ReportWire

Tag: HHS

  • Tylenol, vaccines, autism: Being a doctor in a year of lies

    Dr. Mona Amin clicked on the email.

    The South Florida pediatric practice where she worked was changing its rules on whether to accept patients who refuse routine vaccines. Since 2017, Pediatric Associates disclosed to families that its physicians reserved the right to stop seeing patients who disregarded their advice.

    That was now going away under political pressure, the email said.

    “The state of Florida has made strong statements about our continued ability to maintain this policy, directly threatening our ability to participate in Medicaid,” Amin read aloud before stopping.

    “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just so sad right now.”

    It was Amin’s latest disappointment over what was happening to her field; far from her first. Pediatric Associates did not respond to our questions about the policy change.

    Under the strain of a government increasingly influenced and led by antivaccine advocates, health care professionals like Amin find themselves drawn into political controversy.

    Dr. Mona Amin with her son at Pediatric Associates in Florida in September 2020. (Handout photo courtesy Dr. Mona Amin)

    Since President Donald Trump took office and selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the nation’s top health official, misinformation that simmered for years before the COVID-19 pandemic now came fast. The people with the power and reach to turn the levers on public health discourse and policy were seizing the moment.  

    Trump and Kennedy told Americans that taking Tylenol while pregnant may cause autism, even though decades of research doesn’t support that. There’s no known single cause for autism spectrum disorder. They attacked childhood vaccines as excessive and harmful, exaggerating the number of shots children receive.

    Kennedy has falsely assailed the efficacy and contents of vaccines such as the one that protects against measles, mumps and rubella from childhood. Studies show the MMR vaccine is 97% effective and its protection does not wane. Citing no data, Trump said the vaccine should be broken up into shots for each infection risk, although it’s been effectively administered since 1971 and adverse effects are rare.

    In Amin’s state of Florida, health leaders are seeking to end the rules that require children to come to school vaccinated, at a time when childhood vaccination rates have already been dropping. About 88% of Florida’s kindergartners are up to date on vaccines today, down from about 94% in 2019 — both figures below the 95% rate typically needed to prevent infectious disease outbreaks.

    Amin and other pediatricians see these falsehoods manifest in parents’ real-time decisions. About 61% of 1,000 physicians said in an August survey that their patients were influenced by misinformation, and nearly 86% said the amount of misinformation had increased in five years.

    More parents are declining the vitamin K shot for their newborns. Administered hours after birth since the 1960s, the shot prevents bleeding into the brain, intestines and other internal organs. Parents’ refusal is leading to rising cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in infants.

    Measles cases reached a 30-year high in the U.S. in 2025, with nearly 1,800 cases reported in 42 states as of November. Cases of whooping cough are also on the rise. Pediatricians we spoke with said parents of immunocompromised children are asking whether they should send their kids to school at all.

    Some parents are hostile. Amin said she’s been screamed at around a dozen times.

    Once, she remembers, a mother came into the practice with her toddler and a piece of paper in her hand.

    As Amin walked into the room to say hello, the mother slammed the paper down on her desk. It was a document noting her refusal to vaccinate her child, a new patient.

    “Before you begin, I need you to know that I’m not injecting my kids with that poison,” Amin recalls the mother saying.

    “Let’s talk about it,” Amin said, but her efforts to keep the conversation open didn’t work. The mother took her toddler and left.

    The challenge for Amin was real: How could she provide meaningful patient care while competing with large-scale medical misinformation that increasingly questioned or disregarded the validity of her expertise?

    Consequences of the Trump administration’s lies about Tylenol, vaccines and autism


    President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sept. 22, 2025, alongside others, including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (AP)

    When Trump and Kennedy made their claims about Tylenol and autism in a Sept. 22 Oval Office press conference, Amin was with a patient. Her phone flooded with messages from colleagues and friends:

    “Oh my god.”

    “Did you hear about this?”

    “What is going on?”

    The president had given Americans an unsupported medical warning: Taking Tylenol during pregnancy “can be associated with a very increased risk of autism” for children, he said.

    “If you’re pregnant, don’t take Tylenol and don’t give it to the baby after the baby is born,” Trump said. He told women to “fight like hell” not to take it. Tylenol is the only over-the-counter pain reliever approved for pregnant women. Forgoing treatment can lead to uncontrolled fevers, causing maternal and fetal harm. 

    Amin collected her thoughts. She was glad for the focus on autism, but frustrated by the administration’s headline-grabbing take about Tylenol’s active ingredient, acetaminophen.

    Research so far doesn’t support Trump’s statements. Some studies have found an association between autism prevalence and use of acetaminophen during pregnancy; others have found none. None of the research has proven it causes autism, a condition first identified in 1943, more than a decade before the Food and Drug Administration approved Tylenol.

    “Why can’t we just explain the truth, the nuance?” Amin said. “Because the nuance isn’t as spicy, right? It’s much easier to say, ‘Tylenol causes this’ than to say, ‘Hey there may be a  concern with Tylenol but it’s not well studied. At this point, it’s best to take it as recommended if you have pain.’”

    White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stood by Trump’s Tylenol comments in a statement to PolitiFact. The administration, she said, doesn’t believe that “popping more pills is always the answer for better health.”

    In a statement following Trump’s September press conference, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ president Dr. Steven Fleischman said any suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are “highly concerning to clinicians” and “irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy.”

    Fleischman said the announcement isn’t backed by the full body of evidence and “dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children.”

    The moment was one of many over the course of 2025 that made pediatric medicine harder for Amin and her colleagues.

    In November, when the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention edited its website to falsely assert vaccines may cause autism, Amin was on vacation and tried not to let the news affect her attention.

    In December, when the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee members voted to end its decades-old universal recommendation for a hepatitis B vaccine dose at birth, she was at her daughter’s school event. 

    “I’m constantly in different environments when these things happen,” she said, “and honestly, the feelings that come with it almost every single time are just, ‘What is going on? Where is this coming from?”

    In each instance, Amin made the changing guidance a topic for PedsDocTalk, the social media and podcast account she started in 2019 in an effort to improve expert online communication about child development, health and parenting.

    Born after a conversation she had with a patient’s mother about fevers, PedsDocTalk today has around 2 million followers across all platforms.

    Amin shares videos to help parents and caregivers navigate child development, illness and behavior — giving guidance on everything from infant milestones to identifying childhood rashes. In one recent video, she provides parents with tips on ways to raise emotionally regulated boys. In another, she talks about how to help children cope with fear.

    Since Trump took office in January, her audience numbers jumped: Instagram followers alone doubled to 1.4 million — and more of the topics she tackles are related to the health confusion his administration stokes. Besides directing the CDC to falsely link routine childhood vaccines to autism, Kennedy said during an October White House Cabinet meeting that circumcision and autism are connected. Studies don’t show that. In June, he also falsely told Tucker Carlson that the hepatitis B vaccine is a “likely culprit” of autism. There is no evidence of that.

    “There’s a sense of authority behind the pseudoscience, because it’s coming in press conferences, from official government documents. And when the government is repeating pseudoscience, it directly impacts policy,” Amin said.

    This isn’t what she expected her job would be.

    Amin was about 15 when she decided she wanted to be a doctor. Growing up in the Los Angeles area, she drew inspiration from her own physician, a doctor of osteopathic medicine. He was funny, listened to her and gave her meaningful advice. He took the time to talk to her about her mental wellbeing as much as her physical health.

    He was real with her. When she kept coming in sick with colds, for example, he called her out on how her nail-biting habit was exposing her to viruses. She quit, and the frequent colds stopped.

    Amin entered medical school to become an osteopathic doctor in 2008. She started practicing pediatrics in New York in 2015 before moving to Florida in 2017 and having two children of her own.

    Her plan was to stay in outpatient medicine for the rest of her life. But reality altered her outlook.

    Medical lies pressure a field already under strain

    Between misinformation-fueled aggression, growing patient loads and regular news alerts about the administration’s changing public health guidance, Amin found herself unusually irritable.

    “Any ask was a big ask,” she said, “I was just tapped out.”

    When she started having panic attacks on the way to work, she knew something needed to change.

    Amin isn’t alone in her burnout.

    Numbers show pediatric care is under strain, and people in the field say misinformation isn’t helping. With parts of the country already facing critical pediatrician shortages, families struggle to find care and can wait months for appointments in some areas, especially for subspecialty doctors.

    Amin teaches residents, and fewer medical school graduates are choosing to be pediatricians. Those already in the field are also leaving traditional practices, citing increasing falsehoods and doctor distrust, among other concerns.

    Like Amin, more providers are turning to social media to share their expertise on platforms increasingly populated by people peddling unregulated wellness products and unsubstantiated health advice.

    Although we found no clear data documenting the rise of doctor influencers, industry groups and researchers acknowledge the phenomenon in articles exploring its benefits, drawbacks and need for quality control. Even artificial intelligence has jumped into the mix, falsely portraying doctors on social media in order to spread falsehoods and market products.

