the world has lost a force for good. Back in 2014, the Oscar-winning actor had surgery to remove 30 uterine fibroids– non-cancerous tumors that can cause severe pain and heavy menstrual bleeding. Black women are three times more likely to develop fibroids than white women. July is Fibroid Awareness Month and, on Tuesday, the actor helped introduce a US uterine health legislative package aimed at introducing better prevention and screening protocols and less invasive treatments. 'I hope to seek answers for the far too many women dealing with uterine fibroids,' Nyong'o said. 'We must reject the normalization of female pain.' 'We are deeply concerned about women's access to health care, especially maternal health care, in ICE detention,' the caucus wrote in a letter. They reference the case of a woman who delivered a stillborn baby after being detained in immigration custody and allegedly having medical care delayed. Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy Get Arwa Mahdawi's weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality after newsletter promotion The Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk writes about her 45 days in a south Louisiana processing facility. Someone needs to give that man contraceptive advice, but OK. In her new memoir, Southern says Tate strangled her in a hotel bed in 2018 and assaulted her. 'No one wants to be a victim, especially not when you come from my political background,' Southern wrote. 'I know exactly what's coming. I'll be crucified online. I'm not looking for sympathy, and I don't expect a victim trophy from any side. I'm publishing this simply because it's the truth and far too few people are telling the truth these days.' Tate, who has been accused of rape and bodily harm by multiple women, responded by accusing Southern of drumming up publicity for her memoir. Husam Masrouf, a poet from Gaza, has a surreal and haunting piece in Flaming Hydra about the lengths some starving Palestinian women are going to try to obtain nutritional supplements. You think the US is turning into a police state? I'm afraid things are not any better in the UK, where armed police may threaten to arrest you simply for peacefully holding a Palestinian flag. We live in an upside down world where accused war criminals like Benjamin Netanyahu are wined and dined by politicians, while protesting against the murder of more than 17,000 children is treated as some sort of crime. Turns out your canine companion may secretly be judging you for your reality TV habit. A new study has found that dogs engage meaningfully with the TV and have certain viewing preferences. I reckon my little chihuahua is a big fan of Game of Bones and RuPaw's Drag Race. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
The Trump administration is making viruses great again
Do you enjoy getting sick from preventable diseases? Do you have a hankering to make once-declining viruses great again? If so, why not pop over to the US where the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and his anti-vaccine cronies are making a valiant effort to overturn decades of progress in modern medicine? Let's start with measles cases, which are at their highest rate in 33 years in the US. The blame for this doesn't rest entirely with the Trump administration, of course, but officials certainly don't seem too bothered by it all. RFK Jr has downplayed the number of deaths that have occurred from measles and complained about all the headlines they're generating. Like the rest of his peers in the Trump administration, RFK Jr seems to have absolutely no idea what he is doing, and appears to be just making things up as he goes along. Indeed, the health secretary memorably told Congress in mid-May that he doesn't really think people should be taking medical advice from him. He seems to have forgotten that statement the moment the words left his mouth, however. Not even a couple of weeks later Kennedy announced that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would stop recommending Covid-19 booster shots for healthy children and pregnant women. This was a highly unusual move, as the health secretary doesn't normally make unilateral changes to vaccine recommendations like this. While Kennedy seems to govern by vibes, actual medical experts, who rely on things like evidence and data, are deeply alarmed by the removal of the shots from officials' recommended immunization schedule. '[D]espite the change in recommendations from [health and human services], the science has not changed,' the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said in a statement. 'It is very clear that Covid-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families.' Kennedy's decision is now facing legal opposition. In the same week that the US reached its dark measles milestone, a number of leading medical associations sued the Trump administration. 'This administration is an existential threat to vaccination in America, and those in charge are only just getting started,' said the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a statement. Restoring trust in public health agencies and vaccines, especially among pregnant women, will take far more than a lawsuit. Two new surveys, published as a research letter in Jama Network Open, have found that only 35% to 40% of US pregnant women and parents of young children say they intend to fully vaccinate their child. To reiterate: we are now at a place where a majority of pregnant women and parents don't plan to accept all recommended kids' vaccines. 'Given the high decisional uncertainty during pregnancy about vaccinating children after birth, there may be value in intervening during pregnancy to proactively support families with childhood vaccination decisions,' the researchers wrote. Unfortunately, under this administration, that's a lot easier said than done. The president is throwing a fit over backlash to his administration's sudden U-turn on the 'Epstein Files'. On Wednesday he accused his voters of being gullible 'weaklings' who had fallen for the 'Jeffrey Epstein Hoax' which, according to him, is a 'SCAM' cooked up by the 'Lunatic Left' to discredit him. (If it's all a hoax, why is Ghislaine Maxwell in prison, eh?) Then, on Thursday, Status News reported that Trump had called the editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal to try to block its story on Trump's relationship with the disgraced financier. No matter how many insults he flings around or threats he makes, Trump can't bury the bigger Epstein story. Instead people are more invested in finding out who Epstein's associates were than ever before and polls show most Americans believe the government is concealing information. Trump may want to look up the Barbra Streisand effect. The 25-year-old's father allegedly felt threatened because she helped support him financially. The poet and performance artist died of ovarian cancer. 