Latest news with #NationalVitalStatisticsSystem
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
This U.S. State Was Just Named the Happiest for Retirees
According to a new study, there's one state in particular that has nailed the recipe for happiness. And it's the perfect place for seniors looking to live out their golden years. In late May, released its Senior Happiness Index to determine which places around the U.S. offer the highest chances of finding happiness for older people. To determine the ranking, the team analyzed a number of factors, including the number of senior centers in each state using and normalized the data per 100,000 people. It then determined the percentage of seniors (65 years and older) living alone, which was collected via the U.S. Census American Community Survey (2023), along with an overall senior health ranking taken from America's Health Rankings 2024 Senior Report. Next, it calculated the cost of living index by state using data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, along with the average annual life expectancy at birth from the National Vital Statistics System. Then, it gathered data on the happiest states in the U.S. using a 2024 study by WalletHub and finally assigned each state a score from zero to 10. After looking at all that information, the team named Utah the happiest state of all for seniors. "Utah tops the list with the most content seniors, scoring 7.69 out of 10 thanks to its supportive environment for senior living," the findings noted." Utah was also named the healthiest state for older people in 2024, and it ranks as the third-lowest percentage of those aged 65 and over living alone (21.48 percent), reducing the risk of social isolation." The findings also noted that Utah is among the top five happiest states in general and is a spot where more than two-fifths (44 percent) actively volunteer, which is the highest rate in the nation. "This not only means Utah's aging population is staying connected and involved with their community, but volunteering also contributes significantly to Utah seniors' well-being and happiness," the findings added. Idaho came in a close second with a score of 7.38, thanks to most of its seniors living with others, ensuring fewer people are experiencing loneliness. And as the findings stated, it's a fantastic spot for seniors looking to live an active lifestyle with "30 state parks to explore and proximity to national treasures like Yellowstone." Rounding out the top three is Connecticut, with a score of 7.01, thanks to its strong statistics, including the third-highest average life expectancy, access to health care, and its ranking among the top 10 happiest states overall on WalletHub's rankings. Ready to find more happiness? See the full report and where your state ranks on Read the original article on Travel & Leisure
Politico
27-05-2025
- Health
- Politico
CDC drowning safety team no longer afloat
Presented by With help from Danny Nguyen Driving The Day SAFETY NET GONE — Memorial Day, for many, marks the start of the swimming season. This year, the federal team that tracks drowning incidents and issues public water safety alerts has been disbanded, POLITICO's Sophie Gardner reports. In April, President Donald Trump laid off the team at the CDC responsible for drowning prevention work. Why it matters: That team regularly publicized the latest statistics for U.S. drowning deaths each May to inform families of the risks and also worked with partners like the YMCA and the American Red Cross to enroll at-risk children in swimming lessons. That collaboration has been halted. The cuts come as drowning deaths rose during the pandemic, hitting 4,300 in 2023, the most recent data, compared with around 4,000 in 2019. They rose even more among the youngest children, ages 1 to 4, for whom drowning is the No. 1 cause of death — according to the team's previously published numbers. 'I can't tell you how many media calls we got after that report was released because I think it was a shocking number to people, and they wanted to know what's going on,' said Amy Hill, who works on Chicago's water safety task force, referring to a CDC study released last May. 'When the CDC issues a report like that, people pay attention.' Work halted: States will continue to report drownings through the CDC's National Vital Statistics System, but the data will no longer have a team to analyze it. Two CDC scientists, who spoke with POLITICO on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the team had been close to publishing a handful of reports before the layoffs — including one on drowning deaths among people with autism. 'The way that this was done means that there [were] a lot of taxpayer dollars that were wasted here because there was work already in process,' a CDC official granted anonymity for fear of retribution told POLITICO about the layoffs. 