    Amin eventually reduced her office hours. She spent more time online talking about the topics she was often too rushed to discuss in person. Her panic attacks stopped.

    By the time she received the email from her practice announcing its vaccine policy change, Amin had already accepted a new position at a telehealth venture that she hopes will give her more flexibility and more opportunities for one-on-one patient care.

    Amin is optimistic about her future, but remains disturbed by the distress doctors are facing.

    “It’s always going to be the good people who are tired and burnt out and can’t handle this moral injury of having to fight for what they wanted to do when they went into pediatrics,” she said.

    “You’re going to lose some of the most amazing clinicians, because they don’t — they can’t do it. Their mental health is suffering, and they just can’t do it anymore.”

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

    READ MORE: What to make of an abysmal year for truth? PolitiFact names 2025 the Year of the Lies

    READ MORE: Year of the Lies: Farmer says some Trump tariff statements ‘as far from the truth as you can get’

    READ MORE: Year of the Lies: ‘Worst of the worst’? ICE deports brothers after years of check-ins, good conduct

    Source link

  • Energy assistance funds released to states after government shutdown delay

    Federal funding that millions of Americans use to help pay their heating bills in the winter is arriving weeks behind schedule due to disruptions from the government shutdown, which ended earlier this month. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association announced Friday that $3.6 billion in funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has been released to states and tribes.“This release of LIHEAP funding is essential and long overdue,” said Mark Wolfe, Executive Director of NEADA. “Families can finally begin receiving the support they need to keep the heat on as winter begins.”Normally, states get this money at the beginning of November. Next, the money goes to heating vendors. Wolfe said in an email that the timeline will vary by state, but “most move pretty fast.” It can’t come soon enough. Wolfe said there were some utility shutoffs during the delay, and the lag affected many of the same families who rely on SNAP benefits for groceries, which were also disrupted by the government shutdown.Wolfe previously raised concerns that the funding delay could stretch into January, citing the Trump administration’s decision to lay off LIHEAP’s administrative staff earlier this year. The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees LIHEAP, previously said it would work “swiftly” to administer annual awards after the government reopened. As of Friday evening, HHS had not publicly announced the resumption of funding. The agency didn’t immediately return our request for comment. The longest government shutdown in American history started in October and ended after more than 40 days. For weeks, most Democrats refused to support a government funding extension while holding out for various healthcare demands. In the end, a handful of Democrats crossed the aisle to support a short-term funding deal in exchange for a future Senate vote on health policy, with no guaranteed outcome.Get more from the Washington Bureau here:

    WASHINGTON —

    Federal funding that millions of Americans use to help pay their heating bills in the winter is arriving weeks behind schedule due to disruptions from the government shutdown, which ended earlier this month.

    The National Energy Assistance Directors Association announced Friday that $3.6 billion in funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has been released to states and tribes.

    “This release of LIHEAP funding is essential and long overdue,” said Mark Wolfe, Executive Director of NEADA. “Families can finally begin receiving the support they need to keep the heat on as winter begins.”

    Normally, states get this money at the beginning of November.

    Next, the money goes to heating vendors. Wolfe said in an email that the timeline will vary by state, but “most move pretty fast.”

    It can’t come soon enough. Wolfe said there were some utility shutoffs during the delay, and the lag affected many of the same families who rely on SNAP benefits for groceries, which were also disrupted by the government shutdown.

    Wolfe previously raised concerns that the funding delay could stretch into January, citing the Trump administration’s decision to lay off LIHEAP’s administrative staff earlier this year.

    The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees LIHEAP, previously said it would work “swiftly” to administer annual awards after the government reopened.

    As of Friday evening, HHS had not publicly announced the resumption of funding. The agency didn’t immediately return our request for comment.

    The longest government shutdown in American history started in October and ended after more than 40 days. For weeks, most Democrats refused to support a government funding extension while holding out for various healthcare demands. In the end, a handful of Democrats crossed the aisle to support a short-term funding deal in exchange for a future Senate vote on health policy, with no guaranteed outcome.

    Get more from the Washington Bureau here:

    Source link

  • Long-awaited $3.6B in heating assistance released to states and tribes

    Approximately $3.6 billion in delayed funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, was released Friday to states and tribes, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.The federal funding for LIHEAP, which helps millions of low-income households pay to heat and cool their homes, has been held up during the beginning of the cold-weather season because of the federal government shutdown, which ended Nov. 12.“This release of LIHEAP funding is essential and long overdue,” Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA, said in a statement. “Families can finally begin receiving the support they need to keep the heat on as winter begins.”States typically receive their allocations at the beginning of November.The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the assistance program, has not yet issued a formal public announcement about the resumption of the funding. After the federal shutdown ended, HHS said one of its agencies would “work swiftly to administer annual awards,” blaming the delay on congressional Democrats.Wolfe said state agencies told his organization they’ve received award letters from HHS, enabling them to begin distributing assistance to households.A message was left seeking comment with HHS.On Monday, a bipartisan group of U.S. House members sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging him to release the LIHEAP funds by Nov. 30. Given the heating season has already started in many parts of the U.S., they said “there is no time to waste,” especially for households that use home heating oil or propane. Those fuels typically aren’t affected by state moratoriums on utility shutoffs during the winter months.Roughly 68% of LIHEAP households also receive SNAP food benefits. Wolfe said delays in both programs during the shutdown “put many households in an even more precarious situation than usual.” While Friday’s funding release is welcome news, he said the need for assistance “remains enormous,” especially given rising energy prices. He noted that arrearages remain near record highs.

    HARTFORD, Conn. —

    Approximately $3.6 billion in delayed funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, was released Friday to states and tribes, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.

    The federal funding for LIHEAP, which helps millions of low-income households pay to heat and cool their homes, has been held up during the beginning of the cold-weather season because of the federal government shutdown, which ended Nov. 12.

    “This release of LIHEAP funding is essential and long overdue,” Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA, said in a statement. “Families can finally begin receiving the support they need to keep the heat on as winter begins.”

    States typically receive their allocations at the beginning of November.

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the assistance program, has not yet issued a formal public announcement about the resumption of the funding. After the federal shutdown ended, HHS said one of its agencies would “work swiftly to administer annual awards,” blaming the delay on congressional Democrats.

    Wolfe said state agencies told his organization they’ve received award letters from HHS, enabling them to begin distributing assistance to households.

    A message was left seeking comment with HHS.

    On Monday, a bipartisan group of U.S. House members sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging him to release the LIHEAP funds by Nov. 30. Given the heating season has already started in many parts of the U.S., they said “there is no time to waste,” especially for households that use home heating oil or propane. Those fuels typically aren’t affected by state moratoriums on utility shutoffs during the winter months.

    Roughly 68% of LIHEAP households also receive SNAP food benefits. Wolfe said delays in both programs during the shutdown “put many households in an even more precarious situation than usual.” While Friday’s funding release is welcome news, he said the need for assistance “remains enormous,” especially given rising energy prices. He noted that arrearages remain near record highs.

    Source link

  • HHS orders state Medicaid find immigrants in US illegally

    The Trump administration has ordered states to investigate certain individuals enrolled in Medicaid to determine whether they are ineligible because of their immigration status, with five states reporting they’ve together received more than 170,000 names — an “unprecedented” step by the federal government that ensnares the state-federal health program in the president’s immigration crackdown.

    Advocates say the push burdens states with duplicative verification checks and could lead people to lose coverage just for missing paperwork deadlines. But the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Mehmet Oz, said in a post on the social platform X on Oct. 31 that more than $1 billion “of federal taxpayer dollars were being spent on funding Medicaid for illegal immigrants” in five states and Washington, D.C.

    Medicaid’s overall spending topped $900 billion in fiscal year 2024.

    It wasn’t clear from Oz’s statement or an accompanying video over what period the spending happened, and CMS spokespeople did not immediately respond to questions, either for an earlier version of this article or after Oz’s statement was posted.

    Only U.S. citizens and some lawfully present immigrants are eligible for Medicaid, which covers low-income and disabled people and the closely related Children’s Health Insurance Program. Those without legal status are ineligible for federally funded health coverage, including Medicaid, Medicare, and plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.

    Several states disputed Oz’s comments.

    “Our payments for coverage of undocumented individuals are in accordance with state and federal laws,” said Marc Williams, a spokesperson for Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy & Financing, which administers the state’s Medicaid program. “The $1.5 million number referenced by federal leaders today is based on an incorrect preliminary finding, and has been refuted with supporting data by our Department experts.”

    He added: “It is disappointing that the administration is announcing this number as final when it is clearly overstated and the conversations are very much in the education and discussion phase.”

    Illinois Medicaid officials blasted Oz’s comments.

