Source: Children’s Health Defense

Mom of 7-Year-Old Hospitalized With Brain Swelling From Measles: ‘I Still Wouldn’t Have Given My Son the Vaccine’

The Independent reported:

Six weeks ago, Ethan was like most 7-year-olds — spending the weekend riding his new bike or playing Minecraft on his iPad on a rainy day. “He just learned how to ride, he got the hang of it right away,” Ethan’s dad, Luis, said proudly. “He wanted to go outside because he wanted to jump on his bike…it was an amazing thing for him.”

Instead, since late January, the schoolboy has been confined to a hospital bed with measles encephalitis, a complication that causes swelling and inflammation in the brain. “He’s pretty much as if he was paralyzed,” his devastated father, 41, told The Independent in a phone interview from his son’s hospital bedside.

Ethan’s parents decided not to immunize him against measles as they did with his three brothers. Three out of four of them contracted measles. Still, despite Ethan’s ordeal, his mom stands by their decision. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we’re gonna glorify his name regardless. “And we wouldn’t change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn’t have given my son the vaccine.”

Texas Sues Children’s Hospital, Doctor, Alleging ‘Illegal’ Trans Procedures

Newsweek reported:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against a Dallas children’s hospital and a doctor on Wednesday, accusing them of providing “illegal ‘transition’ procedures.”

Paxton announced that he filed a lawsuit against Children’s Health System of Texas, the country’s seventh-largest pediatric hospital, and Jason Jarin, a Dallas-area pediatric doctor, accusing them of engaging in Medicaid fraud in violation of Texas law.

“I will use every legal tool available to ensure that radical gender activists like Jarin face justice for hurting our kids,” Paxton said in a press release. Children’s Health told Newsweek, “Our top priority is the health and well-being of the patients and families we serve. We comply with all applicable local, state and federal health care laws. Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment further at this time.”

One in Five U.S. Children Are Obese, Study Says

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Obesity affects 1 in every 5 U.S. children, a new study says. About 20% of American children between the ages of 2 and 19 have obesity, researchers report Feb. 10 in JAMA Network Open. “In 2024, excess youth overweight and obesity remained highly prevalent among youths in the U.S.,” wrote the research team led by Dr. William Heerman, a pediatrician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data on more than 6 million children collected by eight clinical research networks in 2024. Results showed that about 27% of 2- to 5-year-olds and just under 39% of teenagers and young adults were overweight or obese. In all, 9% of teenagers and young adults were severely obese.

Parents’ ‘Gut Feelings’ Best Help Doctors Detect and Treat Serious Illness Among Children

U.S. News & World Report reported:

Doctors would do well to heed any gut feelings parents might have about their child’s health, a new study says. Nine times out of 10, children were seriously ill if their parents had a clear or strong concern about their health, researchers reported Feb. 17 in JAMA Network Open. In fact, asking whether a parent is worried works better to identify seriously sick kids than comprehensive health questions focused on symptoms, researchers found.

“Parental concern is an important warning sign,” said lead researcher Dr. Hilla Pöyry, a pediatric specialist at the University of Oulu in Finland. “If a parent is worried about the condition of their suddenly ill child, the child must have the opportunity to be assessed by a doctor,” Pöyry said in a news release. “A worried parent should not be left alone to make a remote assessment of their child’s condition.”

For the study, researchers tracked nearly 2,400 children and teens treated at the Oulu University Hospital’s ER. Parents completed an extensive 36-item questionnaire as part of their child’s treatment.

Meta’s Plans for AI Facial Recognition Smart Glasses ‘Threatens Safety of All Women and Girls’

AOL reported:

Women and girls could be put at risk of harassment, stalking, and abuse if Meta presses ahead with plans to add AI facial recognition features to its smart glasses, leading charities have warned. Experts said the technology, which would allow wearers to identify people and find out information about them using the platform’s AI tool, could pose a “direct and serious” risk to survivors by placing them “in harm’s way” and enabling abusers to locate and track them.

They added that the feature also has the potential to threaten the safety of “all women and girls in public” by giving wearers the ability to access information about them without their consent.

It comes after a New York Times report revealed Meta, which owns Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, is considering plans to add facial recognition technology to its Meta glasses as soon as this year. But sources told the New York Times the feature would not give people the ability to look up anyone and everyone they encountered.

In First Speech to Her FDA Staff, Høeg Says She’ll Scrutinize RSV Shots and SSRIs in Pregnancy

STAT News reported:

Tracy Beth Høeg, the top drug regulator at the Food and Drug Administration, indicated in her first address to staff that she’ll scrutinize antidepressants and the shots used to protect babies from RSV.

Høeg told employees on Thursday that her top priorities include two issues she’s focused on in the recent past: evaluating the safety of antidepressants taken by pregnant women and of monoclonal antibodies that protect infants against RSV.

“I’ve been interested to learn we really haven’t been doing sort of thorough safety monitoring of these products during pregnancy, and so I think we could do a better job,” Høeg said. “I actually think that there’s agreement about that, and among the CDER staff that I’ve been working with on this issue, so I’m excited to see that.”