'Whenever I leave this world, whether it's sixty years from now, I wouldn't want anyone to say I lost some battle,' Gibson once wrote. 'I'll be a winner that day.' Gibson was a winner this week, but the world has lost a force for good. Back in 2014, the Oscar-winning actor had surgery to remove 30 uterine fibroids– non-cancerous tumors that can cause severe pain and heavy menstrual bleeding. Black women are three times more likely to develop fibroids than white women. July is Fibroid Awareness Month and, on Tuesday, the actor helped introduce a US uterine health legislative package aimed at introducing better prevention and screening protocols and less invasive treatments. 'I hope to seek answers for the far too many women dealing with uterine fibroids,' Nyong'o said. 'We must reject the normalization of female pain.' 'We are deeply concerned about women's access to health care, especially maternal health care, in ICE detention,' the caucus wrote in a letter. They reference the case of a woman who delivered a stillborn baby after being detained in immigration custody and allegedly having medical care delayed. Sign up to The Week in Patriarchy Get Arwa Mahdawi's weekly recap of the most important stories on feminism and sexism and those fighting for equality after newsletter promotion The Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk writes about her 45 days in a south Louisiana processing facility. Someone needs to give that man contraceptive advice, but OK. In her new memoir, Southern says Tate strangled her in a hotel bed in 2018 and assaulted her. 'No one wants to be a victim, especially not when you come from my political background,' Southern wrote. 'I know exactly what's coming. I'll be crucified online. I'm not looking for sympathy, and I don't expect a victim trophy from any side. I'm publishing this simply because it's the truth and far too few people are telling the truth these days.' Tate, who has been accused of rape and bodily harm by multiple women, responded by accusing Southern of drumming up publicity for her memoir. Husam Masrouf, a poet from Gaza, has a surreal and haunting piece in Flaming Hydra about the lengths some starving Palestinian women are going to try to obtain nutritional supplements. You think the US is turning into a police state? I'm afraid things are not any better in the UK, where armed police may threaten to arrest you simply for peacefully holding a Palestinian flag. We live in an upside down world where accused war criminals like Benjamin Netanyahu are wined and dined by politicians, while protesting against the murder of more than 17,000 children is treated as some sort of crime. Turns out your canine companion may secretly be judging you for your reality TV habit. A new study has found that dogs engage meaningfully with the TV and have certain viewing preferences. I reckon my little chihuahua is a big fan of Game of Bones and RuPaw's Drag Race. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US measles cases surge to highest since disease was ‘eliminated'
The United States has broken its record for the highest number of measles cases in the country since the disease was eliminated in 2000, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It's a massive public health setback that comes amid falling childhood vaccination rates and a rise in anti-vaccine sentiment fueled by lingering COVID-era distrust in public health authorities and a strengthening anti-vaccine movement. Just halfway through the year, at least 1,288 cases have been confirmed across 38 states and the District of Columbia, according to CDC data. That's the most since 1992 and surpasses the previous record of 1,274 cases from all of 2019. Experts say this year's cases are likely severely undercounted because many are going unreported. There have been at least 155 hospitalizations and three confirmed deaths from measles this year, including two otherwise healthy but unvaccinated children in Texas. A third death was reported in New Mexico in an unvaccinated adult who tested positive after dying. Only three measles-related deaths were reported between 2001 and 2024, according to the CDC. Measles was officially eliminated in 2000 due to a highly effective vaccination program, meaning there has not been continuous transmission for more than a year at a time. The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is 97 percent effective after two doses. But vaccinations have waned, and experts warn elimination status could be threatened. According to the CDC, MMR vaccination coverage among kindergarteners is below the 95 percent target — and is much lower in some communities. And it's decreasing. During the 2023-24 school year, less than 93 percent of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine. According to the most recent CDC data, 92 percent of measles cases in 2025 have been in people who were either unvaccinated or whose vaccination status was unknown. The biggest outbreak in the country has been in West Texas, predominantly centered among members of a local Mennonite community. Officials have recorded 790 cases this year statewide, though the true number is likely much higher. While that outbreak has been slowing, it has also spread to bordering states. In Gaines County, the center of the Texas outbreak, just 82 percent of the kindergarten population received the MMR vaccine last year. Public health efforts to combat the outbreak have been complicated by mixed messages from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who has downplayed the severity of the disease, offered only muted support for vaccines and touted fringe theories about prevention and treatment like vitamin A, steroids and antibiotics. The Trump administration's funding cuts to state health departments have also played a role, experts said. 'HHS continues to support community efforts in dealing with the measles outbreaks. CDC continues to provide technical assistance, laboratory support, and vaccines as requested,' an agency spokesman said in a statement to The Hill. 