    “Once again, the Trump administration is spreading misinformation about standard uses of Medicaid dollars,” said Illinois Medicaid spokesperson Melissa Kula. “This is not a reality show, and there is no conspiracy to circumvent federal law and provide ineligible individuals with Medicaid coverage. Dr. Oz should stop pushing conspiracy theories and focus on improving health care for the American people.”

    The Washington State Health Care Authority, which runs the state’s Medicaid program, was also blunt.

    “The numbers Dr. Oz posted on social media today are inaccurate,” said spokesperson Rachelle Alongi. “We were very surprised to see Dr. Oz’s post, especially considering we continue to work with CMS in good faith to answer their questions and clear up any confusion.”

    In August, CMS began sending states the names of people enrolled in Medicaid that the agency suspected might not be eligible, demanding state Medicaid agencies check their immigration status.

    KFF Health News in October reached out to Medicaid agencies in 10 states. Five provided the approximate number of names they had received from the Trump administration, with expectations of more to come: Colorado had been given about 45,000 names, Ohio 61,000, Pennsylvania 34,000, Texas 28,000, and Utah 8,000. More than 70 million people are enrolled in Medicaid.

    Most of those states declined to comment further. Medicaid agencies in California, Florida, Georgia, New York and South Carolina refused to say how many names they were ordered to review or did not respond.

    Oz said in his X post that California had misspent $1.3 billion on care for people not eligible for Medicaid, while Illinois spent $30 million, Oregon $5.4 million, Washington state $2.4 million, Washington, D.C., $2.1 million, and Colorado $1.5 million.

    “We notified the states, and many have begun refunding the money,” he said. “But what if we had never asked?”

    Washington, D.C.’s Medicaid director, Melisa Byrd, said CMS had identified administrative expenses for the district program that covers people regardless of immigration status that should not have been billed to the federal government and her agency has already fixed some of those areas. “We run a big program that is very complex and when mistakes or errors happen, we fix them,” she said.

    The program plans to pay $654,014 back to CMS by mid-November.

    All five states, plus Washington, D.C., are led by Democrats, and President Donald Trump didn’t win any of them in the 2024 election.

    In recent days, Deputy Health and Human Services Secretary Jim O’Neill began posting pictures on X of people he said are convicted criminals living in the U.S. without authorization who had received Medicaid benefits.

    O’Neill could not be reached for comment.

    “We are very concerned because this seems, frankly, to be a waste of state resources and furthers the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda,” said Ben D’Avanzo, senior health advocacy strategist with the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy group. “This duplicates what states already do,” he said.

    As part of the administration’s crackdown on people in the U.S. without authorization, President Donald Trump in February directed federal agencies to take action to ensure they are not obtaining benefits in violation of federal law.

    In June, advisers to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered CMS to share information about Medicaid enrollees with the Department of Homeland Security, drawing a lawsuit by some states alarmed that the administration would use the information for its deportation campaign against unauthorized residents.

    In August, a federal judge ordered HHS to stop sharing the information with immigration authorities.

    State Medicaid agencies use databases maintained by the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security to verify enrollees’ immigration status.

    If states need to go back to individuals to reverify their citizenship or immigration status, it could lead some to fall off the rolls unnecessarily — for example, if they don’t see a letter requesting paperwork or fail to meet a deadline to respond.

    “I am not sure that evidence suggests there really is a need for this” extra verification, said Marian Jarlenski, a health policy professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

    Oz made clear that the Trump administration disagrees.

    “Whether willful or not, the states’ conduct highlights a terrifying reality: American taxpayers have been footing the bill for illegal immigrants’ Medicaid coverage, despite many Democrats and the media insisting otherwise,” Oz said in his X post.

    In an August press release, CMS said it would ask states to verify eligibility for enrollees whose immigration status could not be confirmed via federal databases. “We expect states to take quick action and will monitor progress on a monthly basis,” the agency said.

    Leonardo Cuello, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, called the CMS order to states “unprecedented” in the Medicaid program’s 60-year history.

    He said the federal government may have been unable to verify certain individuals’ immigration status because names were misspelled or outdated, such as when a beneficiary is identified by their maiden instead of married name. The names may also include people helped by Emergency Medicaid, a program that covers the cost of hospital emergency services, including labor and delivery, for people regardless of immigration status.

    “CMS is conducting pointless immigration status reviews for people whose hospital bills were paid by Emergency Medicaid,” Cuello said.

    Oz noted in his post that federal law “does permit states to use Medicaid dollars for emergency treatment, regardless of patients’ citizenship or immigration status,” and that states can “legally build Medicaid programs for illegal immigrants using their own state tax dollars, so long as no federal tax dollars are used.”

    The states Oz mentioned all run their own such programs.

    The verification checks create an added burden for state Medicaid agencies that are already busy preparing to implement the tax and policy law Trump signed in July. The measure, which Republicans call the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, makes many changes to Medicaid, including adding a work requirement in most states starting by 2027. The law also requires most states to more frequently check the eligibility of many adult Medicaid enrollees — at least twice a year.

    “I fear states may do unnecessary checks that create a burden for some enrollees who will lose health coverage who should not,” Cuello said. “It’s going to be a whole lot of work for CMS and states for very little pay dirt.”

    Cuello said the effort may have “greater political value than actual value.”

    Brandon Cwalina, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, which runs Medicaid in the state, said the state already requires every Medicaid applicant to verify their citizenship or, where applicable, their eligible immigration status.

    However, he said, the directive issued by CMS “constitutes a new process, and DHS is carefully reviewing the list in order to take appropriate actions.”

    Oz did not name Pennsylvania, which Trump won in 2024, in his post.

    If a lawful resident does not have a Social Security number, the state confirms their legal status by checking a database from Homeland Security, as well as verifying specific immigration documents, he said.

    Other state Medicaid agencies said they also needed to regroup before reaching out to enrollees.

    “Our teams just received this notice and are working through a process by which we will perform these reviews,” Jennifer Strohecker, then Utah’s Medicaid director, told a state advisory board in August.

    Renuka Rayasam and Rae Ellen Bichell contributed reporting.

    This article first appeared on KFF Health News.

    Source link

  • Federal employees in mental health and disease control were among targets in weekend firings

    By ALI SWENSON and JONEL ALECCIA

    NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of federal employees working on mental health services, disease outbreaks and disaster preparedness were among those hit by the Trump administration’s mass firings over the weekend, current and laid-off workers said Monday, as the administration aimed to pressure Democratic lawmakers to give in and end the nearly two-week-long government shutdown.

    The Associated Press

    Source link

  • In Unprecedented Move, Six Former Surgeons General Warn That RFK Jr. Is Endangering America

    Since being appointed by President Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made a lot of unprecedented decisions while running the Department of Health and Human Services. Indeed, America’s newest health czar has largely thrown out all common wisdom when it comes to stuff like vaccines and whether you need a medical background to run the CDC.

    Kennedy has rolled out countless bizarre and harmful policies at the HHS over the past year, including attacks on the agency’s vaccine program. Earlier this year, under his supervision, the agency fired thousands of staff. More recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saw many prominent staffers (including its director) step down in protest of Kennedy’s policies.

    As a result of RFK Jr.’s bizarre behavior and policy decisions, a large number of health professionals have publicly criticized him and called into question the legitimacy of his leadership. The latest voices to express concern are six former U.S. Surgeons General, who penned an op-ed published in the Washington Post on Tuesday. The article warns that Kennedy’s policies pose a “profound, immediate and unprecedented threat” to the nation, and that the HHS head is putting at risk. The letter reads:

    Over recent months, we have watched with increasing alarm as the foundations of our nation’s public health system have been undermined. Science and expertise have taken a back seat to ideology and misinformation. Morale has plummeted in our health agencies, and talent is fleeing at a time when we face rising threats — from resurgent infectious diseases to worsening chronic illnesses.

    The letter continues:

    Repairing this damage requires a leader who respects scientific integrity and transparency, listens to experts and can restore trust to the federal health apparatus. Instead, Kennedy has become a driving force behind this crisis.

    The letter stresses the bipartisan nature of the signees, noting that they represent a group of professionals “appointed by every Republican and Democratic president since George H.W. Bush.” The signees include Jerome Adams, Richard Carmon, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello, and David Satcher. Murthy served under both Biden and Trump during his first term. 

    The former health leaders point specifically to Kennedy’s attacks on vaccine science as a clear and present sign that he is not fit to lead the agency tasked with regulating vaccines. The letter notes:

    This year, as the United States faced its worst measles outbreak in more than 30 years, Kennedy de-emphasized vaccination and directed agency resources toward unproven vitamin therapies. The result: months-long outbreak, three preventable deaths and the first measles-related child death in the U.S. in over two decades.

    More recently, Kennedy removed every member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, replacing its scientific experts with individuals who often lacked basic qualifications, some of whom are vaccine conspiracy theorists. The new committee has already begun casting doubt on the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, despite decades of data affirming its effectiveness and strong safety profile.

