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Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
RFK Jr. says healthy pregnant women don't need COVID boosters. What the science says
You're pregnant, healthy and hearing mixed messages: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is not a scientist or doctor, says you don't need the COVID vaccine, but experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Protection still put you in a high-risk group of people who ought to receive boosters. The science is on the side of the shots. Pregnant women who contracted COVID-19 were more likely to become severely ill and to be hospitalized than non-pregnant women of the same age and demographics, especially early in the COVID pandemic. A meta-analysis of 435 studies found that pregnant and recently pregnant women who were infected with the virus that causes COVID were more likely to end up in intensive care units, be on invasive ventilation, and die than women who weren't pregnant but had a similar health profile. This was before COVID vaccines were available. Neil Silverman, a professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and the director of the Infectious Diseases in Pregnancy Program at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said he still sees more bad outcomes in pregnant patients who have COVID. The risk of severe COVID fluctuated as new variants arose and vaccinations became available, Silverman said, but the threat is still meaningful. "No matter what the politics say, the science is the science, and we know that, objectively, pregnant patients are at substantially increased risk of having complications," Silverman said. A request for comment regarding the scientific literature that supports COVID vaccination for pregnant women sent to HHS' public affairs office elicited an unsigned email unrelated to the question. The office did not respond when asked for an on-the-record comment. Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist before joining the Trump administration, announced May 27 that COVID vaccines would be removed from the CDC's immunization schedule for healthy pregnant women and healthy children. His announcement, made in a video posted on the social media platform X, blindsided CDC officials and circumvented the agency's established, scientific processes for adding and removing shots from its recommended schedules, The Washington Post reported. There's still much unknown about how COVID affects a pregnant person. The physiological relationship between COVID infections and mothers and fetuses at different stages of a pregnancy is complex, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan. The increased risk to pregnant patients comes in part because pregnancy changes the immune system, Rasmussen said. "There is natural immune suppression so that the mother's body doesn't attack the developing fetus," Rasmussen said. "While the mother does still have a functioning immune system, it's not functioning at full capacity." Pregnant patients are more likely to get sick and have a harder time fighting off any infection as a result. In addition to changing how the immune system works, being pregnant also makes women five times as likely to have blood clots. That risk is increased if they contract COVID, said Sallie Permar, chair of pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine. The virus that causes COVID can affect the vascular endothelium - specialized cells that line blood vessels and help with blood flow, Rasmussen said. In a healthy person, the endothelium helps prevent blood clots by producing chemicals that tweak the vascular system to keep it running. In a person infected with the COVID virus, the balance is thrown off and the production of those molecules is disrupted, which research shows can lead to blood clots or other blood disorders. Permar said that those clots can be especially dangerous to both pregnant women and fetuses. Inflammation and blood clots in the placenta could be connected to an increased risk of stillbirth, especially from certain COVID variants, according to studies published in major medical journals as well as by the CDC. When the placenta is inflamed, it's harder for blood carrying oxygen and nutrients to get to the developing baby, said Mary Prahl, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine. "If anything is interrupting those functions - inflammation or clotting or differences in how the blood is flowing - that's really going to affect how the placenta is working and being able to allow the fetus to grow and develop appropriately," she said. It makes sense that we see the effects of COVID in the placenta, Silverman said. "The placenta is nothing more than a hyper-specialized collection of blood vessels, so it is like a magnetic target for the virus." Blood vessels in the placenta are smaller and may clot more easily than in the mother's circulatory system, he said. Permar said recent data suggests that pregnant women sick with COVID still have a higher risk of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia, preterm birth, and miscarriage, even with existing immunity from previous infection or vaccination. COVID, she said, can still