Florida House Passes Bill Barring Healthcare Discrimination Based on Vaccine Status
The Florida House passed a bill Wednesday that prevents health care discrimination based on vaccination status and maintains the state’s prohibition against discrimination related to mRNA vaccines.
What it does: HB 1299 prohibits health care providers and facilities from discriminating against a patient based solely on vaccination status and affirms a patient’s right to impartial access to treatment or accommodations regardless of vaccination status.
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- The bill repeals the scheduled expiration of the definition of mRNA vaccines, maintaining the prohibition against discrimination based on vaccination status.
- It prohibits health care providers and facilities from discriminating against patients based solely on vaccination status.
- The bill requires Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers and Testing Laboratories to report actual or attempted theft, loss, or diversion of medical marijuana to the Department of Health in addition to law enforcement, and defines “owners,” “managers,” and “employees” for background screening purposes.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. Urges Community as Fix to Opioid Crisis
Hecklers interrupted a speech Thursday by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at a conference on opioid addiction in Nashville. The Rx and Illicit Drug Summit 2025 drew law enforcement officials, addiction prevention counselors, social workers and public health officers to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center for the three-day event.
For years, Kennedy has drawn ire and disapproval for his anti-vaccine messages and, more recently, for belittling comments about people with autism and budget cuts in his department. “Believe science!,” shouted a protester before security rushed him from the room. Another protester held aloft a sign that read, “Vaccines save lives.”
Kennedy’s speech was apolitical and focused on his own history in recovery from an addiction to heroin and his recommendations for dealing with the nation’s opioid crisis — many of which focused less on medical or treatment solutions and more on the need to build community, embrace spirituality and take personal responsibility.
After touting a $4 billion budget at HHS, Kennedy said that “money alone won’t fix this.”
“We have a whole generation of children who have lost faith in our country and their future,” Kennedy said. “Policy should reestablish hope for the future.”
Trump Administration Cuts Down Funding for Largest Women’s Health Research Initiative in US
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is cutting off funding to the long-running Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) in September, a move that leaves the fate of one of the world’s largest women’s health studies hanging in the balance.
The agency is canceling contracts to the WHI’s regional centers by the end of September, the WHI said in an April 21 announcement. The initiatives’ coordinating center, housed at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, will continue running until January 2026, after which “its funding remains uncertain,” according to the announcement. At the time of publication, the HHS and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center had not responded to Fierce’s request for comment.
WHI regional centers are spread across the country at locations in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, California and Washington. The original WHI study began in 1991 with funding from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The study enrolled 161,808 women between the ages of 50 and 79, investigating strategies to prevent heart disease, osteoporosis and breast and colorectal cancer.
The Government’s Chemical Disaster Tracking Tool Just Went Dark
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just hid data that mapped out the locations of thousands of dangerous chemical facilities, after chemical industry lobbyists demanded that the Trump administration take down the public records.
The webpage was quietly shut down late Friday, according to records viewed by The Lever — stripping away what advocates say was critical information on the secretive chemical plants at highest risk of disaster across the U.S.
The data was made public last year through the EPA’s Risk Management Program, which oversees the country’s highest-risk chemical facilities. These chemical plants deal with dangerous, volatile chemicals — like those used to make pesticides, fertilizers, and plastics — and are responsible for dozens of chemical disasters every year.
A spokesperson for Coming Clean, an environmental health group focusing on the chemical industry, told The Lever that the organization was “surprised” to see the webpage taken down and that its staff had accessed the data as recently as Friday morning.
Hegseth Welcomes 8,700 ‘Warriors of Conscience’ Who Refused COVID Vaccine
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the reinstatement of 8,700 service members who were “pushed out” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden-era mandate was meant to protect the health of the force.
Hegseth spoke on Wednesday, April 23, in front of U.S. Army War College families, students and staff at the Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. “Service members were involuntarily separated for not taking an experimental COVID-19 vaccine,” he said. “Others were more informally pushed out or decided to get out.” Hegseth said thousands of members who left the Army received letters from the government, explaining they want them back, even calling them “warriors of conscience.”
“Our Personnel and Readiness Department is working in real time to make that process more and more efficient, more and more direct every single day,” Hegseth said during the visit. At the beginning of April, the Department of Defense said there’s an extensive effort underway to reconnect with dismissed troops.