    The former health leaders are not alone. Over the past year, a variety of organizations have argued that Kennedy should be fired. Most recently, two separate psychiatric organizations said that RFK Jr. was unfit to serve, arguing that his decision to gut the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration had put lives at risk. Last month, over a thousand HHS staffers signed a letter to President Trump that stated that Kennedy had endangered “the nation’s health” and should be fired or forced to resign. Around the same time, 61 different health and advocacy organizations signed a separate letter similarly asking that Kennedy be let go. Earlier this year, nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked that Kennedy be fired, noting that Kennedy’s activities “should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings.” Gizmodo reached out to the HHS for comment.

    Lucas Ropek

    Source link

  • Federal IT Executive Jennifer Wendel Joins CORAS Board of Advisors

    Press Release
    •

    Oct 2, 2025 07:00 EDT

    Federal CIO Leader to Guide Scaling CORAS’s Mission-Ready Agentic AI Decision Intelligence Platform With Real-World IT Governance, Insights and Management Expertise


    MCLEAN, Va., October 2, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    CORAS, the only IL5-authorized decision intelligence platform used across the Department of War (DoW, formerly the DoD), today announced that Jennifer Wendel has joined its Board of Advisors. As the former Chief Information Officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Ms. Wendel oversaw a ~$7 billion IT portfolio supporting more than 83,000 personnel and drove priorities spanning cybersecurity, enterprise IT, and customer experience.

    Prior to HHS, Ms. Wendel served for more than two decades at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), culminating as Acting Deputy CIO, where she led enterprise IT management initiatives and aligned data and technology resources to mission operations. Her FBI tenure gives her uncommon, practitioner-level insight into how complex federal organizations modernize securely and at scale.

    “Jennifer has sat in the chair where our federal and DoW customers sit – managing billion-dollar portfolios, hardening cyber, and turning data into operational advantage,” said Dan Naselius, President and CTO of CORAS. “Her guidance and knowledge around understanding complex federal IT systems and challenges will help our customers treat data as an asset, reduce cost, and optimize human teams with Agentic Agents and real-time decision intelligence.”

    CORAS and its Agentic Agent GARY operate at IL5 and FedRAMP High in government environments including NIPR and SIPR, offering profound ROI and 50+x productivity. Agencies can acquire CORAS and GARY through GSA, NASA SEWP, SBIR Phase III, Tradewinds AI Marketplace, Carahsoft, and AWS partner channels. Learn more at www.coras.ai.

    Source: CORAS

    Source link

  • Medicare Holds, But the Rest of Healthcare Wobbles: Shutdown Threatens Trials, Telehealth and Safety Nets


    WASHINGTON, October 1, 2025 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Black Book Research today released an independent assessment showing that while Medicare and Medicaid continue unaffected, the shutdown is forcing sweeping furloughs and program suspensions at the FDA, CDC, NIH, CMS, and SAMHSA, creating systemic risks to patient safety, public health, and medical innovation.

    “The nation’s healthcare system isn’t shutting down overnight,” said Doug Brown, founder of Black Book Research. “But important functions that support research, oversight, and public health are being slowed or suspended. If the shutdown continues, the effects will become more visible and increasingly difficult to reverse.”

    Key Agency Impacts

    Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Tens of thousands of staff furloughed, with only life-saving or urgent public health functions continuing. Grants, policy development, and regulatory reviews pause indefinitely.

    Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS): Medicare and Medicaid claims continue to be paid as mandatory programs. However, audits, program integrity reviews, and innovation pilots including accountable care and bundled payment models stall, leaving oversight gaps.

    Food and Drug Administration (FDA): User-fee funded drug and device application reviews continue, but most food safety inspections, routine facility checks, and non-user-fee programs are halted. Risks include supply chain vulnerabilities and delayed enforcement actions.

    Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Emergency outbreak response and essential disease surveillance persist, but broad public health programs, communications, and prevention initiatives are curtailed. The agency’s long-term preparedness mission is substantially weakened.

    National Institutes of Health (NIH): Patients already in clinical trials continue receiving care. However, most grant reviews, new trial starts, and research support staff are furloughed. The U.S. biomedical research pipeline stalls until funding resumes.

    Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): Community program grants and state block funding are frozen, threatening the continuity of local substance use and mental health initiatives.

    Indian Health Service (IHS): Direct patient care is protected as essential, but supply chains, contracting, and administrative functions are disrupted.

    Veterans Health Administration (VA): Protected by advance appropriations, VA hospitals and clinics remain operational. Research and long-term policy projects, however, may slow due to staff furloughs.

    Cross-Cutting Risks

    Research & Innovation: With NIH and FDA research pipelines paused, thousands of grant reviews and trial starts are delayed. Innovation suffers immediate setbacks.

    Regulation & Oversight: FDA and CMS furloughs weaken safety inspections, compliance audits, and contractor oversight. Food and medical device monitoring is drastically reduced.

    Public Health: CDC’s ability to track and mitigate health threats outside of emergency outbreaks is severely hampered. Preventive health campaigns and state support programs stall.

    Vulnerable Populations: Programs such as WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) may run out of funds, threatening nutrition access for low-income families. Mental health and substance abuse treatment programs lose stability as grants freeze.

    Provider Operations: Claims payments continue, but cash-flow delays from administrative slowdowns could disproportionately harm smaller hospitals and safety-net providers.

    Duration Matters

    According to Black Book’s analysis, the severity of impact escalates with the shutdown’s length:

    First 2-3 weeks: Entitlement funding cushions core services, but backlogs and administrative slowdowns begin.

    One month or more: Research, grants, and inspections stall significantly. Telehealth waivers and hospital-at-home programs expire without congressional renewal, pulling patients back into traditional settings.

    Multi-month: Structural harm occurs – loss of innovation momentum, worsening health disparities, and rising long-term costs from deferred care and weakened oversight.

    Black Book warns that while core entitlements remain funded, the broader healthcare scaffolding is fragile. A protracted shutdown risks long-term harm to research, regulation, and safety nets, weakening U.S. preparedness for future crises.

    About Black Book Research

    Black Book Research is the healthcare industry’s leading source for unbiased, crowdsourced client experience data, benchmarking, and market intelligence. Since 2011, Black Book has surveyed more than 3.5 million healthcare professionals to provide independent evaluations across 36 key performance indicators for over 5,000 health IT and services vendors. Gratis industry research reports can be downloaded at www.blackbookmarketresearch.com.

    Contact Information

    Press Office
    research@blackbookmarketresearch.com
    8008637590

    Source: Black Book Research

    Source link

  • HHS moves to shut down major organ donation group in latest steps to reform nation’s transplant system

