- RFK Jr. and Trump deliver multiple anti-scientific rants about Tylenol and vaccines in connection to autism. After promising to find the “cause” for autism by September, HHS’s RFK Jr. delivered a series of unhinged press conferences about the dangers of Tylenol. He cited a small and since debunked study that found a slight correlation between Tylenol-use during pregnancy and autism rates of children.
The study was later thrown out— doctors noted an already known risk factor to fetal development is the activation of the maternal immune system. Given that pregnant women’s Tylenol use would overlap with illness, it would be difficult to parse these variables. Later, a much larger sibling study found no correlation between Tylenol use and autism rates.
The latest rants are dangerous and cruel, given that Tylenol is one of the only approved medications for pain and fever relief during pregnancy. Fever during pregnancy is another risk factor for birth defects and other fetal harm. They’re also a grift– one supposed “cure” for the reversal of autism RFK suggests is a B vitamin-derivative supplement, a popular version that comes from a competitor to Tylenol’s parent company, iHerb, of which Dr. Oz is an investor. Oz had previously said he would divest from the company when appointed to his Medicare position, but whether he did is unclear. The FDA reasserted on Twitter/X that only a prescription form of the product is recommended for certain patients following a blood test, but that hasn’t stopped the explosion of promotion and sales across MAHA platforms.
Trump and MAHA also took aim at the administration of Hepatitis B shots, as well as Vitamin K shots, to infants, suggesting the former should be held off until tweendom due to the sexually transmitted nature of the disease. However, victims of permanent liver damage from Hepatitis B are overwhelmingly infants, and Vitamin K prevents brain hemorrhage and death in newborns. Vitamin K does not cross the placenta or into breastmilk efficiently; death from Vitamin K deficiency bleeding is 81 times less likely in those infants who receive the shot. - Republicans leave DC to avoid negotiation on healthcare subsidies, triggering government shutdown. Congress was set to negotiate on a budget bill, but Speaker Johnson sent the Republicans home instead. Democrats had said they would not pass the bill as is, requesting that healthcare subsidies be extended to offset rising costs. Healthcare subsidies not only help people to purchase insurance in the marketplace, but this infusion of money into the system protects everyone from the closure of clinics and hospitals who rely on Medicaid/care and insurance dollars.
The shutdown furloughs many government workers, with others performing essential functions without pay. Experts worry that a prolonged shutdown could also harm the distribution of life-saving services like WIC supplemental nutrition. The last government shutdown was in 2018, also under Trump. - Despite ACIP’s recommendations, several states are still blocking access to covid vaccines without a prescription. Missouri, Georgia, and Louisiana are still preventing people from getting covid vaccines without a prescription, despite recommendations out of the CDC’s immunization committee.
Experts speculate this is because no CDC director has signed off on the recommendations, since Trump fired the CDC director. However, none of the state laws stipulate a CDC signature must be in place for the recommendations to be adopted. - Congress fails to pass extensions–Medicare’s coverage for telehealth speech therapy and audiology services has ended. These services were essential for families especially in rural areas where they may otherwise face multi-hour drives and long waitlists.
- The First Circuit Court of Appeals rules that the Department of Education is allowed to fire half its’ Civil Rights Department staff. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) inside DoED exists specifically to protect students facing discrimination or those who have experienced sexual assault, and the process of filing a complaint can, in many places, already take years.
Halving the staff essentially removes consequences for perpetrators of racism, ableism, sexism, sexual abuse, and the intersections thereof, and will be devastating to the equitable education and safety of marginalized students. - Department of Education partners with Turning Point, Moms for Liberty to create new “patriotic” history and civics curriculum.
DoEd announced an initiative to create a new history and civics curriculum lead by far-right extremist organizations. The curriculum will likely continue propagate racist erasures of US history and anti-DEIA book bans, two pet projects of the involved groups.
Previously, DoEd was not involved in creating specific curriculum–this decision was left up to individual states and districts.
