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Circuit Judge’s Final Order: Schools Can’t Block Unvaccinated Students Citing Religious Exemptions
West Virginia Metro News reported:
A Raleigh County circuit judge entered a final order today in a case with statewide implications about religious exemptions to West Virginia’s school vaccination requirements, with the state school board saying just a few hours later that it would abide by the ruling until an appeals review.
In a 74-page Thanksgiving week order, Circuit Judge Michael Froble granted permanent injunctive and declaratory relief to families who want the public school system to accept religious exemptions processed by the state health department. Attorneys for the state and local school boards signaled weeks ago that they would appeal the local judge’s rulings to the state Supreme Court.
The judge’s ruling will affect communities across the state because Froble certified a class action for more than 570 families who have sought and received religious exemptions to school vaccination laws. The certification also affects families who might seek such exemptions in the future.
The case before Froble, who is in his first year on the bench, at first involved a couple of Raleigh County families wanting to send their children to local schools on vaccination exemptions.
Common Antibiotic Linked to Risk of Acute Respiratory Failure in Kids, Young Adults
A new study of adolescents and young adults has found a commonly used antibiotic for skin infections, urinary tract infections, and acne is associated with an increased risk of respiratory failure.
The study, conducted in Ontario, found that the risk of a hospital visit with acute respiratory failure was nearly three times higher in healthy 10- to 25-year-olds who received trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, or TMP-SMX, than those who received either amoxicillin or cephalosporin antibiotics, though the overall risk was low. The findings were published yesterday by a team of Canadian researchers in JAMA Network Open.
The study adds to evidence from 19 case reports that have linked use of TMP-SMX (marketed under the brand names Bactrim and Septra) to acute respiratory failure in previously healthy adolescents and young adults. Four patients required prolonged extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, support, and two died, including a 17-year-old who spent more than a year in the hospital and was on ECMO for 189 days following a severe reaction to Bactrim.
The case reports led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to place a warning label in 2021 on oral and injection formulations of Bactrim and Septra that advises medical providers to watch for reports of cough, shortness of breath, or rapid, shallow breathing. This is the first population-based study to confirm the warning.
America’s Children Are Unwell. Are Schools Part of the Problem?
One of the more bewildering aspects of the already high-stress endeavor of 21st-century American parenting is that at some point your child is likely to be identified with a psychiatric diagnosis of one kind or another. Many exist in a gray zone that previous generations of parents never encountered.
A diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is practically a rite of passage in American boyhood, with nearly one in four 17-year-old boys bearing the diagnosis. The numbers have only gone up, and vertiginously: One million more children were diagnosed with A.D.H.D. in 2022 than in 2016.
The numbers on autism are so shocking that they are worth repeating. In the early 1980s, one in 2,500 children had an autism diagnosis. That figure is now one in 31.
Nearly 32% of adolescents have been diagnosed at some point with anxiety; the median age of “onset” is 6 years old. More than 1 in 10 adolescents have experienced a major depressive disorder, according to some estimates. New categories materialize. There is now oppositional defiant disorder, in addition to pathological demand avoidance.
So perhaps it should be little surprise that even among our deeply polarized political leaders, there is broad agreement that America’s children are not well.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a strategy report in September entitled “Make Our Children Healthy Again,” with ideas on how to improve the mental health of children with better diets, less screen time and fewer medications. Illinois’s governor, the Trump antagonist JB Pritzker, recently made his state the first in the nation to require schools to do universal mental health screenings.
Most Preschoolers Aren’t Getting Enough Daily Exercise, Study Finds
Fewer than 1 in 4 children, about 23%, reached the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation of 180 minutes of daily physical activity. Even fewer, only 2.4%, met the goal of at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day.
Children were more active on days they attended daycare and preschool settings, moving about 15 minutes more per day compared to days spent outside of care.
But most children were still not active enough overall, either at school or at home.
Boys were more likely to meet activity targets than girls, with 8% more boys hitting the guidelines. Older preschoolers also tended to be more active than younger ones.
Outside of daycare or preschool settings, children from less deprived backgrounds were more active than children from more deprived families.
But when kids were in early care and school settings, those differences mostly disappeared, showing these settings can help reduce gaps in physical activity.
“These findings highlight a critical gap in physical activity among preschoolers,” Kim Hannam, a research fellow at the University of Bristol in England and senior author of the study, said in a news release.
Untreated Chronic Thyroid Dysfunction in Moms Tied to Autism in Kids
Adequately treated chronic hypothyroidism in pregnant women was not associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in offspring, but persistent hormonal imbalance across trimesters was tied to elevated ASD risk, a retrospective study of Israeli births suggested.
Maternal chronic hypothyroidism alone — likely reflecting adequate treatment — was not significantly associated with ASD, reported Idan Menashe, Ph.D., of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, and colleagues. However, combined chronic and gestational hypothyroidism was linked with a more than twofold higher ASD risk in children compared with offspring of women who had normal thyroid function, Menashe and co-authors wrote in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
“While causal conclusions are premature, these results are consistent with recommendations for routine monitoring of thyroid hormone levels and treatment of imbalanced thyroid function with thyroid hormone medications to maintain euthyroidism in pregnancy,” the researchers highlighted.
California Issues Update to Reaffirm That Vaccines Are Not Linked to Autism
Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the West Coast Health Alliance (WCHA) issued information to the public and public health professionals after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — headed by vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — incorrectly updated its website to suggest, without scientific evidence, a causal link between vaccines and autism.
The West Coast Health Alliance continues to strongly recommend vaccines to protect our children, noting that rigorous research of millions of people in multiple countries over decades provides high quality evidence that vaccines are not linked to autism. The Alliance is deeply concerned about inaccurate claims to the contrary recently posted on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental condition with multiple contributing genetic and environmental factors. Suggesting it stems from any single cause, such as vaccination, misleads families who deserve accurate guidance. It is not only a disservice to families seeking clarity about vaccines but also potentially harmful to autistic individuals and their families.
An Alarming Number of Teens Say They Turn to AI for Company, Study Finds
We have a whole new generation growing up in the dawn of artificial intelligence. The early signs of its impact are alarming. A British youth charity called OnSide surveyed 5,035 young people between the ages of 11 to 18 for the “Generation Isolation Report,” its annual study on how the youth spend their free time. The results paint a rather bleak picture.
The survey found that two-in-five teens turn to artificial intelligence (AI) for advice, company or support, with 20% of those that do saying that talking to AI is easier than talking to a real person.
“AI support is instant, but no substitute for the trust, empathy and understanding of a human conversation,” OnSide chief executive Jamie Masraff said in the report.
Over half of the young respondents said that they turned to AI specifically for advice on things like clothes, friendships, mental health or to have AI help them through emotions like sadness and stress. One-in-ten said that they were choosing AI because they just wanted someone to talk to.