land women in the hospital with pregnancy complications. Prahl said the connection between stillbirth and COVID may be changing given the immunity many people have developed from vaccination or prior infection. It's an area in which she'd like to see more research. There's already strong evidence that both mRNA-based and non-mRNA COVID vaccines are safe for pregnant women. Prahl co-authored a small, early study that found no adverse outcomes and showed antibody protection persisted for both the mother and the baby after birth. "What we learned very quickly is that pregnant individuals want answers and many of them want to be involved in research," she said. Later studies, including one published in the journal Nature Medicine showing that getting a booster in pregnancy cut newborn hospitalizations in the first four months of life, backed up her team's findings. Prahl expects more evidence will be available soon to support the benefits of mothers receiving a COVID booster during pregnancy. "I can say, kind of behind the scenes, I'm seeing a lot of this preliminary data," she said. She blames the delay in part on the Biden administration's scaling back of federal efforts to track COVID. "A lot of the surveillance of these data were pulled back," she said. The Trump administration is further cutting money used to track COVID. But because the vaccines give a pregnant woman's immune system a boost by increasing neutralizing antibodies, virologist Rasmussen is confident that getting one while pregnant makes it less likely a pregnant woman will end up in the hospital if she gets COVID. "It will protect the pregnant person from more severe disease," she said. Getting a COVID vaccine while pregnant also helps protect newborns after birth. Pregnant women who get vaccinated pass that protection to their young babies, who can't get their own shots until they are at least 6 months old. According to data released by the CDC in 2024, nearly 90% of babies who had to be hospitalized with COVID had mothers who didn't get the vaccine while they were pregnant. As recently as April 2024, research showed that babies too young to be vaccinated had the highest COVID hospitalization rate of any age group except people 75 and older. The Trump administration's decision to remove the COVID vaccine from the list of shots it recommends for pregnant women means insurance companies might no longer cover it. Pregnant women who want to get it anyway may have to pay hundreds of dollars out-of-pocket. "I don't want to be that doctor who just says, 'Well, it's really important. You have to vaccinate yourself and your kids no matter what, even if you have to pay for it out-of-pocket,' because everyone has their own priorities and budgetary concerns, especially in the current economic climate," Silverman said. "I can't tell a family that the vaccine is more important than feeding their kids." But he and his colleagues will keep advising pregnant women to try to get the shots anyway. "Newborns will be completely naive to COVID exposure," he said. "Vaccinating pregnant women to protect their newborns is still a valid reason to continue this effort." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
The Hill
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Hill
HHS reinstates fired workers responsible for coal miner health protection
The Centers for Disease Control and Protection has reinstated nearly 200 workers who screen coal miners for black lung, an incurable progressive disease caused by long-term exposure to coal dust, following a federal judge's order Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger issued a preliminary injunction halting the firings at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program. Berger ordered the 'full restoration' of services for the program, which is congressionally mandated by the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. The program offers health screenings for miners and allows researchers to identify disease trends across the nation. Miners who are diagnosed with black lung can transfer to a different part of the mine without a pay cut, under a provision called a Part 90 waiver. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday confirmed the. workers had been rehired. 'I reinstated 328 employees at NIOSH,' Kennedy said during a House Appropriations Committee hearing. 'A little over a third of them were in Morgantown, about a third were in Cincinnati and then the World Trade Center group, I also reinstated.' The program's employees were among the thousands of federal health workers put on administrative leave on April 1, with termination effective June 2, as part of HHS's reorganization effort. Berger found that there 'is no dispute' that the congressionally mandated services are not currently being offered, 'and there is no testimony or plan offered explaining how they will resume. The only reasoning for their actions put forth by the Defendants is an effort to streamline efficiencies.' The case is a class action lawsuit brought by a veteran coal miner named Henry Wiley who argued the terminations endangered him and other miners. Berger wrote if the dismissals were allowed to go forward, 'thousands of miners will go without screening for black lung, and those with black lung will be deprived of access to the Part 90 transfer option.' Halting research that helps ensure effective, targeted, and efficient preventative measures 'harms the public both by increasing the prevalence of black lung and by increasing the costs of preventative measures and of treatment and benefits,' Berger wrote.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