Public comment on the initiative is now open until October 17. - Good News: Some mental health grants for schools have been restored. McMahon’s Department of Education had previously cut a billion dollars worth of grants geared toward student mental health, but, due to backlash, recently restored $270 million. The restored grants focus on school psychologists, only, and leave out counselors and social workers, but they do serve as proof that backlash and public comment can still be effective.
What to Do:
Get your vaccinations up to date as soon as possible, and ask your state to join a state-level public health collaborative if they haven’t yet.
Hit the streets if you are able. March, attend a town hall, school board meeting, or other local action. Go, but don’t RSVP, to a protest! Consider purchasing a reusable respirator (gas mask) if attending a mass protest, due to recent escalations in use of tear gas and other “less lethal” force at actions.
Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate. Write to Apple to tell them their blocking of the ICE Block app is unacceptable capitulation.
Call your representatives and especially your local officials to ensure special education gaps are being filled in your district.
Leave a public comment saying no to forced Turning Point history curriculum in public schools.
Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.
Make a plan to vote in upcoming local elections, in person when possible. Down ballot elections matter more than ever.
Move to (more) secure encrypted apps when possible. Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.
Category: HHS
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Week 36 + 37 Updates
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Weeks 34+35
- Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends calls for the mass murder of unhoused people. The discussion, about how to handle growing populations of unhoused people, especially those who are mentally ill, Kilmeade said we should “just kill them” using “involuntary lethal injection.” Unhoused people often have a disability or mental illness, and Kilmeade spoke emphatically about his idea to kill them all in the context of discussion about a murder committed by an unhoused man in North Carolina.
He later apologized, but kept his job.
(In contrast, Karen Attiah of the Washington Post was fired for her social media comments on the rhetoric of the late Charlie Kirk, and Jimmy Kimmel was removed from the air “indefinitely” for criticizing MAGA response to Kirk’s death. In the latter, the head of the FCC got directly involved by pressuring the network to remove Kimmel, then attempting to extort a “meaningful personal donation” to far-right organizations should he seek to return on-air. ) - The Trump administration continues to push arguments that IUDs and birth control pills are actually abortions. The administration used the argument as a pretext to cancel a USAID family planning program and destroy millions in birth control, and has floated attempts to employ reasoning domestically. Pro-choice advocates have warned about this as an an administrative goal since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
- The last of the NIH’s communications and policy specialists are being eliminated. These are the experts who take highly scientific and technical knowledge and make sure it is transparent and understandable for healthcare workers and the general public. Without access to the NIH’s vast work in medical research, RFK Jr. and other anti-science leaders will be able to more easily make and spread false claims, and subsequent policy changes.
- The Department of Ed makes millions in Special Ed cuts, citing anti-DEIA. The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) pulled 25 grants from IDEA-related programs worth nearly $15 million. The Rehabilitation Services Office also canceled 9 disability related grants. The grants supported special ed teacher training, community parent resource centers, brail and interpreter training, and services for DeafBlind children and adults.
Programs across 16 states will be impacted, and the cuts begin October 1st. In a letter sent to the affected programs, the administration said the cuts were made with an anti-DEIA motivation, because the programs don’t “align with Administration’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness, and excellence in education.” - Covid vaccines live to see another year based on Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)’s latest vote. Though RFK had attempted to fill the committee with antivaxxers and covid deniers, the group ultimately voted 7-6 to allow people to make their own choices with their physicians about whether they would like the the covid vaccine. Due to these recommendations, vaccines should be available without a prescription in all 50 states.
The ACIP still needs to weigh in on other concerning vaccine related topics, specifically an attempt to delay the administration of the MMRV and Hepatitis B vaccines to babies. Hepatitis B had previously been considered eradicated in child populations thanks to wide vaccine uptake. - States form their own health coalitions, creative workarounds, in light of anti-scientific recommendations from HHS. As the HHS under RFK continues to create barriers to access for vaccines and other preventative care, states who previously relied on CDC recommendations, many of whom had laws tethering state guidance to the CDC, have taken matters into their own hands.