    As part of its efforts to strengthen the country’s organ transplant system, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is moving to decertify a major organ procurement organization – essentially shutting it down and removing it from the nation’s network of organ donation groups.HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the move a “clear warning” to other groups that also work to coordinate organ donations.HHS officials are moving to close the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a division of the University of Miami Health System, after an investigation uncovered unsafe practices, staffing shortages and paperwork errors, Kennedy said Thursday.“We are acting because of years of documented Patient Safety Data failures and repeated violations of federal requirements, and we intend this decision to serve as a clear warning,” he said.The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations that are federally designated nonprofits responsible for managing the recovery of organs for transplantation in the United States, in which they focus on specific geographic regions and work with hospitals.The Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) said in a statement Thursday that the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency serves 7 million people across six counties in South Florida and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.“Through this process, AOPO pledges that we and our members will keep saving lives nationwide. We will continue to support the team at Life Alliance to ensure South Florida organ donors, transplant patients and their families have access to organ donation and transplantation services,” AOPO President Jeff Trageser said in a statement, while thanking federal health officials for recognizing the importance of organ donation.“Because there is only one OPO per donation service area, it’s critical for CMS/HHS to manage the situation carefully and work with Life Alliance, hospitals & the wider donation community to ensure there are no lapses in donation during this process so lives can continue being saved,” he added in an email.There is a process by which the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency could appeal the decertification. Neither the organization nor the University of Miami Health System immediately responded to CNN’s request for comment.“The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency based in Miami, Florida, has a long record of deficiencies directly tied to patient harm,” Kennedy said Thursday.“Staffing shortfalls alone may have caused – it was a 65% staffing shortage consistently across the years – and may have caused as many as eight missed organ recoveries each week, roughly one life lost each day,” he said. “Our goal is clear: Every American must trust the nation’s organ procurement system. We will not stop until that goal is met.”Kennedy also plans to direct organ procurement organizations to appoint full-time patient safety officers to monitor safety practices, report incidents and ensure that corrective actions are implemented, among other responsibilities.“This officer will be responsible for coordinating responses across clinical operational teams, ensure compliance with federal priorities and take corrective action whenever patients are at risk,” Thomas Engels, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, said Thursday.These moves are part of an ongoing initiative to reform the organ transplant system after a federal investigation earlier this year found what Kennedy called “horrifying” problems, including medical teams beginning the process of harvesting organs before patients were dead.‘We are sending a tough message’Each year in the United States, more than 28,000 donated organs go unused and are discarded because of inefficiencies in the system, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said Thursday.“We are sending a tough message to all the other nonprofit organ procurement agencies, organizations, so they know we’re serious,” Oz said. “We want them to know there’s a new sheriff in town, and we’re coming for them if they don’t take care of the American people.”Organ transplant programs are certified under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and they must meet certain requirements to be approved by Medicare.“We’re going to crack down on noncompliance with Medicare requirements,” Oz said, adding that more action could be coming.“We’re going to be tougher than ever before, because if we lose trust in the organ transplantation system of this country, tens of thousands of people are going to die yearly whose lives could be saved,” he said.Public trust of the organ donation system is essential since the system relies on people to volunteer to donate their organs when they die. Most sign up when they’re getting their driver’s license.As of 2022, about 170 million people in the U.S. have signed up to donate their organs, but there is always more demand than there are organs available.Last year, there were more than 48,000 transplants in the U.S., but more than 103,000 people were on waiting lists. About 13 people in the United States die every day waiting for a transplant, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.Investigations into organ procurementIn July, HHS announced its intention to fix the nation’s organ donation system. The agency directed the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, the public-private partnership that runs the complex donation system in the United States, to improve safeguards and monitoring at the national level and to find ways to strengthen safety protocols and transparency.An investigation by the Health Resources and Services Administration – detailed in a hearing in July and a memo from March – found problems with dozens of transplant cases involving incomplete donations, when an organization started the process to take someone’s organs but for, some reason, the donation never happened.The cases were managed by a procurement organization that handles donations in Kentucky and parts of Ohio and West Virginia; formerly called Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, it has merged with another group and is now called Network for Hope.Network for Hope said on its website in July, “We are equally committed to addressing the recent guidance from the HRSA and we are already evaluating whether any updates to our current practices are needed.”Of the 351 cases in the federal investigation, more than 100 had “concerning features, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible with organ donation,” HHS said in a July news release.The investigation was launched after one Kentucky case came to light during a congressional hearing last year. In that case, 33-year-old TJ Hoover woke up in the operating room to find people shaving his chest, bathing his body in surgical solution and talking about harvesting his organs. Staffers had been concerned that he wasn’t brain-dead, but the concerns were initially ignored, according to the federal investigation.Staff told CNN that the procedure to take Hoover’s organs stopped after a surgeon saw his reaction to stimuli.The federal investigation found “concerning” issues in multiple cases, including failures to follow professional best practices, to respect family wishes, to collaborate with a patient’s primary medical team and to recognize neurological function, suggesting “organizational dysfunction and poor quality and safety assurance culture” in the Kentucky-area organization, according to a federal report.Since the federal review, the Health Resources and Services Administration said, it has received reports of “similar patterns” of high-risk procurement practices at other organizations.

    As part of its efforts to strengthen the country’s organ transplant system, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it is moving to decertify a major organ procurement organization – essentially shutting it down and removing it from the nation’s network of organ donation groups.

    HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the move a “clear warning” to other groups that also work to coordinate organ donations.

    HHS officials are moving to close the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, a division of the University of Miami Health System, after an investigation uncovered unsafe practices, staffing shortages and paperwork errors, Kennedy said Thursday.

    “We are acting because of years of documented Patient Safety Data failures and repeated violations of federal requirements, and we intend this decision to serve as a clear warning,” he said.

    The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency is one of 55 organ procurement organizations that are federally designated nonprofits responsible for managing the recovery of organs for transplantation in the United States, in which they focus on specific geographic regions and work with hospitals.

    The Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) said in a statement Thursday that the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency serves 7 million people across six counties in South Florida and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

    “Through this process, AOPO pledges that we and our members will keep saving lives nationwide. We will continue to support the team at Life Alliance to ensure South Florida organ donors, transplant patients and their families have access to organ donation and transplantation services,” AOPO President Jeff Trageser said in a statement, while thanking federal health officials for recognizing the importance of organ donation.

    “Because there is only one OPO per donation service area, it’s critical for CMS/HHS to manage the situation carefully and work with Life Alliance, hospitals & the wider donation community to ensure there are no lapses in donation during this process so lives can continue being saved,” he added in an email.

    There is a process by which the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency could appeal the decertification. Neither the organization nor the University of Miami Health System immediately responded to CNN’s request for comment.

    “The Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency based in Miami, Florida, has a long record of deficiencies directly tied to patient harm,” Kennedy said Thursday.

    “Staffing shortfalls alone may have caused – it was a 65% staffing shortage consistently across the years – and may have caused as many as eight missed organ recoveries each week, roughly one life lost each day,” he said. “Our goal is clear: Every American must trust the nation’s organ procurement system. We will not stop until that goal is met.”

    Kennedy also plans to direct organ procurement organizations to appoint full-time patient safety officers to monitor safety practices, report incidents and ensure that corrective actions are implemented, among other responsibilities.

    “This officer will be responsible for coordinating responses across clinical operational teams, ensure compliance with federal priorities and take corrective action whenever patients are at risk,” Thomas Engels, administrator of the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, said Thursday.

    These moves are part of an ongoing initiative to reform the organ transplant system after a federal investigation earlier this year found what Kennedy called “horrifying” problems, including medical teams beginning the process of harvesting organs before patients were dead.

    ‘We are sending a tough message’

    Each year in the United States, more than 28,000 donated organs go unused and are discarded because of inefficiencies in the system, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said Thursday.

    “We are sending a tough message to all the other nonprofit organ procurement agencies, organizations, so they know we’re serious,” Oz said. “We want them to know there’s a new sheriff in town, and we’re coming for them if they don’t take care of the American people.”

    Organ transplant programs are certified under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and they must meet certain requirements to be approved by Medicare.

    “We’re going to crack down on noncompliance with Medicare requirements,” Oz said, adding that more action could be coming.

    “We’re going to be tougher than ever before, because if we lose trust in the organ transplantation system of this country, tens of thousands of people are going to die yearly whose lives could be saved,” he said.

    Public trust of the organ donation system is essential since the system relies on people to volunteer to donate their organs when they die. Most sign up when they’re getting their driver’s license.

    As of 2022, about 170 million people in the U.S. have signed up to donate their organs, but there is always more demand than there are organs available.

    Last year, there were more than 48,000 transplants in the U.S., but more than 103,000 people were on waiting lists. About 13 people in the United States die every day waiting for a transplant, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration.

    Investigations into organ procurement

    In July, HHS announced its intention to fix the nation’s organ donation system. The agency directed the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, the public-private partnership that runs the complex donation system in the United States, to improve safeguards and monitoring at the national level and to find ways to strengthen safety protocols and transparency.

    An investigation by the Health Resources and Services Administration – detailed in a hearing in July and a memo from March – found problems with dozens of transplant cases involving incomplete donations, when an organization started the process to take someone’s organs but for, some reason, the donation never happened.

    The cases were managed by a procurement organization that handles donations in Kentucky and parts of Ohio and West Virginia; formerly called Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, it has merged with another group and is now called Network for Hope.

    Network for Hope said on its website in July, “We are equally committed to addressing the recent guidance from the HRSA and we are already evaluating whether any updates to our current practices are needed.”

    Of the 351 cases in the federal investigation, more than 100 had “concerning features, including 73 patients with neurological signs incompatible with organ donation,” HHS said in a July news release.

    The investigation was launched after one Kentucky case came to light during a congressional hearing last year. In that case, 33-year-old TJ Hoover woke up in the operating room to find people shaving his chest, bathing his body in surgical solution and talking about harvesting his organs. Staffers had been concerned that he wasn’t brain-dead, but the concerns were initially ignored, according to the federal investigation.

    Staff told CNN that the procedure to take Hoover’s organs stopped after a surgeon saw his reaction to stimuli.

    The federal investigation found “concerning” issues in multiple cases, including failures to follow professional best practices, to respect family wishes, to collaborate with a patient’s primary medical team and to recognize neurological function, suggesting “organizational dysfunction and poor quality and safety assurance culture” in the Kentucky-area organization, according to a federal report.

    Since the federal review, the Health Resources and Services Administration said, it has received reports of “similar patterns” of high-risk procurement practices at other organizations.

    Source link

  • RFK Jr’s HHS Deploys ChatGPT for All Staff

    More good things are happening at Kennedy’s health agency.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has thrown the Department of Health and Human Services into turmoil through a series of bizarre and idiotic policy decisions, and now, to make things better, he’s apparently forcing everybody who remains at the pivotal health agency to use a chatbot. That should sort everything out.

    404 Media reports that HHS employees received an email on Tuesday entitled “AI Deployment,” which explained that ChatGPT would now be available to everybody at the agency. 404 writes that the deployment of the chatbot will be overseen by HHS’s new CIO, former Palantir employee Clark Minor. The email was confirmed by other outlets.

