R.I. AG spearheads another lawsuit against the Trump administration, this time over CDC grants
Dr. Jerome Larkin, director of the Rhode Island Department of Health, speaks to reporters in a conference room at the office of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha, seen standing behind Larkin. The two state officials held the press event to discuss a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island over recently reversed federal health grants. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha is once again teaming up with his fellow Democratic attorneys general in a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration — this time over grants for post-pandemic health infrastructure that the feds abruptly cancelled last week.
The suit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, is co-led by Neronha and AGs Phil Weiser of Colorado, Rob Bonta of California, Keith Ellison of Minnesota, and Nick Brown of Washington. An additional 17 AGs — plus the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania — are listed as plaintiffs in the suit, which is aimed at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
'The secretary and the president are dead wrong legally,' Neronha told reporters gathered at his offices on South Main Street in Providence.
Under Kennedy's leadership, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is overseen by HHS, ended $11.4 billion nationwide, including about $31 million in Rhode Island, in post-pandemic grants meant to build and maintain public health efforts that will help stave off future pandemics. That includes efforts like vaccination outreach and clinics, laboratory testing, and disease prevention and monitoring.
Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) officials learned about the cuts last week. The grants, previously allocated but still unspent, had expiration dates ranging from May 2025 to July 2026, and supported programs relating to child immunization, epidemiology, and initiatives to strengthen community-based health efforts and lessen health disparities.
Neronha acknowledged that this case was 'not dissimilar' from the other multi-state cases his office has joined against the federal government. One example is the January lawsuit against the Office of Management and Budget also filed in Rhode Island's federal court and also led by Neronha — among the earliest examples of litigative resistance against the Trump administration's avalanche of executive orders and agency directives.
'This administration has been replete with irrational decision making. This is just one context of it,' Neronha said.
But in this case, the endangered funds affect money on which 'literally the health and safety of Rhode Islanders depend,' Neronha said.
The CDC annulled the grants just a few weeks after the fifth anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic. To underline the importance of preventing future outbreaks of the same scale, Neronha painted a landscape for reporters: Providence in 2020, when the streets and bridges were empty, and the traffic basically nonexistent.
'I remember very vividly the absence of people on the highway, the absence of people in Providence,' Neronha recalled. 'I remember getting my nose swabbed in parking garages in Providence, Rhode Island Hospital, and at the train station in Wickford so that I could come to work.'
'The notion that we could shut down our way of life for so long because of a pandemic was unthinkable,' Neronha continued. 'Yet it happened.'
Standing by Neronha's side at the press conference was Dr. Jerome 'Jerry' Larkin, director of the health department. Larkin supplemented Neronha's depiction of life under the pandemic with a more recent example.
'In January, we actually had a very vivid illustration of how public health works,' Larkin said, recounting how an unvaccinated Rhode Island child travelled internationally, 'to a part of the world where measles is common,' and returned with the highly contagious disease as a souvenir — a situation that could have turned catastrophic, if not for the health department's efforts.
'Their diagnosis was made in a timely fashion,' Larkin said. 'Appropriate response was put in place by our healthcare providers, by the Department of Health, that person recovered. Nothing happened.'
Larkin told Rhode Island legislators last week at committee hearings that the HHS memo nullifying the remaining grant money was technical. On Tuesday, he told reporters the dismissal was more like nonsense: 'It's difficult to explain that which defies common sense.'
The lost grants constitute 21% of the state's overall federal funding, Larkin said, which is comparable to the CDC money lost in other states — $81 million in Maine and $87 million in Massachusetts, the doctor offered as examples.
'It has been difficult since January 20 to answer any question related to this administration,' Larkin added.
Neronha said that Trump is pushing the executive branch in an 'authoritarian' direction, by frequently ignoring the powers of Congress to allocate money.
'The fundamental legal problem is what he's doing directly contradicts what the Congress told the president to do, which is to spend this money,' Neronha said. 'That's for you. We pay our federal taxes…to the federal government so that they can protect us from things that we can't protect ourselves from.'