'We could have done it in a way that did not undermine all of this critical work, especially for something like drowning, that literally nobody else is working on.' RFK Jr.'s view: At a Senate hearing on Trump's fiscal 2026 budget proposal Tuesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. broadly defended downsizing federal health agencies as necessary to stem what he described as bureaucratic bloat that occurred during the Biden administration and to restrain the federal deficit. But he wasn't specifically asked about the cuts to the drowning-prevention team. 'The safety and well-being of all Americans — especially our nation's children — is a top priority for HHS and Secretary Kennedy,' the HHS spokesperson told POLITICO in an email. 'The Department is strongly committed to preventing tragic and preventable deaths, including those caused by drowning.' The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question asking for details. WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE. We hope you had a relaxing Memorial Day weekend! I spent it watching the Indy 500 for the first time. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@ and khooper@ and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @Kelhoops. In Congress JOHNSON'S SENATE PLEA — When the Senate returns the first week of June to consider the sweeping megabill passed through the House last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson has a plea for GOP senators: Don't make major changes, POLITICO's Gregory Svirnovskiy reports. 'I encourage them to do their work, of course, as we all anticipate,' Johnson told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday on 'State of the Union.' 'But to make as few modifications to this package as possible, because remembering that we've got to pass it one more time to ratify their changes in the House. And I have a very delicate balance here, very delicate equilibrium that we've reached over a long period of time. And it's best not to meddle with it too much.' Why? Jamming the megabill through the House the first time was a Herculean task for Johnson and his allies in leadership. It required a visit from President Donald Trump to the Capitol and careful negotiating by the speaker to bring the chamber's many coalitions aboard. Doing it a second time — with major changes from the Senate side — could prove impossible. What could change: Key senators are already looking to make modifications, with different factions holding that the bill goes too far in its approach to Medicaid and clean-energy tax credit cuts. Others, such as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), say it doesn't move the ball far enough. Johnson wants to cut spending by roughly $6 trillion instead of the $1.5 trillion in the House bill. 'This is our only chance to reset that to a reasonable pre-pandemic level of spending,' Ron Johnson told Tapper, also on Sunday. 'And again, I think you can do it in the spending that we would eliminate, people wouldn't even notice. But you have to do the work, which takes time.' 'The problem is the math doesn't add up,' Paul told host Shannon Bream on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'They're going to explode the debt by the House says $4 trillion, the Senate's actually been talking about exploding the debt $5 trillion.' MURTHY ON SOCIAL MEDIA — As lawmakers work to push forward the Trump administration's megabill, former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is calling on Congress to implement social media safeguards for children, POLITICO's Amanda Friedman reports. Why it matters: While the sweeping legislative package has implications for immigration, defense and health care, it gave limited attention to online safety or tech regulation. 'It's the equivalent of putting our kids in cars with no seat belts, with no airbags, and having them drive on roads with no speed limits and no traffic lights,' said Murthy, who served under former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, during an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press' that aired Sunday. 'And that is just morally unacceptable. I think Congress has so far failed in its responsibility to protect our kids.' Efforts to establish rules for platforms popular among young people, like TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, have long stalled amid industry lobbying and political gridlock. For a solution, Murthy called on Congress to implement 'real safety standards' for social media platforms, including issuing warning labels so that 'parents and kids are aware of the risks.' Murthy also stressed the importance of increasing data-transparency requirements for platforms, comparing the measure to the historical precedent of auto safety laws. 'Researchers routinely say they can't get the full data about the impact of these platforms on our kids' health from the companies,' Murthy said. 'But just like we did for cars a few decades ago, we'll be putting safety standards that got us seat belts, airbags, crash testing, and those have reduced the number of deaths.' 'But it's not too late,' Murthy said, referring to Congress. 