The Trump administration is making viruses great again
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.
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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
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Medicare and Medicaid turn 60 – and face historic cuts decades in the making
The US's largest public health insurance programs, Medicare and Medicaid, turn 60 years old on Wednesday – a birthday that will be celebrated only weeks after Republicans enacted the largest cuts to healthcare in the nation's history. Passed in the civil rights era, the sister health insurance programs served as tools for the Democratic president Lyndon Johnson to desegregate American healthcare and fight poverty. 'This is an infamous day for the US, which already has the most abysmal healthcare system among our peer nations,' said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown Law. 'Now, in order to give tax relief and spend more on defense, we're kicking off our most needy citizens from life-saving care.' In a health system defined by a patchwork of public and private coverage, Medicare and Medicaid have stood for 60 years as the civil rights era's health legacy – their history more often marked by expansion than contraction, even amid decades of attacks from conservatives. That history took a sharp right turn on the Fourth of July, when Donald Trump signed a Republican budget law that will cut $1tn from Medicaid beginning in 2026. 'It's really unconscionable these cuts,' said David Lipschutz, co-director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, speaking about both programs. 'The magnitude, the scope, the targeting of certain lawfully present immigrants, the added requirements and burdens for people with Medicaid – specifically designed to purge the roles of people who would otherwise be eligible.' Today, Medicare insures more than 68 million seniors, and Medicaid insures 71 million low-income, elderly and disabled adults. Cuts signed by Trump are expected to result in nearly 12 million people losing Medicaid coverage and another 5 million people losing health insurance because of a reduction in government subsidies to private insurance, through so-called 'Obamacare' plans. The cuts are the largest in the program's history, and enact decades of conservative rhetoric – tracing all the way back to then-actor Ronald Reagan's 1961 criticism of public health insurance as 'socialized medicine'. Medicare and Medicaid were enacted together on 30 July 1965 – born with Johnson's signature on the Social Security Amendments of 1965, or HR 6675. The programs represented both an enormous victory and, in a way, a concession. A group of campaigners for universal health coverage tried and failed to pass a 'national health insurance' after the second world war – in large part because of the antagonism of American doctors – around the same time that the United Kingdom's National Health Service was getting off the ground. Unable to achieve universal coverage, proponents settled for an 'add-on' to social security, the retirement benefit for older Americans, according to Pulitzer prize-winning author Paul Starr, whose book, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, is the authoritative history. 'Medicaid was a footnote,' said Starr. 'The whole focus was on passing Medicare.' Medicare also sought to correct a searing injustice in American healthcare – Jim Crow segregation that extended to America's doctor's office and hospitals. In 1946, congressional lawmakers modernized the nation's healthcare facilities with the Hill-Burton Act, but did so with a 'separate but equal' philosophy. For nearly two decades, Hill-Burton helped construct or modernize 6,800 facilities in 4,000 communities, often excluding Black patients and physicians. 'Typical practice in the south would be to see all the white patients first, and see the Black patients last,' said Starr. 'Hospitals were segregated and Black people did not have access to mainstream hospital care in many places.' A 1963 supreme court case against a North Carolina hospital found that the 'separate but equal' doctrine was unconstitutional. In a few short years, hospitals and clinics across the country desegregated to participate in Medicare. Less recognized at the time was the power of Medicaid, and how its structure – jointly operated by the states and federal government – would make it more vulnerable to political attacks. 'Medicaid gradually grew to being the system of health insurance for low-income people, for people with disabilities. It became the method of financing nursing homes in the US,' said Starr. Medicare and Medicaid led, 'not only to desegregating, but elevating life expectancy across the states and reducing disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, women, children and older adults and people with disabilities,' said Daniel Dawes, an expert on global health policy at Meharry Medical College. Beginning in the Reagan era in the 1980s, conservatives proposed transforming Medicaid from an 'entitlement', which does not cap costs, to a limited 'block grant' to states – necessarily capping how many people and what services would be covered. The former House speaker Newt Gingrich, George W Bush's administration and the former House speaker Paul Ryan, all Republicans, made proposals to block-grant Medicaid. Decades of rhetoric pushing to cut Medicaid carried into talking points about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump's signature spending bill. Trump officials rolled out vintage Republican arguments to describe Medicaid beneficiaries as caught in 'a lifelong trap of dependency'. A wide array of evidence shows most Medicaid beneficiaries who can work already do, and new requirements instead function as red tape to limit enrollment. Polls show that Medicaid is widely popular, even among Republicans. The Obama administration led a historic expansion of Medicaid in 2010, through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare. For