The legal complaint, which is seeking an injunction against HHS according to the 45-page initial court filing, did not have a hearing date scheduled as of Tuesday evening.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Health experts say a little-known form of science denial explains RFK Jr.'s views on vaccines and disease
'He believes that when those two children in Texas died of measles, it wasn't because of measles—it was because they were malnourished. He said they were Advertisement Germ theory, formalized in the 19th century by Louis Pasteur, replaced the once-dominant 'miasma theory,' which held that disease stemmed from foul-smelling air or vapors from rotting organic matter. Pasteur's contemporary and rival, Antoine Béchamp, rejected germ theory in favor of 'terrain theory' — the idea that illness arises not from outside microbes but from internal imbalances in the body. Advertisement Though discredited by modern science, terrain theory still finds adherents among germ theory denialists, including Kennedy, who in his 2021 book 'The Real Anthony Fauci' repeatedly attributes the 20th century's steep decline in infectious disease deaths to improvements in nutrition and sanitation rather than to vaccines. Dr. Kristen Panthagani, a resident physician at Yale and public health communicator, said Kennedy does not deny the existence of microbes outright but reframes their role in illness. 'Instead of saying germs don't exist, they say germs exist but aren't necessarily harmful,' said Panthagani. 'They shift the blame to poor nutrition or other co-morbidities — saying that those are the real causes of disease.' In his book, Kennedy calls for a 'marriage' between germ theory and his version of miasma theory, defined as 'preventing disease by fortifying the immune system through nutrition and by reducing exposures to environmental toxins and stresses.' HHS did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Kennedy or the department's current views on miasma theory. Panthagani said Kennedy creates a false dichotomy between germ theory and the idea that good nutrition and fitness play an important role in keeping people healthy. 'He painted germ theory as this belief that germs are the only cause of bad outcomes in infectious disease ... when there already is a nuanced understanding of how infections work in the medical community,' she said. In his book, Kennedy repeatedly mischaracterizes mainstream medicine as downplaying both the importance of nutrition and physical fitness in whether or not one contracts or survives an infectious disease as well as the positive role that many microbes play in the human body — claims that Panthagani, who wrote her PhD thesis on the human microbiome, says are categorically false. Advertisement 'Yes, good nutrition and exercise are super important and will prevent a whole bunch of diseases,' said Panthagani. 'But they are not guaranteed to stop measles. We also need vaccination.' While most medical professionals reject Kennedy's framing, terrain theory still maintains a foothold in alternative health circles — though not all who espouse it agree with the MAHA movement. Sarah Southerton, a certified 'integrative health practitioner' (but not a medical doctor) and owner of the Minneapolis-based wellness business Healing Masters LLC, which sells coaching sessions and online courses, said, in her view, illness takes hold when the body is 'weakened' — by poor nutrition, environmental toxins, stress, and other internal imbalances — rather than by germs alone. 'Germ theory is just a little too simplistic,' she said, while acknowledging it still has value, in her view. 'It doesn't account for why some people get sick and others don't, even when they're exposed to the same thing.' 'For me, terrain theory includes your thoughts and feelings,' in tandem with biology, she said. 'If you're someone who's always resonating with criticism, judgment, self-pity, jealousy…you're not likely to have good health,' because it puts stress on the body, weakening both the immune system and physical resilience, in Southerton's view. Southerton said her support for scientific research, environmental regulation, vaccine access, and public health infrastructure makes her concerned that MAHA's broad push for deregulation could leave vulnerable Americans more exposed and susceptible to illness — the opposite of the' individualized, informed, and supportive approach to health freedom' she advocates. Advertisement To Offit, Kennedy's current mishandling of this year's measles outbreaks — which have infected more than 1,000 people in 33 states and resulted in the first U.S. pediatric measles death in more than 20 years — exemplifies the dangerous consequences of the HHS Secretary's germ theory denialism. He has downplayed the importance of measles vaccination, Offit said, and repeatedly promoted vitamin A supplements and vitamin A-rich cod liver oil as measures to prevent and treat measles — a message that can be dangerously misleading in the U.S. context. 'The World Health Organization only recommends vitamin A in countries where there's vitamin A deficiency—which is not this country,' said Offit. 'He promoted this to the point that children were 'There's only two ways to develop specific immunity: to be naturally infected or to be vaccinated,' Offit said. 'Healthy people, no matter how healthy they are, can be killed by these viruses and bacteria unless they have specific immunity beforehand.' Understanding Kennedy's germ theory denialism, Offit and Panthagani argue, helps illuminate many of his other beliefs. For example, Kennedy has long argued that vaccines pose greater risks than the diseases they are designed to prevent. After all, why expose oneself to a weakened virus — or trace amounts of heavy metals and other synthetic ingredients — if a properly maintained immune system should offer adequate protection on its own? In its most recent move, HHS Advertisement With this novel strain of germ theory denialism as the basic, false premise of his scientific worldview, Kennedy has poisoned the well of public health discourse—potentially for decades to come, experts said. 'It's bad, and it's only going to get worse. I think the question is: when do we wake up? When do we say, 'This is too much—why should children suffer like this?'' said Offit. Nathan Metcalf can be reached at


Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
MTV VJ Ananda Lewis dead at 52 following lengthy battle with breast cancer
Eight months after opening up about her breast cancer diagnosis, former MTV VJ Ananda Lewis has died at the age of 52. The news of her death comes after Lewis sat down at a CNN roundtable to talk about her initial cancer diagnosis and the decisions she made following receiving that news. Lewis' sister Lakshmi confirmed the news of her death in a June 11 Facebook post. 'She's free, and in His heavenly arms. Lord, rest her soul.' In a 2020 Instagram post, Lewis revealed she was first diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2019, admitting that she had been forgoing her regular mammograms out of a fear of radiation. Additionally, after receiving her diagnosis, Lewis also opted out of undergoing a double mastectomy, a surgery her doctors recommend she endure. Five years later, during her sit down with CNN, published on Oct. 15, Lewis revealed that her cancer had progressed to stage 4. While talking with her friend, CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam, Lewis shared she had some regret for how she handled her original diagnosis in 2019. 'I decided to keep my tumor and try to work it out of my body a different way,' Lewis explained. 'Looking back on that I go, 'Girl, maybe I should've (had the surgery).'' Lewis continued, sharing that she 'was not ready for' all of the 'big things' the doctors were encouraging her to do at the time. 'They wanted to take both (breasts),' she told CNN. Instead, Lewis said she moved forward with chemotherapy treatments and alternative methods, such as improving her mental health, getting more sleep and drinking less alcohol. At the end of every month, Lewis would monitor the cancer's grow with ultrasounds. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that she was told the cancer was spreading. In October 2023. A 'scan showed that I had this kind of up my spine, through my hip, almost everywhere but my brain,' Lewis said. 'I've never been in pain like that in my life.' 'I don't get afraid of things,' Lewis continued. 'I was just like, 'Fudge, man, I really thought I had this.' I was frustrated. I was a little angry at myself.' In an Oct. 16 interview with The New York Times, Lewis explained that she iwas no longer a candidate for surgery or chemotherapy. At the time, she was taking a drug that treats metastatic cancer. 'Those medications are working beautifully for me in combination with the other things I'm doing that help support my body,' she said at the time. 'I'm really thriving right now,' adding that some of the tumors have shrunk so much that they are 'almost undetectable.' 'I wish I could go back,' she said, according to The New York Times. 'It's important for me to admit where I went wrong with this.' As the National Breast Cancer Foundation reports, those diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer have a five-year relative survival rate of 86%. Stage 4 breast cancer, which metastasizes throughout a person's body, is considered incurable, but is treatable. The survival rate for Stage 4 breast cancer in women is 31%.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
COVID-19 Vaccine Maker BioNTech Buys CureVac as It Aims for Cancer Treatments
BioNTech is buying fellow German firm CureVac for approximately $1.25 billion as the COVID-19 vaccine maker moves to expand into cancer treatments. For each CureVac share they own, investors will get about $5.46 worth of BioNTech American Depositary Shares. CureVac is developing cancer medicines using the same mRNA technology that BioNTech uses for its COVID-19 (CVAC) shares skyrocketed 37% Thursday when the biotech company agreed to be bought by COVID-19 vaccine maker and fellow German firm BioNTech (BNTX) in an all-stock deal valued at about $1.25 billion. The purchase boosts BioNTech's move into producing new cancer treatments. CureVac said its investors will receive approximately $5.46 worth of BioNTech American Depositary Shares for each CureVac share they own. That a 34% premium to yesterday's closing price. The company noted it is "developing a novel class of transformative medicines in oncology and infectious diseases based on messenger ribonucleic acid ("mRNA")." BioNTech's COVID-19 shot is also mRNA-based. BioNTech co-founder and CEO Dr. Ugur Sahin said the deal is aimed at "advancing the development of innovative and transformative cancer treatments and establishing new standards of care for various types of cancer in the coming years." The transaction is expected to close this year and would see CureVac's operating subsidiary become a wholly owned subsidiary of BioNTech. Shares of CureVac soared to their highest level since December 2023. U.S.-listed shares of BioNTech were little changed and remain down nearly 8% year-to-date. Read the original article on Investopedia 擷取數據時發生錯誤 登入存取你的投資組合 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤 擷取數據時發生錯誤