'They need to step up and act now.' Lobbying 3 MUSKETEERS TAKE ON CAPITOL HILL — Mars Incorporated, the company that manufactures M&Ms, Skittles, Snickers and other popular candies, has hired a lobbying firm prominent in Republican circles as the Trump administration weighs crushing regulations on the artificial foods industry, Danny reports. A general disclosure filing shows the group hired the Duberstein Group, a lobbying firm founded by Ken Duberstein, who served as chief of staff to former President Ronald Reagan. The hiring comes as the confectionary industry braces for a crushing blow from the Make America Healthy Again Commission, a brainchild of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which will unveil a regulatory framework to reel in the food and pharma industries that the group accuses of poisoning children and causing a surge in chronic disease. It also comes days after the first MAHA commission report, expected to emphasize the dangers of products used and produced by those sectors, but which barely mentioned those industries. The agrochemical, artificial food and farming industries have emphasized to lawmakers and Kennedy over the past weeks that any regulation could seriously hurt their bottom line. And if the first report is any indication, those lobbying efforts are working. On the Mars ticket are David Schiappa, a former secretary of the Senate Republican minority; Katherine Winkler Keating, a former chief of staff to Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.); Benjamin Howard, the former deputy assistant of legal affairs to President Donald Trump; and Elizabeth Kelley; who was former President Barack Obama's special assistant on economic policy. WHAT WE'RE READING NBC News reports on how artificial intelligence can address medical errors. The Wall Street Journal reports on a study showing that fears about food spoiling could be keeping some people from healthy foods.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Drowning is most common cause of death among youngest Americans. Trump might have just made that worse
Memorial Day cues the start of beach and pool season in the U.S. and this year it is also setting off warnings over cuts to a key facet of public safety tied to summer water fun. With drowning already the most common cause of death for children aged 1 - 4 years old in the U.S., officials are sounding the alarm after the Trump administration laid off the team responsible for tracking and analyzing the fatal incidents. In April, about a third of the staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Injury Center, which included the drowning-prevention unit, lost their jobs. That team also worked with the YMCA and American Red Cross to provide swimming lessons to kids. Now, water safety experts say the loss will mean key data patterns will be missed right at the start of the summer, when more families and children will head to swimming pools, beaches and lakes. 'We're actively pulling away the lifelines and resources that we use to keep our kids safe, and that's really terrifying,' Sharon Gilmartin, executive director of nonprofit Safe States Alliance, told Politico. Drownings will continue to be reported through the agency's National Vital Statistics System, the outlet reports, but there will no longer be a data team to analyze the results. During the pandemic, drowning deaths reached 4,300 compared to around 4,000 in 2019, a startling report last year put out by the agency's drowning-prevention unit found. The report resulted in more media coverage, boosting public awareness about water safety and the risks. 'I can't tell you how many media calls we got after that report was released, because I think it was a shocking number to people, and they wanted to know what's going on,' Amy Hill, an official who works on Chicago's water safety task force, told Politico. 'When the CDC issues a report like that, people pay attention.' The layoffs have also impacted partnerships between the agency and the YMCA and the American Red Cross, who collaborated with the drowning-prevention team on supporting getting at-risk children into swimming lessons, according to the outlet. The Department of Health and Human Services told Politico that the administration was not ending its support for drowning prevention. 'The safety and well-being of all Americans – especially our nation's children – is a top priority for HHS and Secretary Kennedy,' a HHS spokesperson said. 'The Department is strongly committed to preventing tragic and preventable deaths, including those caused by drowning.' Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been questioned by Democrats about other cuts to his department, but so far, he has not been heavily scrutinized for axing the drowning-prevention team. Insiders said that the team had other work in progress that will now go to waste. 'The way that this was done means that there was a lot of taxpayer dollars that were wasted here because there was work already in process,' an anonymous CDC official told Politico. 'We could have done it in a way that did not undermine all of this critical work, especially for something like drowning, that literally nobody else is working on.'
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The pool's open. Trump's laid off the team that helps protect swimmers.