the first time, Medicaid would cover working-age single adults – not just pregnant women or families, as the program had traditionally done. In 2025, a major economic study again showed its benefits: expanding Medicaid to millions more Americans probably saved more than 27,000 lives. The improvement in Americans' health was perhaps only matched by the ferocity of attacks from the political right. For nearly a decade, the repeal of Obamacare became a cornerstone of Republican politics. Trump himself has only sporadically engaged in the healthcare debate. In 2017, he would tell the press: 'Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated.' Before he was elected again in 2024, he said he had 'concepts of a plan' to replace Obamacare, and promised not to touch Medicaid, Medicare or social security. Trump first attempted to repeal Obamacare in 2017, a change that would have left an estimated 15 million people without insurance. The bill was memorably tanked with a thumbs-down from the Republican senator John McCain. However, ideas about how to cut Medicaid did not sink with the bill. In 2018, the Trump administration approved the first Medicaid work requirements as pilots in Arkansas and Georgia. Courts struck down those pilots, but they now form a critical part of how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to push people off the program. Starr described the cuts to Medicaid as out of step with reality. 'A lot of people do work at the minimum wage, millions of people, and they're still poor,' he said. 'And by the way those minimum-wage jobs won't provide them any healthcare – so you're just going to let them die when they get sick? What are you going to do?' The enormous cuts to Medicaid have set off new wrangling within the Republican party, including efforts by the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley to repeal the cuts for which he just voted. Republicans could face further backlash when cuts to Medicaid start to hit rural hospitals around 2026. A June analysis by the University of North Carolina's Sheps Center for Health Services Research found that 338 rural hospitals, including dozens in states such as Louisiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma, could close as a result of the spending bill. There are nearly 1,800 rural hospitals nationally, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a healthcare research non-profit. 'While we've tried to chip away at Medicaid for many, many decades this is the first time Congress has really gutted the program,' said Gostin. 'People will die, a lot of people will die. A lot of people will get very, very sick, have preventable illnesses, and so to me this is just simply historic and unconscionable.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Urgent recall issued for Celsius cans after labeling mix-up
Celsius energy drink cans sold in several US states are being recalled after a labeling mix-up led to some being filled with alcohol. The affected cans are mislabeled as Celsius Astro Vibe Energy Drink, Sparkling Blue Razz Edition, but are actually filled with High Noon vodka seltzer. Consuming the beverage from these cans could lead to unintentional alcohol intake, but no illnesses or adverse reactions have been reported as of yet. The issue stems from a third-party can supplier that mistakenly sent unused Celsius cans to High Noon. 'Celsius was not involved in the production, filling, or distribution of the affected products, the energy drink company shared. High Noon initiated a voluntary recall of the impacted High Noon Beach Variety 12-packs with lot codes L CCC 17JL25 14:00 to L CCC 17JL25 23:59 and L CCC 18JL25 00:00 to L CCC 18JL25 03:00 printed on the exterior of the 12-packs. The mislabeled Celsius cans have silver tops and lot codes L CCB 02JL25 2:55 to L CCB 02JL25 3:11 printed on the bottom. Correctly labeled Celsius cans have black lids. This recall applies only to the affected High Noon Beach Variety 12-packs with the specified lot codes, which were shipped to distributors in Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The products were distributed to retailers between July 21 and 23. 'As a reminder, consumers are advised to dispose of the Celsius Astro Vibe Energy Drink, Sparkling Blue Razz Edition silver lid cans with the impacted lot codes (L CCB 02JL25 to L CCB 02JL25) and not consume the liquid,' said High Noon Consumer Relations in a press release. 'Consumers who believe they may have purchased affected product should not consume it and dispose of it.' Many of the mislabeled packs were sent to Kroger-owned grocery stories in the US. Those included Mariano's, Metro Market, Pick n Save stores and Kroger stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Eastern Kentucky, Georgia, Central, Northwest and Southeastern Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and Auburn, Alabama. 'Please return the product to this store for a full refund,' Kroger shared in the announcement. A recall for Ritz Crackers was issued this month due to a similar error. The FDA issued a recall for four carton sizes of RITZ Cracker Sandwiches, two RITZ Crackers with a filling, after it was revealed that some peanut butter sandwiches had been mislabeled as cheese sandwiches. This is a serious risk to the 3 million peanut butter allergy sufferers in the US who may unknowingly consume the crackers and be at risk of 'serious or life-threatening allergic reactions.' The FDA said the affected sandwiches were sold nationwide, with RITZ Crackers carried by many top stores, including Target, CVS and Dollar General. The labeling issue was detected for cartons that contain eight, 20 or 40 individually wrapped packs of Ritz sandwiches. All affected cartons warn of the presence of peanuts on the outside, but inside, in some cases, individually wrapped packs have been incorrectly labeled. There have been no reports of injuries or adverse events to date, with officials saying they've announced the recall as a precaution. Customers