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RFK Jr. Warns Vaccine Committee Not ‘Functioning’, Asks Court to Accelerate Decision
The committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines has been paralyzed by a March ruling by a federal judge, leaving it unable to carry out work ahead of the upcoming respiratory virus season, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has warned.
“The court’s order has left ACIP unable to carry out its core responsibilities,” Kennedy said in a June 12 post on X, referring to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). “As a result, the committee cannot issue new recommendations, review newly approved vaccines, or complete important work ahead of the fall flu season.” Influenza and other viruses typically circulate each year in the fall and winter.
The ruling in question was released on March 16 by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who concluded that Kennedy and other officials did not take necessary steps when making changes to federal vaccine guidance and the composition of ACIP. Murphy stayed the changes the CDC issued in January, the appointments of new ACIP members by Kennedy, and the votes that were taken by those members.
The Trump administration appealed the ruling on April 29.
New NIAID Director John Powers Is a Former World Health Organization Advisor
Dr. John H. Powers III, M.D., appointed Acting Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) this month, served as an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) on antimicrobial resistance policy. Powers now leads the $6.6 billion institute responsible for funding experiments and publications on pandemic pathogens.
Congress has declared that the WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — the greatest health crisis in recent history — “was an abject failure” and that its international efforts “may harm the United States.” More than half of Americans believe the WHO did a “poor or fair job” during the pandemic, according to an April 2021 Social Science Quarterly publication.
Brewing Battle Over Forest Service Glyphosate Spraying Near Lake Tahoe’s Pristine Waters
Katherine Levy remembers a childhood deeply rooted in the natural offerings of Lake Tahoe — water skiing in the summer and working as ski instructor on the surrounding snow-covered mountains during winter months. After leaving the area for many years, Levy recently moved back to live out her retirement along the lake’s north shore. But she doesn’t like what she has found upon her return: A US government plan to spray multiple types of herbicides — including the cancer-linked glyphosate weed killer — within national forest property that abuts the community’s cherished lake.
“I was horrified to find out what has been going on,” Levy said. Levy is among a number of Lake Tahoe-area residents and officials who are fighting to block or alter the US Forest Service project, which is aimed at restoration of areas damaged by the 2021 Caldor Fire. The wildfire burned through more than 200,000 acres in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Forest Service manages more than 156,000 acres of National Forest land within that basin.
A town hall meeting was June 11 to strategize on how to fight the Forest Service plan, and residents are calling for action in various social media, including in posts on Facebook groups such as Lake Tahoe Locals and Keep Tahoe Blue.
Kentucky Attorney General Among 13 Others Asking EPA to Designate Mifepristone as Water Contaminant
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman was one of 14 state attorneys general to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to classify an abortion drug as a water contaminant. According to the Kentucky Lantern, 19 members of Congress also asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to designate mifepristone as a water contaminant, citing a 1996 FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research statement.
The statement said environmental impacts of the drug were “not anticipated,” and acknowledged that mifepristone may enter the environment from excretion or disposal of pharmaceutical waste, the Kentucky Lantern reported. In the Kentucky Lantern’s report, they said environmental health science experts say there is no evidence to suggest mifepristone in wastewater causes harm to people or the environment.
Experts also say drug trace amounts in water are a common occurrence, and that state agencies check for harmful contaminants in water as part of protocols, according to the Kentucky Lantern. The Kentucky Lantern said attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas also signed the letter to Zeldin.
Voters Are Turning out Against Toxic Pesticides. Will the Senate Listen?
In a rare bipartisan rebuke of one of Washington’s most powerful industries, the House stripped a “legal immunity” provision from the farm bill in April, thwarting pesticide manufacturers’ efforts to shield themselves from lawsuits. The industry lost decisively. A bipartisan group of 280 lawmakers, including 73 Republicans, voted to remove the provision, exposing a growing political shift around toxic pesticides and corporate accountability.
And now it is the Senate’s turn. What made the House vote especially striking was the cross-partisan effort behind it. Environmental advocates, farmworker groups, rural communities, concerned parents, and many MAHA-aligned conservatives are increasingly united around a simple idea: Pesticide companies shouldn’t get a free pass when their products cause harm.
The politics around pesticides are changing because the consequences have become impossible to ignore. People are saying “enough” to rising rates of cancer, infertility and learning disabilities; enough to contaminated drinking water; enough to collapsing biodiversity; and enough to a system that leaves farmers economically trapped while chemical companies reap record profits.