Water safety officials usually spend Memorial Day weekend warning families that more toddlers die from drowning than any other cause. This year, fewer people will know about the risk. In April, President Donald Trump laid off the team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responsible for tracking and publicizing drownings. That team also worked with partners like the YMCA and the American Red Cross to get at-risk children into swimming lessons. That collaboration has halted. The cuts come at a perilous moment. Drowning deaths rose during the pandemic, hitting 4,300 in 2023, the most recent data, compared to around 4,000 in 2019. They rose even more among the youngest children, ages 1 to 4, for whom drowning is the No. 1 cause of death — numbers published by the soon-to-be-terminated team. 'I can't tell you how many media calls we got after that report was released, because I think it was a shocking number to people, and they wanted to know what's going on,' said Amy Hill, who works on Chicago's water safety task force, referring to a CDC study released last May. 'When the CDC issues a report like that, people pay attention.' States will continue to report drownings through the CDC's National Vital Statistics System, but the data will no longer have a team to analyze it. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the Trump administration was not ending its support for drowning prevention efforts and that HHS would continue to support them. Besides the risk to toddlers, the report showed that drowning was one of the three leading causes of death by unintentional injury among people 5 to 34 years old. It also laid bare disparities in drowning deaths, with the highest rates among American Indian, Alaska Native and Black people. Without the team's data, federal officials, water safety experts and medical professionals told POLITICO they worry that key patterns in drowning deaths will go unnoticed. States continue to receive millions in CDC grants for water safety measures, but the agency's leaders are telling staff to prepare for those to go away, too. 'We're actively pulling away the lifelines and resources that we use to keep our kids safe, and that's really terrifying,' said Sharon Gilmartin, executive director of the Safe States Alliance, a non-profit association of injury and violence prevention professionals. The loss of the drowning-prevention team is one that water safety advocates fear will have a direct impact on children's safety. But it's largely gone unaddressed by Democrats as they press Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on other cuts to his department. At a Senate hearing on Trump's fiscal 2026 budget proposal Tuesday, Kennedy broadly defended downsizing federal health agencies as necessary to stem what he described as bureaucratic bloat that occurred during the Biden administration and to restrain the federal deficit. But he was not asked specifically about the cuts to the drowning-prevention team. 'The safety and well-being of all Americans – especially our nation's children – is a top priority for HHS and Secretary Kennedy,' the HHS spokesperson told POLITICO in an email. 'The Department is strongly committed to preventing tragic and preventable deaths, including those caused by drowning.' The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question about how HHS would support those efforts. Some researchers have speculated that the increase is a result of the Covid-19 pandemic — when fewer lifeguards were on duty and swimming lessons weren't available because of lockdown guidance — a theory that, without additional reports from the CDC, will remain untested. On Tuesday, Kennedy pointed to America's poor health outcomes, despite Biden-era funding levels, as evidence to justify the proposed cuts. But some of his own staffers disagree. 'The way that this was done means that there was a lot of taxpayer dollars that were wasted here because there was work already in process,' a CDC official granted anonymity for fear of retribution told POLITICO about the layoffs. 'We could have done it in a way that did not undermine all of this critical work, especially for something like drowning, that literally nobody else is working on.' The national numbers, officials said, weren't just used to get the public to pay attention. It also told entities that work on drowning prevention where to focus. Hill told POLITICO that Chicago sees especially high drowning numbers because of its proximity to Lake Michigan — which was the site of more than 50 drowning deaths in 2024. 'We use [CDC data] to plan our own programming,' Hill told POLITICO, noting that without the reports, it will be more difficult to figure out how to 'reach the right people.' The CDC's drowning team was part of the agency's Injury Center, which lost about a third of its staff amid layoffs in April. 