Anti-Flouride, Pro-Ivermectin Bills Moving Swiftly in Louisiana Legislature Amid MAHA Push + More
Source: Children’s Health Defense
Anti-Flouride, Pro-Ivermectin Bills Moving Swiftly in Louisiana Legislature Amid MAHA Push
Bills to ban fluoride in the state’s public water systems and make Ivermectin available over-the-counter have so far advanced swiftly through the Louisiana Legislature, easily passing the Republican-controlled Senate. The proposed changes are linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who this year was appointed to run the nation’s health department under President Donald Trump.
And they come as some Republican state lawmakers and officials across the country hitch their wagons to Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement. Louisiana Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham, the state’s top public health official and a vocal backer of Kennedy’s health agenda, lobbied for both bills during public testimony before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
The proposed changes are linked to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who this year was appointed to run the nation’s health department under President Donald Trump.
And they come as some Republican state lawmakers and officials across the country hitch their wagons to Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement.
Louisiana Surgeon General Dr. Ralph Abraham, the state’s top public health official and a vocal backer of Kennedy’s health agenda, lobbied for both bills during public testimony before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
Bill That Would Make Vaccine Exemptions Easier Advances in the Texas House
A Republican-backed bill that could make vaccination exemptions easier to obtain in Texas made it out of the House Public Health Committee on Thursday in a 7-6 vote along party lines. If House Bill 1586, authored by state Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Houston, is approved by both chambers of the Legislature, the state’s current exemption form would be downloadable as a pdf, bypassing the need to contact the Texas Department of State Health Services directly and having a form sent to an applicant’s home address.
“This bill is about government efficiency,” Hull said on Monday when she laid out the details before the committee. Several health professionals testified against the bill, citing the state’s current measles outbreak in West Texas as evidence that falling vaccination rates put the entire state at greater risk for infections and disease.
Data shows a consistent rise in interest in obtaining exemptions to vaccines since 2003, when then-state Sen. Craig Estes offered a measure that allowed Texans to claim a conscientious exemption in addition to established exemptions based on medical and religious reasons. Since 2018, the requests to the Texas state health agency for an exemption form have doubled from 45,900 to more than 93,000 in 2024. All requests for exemptions are granted.
HHS Gains Approval Authority Over EPA Grants
All EPA grant opportunities must now be reviewed and approved by the Health and Human Services Department under a new policy.
In an internal email obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News, Elizabeth January, the grants competition advocate in EPA’s grants and debarment office, informed staff of the new Notice of Funding Opportunity process.
“This process change is part of an ongoing effort to align system access with broader government objectives,” January wrote in an email to staffers dated Tuesday.
Instead of EPA staffers having direct access to post opportunities on Grants.gov, a governmentwide website managed by HHS, now EPA “must send the NOFO to an HHS email address for review and posting,” the email says.
Former Air Force Major Who Defied Biden Vaccine Mandate Speaks out, Applauds Hegseth
A 16-year veteran and former Air Force major who voluntarily left the military after she refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccination under President Biden’s 2021 executive order commended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration’s actions to undo the effects of the controversial mandate.
Kacy Dixon, a former intelligence officer and judge advocate officer, was pregnant at the time the Biden administration issued the executive order mandating active duty service members to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “I’ve spent my whole adult life in the military,” Dixon told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “I’ve gotten tons of vaccines, you know, smallpox, anthrax, without really a second thought. But because of my pregnancy, I had second thoughts about [the COVID-19 vaccine].”
While the Centers for Disease Control recommended the vaccine for pregnant women, Dixon said her doctor at the time told her that “because the vaccines had been produced so quickly and were still under emergency use authorization, pregnant women had not been included in the clinical trials.” She ultimately decided against getting the shots.