An unvaccinated minor is Indiana's first measles case this year
A map from the Centers for Disease Control and Protection documenting active measles cases as of April 3, 2025. The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) is reporting the first laboratory-confirmed case of measles in Indiana this year. The case is in an unvaccinated minor in Allen County, and state and local public health officials are reportedly working together to confirm any additional cases. The patient is stable and recovering, and officials said no other information will be released to protect patient privacy. This is the first case in Indiana since measles was confirmed in a Lake County resident in early 2024. CONTACT US Across the Ohio border, over a dozen people have contracted the highly infectious virus — including one most recently in Allen County, Ohio. Neighboring Kentucky has also reported a small number of cases. As of April 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported a total of 607 confirmed cases in 22 jurisdictions across the United States, though the risk to the general public is low. Because measles is so easily spread, a single case is considered an outbreak, the state health agency said. When infected people sneeze or cough, droplets spray into the air. Those droplets remain in the air and on surfaces for up to two hours. More than 93% of people who receive a single dose of MMR will develop immunity to measles, and more than 97 percent will be protected after receiving a second dose. Two doses of the vaccine are needed to be fully protected. Individuals are encouraged to check with their healthcare providers to ensure vaccinations are up to date. Individuals born before 1957 are presumed to be immune to measles. Children are routinely vaccinated for measles at 12-15 months, and again at 4-6 years of age before going to kindergarten. Children as young as 6 months old can receive the measles vaccine if they are at risk. Measles begins with a fever, cough, runny nose and red eyes roughly seven to 14 days after exposure, though symptoms can emerge up to three weeks later. Fevers can reach up to 105 degrees but one of the earliest signs are Koplik spots, or tiny white bumps inside of the mouth. Following that, a rash may form along the hairline and on the face before spreading down the back and torso and to the limbs. After about five days, the rash typically fades in the same order. The state health department urges Hoosiers experiencing symptoms to stay home and call their health provider before going to the doctor's office. Those with the measles should stay home and away from others, especially vulnerable populations like unvaccinated infants, people who are immunocompromised and pregnant women. To learn more, visit the IDOH website or the CDC website. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
USA Today
03-04-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Her daughter died after buying drugs online. She wants every parent to hear her story.
Her daughter died after buying drugs online. She wants every parent to hear her story. Show Caption Hide Caption On the frontlines of the fentanyl crisis, is Naloxone the answer? Deaths from synthetic opioids are falling. What's behind the promising trend? Growing up, Massachusetts teen Becca Schmill loved reading. She would often stay up past her bedtime reading a 'Harry Potter' book with a flashlight. Her mother Deb Schmill says that changed when smartphones entered the picture. She described Becca and her teenage peers as always having their phones in hand, unable to pull away from them at the family's Passover Seder or while at a group hangout with friends. Years later, Becca used that same smartphone to purchase drugs from dealers on social media. On September 16, 2020, the 18-year-old died from drug poisoning after ingesting fentanyl-laced cocaine she bought from a dealer she found on Facebook. Now, Schmill is raising awareness about the dangers of social media, which played a role in the traumatic rape and cyberbullying that led Becca to experiment with drugs in the first place. The family's Becca Schmill foundation advocates for policies that protect young adults online. 'She used to describe having an emptiness inside her, and she didn't know how to fill it' At 15, Becca and her friends joined an online party chat with senior students from a neighboring high school. There, she began chatting with a boy who later raped her during an in-person encounter. The traumatic experience was the start of a spiral that ultimately ended in Becca's death. She was cyberbullied that spring on Snapchat and within the next year started experimenting with drugs to ease her pain. The family tried to get her back on track. They attended family counseling and enrolled Becca in two intensive outpatient programs, and while the treatment seemed to work temporarily, Becca's struggles always managed to resurface. 