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The Trump administration is making viruses great again

The Trump administration is making viruses great again

The Guardian20-07-2025
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.
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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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Top medical body concerned over RFK Jr's reported plans to cut preventive health panel
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Top medical body concerned over RFK Jr's reported plans to cut preventive health panel

A top US medical body has expressed 'deep concern' to Robert F Kennedy Jr over news reports that the health secretary plans to overhaul a panel that determines which preventive health measures including cancer screenings should be covered by insurance companies. The letter from the the American Medical Association comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Kennedy plans to overhaul the 40-year old US Preventive Services Task Force because he regards them as too 'woke', according to sources familiar with the matter. During his second term, Donald Trump has frequently raged against organizations and government departments that he considers too liberal – often without any evidence. The US president, and his cabinet members such as Kennedy, have also overseen huge cuts and job losses across the US government. The taskforce is made up of a 16-member panel appointed by health and human services secretaries to serve four-year terms. In addition to cancer screenings, the taskforce issues recommendations for a variety of other screenings including osteoporosis, intimate partner violence, HIV prevention, as well as depression in children. Writing in its letter to Kennedy on Sunday, the AMA defended the panel, saying: 'As you know, USPSTF plays a critical, non-partisan role in guiding physicians' efforts to prevent disease and improve the health of patients by helping to ensure access to evidence-based clinical preventive services.' 'As such, we urge you to retain the previously appointed members of the USPSTF and commit to the long-standing process of regular meetings to ensure their important work can be continued without disruption,' it added. Citing Kennedy's own slogan of 'Making America healthy again,' the AMA went on to say: 'USPSTF members have been selected through an open, public nomination process and are nationally recognized experts in primary care, prevention and evidence-based medicine. They serve on a volunteer basis, dedicating their time to help reduce disease and improve the health of all Americans – a mission well-aligned with the Make America Healthy Again initiative.' According to the Affordable Care Act, public and private insurance companies must cover any services recommended by the Preventive Services Task Force without cost sharing. In a statement to MedPage Today, Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon did not confirm the reports, instead saying: 'No final decision has been made on how the USPSTF can better support HHS' mandate to Make America Healthy Again.' Reports of Kennedy's alleged decision to overhaul the taskforce come after the American Conservative published an essay earlier this month that described the taskforce as advocating for 'leftwing ideological orthodoxy'. It went on to accuse the panel of being 'packed with Biden administration appointees devoted to the ideological capture of medicine', warning that the 'continued occupation of an important advisory body in HHS – one that has the capacity to force private health insurers to cover services and procedures – by leftwing activists would be a grave oversight by the Trump administration'. In response to the essay, 104 health organizations, including the American Medical Association, issued a separate letter to multiple congressional health committees in which they urged the committees to 'protect the integrity' of the taskforce. 'The loss of trustworthiness in the rigorous and nonpartisan work of the Task Force would devastate patients, hospital systems, and payers as misinformation creates barriers to accessing lifesaving and cost effective care,' the organizations said. In June, Kennedy removed all 17 members of a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of vaccine experts. Writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he accused the committee of having too many conflicts of interest. Kennedy's decision to overhaul the immunization panel was met with widespread criticism from health experts, with the American Public Health Association executive director Georges Benjamin calling the ouster 'a coup'. 'It's not how democracies work. It's not good for the health of the nation,' Benjamin said.

WeightWatchers boss says ‘exciting work to do' amid impact of weight loss jabs
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Neanderthals loved to eat maggots, study finds
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Neanderthals loved eating maggots and were not the total carnivores people often believed they were, a study has found. It has long been believed that Neanderthals, the ancient cousin species of human ancestors, ate almost nothing but meat in a similar way to lions or wolves. But a study has found this to be incorrect and proves that Neanderthals instead dined largely on maggot-riddled meat. The meat from successful hunts would be stashed and inevitably left to fester but the maggots which took root were also likely a staple of their diet, new analysis has found. Previous studies of Neanderthal remains have shown they had the same chemicals in their bones as hypercarnivore predators, which is indicative of a purely carnivorous diet. This, combined with the knowledge that Neanderthals hunted animals such as mammoths, bison, deer and reindeer, led to the widespread assumption that Neanderthals ate almost nothing but meat. But Dr Melanie Beasley, an anthropologist at Purdue University in Indiana, US, suspected this to be incorrect and studied maggots feasting on human remains to see if they could account for the chemical signature which implies a carnivore diet. Analysis found that when a carcass rots the muscles themselves become only marginally enriched with the specific form of nitrogen found in Neanderthal remains. But when maggots eat the flesh and themselves are consumed these can be up to 43 per cent richer in the nitrogen which scientists have previously thought proved carnivore behaviour. 'We suggest that the nitrogen values are inflated, perhaps substantially so, because these dedicated hunters of large mammals would have stored or cached portions of their kills for later use to compensate for unpredictable returns,' the study team wrote. 'Backup reserves of animal foods, either as packets of processed meat and fat, or as partial or complete carcasses, would have been placed in expedient above-ground rock or log cairns, suspended from tree branches or placed on above-ground racks or stages, immersed in ponds and swamps, or buried in below-ground pits. 'Such reserves, whether fresh, dried, or smoked, readily attracted flies while they were being processed, and, over the use life of the reserve, the contents almost inevitably began to putrefy and become infested with maggots.' This slowly rotting meat which was being devoured by maggots could have been eaten weeks, months, or even years after it was first hunted, the scientists concluded. Human bodies buried for study To gauge what nutrients maggots contained the scientists buried 34 human bodies donated for research at the Body Farm facility of the University of Tennessee. After two years, the maggots were studied and it was found that they were the likely reason for the high nitrogen content in Neanderthal remains that led to the assumption they were almost exclusively carnivores. Another factor in the scientists' conclusion about the Neanderthal diet is that it is impossible for a human body to survive for very long if it is consuming more than 300g of protein a day. Prolonged exposure to a diet beyond this, which is around 1,200 calories of pure protein, can lead to 'rabbit starvation' in which the body begins to shut down. This biological incompatibility with the protein-heavy diet and the maggot nitrogen finding are strong evidence that the Neanderthal was not a hypercarnivore like lions, the scientists say. 'A lion, on average, consumes anywhere from double to four-and-a-half times more protein per kg of body weight than the absolute maximum a Late Pleistocene hominin would be capable of tolerating,' the scientists wrote. The Neanderthal diet was likely to have included tongue, ribs, briskets, entrails, kidneys and other internal organs, and probably also the brain, the scientists believe. 'Fascination' of hypercarnivore image But Dr Beasley believes Neanderthals 'often ate these fat-rich tissues in a tainted or putrefied state together with their almost inevitable infestation of living and dead maggots'. 'It seems very likely that Late Pleistocene hominins would often have found themselves consuming animal foods from tainted or putrefied reserves laced with living and dead maggots,' she told The Telegraph. 'I think for a long time the hypercarnivore narrative about Neanderthals has been wrong but that image adds to their exceptionalism and fascination, so that narrative has persisted. 'Hominins ate meat regularly starting with Homo erectus, but they ate a diversity of other foods too. 'We are just saying that we need to consider those other dietary inputs like the inevitable stored foods laced with fatty maggots that would have been nutritionally beneficial.'

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