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Spelling Opening Doors for Those Without a Voice
Imagine having so much to say — but no way to say it. That was life for one man, until things started changing, one letter at a time. Now, with a simple keyboard, he and other non-speakers are able to share their thoughts, personality and voice through spelling to communicate. Each letter becomes a word, and each word can open up a whole new world. “I knew that he was smart. I didn’t know he was as smart as he really is,” said Megan Velotta.
It was early in Charlie’s childhood when Megan learned her son was autistic and non-speaking. “Charlie was walking and talking, and having a normal development until about 16 months, and he slowly started to lose his words. We call it regressive autism,” said Megan.
For nearly two decades, they relied on tools like TouchChat — an app that uses customizable pictures and words to help with communication. “It had simple language—‘I’m hungry,’ ‘I need to go to the bathroom,’ ‘I want water,’” Megan said. “It worked functionally, but those weren’t really his words.” Then, three years ago, everything changed when Charlie began spelling to communicate. “Once they’re using the spelling to communicate, they can actually have an open conversation,” said Megan.
Covid Jab Skipped Vital Safety Checks ‘Due to Time Constraints’, German Covid Inquiry Told
Vital safety checks were not carried out on Covid vaccines before they were rolled out to millions, Germany’s pandemic inquiry has heard. A former chief toxicologist for Pfizer said the mRNA jabs were not checked for any cancer causing properties “due to time constraints” which he said is “regrettable.” Nor were proper checks done on its impact on pregnancy, the inquiry was told.
Dr Helmut Sterz, who worked as chief toxicologist for Pfizer Europe until 2008 gave evidence this month to Germany’s Covid Inquiry — known as the Corona Enquete Commission. During the hearing, Dr Sterz confirmed he had reviewed documents relating to the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine — Comirnaty.
Dr Sterz has studied publicly available evidence and research papers, about the laboratory and human trials of the mRNA Covid vaccine and potential side effects.
Asked whether the vaccine had been fully tested before approval, he told the committee: “No, the (cancer causing) carcinogenic risk was not investigated due to time constraints. Incidentally, I find it very concerning and also regrettable that no alternative investigations were carried out.”
Judge Blocks HHS Declaration Restricting Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Minors
A federal district court judge granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and a coalition of 21 states and the District of Columbia blocking a declaration from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that would pressure health care providers to stop providing care to transgender youth.
In a press release from her office on Monday morning, Nessel said that Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, in federal district court in the District of Oregon, ruled that the administration cannot threaten to cut off hospitals and clinics from Medicare and Medicaid, for providing this type of care.
“Politicians should never drive medical decision-making,” Nessel said in the press release. “I am relieved that the Court has affirmed that the federal government cannot unlawfully interfere with doctors providing essential healthcare, including treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy. My office remains committed to protecting access to necessary care for young transgender individuals.”
The lawsuit, first filed in late December 2025, challenged a “declaration” posted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. titled “Safety, Effectiveness, and Professional Standards of Care for Sex-Rejecting Procedures on Children and Adolescents,” which says that gender-affirming health care procedures “are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care.”
Youth Eating Disorder Admissions Return to Pre-Pandemic Levels
A sharp increase in the number of young people hospitalized with eating disorders immediately after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had returned to pre-pandemic levels, a cross-sectional study of U.S. pediatric hospitals showed. Eating disorder-related hospital discharges among 8- to 25-year-olds increased by 30.9 (95% CI 23.9-38.0) per month through the first year of the pandemic to a peak of about 600 per month across 41 hospitals, reported Cassie Burley, MD, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues in JAMA Pediatrics.
After April 2021, eating disorder-related hospitalizations remained stable or modestly declined before a sharp drop in October 2024 put the pattern and volume of patients back to a level statistically indistinguishable from the pre-pandemic period, averaging in the range of roughly 350 per month through June 2025.
“Five years after pandemic onset, the volume of patients with eating disorders admitted to our geographically diverse group of hospitals appeared to have returned to prepandemic levels,” Burley and colleagues wrote. “This volume was even below that estimated by the prepandemic pattern, although this difference was not statistically significant.”
Kids Who Lose a Parent to Homicide, Suicide or Drug Overdose Face Higher Mortality Risk
Childhood deaths are significantly higher among children who lose a parent to drug overdose, homicide, or suicide compared to the general child population, a new University of Michigan study found. The research, published in JAMA Network Open, investigated the link between specific types of parental loss and the subsequent risk of mortality for children in Michigan, said study lead author Sean Esteban McCabe, professor at the U-M School of Nursing.
The study found that bereaved children who experienced a parental death from one of the three preventable causes accounted for 150 excess childhood deaths in the state over the 14-year study period.
“There are early preventive interventions and childhood bereavement services that have been shown to improve children’s health following the death of a parent that need to be made more widely available so no Michigan child grieves alone,” McCabe said. “Protecting vulnerable children with proven ways of helping must be a priority for all of us to save more lives because there is no greater failure as a community or state than failing to protect our children.”