    “Artificial intelligence is beginning to improve health care, business, and government,” the email, sent by deputy secretary Jim O’Neill and seen by 404 Media, begins. “Our department is committed to supporting and encouraging this transformation. In many offices around the world, the growing administrative burden of extensive emails and meetings can distract even highly motivated people from getting things done. We should all be vigilant against barriers that could slow our progress toward making America healthy again.”

    The email went on: “I’m excited to move us forward by making ChatGPT available to everyone in the Department effective immediately,” it adds. “Some operating divisions, such as FDA and ACF [Administration for Children and Families], have already benefitted from specific deployments of large language models to enhance their work, and now the rest of us can join them. This tool can help us promote rigorous science, radical transparency, and robust good health. As Secretary Kennedy said, ‘The AI revolution has arrived.’”

    As Kennedy slashes staff and eradicates vital health programs, the notion that the “AI revolution” is going to provide anything even remotely helpful to the remaining HHS staff is laughable at best. That said, given Kennedy’s preference for relying on poorly sourced bullshit rather than long-established science, I guess relying on a chatbot prone to hallucination pretty much tracks. Gizmodo reached out to the HHS for more information on how it plans to integrate AI into its operations and will update this story when we hear back.

    Kennedy has rolled out countless destabilizing policies at the HHS over the past year, including attacks on the agency’s vaccine program. Earlier this year, under his supervision, the agency fired many thousands of staff. More recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saw many prominent staffers (including its director) step down in protest of Kennedy’s policies. The new director is Jim O’Neill, who—like HHS’s CIO—also previously worked for a company owned by rightwing billionaire Peter Thiel.

    Lucas Ropek

    Source link

  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to face questions Thursday after recent CDC shakeups

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to face questions after recent CDC shakeups

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to answer tough questions from Senators following his controversial decisions regarding CDC leadership and vaccine policy changes.

    Updated: 3:35 AM PDT Sep 4, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face serious concerns from senators on Thursday regarding his handling of public health matters, following his decision to force out the recently sworn-in CDC Director Susan Monarez and replace her with Jim O’Neill, who has a background in business.On Wednesday, more than 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services employees who worked with Kennedy called for his resignation in a letter, accusing him of prioritizing politics over science. Kennedy has been reshaping the nation’s vaccine policies and has voiced skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of long-established shots. He’ll be answering questions on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. “The CDC was once the world’s most trusted guardian of public health,” Kennedy said in a video message posted ahead of the hearing. “Its mission was simple and noble, protect Americans from infectious disease, but over the years, the agency drifted. Bureaucracy politicized science and mission creed corroded that mission and squandered the public trust.”Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana expressed his concerns, saying, “What I’m most interested in is restoring the confidence of the American people in public health in America, and so far that hasn’t been done.”Last week, under Kennedy’s leadership, the FDA changed COVID-19 vaccine guidelines, limiting their use for younger adults and children. Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face serious concerns from senators on Thursday regarding his handling of public health matters, following his decision to force out the recently sworn-in CDC Director Susan Monarez and replace her with Jim O’Neill, who has a background in business.

    On Wednesday, more than 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services employees who worked with Kennedy called for his resignation in a letter, accusing him of prioritizing politics over science.

    Kennedy has been reshaping the nation’s vaccine policies and has voiced skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of long-established shots. He’ll be answering questions on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee.

    “The CDC was once the world’s most trusted guardian of public health,” Kennedy said in a video message posted ahead of the hearing. “Its mission was simple and noble, protect Americans from infectious disease, but over the years, the agency drifted. Bureaucracy politicized science and mission creed corroded that mission and squandered the public trust.”

    Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana expressed his concerns, saying, “What I’m most interested in is restoring the confidence of the American people in public health in America, and so far that hasn’t been done.”

    Last week, under Kennedy’s leadership, the FDA changed COVID-19 vaccine guidelines, limiting their use for younger adults and children.

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    Source link

  • The CDC’s Nightmare Interim Director Is a Peter Thiel Pal

    The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is in chaotic disarray, as a slew of resignations and an unprecedented walkout of staff have roiled the agency. At the center of the controversy is the CDC’s weirdo director, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose most recent contribution to public health dialogue was a bizarre rant about what passes through his mind as he stares at children. No wonder longtime agency staffers are losing their minds.

    Now, in a development that is sure to help (*sarcasm*), Jim O’Neill, Kennedy’s deputy secretary, has been selected to take over at the agency. People are freaking out about O’Neill’s nomination because, well, he’s a freak—or, at the very least, he is anomalous in regards to his espoused beliefs and career experience and how little they seem to match his new job. But, as Stat reports, the sure-fire tell that this man waves a freak flag is his deep connections to PayPal co-founder and all-around weirdo Peter Thiel.

    One of the first things you notice when you check out O’Neill’s LinkedIn is just how much time he’s spent working for organizations that were created by rightwing billionaire Peter Thiel. Between 2008 and 2012, O’Neill served as the managing director of Clarium Capital Management, one of Thiel’s first hedge funds. After that, O’Neill spent nearly a decade as the managing director of Mithril Capital Management, one of Thiel’s venture capital firms, which has been responsible for funding companies like Thiel’s defense contractor, Palantir (which is also doing a lot of work for the Trump administration right now).

    O’Neill was also previously a board member of Thiel’s Seasteading Institute, an organization that is devoted to the creation of autonomous floating cities that are governed by private entities rather than traditional (i.e., democratic) governments. A picture on the group’s website from 2014 shows O’Neill hanging out with dead-eyed libertarian operative Grover Norquist at Burning Man. The Seasteading Institute is run by Milton Friedman’s grandson, Patri Friedman, who is also a point person for the “Network State” movement, which Thiel is also all wrapped up in.

    Frankly, O’Neill’s dense ties to Thiel are one of the less worrying things about him. Much more concerning is the wealth of information about him online that would give any sane person pause when considering whether to let him run a public health agency. For one thing, there’s an old YouTube video of him talking about how we should open up organ donation to the “free market” (there’s nothing wrong with incentivizing people to but and sell organs, right?), and he’s also a fan of Silicon Valley’s trendy new life-extension sciences (he has shared kind words about the penis-shocking, teen-blood-transfusing health guru Bryan Johnson). During the pandemic, he is said to have advocated for the use of alternative medications, like hydroxychloroquine and Joe Rogan’s favorite, ivermectin. The Seasteading Institute is run by Milton Friedman’s grandson, Patri Friedman, who is also a point person for the “Network State” movement. O’Neill also reportedly advocated for dispensing with the FDA’s mandate that drugs be deemed “effective” before they’re sold to the public. In 2014, he told a biotech group: “Let people start using them [the drugs], at their own risk.” And, of course, he wants healthcare to be a “free market” enterprise.

    In short, he sounds like a complete and total nightmare and, also, the exact kind of person that RFK would want to run the CDC.

    Unlike his boss, O’Neill is not a complete stranger to government, although this should offer little comfort. During the George W. Bush administration, he served in several roles at the HHS, even rising as high as principal associate deputy secretary. In that role, between 2007 and 2008, he is said to have focused his attention on food safety regulations. Then, during Trump’s first term in office, O’Neill was mulled as a potential choice to head the Food and Drug Administration. When it originally broke that Trump was considering O’Neill for this post back in 2016, Gizmodo wrote an article entitled: “Trump is Considering an Insane Silicon Valley Libertarian to Head the FDA.” At the time, much controversy was stirred up by the mere suggestion that O’Neill take the FDA role, and eventually, Trump dropped the idea. Now, unfortunately, O’Neill is going to be running an agency nearly twice as large and significantly more important, at least for the time being. Gizmodo reached out to the government for more information.

    Lucas Ropek

    Source link

  • Trump HHS Tells States To Remove Gender Ideology From Sex Ed Or Lose PREP Funding



    The Trump administration directed 46 states and territories to remove gender ideology from their sex ed materials or else face possible termination of federal Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) funding, with a family advocate praising the move.

    Policy director for family advocacy group American Principles Project Paul Dupont told The Center Square: “The introduction of gender ideology into schools has been an enormous scandal, and the Trump administration is doing the right thing in moving to defund it.”

    Dupont told The Center Square that this directive from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “is what real leadership looks like.”

    “The American people gave President Trump a mandate to restore sanity to our government, and that’s exactly what he’s doing,” Dupont said.

    Dupont told The Center Square that “for years now, American tax dollars have been used to teach our children the false and harmful ideas that they can be born in the wrong body and that any discomfort with their identity could be a sign that they are actually a different gender.

    “It should come as no surprise that the number of children identifying as transgender has skyrocketed recently, with many tragically being put on the pipeline to irreversible hormonal and surgical interventions,” Dupont said.

    “During the last election, President Trump campaigned strongly on protecting our children from harmful gender ideology,” Dupont said. “Since taking office, the president and his administration have delivered on those promises, with this HHS directive being the most recent example.”

    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told The Center Square that “earlier this year, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) requested that all states submit their PREP curricula for review.”

