Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
FDA says its safety review of abortion pill will continue into next year
WASHINGTON | The Food and Drug Administration says its ongoing safety review of the nation’s main abortion pill will continue into next year, a timeline that was quickly condemned by abortion opponents hoping to see the drug’s use curtailed. The FDA gave a court-ordered update on its progress in a legal filing late Wednesday, providing […]
Rural MAHA followers say Trump hasn’t improved health of their communities, an AP-KFF poll finds
WASHINGTON | About half of rural voters identify with Make America Healthy Again, a sprawling political movement championed by the Trump administration, but most said President Donald Trump’s healthcare policies have not benefited their communities, according to a new poll from The Associated Press in partnership with KFF. About 8 in 10 rural voters — […]
CDC vaccine policy recommendations grind to a halt under Health Secretary Kennedy
NEW YORK | The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new flu vaccine that tested well in older adults. But the federal agency responsible for telling doctors and the general public how to use it has made no recommendation on it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s inaction on the mFlusiva vaccine marks […]
Kennedy tells anti-vaccine activists they have a friend in Trump’s White House
WASHINGTON | Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote address Thursday at a conference of an anti-vaccine activist group he once chaired, telling the hundreds in attendance that they had a friend in President Donald Trump’s White House. It was Kennedy’s first time appearing at the Children’s Health Defense conference […]
Trump surgeon general nominee Saphier gets GOP grilling over childhood vaccines
WASHINGTON | Dr. Nicole Saphier, President Donald Trump’s third surgeon general nominee, was grilled at her Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday about her stance on childhood vaccines, voicing support for immunization as she seeks to serve in an administration that has moved to make sweeping changes to vaccine guidance. Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News […]
Colorado sues Trump administration over Medicaid gender-affirming care ban
This story was first published at Colorado Newsline. DENVER | Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser sued the Trump administration Wednesday over its attempt to prohibit states from using federal Medicaid funds for gender-affirming healthcare. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts alongside other Democratic-led states, says the U.S. Department of Health and […]
Exclusive: RFK Jr. said a Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines. New documents refute that
NEW YORK | Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly told lawmakers who held the key to his confirmation last year that a 2019 visit to Samoa before a deadly measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines.”New documents obtained by The Associated Press and The Guardian refute that testimony. Kennedy, then a prominent anti-vaccine […]
EDITORIAL: Treacherous anti-vax bilge in Colorado, everywhere endangers all our future
The return to school and a potential public health disaster last week in Pennsylvania underscore why Colorado must end its perilous philosophical exemption to mandatory immunization. Two unvaccinated Pennsylvania “residents” died after being infected with measles, the first U.S. deaths this year related to the contagious virus, the Associated Press reported this week. The state […]
US school vaccination rates inch down yet again and exemptions reach record high
NEW YORK | U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Monday. The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.2%, up from 3.6% the year before. That’s an estimated 155,000 children nationally during the […]
Trump’s vaccine plan would require millions of individual shots last used decades ago
WASHINGTON | Public health experts have been quick to condemn an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S., but the biggest obstacles may be the unprecedented financial and logistical challenges it would impose on parents, health providers and drugmakers. Monday’s announcement by the Republican president calls for separating […]