Vicky Pebsworth has spent decades saying vaccines caused her son’s autism – a connection refuted by years of research

One of the new members of a critical federal vaccine advisory board has argued for decades that vaccines caused her son’s autism – a connection that years of large-scale studies and reviews refute.

Registered nurse Vicky Pebsworth is one of eight new members to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (Acip), all hand-picked by the vaccine skeptic and Donald Trump’s health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

“She’s probably been anti-vax longer than RFK has,” said Dr David Gorski, a Wayne State University School of Medicine professor, who is considered an expert on the anti-vaccine movement.

Experts worry the tax-and-spending bill will gut healthcare and hospitals, especially in states like North Carolina

When Hurricane Helene drowned western North Carolina in muck and floodwater last year, it caught folks off-guard.

Now, local leaders in places like Asheville expect the Republican-led reconciliation bill – called the “big, beautiful bill” by Donald Trump – to bear down on rural America. And they wonder whether people are missing the warning signs.

“It’s going to have to hit them first,” said Laurie Stradley, CEO of Impact Health in Asheville, a Medicaid-funded non-profit providing social services to some people still digging out from the flood.

Medicaid is the single largest health insurance program in the US. The public program covers 71 million low-income, disabled and elderly US residents. It pays for half of all US births and the care of six in 10 nursing home residents.

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The “3 by 35” Initiative targets tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks to cut deaths and boost health and development funding

The World Health Organization (WHO) today has launched a major new initiative urging countries to raise real prices on tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks by at least 50% by 2035 through health taxes in a move designed to curb chronic diseases and generate critical public revenue. The “3 by 35” Initiative comes at a time when health systems are under enormous strain from rising noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), shrinking development aid and growing public debt.

The consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and sugary drinks are fueling the NCD epidemic. NCDs, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, account for over 75% of all deaths worldwide. A recent report shows that a one-time 50% price increase on these products could prevent 50 million premature deaths over the next 50 years.

Every person in the Netherlands has "forever chemicals" in their blood, according to the country's first national study on the topic.

The study, published Thursday, indicates that having per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (known as PFAS) in levels above safety thresholds does not automatically lead to illness.

"However, it does mean that PFAS can have an effect on the body. For example, the immune system may function less effectively. The effects depend on the amount of PFAS, the duration of exposure, and a person's individual health condition," reads the study, conducted by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, or RIVM.

Nearly 368,000 pounds of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon products are being recalled over possible contamination with listeria bacteria that can cause food poisoning, federal health officials said Wednesday. 

No illnesses have been confirmed to date, U.S. agriculture department officials said. 

Kraft Heinz Food Company of Newberry, South Carolina, announced the recall of the fully cooked turkey bacon that was produced from April 24 to June 11. The problem was discovered when the company’s laboratory testing indicated potential listeria contamination. 

"We need to stop trusting the experts," Kennedy told Tucker Carlson.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on the latest episode of Tucker Carlson’s podcast on Monday and it’s filled with the ramblings of a man completely detached from reality.

Kennedy falsely suggested vaccines cause autism, more or less endorsed the idea that Anthony Fauci should go to prison, and says that AI will allow the FDA to approve new drugs very quickly. It’s quite a mess.

These absolutely unhinged ideas wouldn’t be such a problem if this were any other fringe lunatic appearing on the podcast of a racist former Fox News host. But Kennedy happens to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a man who’s been given enormous power over America’s entire healthcare system thanks to Donald Trump.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed the largest cuts to Medicaid since the program began in the 1960s, a move that would erode the social safety net and cause a spike in the number of uninsured Americans over the next decade.

The tax and spending bill is projected to cost more than $3 trillion during that time, but it would be partially paid for with about $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.

Almost 12 million lower-income Americans would lose their health insurance by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

It still needs to pass the House again, where some moderate Republicans have expressed concerns about the cuts.

Experts say the push to cut federal funding for programs that provide health coverage to children speaks to the lack of youth protections in the US

Children’s right to healthcare is not protected in the US. A fact experts say is apparent in the federal budget currently under debate, which would see significant cuts to programs that help low income children afford food and healthcare, like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap).

“There’s no right to these programs,” said Jonathan Todres, a leading expert on children’s rights and law professor at Georgia State University College of Law. “Medicaid, Chip, those all support millions of children, but they don’t establish a right. So at any time the government can choose to cut these programs.”

Medicaid and Chip provide health coverage to two in five US children, while Snap provides meals to one in five. The current budget would cut $863.4bn from Medicaid and Chip, and $300bn from Snap, over the next decade. Although children under the age of 18 make up about 22% of the US population, Todres notes that spending on youth only amounts to about 10% of the federal budget.

State and federal prosecutors have charged more than 320 people and uncovered nearly $15 billion in false claims in what they described Monday as the largest coordinated takedown of health care fraud schemes in Justice Department history.

Law enforcement seized more than $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets as prosecutors warned of a growing push by transnational criminal networks to exploit the U.S. health care system.

As part of the sweeping crackdown, officials identified perpetrators based in Russia, Eastern Europe, Pakistan, and other countries.

As we reported earlier this month, many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.

The consequences can be dire. As we heard from spouses, friends, children, and parents looking on in alarm, instances of what's being called "ChatGPT psychosis" have led to the breakup of marriages and families, the loss of jobs, and slides into homelessness.

And that's not all. As we've continued reporting, we've heard numerous troubling stories about people's loved ones being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even ending up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot.

"I was just like, I don't f*cking know what to do," one woman told us. "Nobody knows who knows what to do."

Unusually aggressive lone star ticks, common in the south-east, are spreading to areas previously too cold for them

Blood-sucking ticks that trigger a bizarre allergy to meat in the people they bite are exploding in number and spreading across the US, to the extent that they could cover the entire eastern half of the country and infect millions of people, experts have warned.

Lone star ticks have taken advantage of rising temperatures by the human-caused climate crisis to expand from their heartland in the south-east US to areas previously too cold for them, in recent years marching as far north as New York and even Maine, as well as pushing westwards.

The ticks are known to be unusually aggressive and can provoke an allergy in bitten people whereby they cannot eat red meat without enduring a severe reaction, such as breaking out in hives and even the risk of heart attacks. The condition, known as alpha-gal syndrome, has proliferated from just a few dozen known cases in 2009 to as many as 450,000 now.

A well written piece.

The case grew out of a conservative religious challenge to the approval of HIV prevention treatments that insurers are required to provide at no cost to patients.

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to an Affordable Care Act provision that set up a panel to recommend preventive care services that insurers must provide at no cost to patients.

The court, split 6-3, ruled in favor of the Trump administration, which was defending the law, saying the task force members are lawfully appointed under the Constitution's appointments clause.

The task force members are under the supervision of the health and human services secretary, a position held by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which addresses any concerns that it is not accountable to the executive branch, the court found in an opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Three conservative justices dissented.