    PREP’s efforts work towards “preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections” in young people, as stated on an HHS webpage.

    HHS told The Center Square it “identified concerning gender ideology content in 46 states and territories that exceeded the program’s statutory purposes,” following this review.

    “ACF is giving these states and territories 60 days to remove all content outside the scope of the PREP statute, and failure to comply will result in enforcement actions including the withholding, suspension, or termination of federal PREP funding,” the HHS told The Center Square.

    The HHS said that “ACF remains steadfast in its mission to protect American families and children and will continue to uphold the integrity of federally funded programs.”

    The 40 states the HHS told to remove gender ideology from their sex ed materials are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, according to a news release.

    The five territories include Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, with Washington D.C. making 46.

    The total amount of funding that could be withheld or terminated from all 46 states and territories comes to more than $81 million.

    The HHS said in its press release that its demand for the removal of transgenderism from sex ed “reflects the Trump Administration’s ongoing commitment to protecting children from attempts to indoctrinate them with delusional ideology.”

    Last week, California’s PREP grant was terminated after the state refused to remove “radical gender ideology” from its federally-funded “education program to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in schoolchildren.”

    Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.

    Tate Miller – The Center Square

    Source link

  • CDC Director Ousted, Top Officials Resign: Live Updates

    Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the now former director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, didn’t mince words in his scathing resignation letter, which he released on social media:

    I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.  The recent change in the adult and children’s immunization schedule threaten the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.  The data analyses that supported this decision have never been shared with CDC despite my respectful requests to HHS and other leadership.  This lack of meaningful engagement was further compounded by a “frequently asked questions” document written to support the Secretary’s directive that was circulated by HHS without input from CDC subject matter experts and that cited studies that did not support the conclusions that were attributed to these authors.  Having worked in local and national public health for years, I have never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end rather than the good of the American people.

    It is untenable to serve in an organization that is not afforded the opportunity to discuss decisions of scientific and public health importance released under the moniker of CDC.  The lack of communication by HHS and other CDC political leadership that culminates in social media posts announcing major policy changes without prior notice demonstrate a disregard of normal communication channels and common sense.  Having to retrofit analyses and policy actions to match inadequately thought-out announcements in poorly scripted videos or page long X posts should not be how organizations responsible for the health of people should function.  Some examples include the announcement of the change in the COVID-19 recommendations for children and pregnant people, the firing of scientists from ACIP by X post and an op-ed rather than direct communication with these valuable experts, the announcement of new ACIP members by X before onboarding and vetting have completed, and the release of term of reference for an ACIP workgroup that ignored all feedback from career staff at CDC.

    The recent term of reference for the COVID vaccine work group created by this ACIP puts people of dubious intent and more dubious scientific rigor in charge of recommending vaccine policy to a director hamstrung and sidelined by an authoritarian leader.  Their desire to please a political base will result in death and disability of vulnerable children and adults.  Their base should be the people they serve not a political voting bloc.

    He also alleged that “We are seven months into the new administration, and no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary” and said that Kennedy’s rhetoric promoted eugenics:

    I am not sure who the Secretary is listening to, but it is quite certainly not to us.  Unvetted and conflicted outside organizations seem to be the sources HHS use over the gold standard science of CDC and other reputable sources.  At a hearing, Secretary Kennedy said that Americans should not take medical advice from him.  To the contrary, an appropriately briefed and inquisitive Secretary should be a source of health information for the people he serves. As it stands now, I must agree with him, that he should not be considered a source of accurate information.

    The intentional eroding of trust in low-risk vaccines favoring natural infection and unproven remedies will bring us to a pre-vaccine era where only the strong will survive and many if not all will suffer.  I believe in nutrition and exercise.  I believe in making our food supply healthier, and I also believe in using vaccines to prevent death and disability.  Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.

    Intelligencer Staff

    Source link

  • Fairfax recovery center worried about impact of federal grant cuts – WTOP News

    Ginny Atwood, co-founder of The Chris Atwood Foundation, learned a multiyear, $200,000 grant from HHS has been “wiped out overnight.”

    The Chris Atwood Foundation in Fairfax is looking for other sources of funding after losing a federal grant.(WTOP/Scott Gelman)

    A grant that helped a Northern Virginia addiction recovery center offer resources to community members has been cut as part of cuts to federal spending.

    Ginny Atwood, co-founder of The Chris Atwood Foundation, said she recently learned a multiyear, $200,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services has been “wiped out overnight.” It was COVID-related funding, Atwood said, and “they said COVID is over, so they took away that funding.”

    Now, the Fairfax-based organization, which offers services to help people transition from active addiction to long-term recovery, is scrambling to figure out how to offset the loss of that money. The grant helped pay for the recovery community center and funded its recovery academy.

    “We’re not going to turn the lights off tomorrow by any means, but we are definitely saying we’ve provided a lot of value to the community, and we’re really hoping the community can kind of give back a little,” Atwood said.

    The consequence of not being able to find ways to cover the lost funding could mean, “We would potentially lose the recovery community center,” Atwood said.

    Atwood said a lot of the federal funding was used to pay for rent for the recovery community center, which could be hard to get covered.

    “Sometimes it can be challenging to recuperate funding for things like rent or administrative personnel, but these things are critical,” Atwood said. “You can’t have programming without the things that are the bedrock underneath of those programs.”

    Given many of the federal funding cuts, Atwood said the group is looking toward community giving and nonfederal sources, “just given the climate of everything right now, we’re kind of diversifying the places that we’re looking to for help.”

    The organization is planning a “Heroes for Hope” gala for Oct. 15, a fundraising campaign that offers awards for local recovery heroes, dinner and raffles.

    “In order to be able to keep our lifesaving program at the level that it’s been, and hopefully grow it, we really are looking to our community to get involved and donate,” Atwood said.

    The foundation is working on a potential new contract that has to be finalized and other fundraising opportunities.

    Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

    Scott Gelman

    Source link

  • DEA Delivers Gut Punch To Marijuana Industry

    DEA Delivers Gut Punch To Marijuana Industry

    The DEA has worked hard to keep marijuana illegal – despite almost 90% believing it shouldn’t be.

    The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has work diligently to turn the tide of legal marijuana. An agency built on the “War on Drugs” is doing everything to stop cannabis being available to the population and undercutting a vast amount of their efforts. And now again the DEA delivers gut punch to the marijuana industry. The agency is swimming upstream in the process as it is being recommended by Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration to them to reclassify cannabis in part do to the medical benefits. This goes along the American Medical Association and  the American College of Physicians encouraging the federal government to change based proven, science based medical help to a variety of patients including cancer, chronic pain, inflammation and more.

    The  delay until post-election is do to the DEA’s inability to coordinate the next steps so they pushed the in-person testimony for the upcoming marijuana rescheduling until early next year. DEA director Anne Milligan is seen as anti-marijuana and more inline with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). When the current administration announced the move to reschedule, Director Milligan had a meeting with key DEA Leaders with “no note taking” and off the record. The DEA not rescheduling would go against the norm as they have always followed HHS and the FDA recommendations.

    While both presidential candidates have expressed support for marijuana, a YOUGOV poll has indicated more people have faith in Harris to support the industry. The surprise is the fact is both Democrats (65%) and Republicans (31%) believe her administration would follow through. Pew Research, who has followed the mainstreaming of cannabis, has it at 88+% of the population is for some form of federal legalization.  Even AARP has moved toward legalizing marijuana, a key voting block for both parties. But, it seems, the DEA, is against the move and is hoping there is a change of heart in policy making.

    In another slap to the cannabis industry, Milligan and the DEA have tried to stack the deck against cannabis. NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said that he was disappointed but hardly surprised by the DEA’s decision to disproportionately include groups opposed to marijuana policy reform as designated participants. “The fight to end our nation’s outdated and failed cannabis prohibition laws has never been fought on a level playing field,” he said.

    Terry Hacienda

    Source link

  • Key Information For The 60+ About Marijuana

    Key Information For The 60+ About Marijuana

    It is a big summer for the cannabis industry – will Boomers join Gen Z in embracing marijuana?

    It is the summer of cannabis with the potential for rescheduling.  Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) has recognized marijuana has medical benefits and is not a dangerous drug. The American Medical Association also recognized it can help patients and they and research show it is better for you than alcohol.  Gen Z has started moving away from alcohol (mainly beer) and embracing cannabis.  With all these changes – here is key information for the 60+ about marijuana in today’s world.

    RELATED: What Is California Sober

    There are two uses for cannabis – recreational (fun stuff) and medical. Even though a little high has never hurt anybody, you don’t have to get high to benefit from medical marijuana. Effective medicinal CBD strains contain small amounts of THC. These strains focus their efforts on the therapeutic side of the plant, producing little to no psychoactive effect.

    The other interesting update is the days of smoking cannabis tends to be waning. it is used more by the aficionado and the old school consumers.  Today, most users have used a vape or a gummy. You can manage dosing better, they are discreet and you take it to events without the smell.  Gen Z has truly embrace the on-the-go aspect of today’s marijuana.