The West Coast Health Alliance (Washington, California, Oregon, and Hawaii) and the Northeast Public Health Collaborative (Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Maryland and Vermont) have been formed to issue evidence-based public health recommendations, remove barriers to vaccine access, and collaborate on emergency preparedness in the absence of organizations like FEMA.
Meanwhile, Michigan public health officials had floated declaring “not having the latest covid booster” an underlying health condition, in order to make it easier for all those who want it to obtain the vaccine.
Large groups of insurance companies have also already committed to continuing to pay for vaccination regardless of current HHS recommendations. - Access to speech and hearing services via telehealth to end this month under Medicare. Under current Medicare provisions, access to speech therapy and audiology services via telehealth will end on September 30th, unless Congress acts to extend them. HR 5081 and 1614 are two possible bills that could extend the services.
Telehealth speech therapy and audiology services are especially important for early intervention in rural areas that wouldn’t otherwise have access to specialists. - Administration declares “Antifa” and trans people terror threats. Trump took to social media this week to announce that he was labeling antifa a “major terrorist organization,” while the FBI declared trans people a “nihilistic violent extremist” threat group.
Antifa, an abbreviation for anti-fascist, is a general ideology, and has no official organization or hierarchy. Further, the president does not have legal authority to designate terror groups.
Trans people are a very small percentage of the population and there is no evidence to suggest they are more violent than cis people; however, they are statistically much more likely to be victims of violent crime.
The move by the administration to label those they disagree with as “terrorists” should concern everyone interested in free speech and bodily autonomy, especially in the wake of a recent attempt by the GOP to allow Rubio’s State Department the ability to strip passports from citizens belonging to “terror” groups. (The bill has been pulled for now after backlash.) - US democratic status in peril as state media censorship and ICE-related deaths spike. We highly recommend this breakdown of the ten steps required to transfer from a democratic to authoritarian form of government (2 min video.)
What to do:
Get your vaccinations up to date as soon as possible, and ask your state to join a state-level public health collaborative if they haven’t yet. If you live in Florida, contact your state representatives and tell them not to remove vaccine guidelines for schoolchildren. Despite rhetoric, state law about this is still in effect.Hit the streets if you are able. March, attend a town hall, school board meeting, or other local action. Don’t RSVP to a protest! Consider purchasing a reusable respirator (gas mask) if attending a mass protest, due to recent escalations in use of tear gas and other “less lethal” force at actions.
Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate.
Call your representatives, but also your local officials to ensure special education gaps are being filled in your district.Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.
Move to (more) secure encrypted apps when possible. Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.
- Brian Kilmeade of Fox & Friends calls for the mass murder of unhoused people. The discussion, about how to handle growing populations of unhoused people, especially those who are mentally ill, Kilmeade said we should “just kill them” using “involuntary lethal injection.” Unhoused people often have a disability or mental illness, and Kilmeade spoke emphatically about his idea to kill them all in the context of discussion about a murder committed by an unhoused man in North Carolina.
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Week 33 Updates
- Chaos hits pharmacies as CDC’s delayed approval of covid vax causes confusion, barriers to access. Covid surged to the highest levels in the US since the 2021 Delta variant–in response, CDC stopped tracking the data.
Meanwhile, vaccine rollout was stymied as many states have regulations requiring CDC approval for a vaccine before it can be administered by a pharmacist. The board, now populated with antivaxxer friends of RFK, is expected to meet later in the month.
At first, the vaccine was completely unavailable in at least 16 states, with others requiring a prescription. Several states have since revised regulations, allowing other the recommendations of other medical bodies to serve in place of the largely absent CDC. As of Sunday, vaccine access is legally as follows, though individual access may be stricter due to confusion and/or ideological refusals.
ID: map of the US with states in green (available) green stripe (newly available due to regulations circumventing CDC) yellow (need RX) and purple (unavailable)
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DORYoaUjhBM/
2. RFK revives bogus claim that Tylenol in pregnancy is linked to autism. After receiving blowback for causing vaccine-related turmoil and a conspiracy-addled testimony before Congress that had many leaders and his own family calling for his resignation, RFK Jr. is returning his attention to attacking autistic folks and their families, now through the reintroduction of a fake link between Tylenol consumption during pregnancy to autism rates.