'She used to describe having an emptiness inside her, and she didn't know how to fill it,' Schmill says. 'These programs are two, three weeks, and then that's it. She'd be OK for a month or two, and then it would start all over again.' It started with marijuana, xanax and pills from friends, but turned into abuse of oxycodone, percocet and cocaine aided by a network of easily-accessible dealers on social media that enabled her to find substances with a quick search on Snapchat or Facebook. Survivors of sexual violence are more likely to abuse substances like alcohol and drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. Victims may look toward substances to numb pain, due to confusion about their experience, or from fear family and friends won't understand the assault, according to the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). More: Social media took my daughter from me. As a parent, I'm fighting back. Some dealers use emoji codes to sell drugs on social media Most of the drug use happened under Schmill's nose. Becca got good grades and grew interested in psychology, a field she wanted to study at the University of Richmond. She worked jobs at an ice cream shop and a pizza parlor, though Schmill now suspects those paychecks may have gone toward her drug use. Throughout it all, Schmill says Becca kept her sense of humor and compartmentalized what had happened. If the topic turned personal, that was when she would 'become hardened and jaded.' Schmill didn't know the extent of the problem until January of 2020, when Becca was caught using cocaine in the school bathroom. Over the next six months, she bounced in and out of adult treatment in three different residential treatment centers at the start of the pandemic. Drugs are becoming increasingly accessible on social media, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In 2021, the agency investigated more than 80 cases of drug trafficking that occurred on internet apps. Teens can easily locate drugs on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, where drug traffickers often make advertisements in disappearing 24-hours posts, according to the DEA. These traffickers often use code words and emojis to avoid being detected by law enforcement or censored by platform guidelines. Buying and selling drugs is prohibited on Meta-owned platform like Facebook, according to a Meta spokesperson. In November 2023, Meta introduced a stricter policy to address the sale of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin on its platform and in 2024 introduced teen accounts that automatically turn on safety protections for users under 18. 'Every parent needs to know' The DEA outlined the issue in its One Pill Can Kill public awareness campaign with a poster titled 'Emoji Drug Code: Decoded,' that features common emoji codes for drugs including percocet, oxycodone, xanax, adderall, MDMA, meth, heroine, cocaine, mushrooms and marijuana. 'It was frictionless, because you get on, you find a drug dealer, they'll either have it sent to you, have someone drive it to you, or you meet them somewhere, and it's pretty easy to get whatever you want, whenever you want,' Schmill says. Fentanyl has become a key player in adolescent overdoses like Becca's. From July 2019 to December of 2021, the CDC tracked that 84% of teen fatal overdoses involved illicitly manufactured fentanyl and counterfeit pills were present in 25% of deaths. 'It can happen to anybody, and particularly in today's world,' Schmill says. 'Every parent needs to know about fentanyl, and they need to talk to their kids about fentanyl.' One of Schmill's coping mechanisms since her daughter's death has been advocating for policy change through the family's foundation, which supports bell-to-bell phone free schools. She traveled back and forth from Massachusetts to D.C. monthly throughout 2024 and from more than a dozen lawmakers to lobby for passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, which was killed by the House GOP. It would have required social media companies to show that they are taking "reasonable measures" to protect minors from harms online including content promoting suicide, violence, bullying, eating disorders, sexual abuse, drug use and mental health issues. The bill also would have allowed teens to opt-out of algorithmic recommendations. Schmill says maintaining open communication with teens is the most important advice she has for other parents. She wants parents to know that social media has changed the landscape for teens to access substances, and that there is no such thing as safe drug experimentation because of fentanyl. 'Parents need to know that no prescription pill that did not come directly from the drug store is safe,' Schmill says. Rachel Hale's role covering youth mental health at USA TODAY is funded by a grant from Pivotal Ventures. Pivotal Ventures does not provide editorial input. Reach her at rhale@ and @rachelleighhale on X.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Yahoo
Her daughter died after buying drugs online. She wants every parent to hear her story.