    Photo by rawpixel.com

    With aging, bodies start to deteriorate in every way, leading to some pain and discomfort. Seniors are more prone to experience inflammation, mental and bone health issues and high blood pressure. Evidence and studies show cannabis is a good way of providing some relief, especially in the chronic pain area.

    One of the most common wellness ways cannabis is used is for sleep. Like most natural medicines, it needs to be taken occasionally, but enough to change your sleep patterns. With the correct dosage, it can increase total sleep time and decrease the frequency of arousals during the night.

    Another key issue is anxiety. Some people use marijuana to cope with anxiety, especially those with social anxiety disorder. THC appears to decrease anxiety at lower doses and increase anxiety at higher doses. Studies has shown CBD appears to decrease anxiety at all doses.

    In the fun category, marijuana is healthier than alcohol and can make experiences much more vibrant and alive. Science shows listening to music, watching a movie, or just looking at scenery is more vibrant.  Part of the reason is while on THC, is slows the “memory search part” of the brain and allows it to focus on the moment. Also, cannabis and cannabis creams can help in the intimacy department, sometimes reopening a door which might have been closed.

    RELATED: 6 Ways Cannabis Can Improve The Life Of Seniors

    There needs to be an awareness on the possible effect marijuana can have with common medications taken by older adults. A review published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology says that marijuana can interact with common heart medications, such as statin and blood thinners. Marijuana use can alter the time in which these medications have an effect and could also result in bleeding.

    People should also avoid pairing marijuana with anti-seizure medications or any other substance that produces strong effects. If having surgery, it’s important for older adults to disclose marijuana use to doctors, even including the use of CBD. The compound has also been linked with altering the way in which the liver processes dosages in medications.

    RELATED: Survey: Seniors In Pain Want To Try Cannabis, But This Is Preventing Them

    Like alcohol, cannabis can make you a bit unstable on your feet. Using either could result in dizziness and in feeling out of control of your body. This in turn could increase the risk of falling and getting involved in all sorts of accidents. Falls pose serious risks for seniors, with 1 out of 5 resulting in a head injury or broken bones. The good news, if done right, cannabis makes you chill.

    How CBD Helps Seniors Exercise
    Photo by Caiaimage/Trevor Adeline/Getty Images

    According to a study published in the journal Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, like with alcohol, older marijuana users are more likely to experience depression than non-users. While it’s not know exactly why this occurs, it’s likely a combination of things; these users might be taking cannabis instead of seeking medical help, or maybe cannabis is interacting with the medications they’re already taking in ways that are not beneficial.

    Amy Hansen

    Source link

  • The Perfect James Bond Martini

    The Perfect James Bond Martini

    Did James Bond make the martini famous? Or did the martini help make Bond cool?

    The classic line of “shaken or stirred” has been used by men for decades.  Bond instructs the bartender in the phrase “shaken and not stirred” in Diamonds Are Forever and Dr No and it has been in our lexicon ever since. But did Bond make the martini famous – or did the martini help Bond. And what is the perfect James Bond Martini?

    The history of the martini is murky, “Professor” Jerry Thomas, a famous and influential 19th century bartender, invented the drink at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, sometime in the late 1850s or early 1860s. As the story goes, a miner, about to set out on a journey to Martinez, California, put a gold nugget on the bar and asked Thomas to mix him up something special. Thomas produced a drink containing Old Tom (sweetened) gin, vermouth, bitters and Maraschino, and dubbed it the “Martinez” in honor of the customer’s destination.

    Related: California or New York, Which Has The Biggest Marijuana Mess

    The big question is gin or vodka? Purist insist it be gin for the classic martini, but numbers say vodka is preferred. Vodka sales are about $7.5 billion annually while gin is around $5 billion. If you order a classic martini, you will probably be served gin unless you say vodka. Bond seems fairly fluid in his choice, he orders 19 vodka martinis and 16 gin martinis throughout Fleming’s novels and short stories.

    Like Bond’s creator Ian Fleming, James Bond prefers his cocktails shaken and not stirred. A traditional martini is stirred rather than shaken, but Fleming’s biographer Andrew Lycett shared the author preferred martinis shaken since he believe it preserved the flavor.

    Internationally known celebrity chef Justin Khanna has his take on the martini.

    “The perfect Martini, to me, takes advantage of the “blank canvas” nature of this timeless cocktail. “Many cocktails restrict you to specific garnishes, and even fewer allow the liberty to swap the base spirit.

    With the Martini, a vodka base that’s heavy on the olives and light on the vermouth is just as “right” as one made with gin and a twist of lemon, even though they couldn’t be more different once you take your first sip. Accompanied by a bowl of olives, bleu cheese or salty potato chips to snack on, and I’ll savor this iconic cocktail in bliss.

    I personally love the body, complexity and herbaceous kick of vermouth, often making it a co-star in my version”

    The Khanna Martini

    Ingredients

    • 2 1/2 oz vodka
    • 3/4 oz dry vermouth
    • Ice
    • Lemon zest twist

    Create

    • Combine vodka and vermouth in a shaker with ice.
    • Shake for 10-20 seconds.
    • Strain into a chilled martini glass.
    • Garnish with a lemon twist, first rubbing it along the rim for a burst of citrus aroma.

    RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

    Dean Martin, Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis’s Margo Channing, FDR, Frank Sinatra, and Jessica Walter’s Lucille Bluth are all noted martini fans. One of the most fun is the great Megan Mullally’s Karen Walker from the show Will & Grace.

    The Karen Walker Martini

    Ingredients

    • 2.5 oz. High-end vodka
    • .5 oz. Dry vermouth
    • .5 oz. Olive brine

    Create

    • Pour all ingredients into shaker with ice cubes.
    • Shake well
    • Strain in chilled cocktail glass

    The Perfect James Bond Martini

    Ingredients

    • 2 ¼ ounces dry gin
    • 1 ounce dry vermouth
    • 1 lemon twist, for garnish
    • 1 olive (for garnish)

    Create

    • Combine vermouth and gin in a mixing glass filled with ice
    • Fill glass with ice and stir rapidly. Continue adding ice and stirring until the additional ice has been submerged within the cocktail
    • Strain the cocktail into the chilled martini glass
    • Express the lemon twist over the cocktail
    • Place expressed lemon twist and the skewered olive on the chilled rim

    As famed writer and wit Dorothy Parker shared about martinis:

    “I like to have a martini,
    Two at the very most.
    After three I’m under the table,
    after four I’m under my host.”

     

    Anthony Washington

    Source link

  • Biden’s Weed Tweet Got Numbers and Feedback

    Biden’s Weed Tweet Got Numbers and Feedback

    His mentioning marijuana at the State of The Union was historic, but boy did he get some feedback when he tweeted.

    The State of the Union address for many years was referred to as “the President’s Annual Message to Congress“. It is believed George Washington started the tradition and the term “State of the Union” first emerged in 1934 when used by Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). President Biden mention of marijuana was historic and also showed how the plants reputation has come a long way from the war on drugs.  And when he tweeted about it, things got spicy. Biden’s weed tweet got numbers and feedback – and the administration might be wise to pay attention.

    Related: California or New York, Which Has The Biggest Marijuana Mess

    The tweet on cannabis reached 14 million and had 12,000 comments and 104,000 likes.  The President mentioned his marijuana pardons which drew a significant amount of feedback. According to BDSA, a leading analytics firm covering cannabis, the industry generated $29.5 billion in revue in 2023.  When talking about a need to grow the economy and taxes, here is a fresh industry the public wants, but antiquated laws are punishing small businesses.

    When you subtract comments not relating to weed, they fall in three categories.  The first is the remaining resentment toward Vice President Harris for her historic stance on marijuana.  The industry was at first excited when Biden was elected as he indicated he would move opening up legalization for cannabis. His slow pace along with VP Harris’s previous role has frustrated the industry and it shows by the sharp remarks.

    Another large batch of comments were just about making a move already!  Science, the American Medical Association, and the federal departments of the Healthy and Human Services (HHS) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have all said there are benefits.  People are clamoring for him to act and act quickly. But, it seems to the public eye, the administration has been very slow in fullfilling this promise from over 2020.

    RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

    The third big conversation is his perception his pardons did more than they actually did for prisoners.  Again, there is hard feelings about it and the online community want him to understand what he did and did not do.

    While the industry is expanding, it is still in growth mode and needs basic help in continuing to grow. Rescheduling would allow state cannabis operators to take federal tax deductions they’re currently barred from under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E.  This would give immediate benefits to the cannabis industry which is 50+% small businesses.

     

    Sarah Johns

    Source link

  • What Overturning Chevron Could Mean for Cannabis – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    What Overturning Chevron Could Mean for Cannabis – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news





    What Overturning Chevron Could Mean for Cannabis – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news































    Tom Hymes

    Source link