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RFK Jr. Wants to Radically Change Remedy for People Harmed by Vaccines
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he will fix the federal program that pays people who are injured by vaccines, but vaccine backers fear his changes could sabotage it.
The program has long been a target of the anti-vaccination movement in large part because it gives pharmaceutical companies legal immunity over medical side effects from their vaccines.
Congress created the program in the 1980s because companies facing costly lawsuits were pulling back from vaccine manufacturing. They decided that instead of going to court, Americans should seek compensation for injuries through a specialized government program.
Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Major Medical Record Database for Gatekeeping Data and Restricting Parental Access to Children’s Medical Records
Texas Attorney General reported:
Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Epic Systems Corporation (“Epic”) for their unlawful monopolization of the electronic health records industry and for engaging in deceptive practices that restrict parental access to their minor children’s medical records.
Epic’s database software houses more than 325 million patient records, representing 90% of all U.S. citizens. The corporation uses a wide range of exclusionary tactics to prevent potential competition from its partners, customers, and even its own employees. Epic also interferes with hospitals’ ability to use its own patient data as part of its scheme to block software competitors.
As a result, Texas patients experience diminished quality of health care due to their preferred physicians receiving incomplete or out-of-date patient health records. These anticompetitive practices further harm Texas hospitals and Texas patients by raising costs and blocking innovative technologies.
Health Advocates Call for Policymakers to Tackle Ultra-Processed Foods ‘Crisis’ at DC Summit
Health advocates and policymakers from both sides of the political aisle called for the federal government to prioritize the public health crisis they warn has resulted from the pervasive ultra-processed foods at Americans’ fingertips at a summit in Washington, DC on Wednesday.
“This has to be in the top two or three priorities for Congress, period,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, Director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. “This is the central issue of our time for our economy, for our health, for our future, for our kids.”
Almost 70% of U.S. foods are considered “ultra-processed,” which contain ingredients such as chemical preservatives, emulsifiers and sweeteners and undergo processing techniques that heavily alter their ingredients.
These include hot dogs, frozen meals, packaged pastries and instant soups. Ultra-processed foods are linked to heart disease, type 2 diabetes and dementia, among other health problems. While many are considered junk foods, not all ultra-processed foods are considered equally unhealthy.
EPA Adds Another Industry Insider as the Administration’s Lobbyist Ranks Grow
The nation’s main office for protecting Americans from harmful chemicals is welcoming its fourth prominent industry insider since President Trump took office, adding to an administration full of former lobbyists and corporate executives who are making environmental policy.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Douglas Troutman as assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention on Thursday. Troutman most recently served as an interim CEO and lobbyist at the American Cleaning Institute, an organization that represents that supply chain of cleaning products and frequently pushes back against the regulation of chemicals, and questions science that finds cleaning chemicals harmful to health.
In his role at the EPA, Troutman will be helping oversee the regulation of pesticides and harmful chemicals, including managing the Toxic Control Substances Act (TSCA). While he was leading the American Cleaning Institute, the organization criticized the EPA for imposing “overly conservative assumptions and data requirements” through TSCA and lobbied extensively for TSCA reform.
Abbott Fired a Warning Shot on Baby Formula — Then Launched a Lobbying Blitz
Litigation that could cost the company billions has it on the offensive — and asking for the government to intervene. The company that makes one of the two most widely used brands of formula for premature babies is threatening to stop. That is, unless U.S. health officials and Congress help protect it from lawsuits related to infant deaths allegedly tied to its product.
It’s a warning that holds particular power over policy makers and legislators who’ve become acutely aware of the fragility of a baby formula market that’s been mired in recent scandals. The biggest players in the market have struggled with shortages in recent years, and a popular upstart is under scrutiny for a botulism outbreak.
US Senators Push USDA for Urgent Action on Bird Flu Vaccine
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators this week urged the administration of President Donald Trump to finalize a science-based plan for developing a bird flu vaccine for livestock, according to a letter seen by Reuters. More than 180 million chickens, turkeys and other poultry have been killed due to an outbreak of bird flu that began in 2022. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in June that it was developing a potential poultry vaccination plan, but has not released further details.
The USDA should take “renewed action” to fight bird flu as infections rise during the winter months, said 23 U.S. senators in a letter sent on Wednesday to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and reported first by Reuters.
“Any finalized vaccine strategy must take into account feedback from animal health stakeholders, industry experts, and be grounded in sound science,” said the letter, led by Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, and Republican U.S. Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota.