who have a peanut allergy are advised not to eat the products and to discard any that may be affected. Products in the recall are a 20-pack of RITZ Filled Cracker Sandwich Variety that contains 10 cheese and 10 peanut butter crackers. The recall also includes: An 8-pack of RITZ Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches, a 20-pack of RITZ Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches, and a 40-pack of RITZ Peanut Butter Cracker Sandwiches. It is not clear exactly how many cartons of RITZ sandwiches are included in the recall. Affected cartons have a best-before date of up to January 2026, and customers have been advised to check the UPC code, next to the barcode, to find out if their carton is affected. The manufacturer, Mondelez Global, has blamed the issue on a supplier error for the incorrect labeling. This may suggest issues with printing labels that led some peanut butter RITZ sandwiches to be incorrectly labeled.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Osteopath hits out at anti-vaxx mother of model who died from cancer at 23 as he tells inquest he was 'not the right person to be helping her'
An osteopath has hit out at the anti-vaxx mother of a model who died from cancer, telling an inquest that he was 'not the right person to be helping her'. Cambridge graduate and model Paloma Shemirani died last July aged 23 after refusing conventional cancer treatments for her treatable non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. Her mother, Kay 'Kate' Shemirani, was a notorious anti-vaxxer struck off the UK's nursing register in 2021 for her extreme anti-medicine views, including discouraging the use of masks and vaccines during Covid. She rose to prominence on social media while sharing Covid-19 conspiracy theories, an inquest at Oakwood House in Maidstone, Kent, heard previously. Ms Shemirani was involved in arranging an alternative 'treatment programme' for her daughter. Osteopath Nick Gosset saw Paloma on July 19, 2024, the day she collapsed and was taken to hospital by air ambulance. On Wednesday, he told the inquest that he had advised Ms Shemirani to seek further medical support. Mr Gosset said: 'It was obvious to me that I was not the right person to be helping her, normally you see a patient like that you would refer her (to a GP). Her mother, Kay 'Kate' Shemirani, pictured at an anti-vaxx rally, was a notorious anti-vaxxer struck off the UK's nursing register in 2021 for her extreme anti-medicine views Paloma, pictured in 2019, was a Cambridge graduate who picked up A* and A grades in her A Levels and had aspirations to build a career in publishing 'Any referral was refused - when I suggested that the proper avenue of approach was through a normal medical channel she dismissed it. 'I felt I was presented with a young woman - and I'm not an expert in this, my field is biomechanics - a young lady who was in the last stages of a very difficult disease, and she had declined to engage with conventional treatment.' He added he felt 'aggrieved' that he had been put in that professional position. 'I was left with no good choices and the only choice I felt I had at the time was to offer her the opportunity to return where I might be able to persuade her of the importance of seeking further medical support,' said Mr Gosset. In written statements submitted to the family division of the High Court in Spring 2024, Paloma described herself as 'anti-vaxx' adding that she declined chemotherapy partly because of her 'background in natural healing', the inquest heard on Monday. The proceedings, which involved the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, were on the appropriateness of her care. Paloma said she was 'delighted' with her alternative treatment and 'sure' she would 'make a full recovery' if left to continue it. She also claimed her human rights had been violated by NHS practitioners, in the statement read by lawyer Alison Hewitt. It said: 'I am far from being a vulnerable young adult. Apart from becoming independent after I moved to Cambridge for university, I have practised the same principles that I grew up with. 'I have always been extremely health conscious: sticking to all-organic produce, I prepare all my own meals and I absolutely do not drink or cook with tap water. 'I have never taken drugs, despite pressure to, and I rarely drink alcohol. 'If I became ill, I've always turned to my mum first for advice as she is a trained nurse and qualified nutritionist. 'Practically fanatical about my health, my close friends know me as a staunch advocate for all proven natural healing'. She described her mother as 'an extremely forceful advocate for natural health' who is 'misquoted' by people claiming 'those natural solutions are conspiratorial'. Ms Shemirani was struck off as a nurse in 2021, with a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) committee finding she had spread Covid-19 misinformation that 'put the public at a significant risk of harm', the inquest heard previously. The anti-vaxx mother previously joined the coroner's court online - and immediately indicated she is unrepentant on her outspoken opinions. She referred to her daughter's cancer as a 'purported diagnosis' as she argued with Coroner Catherine Wood about what evidence should be heard at the Kent inquest. Despite initially having been given a positive prognosis that she could survive her condition, former Miss Brighton finalist Paloma died just seven months after her diagnosis having refused help. Her two brothers, Gabriel and Sebastian, and former boyfriend, Ander Harris, have since gone on record to claim Paloma had been coerced by her mother into refusing medical help - a claim their mother has denied. The brothers first spoke out in a BBC Panorama interview last month, where they revealed the accusations made against their mother. Ms Shemirani, who describes herself as a 'natural nurse' to her 80,000 followers on X, believes in 'Gerson therapy' - that a vegan diet, natural juices, coffee enemas