Growing up, Massachusetts teen Becca Schmill loved reading. She would often stay up past her bedtime reading a 'Harry Potter' book with a flashlight. Her mother Deb Schmill says that changed when smartphones entered the picture. She described Becca and her teenage peers as always having their phones in hand, unable to pull away from them at the family's Passover Seder or while at a group hangout with friends. Years later, Becca used that same smartphone to purchase drugs from dealers on social media. On September 16, 2020, the 18-year-old died from drug poisoning after ingesting fentanyl-laced cocaine she bought from a dealer she found on Facebook. Now, Schmill is raising awareness about the dangers of social media, which played a role in the traumatic rape and cyberbullying that led Becca to experiment with drugs in the first place. The family's Becca Schmill foundation advocates for policies that protect young adults online. At 15, Becca and her friends joined an online party chat with senior students from a neighboring high school. There, she began chatting with a boy who later raped her during an in-person encounter. The traumatic experience was the start of a spiral that ultimately ended in Becca's death. She was cyberbullied that spring on Snapchat and within the next year started experimenting with drugs to ease her pain. The family tried to get her back on track. They attended family counseling and enrolled Becca in two intensive outpatient programs, and while the treatment seemed to work temporarily, Becca's struggles always managed to resurface. 'She used to describe having an emptiness inside her, and she didn't know how to fill it,' Schmill says. 'These programs are two, three weeks, and then that's it. She'd be OK for a month or two, and then it would start all over again.' It started with marijuana, xanax and pills from friends, but turned into abuse of oxycodone, percocet and cocaine aided by a network of easily-accessible dealers on social media that enabled her to find substances with a quick search on Snapchat or Facebook. Survivors of sexual violence are more likely to abuse substances like alcohol and drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Protection. Victims may look toward substances to numb pain, due to confusion about their experience, or from fear family and friends won't understand the assault, according to the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization, RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). More: Social media took my daughter from me. As a parent, I'm fighting back. Most of the drug use happened under Schmill's nose. Becca got good grades and grew interested in psychology, a field she wanted to study at the University of Richmond. She worked jobs at an ice cream shop and a pizza parlor, though Schmill now suspects those paychecks may have gone toward her drug use. Throughout it all, Schmill says Becca kept her sense of humor and compartmentalized what had happened. If the topic turned personal, that was when she would 'become hardened and jaded.' Schmill didn't know the extent of the problem until January of 2020, when Becca was caught using cocaine in the school bathroom. Over the next six months, she bounced in and out of adult treatment in three different residential treatment centers at the start of the pandemic. Drugs are becoming increasingly accessible on social media, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In 2021, the agency investigated more than 80 cases of drug trafficking that occurred on internet apps. Teens can easily locate drugs on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, where drug traffickers often make advertisements in disappearing 24-hours posts, according to the DEA. These traffickers often use code words and emojis to avoid being detected by law enforcement or censored by platform guidelines. Buying and selling drugs is prohibited on Meta-owned platform like Facebook, according to a Meta spokesperson. In November 2023, Meta introduced a stricter policy to address the sale of fentanyl, cocaine and heroin on its platform and in 2024 introduced teen accounts that automatically turn on safety protections for users under 18. The DEA outlined the issue in its One Pill Can Kill public awareness campaign with a poster titled 'Emoji Drug Code: Decoded,' that features common emoji codes for drugs including percocet, oxycodone, xanax, adderall, MDMA, meth, heroine, cocaine, mushrooms and marijuana. 'It was frictionless, because you get on, you find a drug dealer, they'll either have it sent to you, have someone drive it to you, or you meet them somewhere, and it's pretty easy to get whatever you want, whenever you want,' Schmill says. Fentanyl has become a key player in adolescent overdoses like Becca's. From July 2019 to December of 2021, the CDC tracked that 84% of teen fatal overdoses involved illicitly manufactured fentanyl and counterfeit pills were present in 25% of deaths. 'It can happen to anybody, and particularly in today's world,' Schmill says. 'Every parent needs to know about fentanyl, and they need to talk to their kids about fentanyl.' One of Schmill's coping mechanisms since her daughter's death has been advocating for policy change through the family's foundation, which supports bell-to-bell phone free schools. She traveled back and forth from Massachusetts to D.C. monthly throughout 2024 and from more than a dozen lawmakers to lobby for passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, which was killed by the House GOP. It would have required social media companies to show that they are taking "reasonable measures" to protect minors from harms online including content promoting suicide, violence, bullying, eating disorders, sexual abuse, drug use and mental health issues. The bill also would have allowed teens to opt-out of algorithmic recommendations. Schmill says maintaining open communication with teens is the most important advice she has for other parents. She wants parents to know that social media has changed the landscape for teens to access substances, and that there is no such thing as safe drug experimentation because of fentanyl. 'Parents need to know that no prescription pill that did not come directly from the drug store is safe,' Schmill says. Rachel Hale's role covering youth mental health at USA TODAY is funded by a grant from Pivotal Ventures. Pivotal Ventures does not provide editorial input. Reach her at rhale@ and @rachelleighhale on X. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 18-year-old's death after buying drugs online highlights dangers
