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Florida Prepares to Roll Back School Vaccine Requirements
Florida is set to roll back four vaccine requirements for children attending the state’s public schools, according to a new rule published Monday by the state Department of Health. The proposed guidelines come after Florida’s surgeon general launched an effort last fall to eliminate all vaccine mandates for school children.
The rule would allow Florida children to attend school without receiving immunizations for chickenpox, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type B and pneumococcal disease. The Department of Health purports that the proposed rule eliminates vaccine mandates for shots that aren’t required under state law.
Florida law requires children to be vaccinated for seven diseases — polio, diphtheria, tetanus, rubeola (measles), rubella, pertussis and mumps — as well as “other communicable diseases as determined by rules of the Department of Health.” The four diseases at issue in the new proposed rule were requirements under the state’s health department, which is now trying to change its own administrative rule.
Study Warns on Alpha-Gal Syndrome and Blood Transfusions
In areas with high prevalence of tick-induced alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), patients with blood type O appeared to be at significantly increased risk for allergic transfusion reactions to B or AB blood units, according to a retrospective cohort study.
In regions with high prevalence of AGS in the U.S., people with type O blood who received B or AB platelet or plasma units were nearly four times more likely to have an allergic transfusion reaction versus those who received O units (overall risk ratio [RR] 3.93, 95% CI 2.96-5.21, P<0.001), reported Richard Kaufman, MD, of the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and colleagues in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Notably, type O patients living in AGS low-prevalence regions did not have a significantly increased risk of allergic transfusion reactions when they received B or AB blood units (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.88-1.29, P=0.53).
“This cohort study provides provocative epidemiologic evidence consistent with TRAGS [transfusion-related alpha-gal syndrome] representing a newly recognized risk to recipients of blood transfusions,” Kaufman and colleagues wrote. “We anticipate that this will change transfusion practices in the U.S., at least in AGS high-prevalence regions,” said Kaufman in a press release.
COVID-Vaccine-Injured Canadians Need a Voice, MP Says Ahead of Ottawa Inquiry
Canadians who believe they were injured by COVID-19 vaccines deserve a place to be heard, Niagara West MP Dean Allison says. In an interview with The Really Big Show, Allison outlined plans for the Allison Inquiry, a four-day hearing scheduled for Sept. 8-11 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
The inquiry is intended to hear from Canadians who say they were injured following COVID-19 vaccination, as well as family members and a limited number of expert witnesses who can provide context. Allison said it is a first step in a much larger national conversation Canada has avoided for too long.
According to Allison, he began hearing concerns during the pandemic from Canadians who felt pressured to be vaccinated in order to travel, work, finish school or visit family.
In the years since, he claimed the calls, emails and messages have continued from people who believe they were injured following COVID-19 vaccination, as well as family members and a limited number of expert witnesses who can provide context.
New Study Raises Concerns Over Use of Weight-Loss Drugs in Elite Sport
Researchers surveyed 114 sports medicine physicians from 38 countries, covering 93 different sports, to explore their views on athletes’ use of GLP-1 drugs. Twelve percent said they were aware of athletes using the medications despite having no medical need for them.
Physicians most frequently indicated that they believed athletes would consider using GLP-1 drugs to lose weight quickly to meet weight classifications and manage weight following injury. However, concerns were raised about the potential impact on performance and athlete health, particularly because the drugs suppress appetite and could reduce energy intake, leading to metabolic and hormonal health issues.
The study found “moderate concern” among physicians about the nonmedical use of GLP-1 drugs in sport, both in terms of potential performance benefits and athlete health and welfare.
How Well Do COVID Antivirals Actually Work? Not as Well as We Thought
If you’re 70 or older, or 50 or older with underlying health conditions, and have tested positive for COVID, you might have been offered free or subsidized antivirals.
Earlier in the pandemic, these medicines were an important way to reduce the chance of people becoming severely ill with COVID, needing to be hospitalized or dying. But our new research suggests that with high levels of vaccination and immunity from previous infections, COVID antivirals are no longer working as well.
When SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, first emerged in late 2019, no treatment was available. Existing influenza antivirals, which had been stockpiled by governments, were ineffective and couldn’t be used.