and supplements can cure cancer. Another statement in Paloma's name added 'my friends know me as a staunch advocate of the Gerson therapy'. She said she had been using Gerson therapy as one mode of treatment on the advice of her mother's ex-fiancee, Doctor Patrick Villers, and that at 15 years old, she spent three weeks in his camp in Mexico where it was practised. Gerson therapy involves a strict organic vegetarian diet and enemas and has been used in cancer treatment, though Cancer Research UK says there is no scientific evidence it can be used for these purposes. Her GP was also monitoring her blood and progress, she said. The former Cambridge student went on to deny having the disease and said: 'I was not diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma... I have never had a shadow on my lung, this is absurd fantasy, no proof.' She described the diagnosis as 'suspected and unconfirmed', and said a 'differential diagnosis' only meant cancer could not be ruled out. Paloma understood she had a one in five chance of surviving the commonplace R-CHOP treatment that was offered, and feared it would likely make her infertile, the inquest heard. 'I do not want to undergo such a harsh treatment that could even kill me when there is a possibility this is not cancer,' she said. The High Court statement alleged multiple violations of human rights in her care, the inquest heard, including Articles 3, 6 and 8 and possibly Articles 1, 5 and 12. 'I am so shocked, as are others assisting me, especially my mother, that this could take place today,' the statement said. 'These were put in place forever to prevent what Dr Mengele did in the second world war. How could this happen today?' it continued. Notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele performed experiments on his victims in Auschwitz. The patient said symptoms she presented in hospital with - including a swollen face, excruciating chest pain being unable to move her arm - had subsided. Earlier this month, Paloma's inquest heard from haematology consultant Dr Arunodaya Mohan who detailed how the young woman was diagnosed and how a treatment plan was created. The coroner's court heard that Paloma was first admitted to A&E on October 4 2023 with chest pain, a fever and a lump in the neck. She was then admitted on December 3 and was put forward for an emergency CT scan the next day. After a biopsy was taken, Paloma was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma with a large mass being found near her sternum. While the consultant was asked about scans from radiology Mrs Shemirani shouted, 'I'd like to object', to which the coroner told her she could not object to a witness statement. Dr Mohen said that as part of a standard treatment plan Paloma was advised to start six cycles of chemotherapy - each lasting 14 days. She rose to prominence on social media while sharing Covid-19 conspiracy theories, an inquest at Oakwood House in Maidstone, Kent, pictured, heard previously. Steroids would also be provided, with radiotherapy and stents being considered later down the line. The doctor said side effects of the treatment, which could have been taken as an inpatient or outpatient, include nausea, vomiting, hair loss, changes to nails and the production of 'tumour lives' which can produce toxins and affect chemicals in the body. Dr Mohen added: 'Chemotherapy can affect fertility so we offered Paloma full fertility preservation before she went ahead with chemotherapy. 'We had a discussion regarding on fertility and we discussed a referral to a tertiary centre. And she was happy to go ahead with the fertility preservation and we discussed the pet scan. 'At that point I don't think I had any concerns [about her capacity]. We went through the management plan at that time and that's when we gave her the cure rate of 80 per cent during that conversation.' At this stage, Paloma's cancer was considered to be a stage one mass and due to her age and extent of the disease she had a good chance of survival. Her doctor said: 'She was very low risk and had an 80 per cent chance of survival which is an excellent cure rate.' After first meeting with Paloma on December 22, Dr Mohan had discussed treatment options and a potential PET scan with Paloma to which she is said to have nodded in agreement. She claims, without evidence, that her daughter was deliberately killed by the NHS Yet the next day Paloma appeared to have changed her mind and was exploring 'unconventional' treatment options. The consultant said she had been surprised when Paloma said that she would not be continuing treatment. Dr Mohan added: 'It was not expected that she was not going ahead with the treatment. 'She said she hadn't made up her mind yet and she might be cancelling her treatment. I can't remember what treatment that was in favour of but it wasn't a conventional treatment. 'She would not disclose why she was worried about the treatment but I did ask her and my team was worried that she might not undergo treatment.' Dr Mohan said she had only had one conversation with Paloma's mother over the phone and had not discussed Ms Shemirani being Paloma's power of attorney. She said Ms Shemirani had repeated Paloma's concerns about the side effects of steroids and said 'she wasn't happy with the Pet scan'. Dr Mohan added: 'I said we would ask Paloma what she wanted and if she decided this treatment I will go in that direction. 'We thought at the time she had full capacity in what was going on. I didn't even want to talk to mum as I didn't think it was helpful.' It's understood that Paloma's father Faramarz also believes in conspiracy theories, but is divorced and living separately to her mother. Gabriel and his brother Sebastian went public last month, claiming their sister died because she refused conventional chemotherapy treatment. The brothers said that doctors gave Paloma an 80 per cent chance of survival but rejected the treatment because of pressure from her mother whom she had been trying to improve her relationship with.