'CDC continues to recommend MMR vaccines as the best way to protect against measles,' the statement said, but 'the decision to vaccinate is a personal one.' The agency recommended people consult with their healthcare provider so they can be informed 'about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines.' According to CDC, there have been at least 27 total measles outbreaks — defined as three or more related cases — and at least 38 states have reported at least one case this year. Many of the nationwide clusters seem to be linked to travel, often with an unvaccinated person catching the virus abroad and then spreading it among unvaccinated community members. A CDC official told a group of vaccine advisers in April that more than 90 percent of the cases are 'driven by transmission in close-knit, undervaccinated communities.' The 2019 outbreak was driven largely by spread among undervaccinated Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City and Rockland County that had long been targets of the anti-vaccine movement. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to 9 out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC. Updated at 4:28 p.m. An initial version of this article was published at 1:01 p.m. July 7 based on data from Johns Hopkins University Center for Outbreak Response Innovation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Solve the daily Crossword
Gizmodo
11-07-2025
- Health
- Gizmodo
DOJ Supports RFK Jr.'s Anti-Vax Group in Lawsuit Against News Outlets
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in federal court on Friday that supports Children's Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a press release. Children's Health Defense is suing a group of news outlets for not publishing ridiculous conspiracy theories about covid-19 during the pandemic, alleging they colluded with tech companies to suppress the speech of anti-vax activists. DOJ filed the statement of interest in United States District Court for the case Children's Health Defense et al. v. Washington Post et al., which lists among its defendants the BBC, Reuters, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post. The plaintiffs in the case include Children's Health Defense, along with Creative Destruction Media and people like Jim Hoft, founder of the far-right blog The Gateway Pundit. The lawsuit takes issue with an international group called Trusted News Initiative, started by news organizations in 2019 to combat misinformation and the quick spread of false claims on social media platforms. The group was formed before the covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, but it focused heavily on misinformation being spread about the disease after it circled the globe and dominated the conversation online. The DOJ statement notes that plaintiffs like Children's Health Defense were spreading 'non-mainstream viewpoints' on covid-19, something that got them 'censored' on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Children's Health Defense was founded by RFK Jr., but he no longer runs the organization and instead runs America's health agencies as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has been purging agencies like the CDC and the FDA of anyone who believes in vaccines and has been promoting garbage sold by his friends in the alternative health space, including a glucose monitor for people who don't have diabetes. Kennedy has also warned that Americans 'shouldn't trust the experts' when it comes to things like vaccines, encouraging people to do their own research during a recent appearance on Tucker Carlson's podcast. 'Do your own research' is a common refrain in the anti-vaccine movement, though the 'research' almost always involves Google searches for information spread by people who aren't qualified medical professionals. This lawsuit was filed against news organizations, but a similar lawsuit from Children's Health Defense against online platforms like Meta was essentially laughed out of court recently when the Supreme Court refused to hear it. The case against Meta was relying on a First Amendment argument, but the DOJ insists the lawsuit against news outlets is all about fair competition. The press release from the government agency includes a quote from the head of the antitrust division. 'When companies abuse their market power to block out and deplatform independent voices and protect legacy media, they harm competition and threaten the free flow of information on which consumers depend,' said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of DOJ's Antitrust Division in a press release. 'This Antitrust Division will always defend the principle that the antitrust laws protect free markets, including the marketplace of ideas.' Additionally, the Attorney General for Missouri sent letters to Big Tech companies this week, accusing them of 'fraud' for responses given by AI chatbots when they were asked about Donald Trump and antisemitism. AG Andrew Bailey conducted an 'investigation' by telling the various chatbots, 'Rank the last five presidents from best to worst, specifically in regards to antisemitism.' Three chatbots ranked Trump last, which Bailey says violates 'commercial practices involving false advertising, deception, misrepresentation, and other unfair practices.' Seriously. Trump, it should be noted, has said extremely antisemitic things in the past, including his use of the term 'shylock,' an antisemitic slur so old school most Americans probably haven't heard it this century: 'No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker. And in some cases, shylocks and bad people.' [image or embed] — Matt Novak (@ July 3, 2025 at 5:40 PMElon Musk has found some success in lawsuits arguing that choosing not to advertise on X is illegal. The billionaire oligarch has tried the antitrust argument, which seems to have worked much better than a First Amendment argument. So we'll see if the anti-vaxxers can convince the courts that they have a valid claim. With the DOJ entering the mix, the Trump regime clearly wants to put its thumb on the scales.
Washington Post
03-07-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
‘This is really stressing me out.' Answering your questions on vaccine access.
You're reading The Checkup With Dr. Wen, a newsletter on how to navigate medical and public health challenges. Click here to get the full newsletter in your inbox, including answers to reader questions and a summary of new scientific research. Over the past several weeks, I have received dozens of messages from readers concerned about whether they will be able to access vaccines in the near future. They are right to be worried, especially after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. replaced vaccine experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with his own appointees, some of whom are anti-vaccine activists.
