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RFK Jr.’s Moves on Animal Testing Spur Capitol Hill Action
In his first two years on the job, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has become a polarizing figure on Capitol Hill, largely because of his vaccine skepticism and distrust of the status quo. But one of his quieter pushes — ending animal testing in medical research — has earned him accolades among some Democrats and Republicans alike.
It could be considered an odd position for Kennedy, who admitted in 2024 to leaving a bear carcass in Central Park a decade earlier. But administration policies are consistently moving against such testing: Both the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration have recently rolled out policies to reduce the number of research projects that rely on animal testing.
But it is consistent. In a 2025 interview with Lara Trump, Kennedy said his agency is “deeply committed to ending animal experimentation.” He also called for an end to the importation of monkeys for scientific studies. Lawmakers have introduced several bills to do the same.
Petition Urges FDA to End Routine Antibiotic Use on Farms
A coalition of 65 health, environmental, consumer, and animal welfare groups has filed a petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to end the routine use of antibiotics in food-producing animals.
The citizen’s petition, sent last week to the FDA, calls on the agency to withdraw approval of medically important antibiotics that are administered in animal feed and water when not associated with a diagnosed illness. The target of the petition is use of antibiotics for disease prevention and “maintenance of growth” in poultry, swine, dairy cattle, and beef cattle — uses the groups argue are unnecessary and contribute to the emergence and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that drug-resistant bacteria contribute to about 35,000 deaths and 2.8 million infections in the United States each year. Many of the antibiotics used in food-producing animals are also used in people.
Lackland Flu Outbreak Gets Worse, With 275 Recruits Now Reported Ill
San Antonio Express-News reported:
A flu outbreak among Air Force recruits at Joint Base San Antonio is getting worse, with the number of cases now at 275, according to U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro. Castro said Wednesday that the Air Force “confirmed with my office that the flu outbreak at the Air Force Lackland Base in San Antonio is getting worse. There are now 275 confirmed cases.”
The Air Force has not officially released the number of recruits that have fallen ill since the flu outbreak began more than four weeks ago at the Air Force’s home of basic military training. Neither the Pentagon nor the Air Education and Training Command, which oversees the Air Force and the 37th Training Wing, made an initial public announcement about the outbreak.
Early reports said that up to 160 recruits were sickened in the outbreak, but Castro, D-San Antonio, said last week the number had risen to 222. The 37th Training Wing said nothing publicly about the outbreak until Wednesday. A statement shared with the Express-News said that the wing, working closely over the past three weeks with the 59th Medical Wing, “has been managing a localized influenza outbreak among trainees at basic military training.”
The statement went on to say that “medical professionals and public health officials have implemented mitigation measures to isolate and treat symptomatic trainees to reduce further exposure and continue to monitor the situation. Medical personnel are also monitoring trainees who were in close contact with sick members in case they become symptomatic.”
Even in Blue States, Hospitals Have Continued to Drop Gender-Affirming Care for Youths
One afternoon in late 2024, a sixth-grader nicknamed Bug came home from school with an announcement to make. Bug, who was assigned female at birth, told his parents he was a boy — and would be using he/him pronouns. “OK, cool,” his mother, J, remembered saying. (J asked to be identified by only her first initial, and Bug by his nickname, because the family fears harassment.) “‘What do you need to be supported?’” she recalled asking next. “He asked to get healthcare.”
This was the kind of moment J had been anticipating since the family had moved earlier that year from Texas to Massachusetts, for its more liberal and inclusive politics. She felt confident they could find the right medical experts. But she hadn’t realized that access to gender-affirming treatment could disappear even when their state’s laws and leaders supported it.
Individual hospitals all over the U.S., in red and blue states, have responded to President Donald Trump’s attacks on transgender healthcare by deciding to withdraw care on their own. At least 20 hospitals did so in the first months of the Trump administration as it threatened to pull back federal funding or initiate fraud or wrongful-claim investigations, and such services have continued to drop off since.
Federal Firefighters Will Be Encouraged to Wear N95 Respirators in Major Policy Reversal
For the first time, federal firefighters will be encouraged to wear respirators to protect them against smoke-related hazards as they work to put out wildland blazes.
The Forest Service announced Wednesday that firefighters were authorized to use N95 respirators on the fire line, a major policy reversal as the agency for decades did not allow such protections, even as studies demonstrated the health harms of wildfire smoke.
“It’s long, long overdue,” said George Broyles, a longtime Forest Service firefighter who has researched wildfire exposure risks. “There’s no doubt that our men and women out there are at higher risk of cancer and heart disease.” To Broyles, the policy change represents a long-awaited acknowledgment from the Forest Service that wildfire smoke is toxic and that the agency ought to find ways to reduce its workers’ risks.