'CDC Injury Center is like our North Star in injury prevention,' said Hill, who also serves as director of unintentional injury prevention programs at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Trump's budget request would nix the entire center — which also tracks domestic violence, suicides, car crashes and overdoses — labeling it one of several duplicative or unnecessary departments. Much of the center's work on domestic violence tracking and prevention is mandated by law. As of mid-May, the funding that the center sends states to help them with their own drowning prevention work is still intact. But CDC leaders are warning, according to the CDC official, to plan for the grants to be eliminated as well. 'That is sort of another level of devastation,' the official said. Ryan Greenstein, a water safety advocacy program manager at YMCA of Metro Atlanta, said that the YMCA gets money from CDC to fund its safety around water program and offer free survival classes in areas of the city where people are not likely to get swimming lessons. Greenstein's YMCA joined with Georgia's other YMCAs last month to send a letter to the state's congressional delegation, urging them to help reverse the cuts to the CDC's drowning work and warning that, 'without the data and best practices from the CDC Injury Center, Georgians are at increased risk of death' every time they swim in the state. 'And as far as anyone knows — including people who have been here much longer than me — that's the first time we've ever done a letter, as an alliance, to Congress on a federal issue,' Greenstein told POLITICO. 'This is a big issue for us.' Hill noted that the lack of national data could inhibit localities ability to get grants for drowning prevention from outside the CDC as well, because 'any grant that you write starts with the needs statement.' Two CDC scientists, who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, detailed the drowning prevention work that was left unfinished when the drowning team was placed on administrative leave. In addition to planning to update the agency's website with more recent federal data on drowning deaths this spring, the team was also analyzing emergency department data to better understand the ramifications of non-fatal drowning. The other scientist said that they had been close to publishing data on drowning deaths of children with autism spectrum disorder. A project analyzing a novel data source to find out more information on drowning risk factors was about halfway done, and all of the team's work with external partners — including the YMCA, American Red Cross, and Safe States Alliance — was abruptly halted. 'This work that we were doing to try and understand how to increase engagement among people who have higher rates of drowning — I think that might stop, and that's really unfortunate, because those kids need swim lessons,' the first scientist said.
Politico
26-05-2025
- Health
- Politico
The pool's open. Trump's laid off the team that helps protect swimmers.
Water safety officials usually spend Memorial Day weekend warning families that more toddlers die from drowning than any other cause. This year, fewer people will know about the risk. In April, President Donald Trump laid off the team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responsible for tracking and publicizing drownings. That team also worked with partners like the YMCA and the American Red Cross to get at-risk children into swimming lessons. That collaboration has halted. The cuts come at a perilous moment. Drowning deaths rose during the pandemic, hitting 4,300 in 2023, the most recent data, compared to around 4,000 in 2019. They rose even more among the youngest children, ages 1 to 4, for whom drowning is the No. 1 cause of death — numbers published by the soon-to-be-terminated team. 'I can't tell you how many media calls we got after that report was released, because I think it was a shocking number to people, and they wanted to know what's going on,' said Amy Hill, who works on Chicago's water safety task force, referring to a CDC study released last May. 'When the CDC issues a report like that, people pay attention.' States will continue to report drownings through the CDC's National Vital Statistics System, but the data will no longer have a team to analyze it. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the Trump administration was not ending its support for drowning prevention efforts and that HHS would continue to support them. Besides the risk to toddlers, the report showed that drowning was one of the three leading causes of death by unintentional injury among people 5 to 34 years old. It also laid bare disparities in drowning deaths, with the highest rates among American Indian, Alaska Native and Black people. Without the team's data, federal officials, water safety experts and medical professionals told POLITICO they worry that key patterns in drowning deaths will go unnoticed. States continue to receive millions in CDC grants for water safety measures, but the agency's leaders are telling staff to prepare for those to go away, too. 'We're actively pulling away the lifelines and resources that we use to keep our kids safe, and that's really terrifying,' said Sharon Gilmartin, executive director of the Safe States Alliance, a non-profit association of injury and violence prevention professionals. The loss of the drowning-prevention team is one that water safety advocates fear will have a direct impact on children's safety. But it's largely gone unaddressed by Democrats as they press Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on other cuts to his department. At a Senate hearing on Trump's fiscal 2026 budget proposal Tuesday, Kennedy broadly defended downsizing federal health agencies as necessary to stem what he described as bureaucratic bloat that occurred during the Biden administration and to restrain the federal deficit. But he was not asked specifically about the cuts to the drowning-prevention team. 