RFK and HHS had previously said they would announce the “cause” of autism in September, and sources at the HHS say the announcement will involve Tylenol.
The vast majority of studies have shown no link between Tylenol consumption with autism diagnoses. One study the administration is focusing on showed a very small increase in incidences; however, that study later overturned its findings using sibling analysis, finding no link.
In addition to being false, the accusation places blame and will likely cause undue fear on pregnant people who use the only pregnancy-approved medication for pain. Multiple evidence-based scientific studies have determined that autism is overwhelmingly genetic.3. Florida Surgeon General announces plans to end all vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, as cases of whooping cough and measles rise. Harvard-educated Dr. Ladapo said that the move was “not actually a scientific debate” but an ideological one aimed at appealing to “parent’s interest”.
Ladopo, a longtime antivaxxer, went on to compare vaccine mandates to slavery. Ladopo doesn’t have unilateral control over the mandates, so it will be on state legislature to fully eradicate them.Multiple cases of tuberculosis surface in and around Portland, Maine, as well as in several other states. RFK Jr. ordered CDC officials to hide the data. 28 cases have been reported in Maine since July, stemming from multiple sources. Some are believed to be linked to the consumption of raw milk, while other cases have person-to-person or unknown origin.
Known as the world’s deadliest respiratory disease, tuberculosis can be latent for years before becoming active, so the uptick in cases is generally considered a marker of the declining health of a population weakened by other conditions (covid, inconsistent access to healthcare, decreased vaccine uptake).
DOGE’s decision to end USAID will likely have huge long-term effects on tuberculosis cases in the US, and a 28-32% uptick of the disease globally, as people visit or immigrate from other countries with higher infection rates (many asymptomatic at the time or not knowing they are infected at all). Previously, USAID programs helped with cost and distribution of the months’ long antibiotic regimen required to cure the disease.
Trump attempts to rename the Department of Defense and announces he will send troops to Chicago via ill-conceived Vietnam War movie meme. This week Trump announced that he will rename the Department of Defense to “The Department of War” (a move he is legally not allowed to make unilaterally), then immediately released meme misinterpreting the Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now to announce the impending deployment of troops to the city of Chicago (a move he is legally not allowed to make unilaterally). He also mentioned Baltimore and New Orleans as future targets.
As in DC, a deployment of the National Guard or other military occupation against civilians is dangerous for people, particularly the unhoused, immigrants, disabled people, and people of color. It also functions as a superspreading event, sending covid infection rates surging.
The Governor of IL and mayor of Chicago have repeatedly said troops are not necessary or welcome in the city, which is experiencing lower than average crime rates at this time.
What to do:Get vaccinated if you can, as soon as possible!
If you live in Florida, contact your state representatives and tell them not to remove vaccine guidelines for schoolchildren.
Call your state officials and ask them how they can facilitate access to covid vaccines in lieu of federal leadership, especially if the CDC refuses to approve the vaccine.Hit the streets if you are able. March, attend a town hall, school board meeting, or other local action.
Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate.
Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.
Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.
- Chaos hits pharmacies as CDC’s delayed approval of covid vax causes confusion, barriers to access. Covid surged to the highest levels in the US since the 2021 Delta variant–in response, CDC stopped tracking the data.
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Week 32 Updates
1. RFK Jr’s eugenic rampage continues to burn through the Department of Health and Human Services.
RFK fired Susan Moneraz, Director of the Centers for Disease Control, throwing an already tumultuous climate at the institution in to chaos, and prompting several other high-level resignations at the institution.Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, one of the scientists who resigned, raised alarms as he left about RFK’s love of eugenics and frequent discussion of “superior genetics.” Eugenics, a pseudoscientific school of thought tied to white supremacist ideas about genetic and racial “purity” was behind the US’s forced sterilization and anti-anti-miscegenation laws in the early 20th century. In Germany, the Nazi’s took eugenic ideology to it’s extreme conclusions via the mass murder of Jewish people, as well as Roma, disabled people, LGBTQ people, “race traitors” and others they deemed undesirable.
