Login
Exemption for Moral, Ethical Beliefs Zapped From Desantis Administration’s Proposed Vax Rule
The DeSantis administration is backing off its push to make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children by eliminating from a proposed rule change “sincerely held moral or ethical belief(s)” from the reasons a parent could object to required vaccinations for children to enter school.
The administration announced the change Wednesday, along with plans for a four-hour rule hearing on Oct. 8 in Lake Mary to discuss additional changes the governor wants to make to the state’s vaccine policies before he is term-limited out of office in January.
The rule hearing was requested by the Florida chapters of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Chris Nuland, a Jacksonville healthcare attorney and lobbyist for the Florida Chapter of the American College of Physicians, lauded the change but sees it as a tactical move by the administration.
“We applaud the removal of the phrase ‘sincerely held moral or ethical belief(s)’ as the governing statute did not authorize such an exemption,” Nuland told the Florida Phoenix. But he added, “Our fundamental objection to the proposed rule is the deletion of those four vaccinations — haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), hepatitis B, varicella (chickenpox), and pneumococcal conjugate.)”
Senate Committee Advances Nicole Saphier’s Nomination for Surgeon General
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced President Trump’s pick for the next surgeon general on Wednesday, sending Nicole Saphier’s nomination to the full Senate.
Saphier’s nomination advanced as part of a group of nominees in a party-line vote.
Mr. Trump nominated Saphier in April. A radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Monmouth, Saphier was a Fox News medical contributor until her nomination.
She authored a book in 2020 titled, “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis,” and she is known for her criticism of how public health authorities handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Trump called Saphier a “STAR physician” and “an INCREDIBLE COMMUNICATOR, who makes complicated health issues more easily understood by all Americans.”
Measles Cases Top 900 in Pennsylvania as CDC Confirms 2nd Death
Pennsylvania now has more than 900 measles cases in the largest and fastest-growing outbreak in the nation. Per the state dashboard, there are now 903 measles cases, with 176 patients hospitalized for their infections and four measles-related deaths. The deaths were the first measles deaths in Pennsylvania in 35 years.
A total of 114 people have been diagnosed as having measles in the past week, and 31% of case-patients are children. Less than 1% of patients in Pennsylvania are fully vaccinated.
In related news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website now lists two measles-related deaths for 2026. It is unclear which deaths the CDC’s listing is referring to. An asterisk on the dashboard page says, “This number is subject to change; CDC will update its reporting as additional information becomes available and relevant reviews are completed.”
RFK Jr Outlines Expansive Vision for Collecting US Health Data at MAHA Event
Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out an expansive vision for collecting, sharing and analyzing US health information at a Maha event hosted by a close ally and outspoken anti-vaccine activist.
Medical and lifestyle data, from doctor’s visits to exercise, should be connected and shared with the government and independent researchers, where it can be searched by AI – including potential links between vaccines and health outcomes including autism and mortality, suggested Kennedy, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and a longtime vaccine skeptic.
“We need to use America’s health data to determine whether the food we eat, the chemicals we encounter, the vaccines that we’re administering, the other environmental and lifestyle exposures are contributing in one way or another to the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said at an event with the Maha Institute on Monday, with about two dozen people tuning into the live stream.
A ‘Freaked Out’ US Food Industry Is Hitting Back at MAHA — With Social Media Influencers
Some of the biggest food and agriculture corporations in the US are funding a campaign that pays social media influencers to combat elements of Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again platform, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project.
The ascension of RFK Jr to secretary of health and human services has boosted his putative campaign to end chronic illness in the US, which he believes is primarily caused by processed foods and dyes, exposure to certain chemicals, and poor farming practices, along with an overuse of what he falsely claims are dangerous vaccines.
The “Maha” movement blends long-running mainstream concerns about food and farm safety with conspiracy theories about everything from medicine to milk. A Maha “summit” in Washington this week will feature JD Vance and several members of Trump’s cabinet.
A KFF poll from May 2026 reveals that some Maha themes resonate with a broad segment of US adults. About four in 10 say they support the Maha movement, while a majority of the public say there is not enough regulation of pesticides used in agriculture (64%) or of chemical food additives (75%).
This Senate Democratic Candidate Is Making a Play for RFK Jr.’s MAHA Supporters
The Make America Healthy Again movement has been closely associated with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration, but at least one Democrat in a closely watched Senate race is making a play for MAHA supporters.
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s pivotal Senate seat, on Tuesday is releasing a “Building a Healthier America” policy agenda focusing on cracking down on pesticides, changing drinking water standards and boosting access to healthy food. However, El-Sayed, a former public health official, does not share some MAHA supporters’ skepticism of vaccines, saying in an interview that he “believe[s] in vaccines.”
El-Sayed said the country needs to “severely, severely rethink” how much pesticides are used and in what context. He said he would seek to draft “broad legislation led by science to limit pesticide use” if he wins in November. His newly released policy agenda says he would fight against legal immunity for pesticide manufacturers — a divisive issue after the Supreme Court this year ruled to limit lawsuits over a popular weed killer’s potential health impacts. He said he would also aim to ban pesticides already prohibited in Europe, though the document didn’t specify if he was targeting particular chemicals.
Poll: Rural MAHA Followers Say Trump Hasn’t Improved Health of Their Communities
About half of rural voters identify with Make America Healthy Again (MAHA), a sprawling political movement championed by the Trump administration, but most said President Donald Trump’s healthcare policies have not benefited their communities, according to a new poll from the Associated Press in partnership with KFF. About eight in 10 rural voters — an important voting bloc for Trump and fellow Republicans — said the Trump administration’s policies have had a negative effect or no impact on the health of people where they live. Most MAHA supporters, 68%, also feel this way, according to the national survey of more than 2,000 rural registered voters.
The findings signal an apparent disconnect between the Trump administration’s MAHA-branded policy priorities and rural America’s perception of their reach and effectiveness.
Iowa pastor Mike Jager, 58, is a registered Republican and considers himself part of the MAHA movement. The Trump administration’s health policies have had “minimal” impact on the health of his community, Jager said, but he added that Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is moving the needle “in the right direction.” “It’s a beginning,” Jager said. “It’s a big ship to try and turn around and course-correct.”
