Court to Decide if W.Va. Students Can Refuse Vaccinations + More
Source: Children’s Health Defense
Court to Decide if W.Va. Students Can Refuse Vaccinations
West Virginia’s highest court will hear arguments as to whether public-school students still need to be vaccinated, with the state Board of Education arguing “herd immunity” could be compromised if the justices agree with Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
The West Virginia Supreme Court said Friday it will take up a Raleigh County case involving the state’s religious freedom law, cited by plaintiffs who want to attend public school without being vaccinated against diseases like Measles, Mumps and Pertussis.
The court had already taken up the issue of class certification in the case. Now, it will decide whether the Raleigh County court was right to rule the Equal Protection for Religion Act overrides the state’s Vaccine Law.
US FDA Sends Warning Letters to Walmart, Target for Selling Recalled Baby Formula
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sent warning letters to four major retailers for continuing to sell baby formula linked to a nationwide outbreak of bacterial illness in infants, even after the products were recalled, the health regulator’s website showed on Monday. Walmart, Target, Kroger and Albertsons kept the recalled ByHeart Whole Nutrition Infant Formula on store shelves even after being notified of the recall in November, the FDA said in the letters dated Dec. 12.
As of last week, an outbreak of the illness has sickened 51 infants across 19 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The affected babies ranged in age from about two weeks to nearly nine months. ByHeart initially recalled certain lots of its formula, last month, then expanded the recall three days later to include all its infant formula products. The recall covered both cans and single-serve stick packs.
At Walmart, recalled products were found in stores across 21 states. In a letter to Target, the health regulator said officials in Arkansas found the company offering a $2 discount on the recalled formula from Nov. 16 to Nov. 22. Target had the formula in stores across 20 states. Store employees gave various explanations for the products remaining on shelves, including lack of awareness about the recall, confusion over which products were affected, and failure to remove all impacted items, the FDA said.
California Hires Former C.D.C. Officials Who Criticized Trump Administration
Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to announce on Monday that California has hired two former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who accused the Trump administration of abandoning scientific standards. One is Susan Monarez, a former director of the CDC, who was fired by the White House in late August after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tried to remove her from her position and she resisted leaving. The other is Dr. Debra Houry, a former chief medical officer of the CDC, who quit partly in protest over the firing of Dr. Monarez.
Both will now serve as consultants for the California Department of Public Health.
Mr. Newsom has been working to elevate his national profile as a leading Democratic voice against President Trump, and to position himself for a possible 2028 presidential run. He has tried to make California a Democratic bulwark on the West Coast, and has repeatedly countered moves by the Trump administration.
Dr. Monarez and Dr. Houry gave notable testimony at a tense Senate hearing in September in which Dr. Monarez said she had refused Mr. Kennedy’s demands that she fire top scientists at the agency and approve new vaccine recommendations before seeing evidence to support them. Dr. Monarez had been at the agency for less than a month when Mr. Kennedy abruptly dismissed her. Dr. Houry was an agency veteran who rose through the ranks to oversee all of the CDC’s centers. She was often the only CDC official included in the Trump administration’s plans for reshaping the agency.
A spokesman for Mr. Kennedy, Andrew Nixon, said in September that Dr. Monarez was fired because she “acted maliciously to undermine the president’s agenda” and that Mr. Kennedy was focused on restoring public trust in the CDC Mr. Nixon did not respond to a request for comment Sunday on California’s announcement.
FDA Commissioner on Growing Public Mistrust of Government Health Advice
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary said the government must show greater humility and be more transparent if it hopes to rebuild public trust in its health guidance, which he said has been badly eroded since the pandemic.
In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Makary addressed recent controversy over an FDA memo that cited rare reports of child deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccinations. He said the information was not new but had not been made public, and argued that officials failed to clearly communicate how risks varied by age and underlying health conditions, even as vaccines saved many lives.
“The most dangerous thing you can do in medicine is to put out a recommendation with such absolutism when the data is really flimsy,” Makary said.
This Vaccine Adviser to RFK Jr. Has Some Choice Words for His Critics
“Reckless” and “dangerous” were just two of the broadsides American medical groups lobbed at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine advisers after they recommended ending universal vaccination at birth for hepatitis B, the virus that causes liver failure and cancer.
Retsef Levi, one of the advisers, has some choice words for the critics: They’re conflicted. They’re misleading the public. They’re party to gross, even criminal negligence, he says.
The war of words — and a new directive from President Donald Trump — suggests the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on which Levi sits will soon launch a much broader review of the childhood vaccine schedule. That could have far-reaching consequences both for public health and for vaccine uptake. States rely on federal guidance in determining which shots to require for daycare and school attendance.
MAHA Moms Are Angry at the E.P.A. Lee Zeldin Is Trying to Win Them Back.
Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), flashed a smile as he addressed a webcast hosted by the Make America Healthy Again movement. “We want to make sure,” Mr. Zeldin said, “that your members have a seat at the table, and that we’re able to directly engage and communicate.”
It was in many ways a hostile audience. Just last week, several prominent MAHA activists circulated a petition urging President Trump to fire Mr. Zeldin, saying that he was prioritizing the interests of chemical manufacturers over the well-being of American children. They point to the agency’s efforts to loosen restrictions on harmful chemicals, and to approve new pesticides, including two that contain what are internationally recognized as “forever chemicals” linked to serious health risks. And they say the EPA is breaking Mr. Trump’s promises to make America healthy again.
“I’m horrified by what’s happening at the E.P.A. right now,” said Courtney Swan, a MAHA activist and nutritionist, and a petition organizer. “The agency’s gone in the completely wrong direction. It’s completely anti-MAHA.” In recent days, Mr. Zeldin, a seasoned politician, has gone on a charm offensive.
On Monday, he made a surprise appearance at a MAHA holiday reception. There, he invited activists to visit him at EPA headquarters the following day. There, he introduced them to senior department heads and promised that the agency would adopt a “MAHA agenda.”
Recent Top Stories
Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.
