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Want Babies? Treat Infertility's Root Causes

Want Babies? Treat Infertility's Root Causes

In 'How to Make American Babies Again' (op-ed, April 30), Leonard Lopoo promotes a costly, one-size-fits-all solution to declining birth rates (in vitro fertilization) while ignoring a deeper question: Why are so many couples struggling with infertility in the first place?
Infertility isn't a standalone disease—it is a symptom of other underlying reproductive health diseases. One in six couples struggles to conceive or carry to term, and in most cases, this stems from four or more reproductive health conditions, such as endometriosis, PCOS or male-factor infertility.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US secretary of health and human services, dismissed all 17 members that make up a key committee advising the US government on vaccine safety and policy, saying that removing the entire panel was the only way to restore public confidence in vaccine science. The move, announced in an opinion piece on June 9, added to the confusion about whether Americans would have access to vaccines for diseases from polio and measles to Covid and the flu. Here's what to know about Kennedy's decision and how it might affect future vaccine development and delivery.

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