Siouxland District Health Launces Free Measles Vaccination Initiative
According to a press release, the ongoing measles (MMR) outbreak is currently in 31 states across the United States. The Siouxland District Health Department (SDHD) said, 'Measles is a highly contagious disease that can lead to serious complications in certain populations and remains the most effective way to protect individuals and communities.'
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The SDHD said these vaccinations will be provided so Sioux City will be prepared in the case of an outbreak. Vaccination is recommended for anyone who has only ever received one dose of, or never received, the MMR vaccine. Officials recommend that children get the first dose at 12 months old and the second dose at 4 years old.
Siouxland District Health will be holding the free vaccination clinics every Tuesday morning from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.. If anyone needs the vaccine at a different time, the clinic should be able to get them in. Those interested are encouraged to call (712) 279-6119.
Siouxland District Health Department stated that these vaccinations will be available to anyone regardless of insurance status and residency.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Newsweek
21 hours ago
- Newsweek
Study Reveals PTSD, Depression Spike After East Palestine Train Disaster
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Researchers have found that cases of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and lack of trust in public officials are rising roughly two-and-a-half years after a Norfolk Southern train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. Why It Matters On February 3, 2023, a freight train carrying toxic chemicals—including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylhexyl acrylate and ethylene glycol monobutyl—derailed in East Palestine about a quarter mile west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line and spilled toxins in a waterway feeding into the Ohio River. National attention was paid to the incident due to nefarious effects on locals and the broader environment. Then-President Joe Biden and his administration were ridiculed for their response, accused of not publicly releasing concerning health information while not providing Americans with sufficient information. President Donald Trump, in the infancy of his third presidential campaign, traveled to East Palestine shortly after the derailment to show support for the community and touted the impact of his visit shortly thereafter on social media. What To Know Researchers who co-authored what they described as the most comprehensive study yet on the aftermath of the derailment spoke with Newsweek about their findings, published Tuesday in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. The study, titled "Prevalence of PTSD and Major Depression in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia 9 Months After the East Palestine Train Derailment," was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. The study correlates upticks in mental disorders among potentially exposed residents of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia roughly nine months post-derailment. The cross-sectional study, consisting of a nonprobability sample of 1,000 adults living within 65 miles of the derailment site and who completed a self-administered clinical survey interview, assessed PTSD and major depression, physical health symptoms, negative derailment-related beliefs and experiences, and preexisting psychiatric risk factors. Ohio EPA and EPA contractors collect soil and air samples from the derailment site on March 9, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio. Ohio EPA and EPA contractors collect soil and air samples from the derailment site on March 9, 2023 in East Palestine, peer-reviewed study's most notable findings show upticks, including: Approximately 15 percent of respondents met criteria for presumptive PTSD symptoms, more than twice the national average. Approximately 13 percent met criteria for major depression, about 60 percent greater than the national average. About half of respondents within proximity of the disaster have reported new or worsening physical symptoms including coughing, fatigue and eye irritation. Those living closer to the scene of the accident reported higher incidents. More than half of residents said they had little to no confidence in public officials during and after the incident, expressing a distrust of public officials and uncertainty about chemical exposure. Effects of Disasters On Mental Health "What we noticed was in that aftermath of the derailment, in addition to these concerns around exposure that were being reported by a lot of news sources at the time—there was a lot of initial data to suggest that these people were reporting physical and mental health problems as well," study co-author Dr. Cameron Pugach of the Medical University of South Carolina told Newsweek. "So, we were really motivated in this study to provide the first kind of comprehensive investigation and in a large-scale mental health survey to kind of quantify the extent to which people were reporting these mental health problems and these physical health problems, and the extent to which people were actually reporting these levels of concerns specifically associated with with toxic substance exposure," Pugach continued. Along with the mental health consequences, he noted how nearly three-quarters (73.9 percent) of respondents were concerned about potential toxic exposure, while another 92.1 percent were wary about associated health problems. Also, about half the respondents reported at least one physical health problem following the derailment—with respiratory and gastrointestinal problems being the most common. "When you look at like national level data, for example on PTSD, the rates that are being reported in the sample in and around East Palestine are over twice the prevalence of the national estimates of PTSD in the U.S., so they're quite elevated," Pugach said. "I think it's pretty comparable to what you'd see in other kinds of disasters like this." Aaron Reuben, study co-author and an assistant professor of neuropsychology at the University of Virginia, said these types of mental health surveys became more customary following major disasters and cultural events, like the September 11 attacks or Flint water crisis—the latter of which also resulted in long-lasting psychiatric problems, including increases in reported PTSD and depression. "There's an interesting phenomenon with this event, which is that it was very dramatic. It was highly publicized," Reuben told Newsweek via phone. "And if you lived in the area, because they burned so many tanks worth of chemicals, you know they were worried about explosion. The sky was filled with these extremely dramatic plumes, what we know to be toxic that you would absolutely not want to be exposed to." He said evacuation efforts made within a mile of the site, coupled with burning tanks and broader efforts to mitigate the impacts that some studies ascertained reached some 14 percent of the United States, led to a lot of concerns. "We had a lot of dispersion, which means it could be a lot of people exposed to very little or some people exposed to very lot—and we just had no idea," Reuben said. "What we are seeing in our survey today is that uncertainty is leading to a lot of concern, a lot of feeling like you're having physical health symptoms that are the kind you would experience if you had been exposed. "Then, a lot of mental health problems that actually are significant and numerous and severe enough that if you were to walk into a clinic, we would diagnose you with a condition that needs to be treated. What we're seeing is a really unique event." Reuben said the extent to which he and fellow researchers