'The safety and well-being of all Americans – especially our nation's children – is a top priority for HHS and Secretary Kennedy,' the HHS spokesperson told POLITICO in an email. 'The Department is strongly committed to preventing tragic and preventable deaths, including those caused by drowning.' The spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question about how HHS would support those efforts. Some researchers have speculated that the increase is a result of the Covid-19 pandemic — when fewer lifeguards were on duty and swimming lessons weren't available because of lockdown guidance — a theory that, without additional reports from the CDC, will remain untested. On Tuesday, Kennedy pointed to America's poor health outcomes, despite Biden-era funding levels, as evidence to justify the proposed cuts. But some of his own staffers disagree. 'The way that this was done means that there was a lot of taxpayer dollars that were wasted here because there was work already in process,' a CDC official granted anonymity for fear of retribution told POLITICO about the layoffs. 'We could have done it in a way that did not undermine all of this critical work, especially for something like drowning, that literally nobody else is working on.' The national numbers, officials said, weren't just used to get the public to pay attention. It also told entities that work on drowning prevention where to focus. Hill told POLITICO that Chicago sees especially high drowning numbers because of its proximity to Lake Michigan — which was the site of more than 50 drowning deaths in 2024. 'We use [CDC data] to plan our own programming,' Hill told POLITICO, noting that without the reports, it will be more difficult to figure out how to 'reach the right people.' The CDC's drowning team was part of the agency's Injury Center, which lost about a third of its staff amid layoffs in April. 'CDC Injury Center is like our North Star in injury prevention,' said Hill, who also serves as director of unintentional injury prevention programs at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Trump's budget request would nix the entire center — which also tracks domestic violence, suicides, car crashes and overdoses — labeling it one of several duplicative or unnecessary departments. Much of the center's work on domestic violence tracking and prevention is mandated by law. As of mid-May, the funding that the center sends states to help them with their own drowning prevention work is still intact. But CDC leaders are warning, according to the CDC official, to plan for the grants to be eliminated as well. 'That is sort of another level of devastation,' the official said. Ryan Greenstein, a water safety advocacy program manager at YMCA of Metro Atlanta, said that the YMCA gets money from CDC to fund its safety around water program and offer free survival classes in areas of the city where people are not likely to get swimming lessons. Greenstein's YMCA joined with Georgia's other YMCAs last month to send a letter to the state's congressional delegation, urging them to help reverse the cuts to the CDC's drowning work and warning that, 'without the data and best practices from the CDC Injury Center, Georgians are at increased risk of death' every time they swim in the state. 'And as far as anyone knows — including people who have been here much longer than me — that's the first time we've ever done a letter, as an alliance, to Congress on a federal issue,' Greenstein told POLITICO. 'This is a big issue for us.' Hill noted that the lack of national data could inhibit localities ability to get grants for drowning prevention from outside the CDC as well, because 'any grant that you write starts with the needs statement.' Two CDC scientists, who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, detailed the drowning prevention work that was left unfinished when the drowning team was placed on administrative leave. In addition to planning to update the agency's website with more recent federal data on drowning deaths this spring, the team was also analyzing emergency department data to better understand the ramifications of non-fatal drowning. The other scientist said that they had been close to publishing data on drowning deaths of children with autism spectrum disorder. A project analyzing a novel data source to find out more information on drowning risk factors was about halfway done, and all of the team's work with external partners — including the YMCA, American Red Cross, and Safe States Alliance — was abruptly halted. 'This work that we were doing to try and understand how to increase engagement among people who have higher rates of drowning — I think that might stop, and that's really unfortunate, because those kids need swim lessons,' the first scientist said.
