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Bad diets, too many meds, no exercise: A look inside the latest ‘Make America Healthy Again' report

Bad diets, too many meds, no exercise: A look inside the latest ‘Make America Healthy Again' report

Toronto Star10 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A report that U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised will improve the health of America's children does not call on the government to make significant changes to its food or farming policies, according to a draft document obtained by The Associated Press.
The 'Make America Healthy Again' strategy report is supposed to be one of Kennedy's signature achievements as the nation's health secretary, giving the government a roadmap to help its citizens lose weight, reduce chronic diseases and exercise more. Before coming to Washington, Kennedy had spent much of his career decrying the harms of chemicals sprayed on crops, prescription drugs, ultraprocessed foods, and vaccines.
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Hundreds may have been exposed to rabies at bat-infested cabins in Grand Teton National Park
Hundreds may have been exposed to rabies at bat-infested cabins in Grand Teton National Park

Toronto Sun

time6 hours ago

  • Toronto Sun

Hundreds may have been exposed to rabies at bat-infested cabins in Grand Teton National Park

Published Aug 15, 2025 • 3 minute read Visitors watch the morning sun illuminate the Grand Tetons from within the Great Room at the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on Aug. 28, 2016. Photo by Brennan Linsley / The Associated Press File Health officials are working to alert hundreds of people in dozens of states and several countries who may have been exposed to rabies in bat-infested cabins in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park over the past few months. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account As of Friday, none of the bats found in some of the eight linked cabins at Jackson Lake Lodge had tested positive for rabies. But the handful of dead bats found and sent to the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory in Laramie for testing were probably only a small sample of the likely dozens that colonized the attic above the row of cabins, Wyoming State Health Officer Dr. Alexia Harrist said. Other bats weren't killed but got shooed out through cabin doors and windows. Meanwhile, the vast majority never flapped down from the attic into living spaces. Health officials thus deemed it better safe than sorry to alert everybody who has stayed in the cabins recently that they might have been exposed by being bitten or scratched. Especially when people are sleeping, a bat bite or scratch can go unseen and unnoticed. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'What we're really concerned about is people who saw bats in their rooms and people who might have had direct contact with a bat,' Harrist said Friday. The cabins have been unoccupied, with no plans to reopen, since concessionaire Grand Teton Lodge Company discovered the bat problem July 27. Bats are a frequent vector of the rabies virus. Once symptoms occur — muscle aches, vomiting, itching, to name a few _ rabies is almost always fatal in humans. The good news is a five-shot prophylactic regimen over a two-week period soon after exposure is highly effective in preventing illness, Harrist noted. SEASONAL CABINS OPENED IN MAY The cabins opened for the summer season in May after being vacant over the winter. Based on the roughly 250 reservations through late July, health officials estimated that up to 500 people had stayed in the cabins. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. They were trying to reach people in 38 states and seven countries through those states' health agencies and, in the case of foreign visitors, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Others who have not been alerted yet but stayed in cabins 516, 518, 520, 522, 524, 526, 528 and 530 this year should tell health officials or a doctor immediately, Harrist said. Health officials were recommending prophylactic shots for people who fit certain criteria, such as deep sleepers who found a bat in their room, and children too young to say that they had seen a bat. The Wyoming Department of Health had no ongoing concern about visitor safety at the Jackson Lake Lodge area. That includes a Federal Reserve economic policy symposium Aug. 21-23 that takes place at Jackson Lake Lodge every summer. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The lodge company has done a fantastic job of doing their due diligence of making sure everyone that is coming in for that, and for all other visits this year, are going to be as safe as possible,' said Emily Curren, Wyoming's public health veterinarian. 'Three or four' dead bats from the cabins tested negative and one that was mangled did not have enough brain tissue to be testable, Curren said. All were brown bats, which come in two species: 'little' and 'big,' with the larger ones more than twice as big. Officials were unsure which species these were, but both are common in Wyoming. They typically live in colonies of 30 to 100 individuals, Curren said. 'That's a lot of bats that we cannot rule out a risk of rabies being in,' Curren said. 'There's no way for us to know for certain about every single bat that got into these rooms.' There are no plans to exterminate the bats, Grand Teton National Park spokesperson Emily Davis said. Devices fitted to the building were keeping the bats from getting back in after flying out in pursuit of insects to eat, they said. RECOMMENDED VIDEO Columnists Toronto & GTA Music Ontario Golf

Three years after his death, cricketer Shane Warne's legacy lives on with heart health checks
Three years after his death, cricketer Shane Warne's legacy lives on with heart health checks

Winnipeg Free Press

time7 hours ago

  • Winnipeg Free Press

Three years after his death, cricketer Shane Warne's legacy lives on with heart health checks

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Cricketer Shane Warne's legacy lives on more than three years after the death of the great spin bowler from a heart attack at the age of 52. Warne died in March 2022 after suffering cardiac arrest while on holiday on the Thai island of Koh Samui. The cause of his sudden death led his business team and family to unite to honor his life and create Shane Warne Legacy. The charity set up free heart health checkup machines at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the past two Boxing Day tests. The results of the stadium checks along with 311 community pharmacy stations across Australia were analyzed as part of a Monash University-led study. A total of 76,085 people were screened across seven weeks from mid-December 2023 to the end of January 2024, including 7,740 at the MCG. The research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on Friday showed almost seven out of 10 (68.9%) had at least one uncontrolled risk factor for heart disease. Factors were elevated blood pressure readings (37.2%), elevated body mass index (60.5%) and being a smoker (12.1%). Cricket spectators who did the free checks, mostly men aged 35 to 64, had higher rates of elevated blood pressure and body mass index than those screened at pharmacies. Warne revived and elevated the art of leg-spin bowling when he emerged on the international scene in the 1990s and was a central character in one of Australia's most successful eras in the sport. He also was one of cricket's larger-than-life showmen. Warne held the record for the most test wickets with 708 when he retired in 2007 after his 145th match. Only Sri Lanka off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan has passed him, with 800. Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'Meeting people where they are, whether that's at their local pharmacy or the MCG, can make all the difference to health outcomes,' said Dr. Sean Tan, a cardiologist and researcher at the Victorian Heart Institute. Warne's long-time personal assistant Helen Nolan said the findings reinforced Shane Warne Legacy's mission to turn his death into a catalyst for change. The charity's chief executive described the results as 'bittersweet.' 'We're proud to have helped thousands take their heart health seriously but we know there's still work to do,' Nolan said. 'Shane would have wanted this to make a massive difference.' ___ AP cricket:

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