Daskalakis said RFK applied eugenic theory to internal discussions about bird flu, which he proposed should be allowed to “burn through” chickens, and then children and adults, in order to propagate a “stronger species.” The CDC had ended their emergency bird flu response at RFK’s order last month.
2. RFK and antivax appointees restrict access to covid vaccines, despite saying people would have a choice.
Simultaneously, the FDA placed restrictions on who is allowed to receive this year’s covid vaccines–limiting them to “high-risk” groups or those over 65. CVS and Walgreens in more than 16 states are refusing to administer vaccinations while awaiting the CDC’s vaccine committee approval, while others are requiring prescriptions.Over the past months, RFK has replaced nearly all panel members with known antivaxxers, some of whom have spoken explicitly against covid vaccines and mRNA technology. The panel meeting, which typically occurs in the summer, it has been postponed for unknown reasons to mid-September, with some concern that its antivax members have no intention of holding the meeting.
While vaccines may be accessible in other locations, it’s important to note that CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the country, and often the only option in rural areas. The company also owns Aetna insurance and forces those clients to receive care at only CVS.
3. CDC cuts back foodborne illness surveillance program. The FoodNet program previously required surveillance from eight pathogens to two. They will continue monitoring for e. coli and salmonella, but will no longer require monitoring for campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibirio and yersinia. Foodborne illnesses are particularly harmful to disabled and immunocompromised people, as well as children and the elderly. In particular, listeria is known to cause stillbirth when a pregnant person contracts the bacteria.4. Pediatric brain tumor research cut. The National Cancer Institute has announced it will no longer fund the work of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium, a network of physicians and researchers who have been running clinical trials for patients with childhood brain cancer not responding to other treatments, for over 25 years.
In addition to the loss of groundbreaking treatments for terminally ill children, researchers are mourning the loss of the network that allows them collaborate across institutions, which has led to better outcomes for patents and further scientific innovations over the life of the project.5. The Trump Administration is contracting with private AI companies, using AI to determine whether certain procedures should be covered by Medicare. In addition to the many, many concerns about the efficacy of AI to perform basic functions of preapproval, like reading and drawing logical conclusions, and not making things up, the company will also have incentive to reject–they will receive a portion of the profits for every rejected claim.
6. AI chatbots continue to fuel mental health crises, resulting in multiple deaths by suicide. At least one AI company has said they will combat the problem by flagging chat results for the police, which may cause more danger for those in crisis. AI chatbots have been at the center of a string of mental health crises, including goading suicidal ideation and providing feedback on how best to carry out self-harm (also here and here), a conversation about avoiding salt that led to one man giving himself bromine poisoning, and a Connecticut man who killed his mother, then himself after encouragement from an LLM.
In response, OpenAI has said they have begun scanning ChatGPT conversations in order to report content to the police. The company has said this will not result in wellness checks, so the function of the reporting is unclear. Many murders by police begin as encounters with a person experiencing a mental health crisis or suicidal behaviors–at least 356 such individuals were killed by police between 2017-2020.What to do:
Call your state officials and ask them how they can facilitate access to covid vaccines in lieu of federal leadership. For example, Illinois is exploring how to purchase its own contracts with vaccine manufacturers, while a group of mid-Atlantic and New England states met this week to consider issuing their own recommendations apart from the CDC.
If you have access, please get a covid and flu vaccine to help protect immunocompromised people in your community.Hit the streets if you are able. March, attend a town hall, school board meeting, or other local action.
Protect your neighbors. Warn and record in the presence of ICE. Push your local officials not to collaborate.
Donate to your local food pantry, library, clinics, cash bail funds, or other mutual aid if you can. Or volunteer your time.
Think about ways to spread information offline. Make flyers and stickers. Make art.