think people will recover is going to vary person to person, adding that he wouldn't be confident that "anything would have changed" if they conducted a similar survey a year from now. Pugach said that long-term longitudinal research that samples PTSD, from a general standpoint, shows that once developed, PTSD is a fairly chronic condition among people who develop it, and it tends to kind of stick around unless people are actively seeking trauma-focused treatment. One prong of the research is finding how to help the people who have already experienced the trend in and around East Palestine. The second is how researchers can use this data to inform and improve responses to disasters when they happen in the future in other communities, he said. "Improving kind of the credibility and the quality of information people are receiving in the short-term aftermath of disasters like this is going to help, I think, address people's uncertainty around like exposure itself," Pugach said. "And we know that those factors are associated with the extent to which people are reporting things like PTSD and depression. "I think receiving that quality information from trusted officials is really going to help people in kind of managing their symptoms in the aftermath of these kinds of events." What People Are Saying Study co-author Dean Kilpatrick, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at the Medical University of South Carolina, in a statement: "In the future we may need to attend more in advance to limit psychological uncertainty after these events. Providing communities with timely and credible information about the likelihood of exposures should be considered front-line responses." What Happens Next A July 2025 update from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that as restoration nears completion, the cleanup area of the derailment site is shrinking and crews are assessing waterways for remaining oily sheens and to determine what additional cleanup may be needed. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) issued a Research Opportunity Announcement (ROA) for organizations to participate in a study to address the immediate and longer-term health concerns from exposures to chemicals released during the train derailment. The proposed settlement (lodged consent decree) between the U.S. and Norfolk Southern includes creating a community health program to provide medical monitoring and mental health services. Groundwater, surface water and drinking water around the scene continue to be regularly sampled, per the EPA.
Atlantic
2 days ago
- Atlantic
How Trump Threw Out the Pandemic Playbook
As of last month, there is no one left in the White House whose sole job is to keep the nation safe from biological threats. The leader of the National Security Council's biosecurity directorate recently resigned. His staff had been pushed out, and his unit is now defunct. The Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, established by Congress in 2022, has dwindled from a staff of about 20 under President Joe Biden to a staff of zero. The Trump administration has said that it's just reorganizing the bureaucracy and is prepared to handle biothreats. But our experience suggests otherwise. Without a leader from the NSC embedded in the White House and ready to coordinate other agencies, more people—including Americans—will get sick and die. We have spent years helping lead the U.S. government's efforts to contain the deadliest biological threats. One of us, Beth Cameron, helped found the NSC's biosecurity office, in 2016—created as a response to a deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa that had begun a couple of years earlier. Ebola is a gruesome, highly contagious disease that causes its victims' organs, blood vessels, and immune cells to fail. The average lethality rate is about 50 percent. That outbreak killed more than 11,000 people across West Africa and cost the U.S. government billions of dollars to help contain. Despite our government's best efforts, 11 cases ultimately reached the U.S., and two were fatal. President Donald Trump terminated the NSC's biosecurity office during his first term, but Biden reestablished it—and just in time. In early February 2021, an ominous email came to the White House from federal health officials: reports of Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The cases were close to the borders of Uganda and Rwanda, major travel hubs for the region. 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One of us, Jon Finer—the principal deputy national security adviser at the time—led a team of senior health and national-security officials from across the government; it met every day to coordinate all of the moving parts, and to keep the president and other senior officials informed. It worked. The disease was entirely contained within the two source countries—no cases reached the U.S.—and 18 people died, a number that could have been exponentially higher. To strengthen our responses to future pandemics, lawmakers soon established the position of a U.S. coordinator for global health security; one of us, Stephanie Psaki, was the first person to hold that job. They also created the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy in the White House. The Trump administration, tasked with upholding the law, is supposed to be staffing these offices. 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The United States is dealing with many biological threats at home and abroad, such as the bird flu and measles—with the latter, America is already facing the worst outbreak in decades. Scientists estimate about a 50–50 chance of another pandemic as severe as the coronavirus occurring in the next 25 years. The probability is even higher for smaller-scale threats, such as periodic Ebola outbreaks. Deadly biothreats are more and more likely to emerge for a range of reasons, including increased interaction between humans and animals, labs without sufficient biosecurity systems, easier public access to the information and technology needed to create or manipulate a bioagent, and continued concerns about the development of biological weapons by nefarious actors. The risk of death and economic disruption is only growing. America rebuilt the system of disease detection and response after the first Trump administration damaged it. That will be harder to do this time around. Far more officials have left the government. Will they be willing to come back, given the degree to which their work has been disparaged and their job security eviscerated? Stopping deadly diseases from reaching the United States is challenging at the best of times. Absent trusting relationships and, truth be told, a fair amount of pressure, affected countries aren't always forthcoming with information. (We dealt with one case that required resorting to threats to withhold U.S. support if the other government didn't share more data about an emerging outbreak.) Health imperatives can collide with political ones, such as when a country has to consider restricting travel. Questions can arise about how much of a vaccine or treatment should be shared with other countries, and how much should be kept at home (if a vaccine or treatment exists at all). But these are all reasonable policy debates that assume the system is basically functioning. In a worst-case scenario, we might not even know about a disease until it has started spreading in a major city with an international airport. With no warning, we will have less ability to stop the disease at its source, and less power, if it reaches our shores, to save American lives. The odds of us facing that scenario have now gone way up. This would be a terrible tragedy, and all the more so because it would be self-inflicted.
Fox News
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- Fox News
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