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‘Traditionally, It Was a Democrat Issue’: How RFK Jr. Is Getting Left-Leaning Food Laws Into Deep-Red States
Earlier this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. notched one of his biggest wins of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement when West Virginia became the first state in the country to ban artificial food dyes in school lunches.
Since then, a handful of other Republican governors have raced to join in, banning certain food colorings from kids’ lunches — sometimes prohibiting other chemical additives, too. Some GOP leaders have gone further, slapping warning labels on certain food additives statewide.
Historically the focus of Democrats, including former first lady Michelle Obama — and derided as “nanny state” politics by anti-regulation conservatives — food laws have lately had a windfall of support from the other side of the aisle. Kennedy’s “Make America Health Again” crusade against food additives, with its strong backing from President Donald Trump, has taken hold in deeply Republican states such as Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma.
RFK Jr. Quietly Endorses Flu Vaccine for Kids and Adults
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month quietly endorsed recommendations from his handpicked vaccine advisors that everyone in the U.S. ages six months and older receive a flu shot for the upcoming season.
The backdated notice appeared this week on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendations page without fanfare — a contrast to Kennedy’s July announcement endorsing the removal of thimerosal from flu vaccines despite the preservative’s long safety record.
“ACIP reaffirms the recommendations for routine annual influenza vaccination of all persons aged ≥6 months who do not have contraindications for the 2025-2026 season,” the ACIP page states. “With no current CDC Director and pending confirmation of a new CDC Director, this recommendation was adopted by the HHS Secretary on July 22, 2025, and is now an official recommendation of the CDC.”
FDA Lifts Pause on Chikungunya Vaccine in Older Adults, With Revised Labeling
The chikungunya live-attenuated vaccine (Ixchiq) can once again be used in people ages 60 and older, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reversed a recommended pause spurred by serious adverse events in vaccinated older adults.
“Based on the available data, and its benefit-risk assessment, FDA has removed the recommended pause in the use of Ixchiq in individuals 60 years of age and older,” the agency said in a statement. The FDA also updated labeling for the vaccine and strengthened warnings for seniors.
In May, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, jointly called for a pause in the use of the vaccine in people 60 and older. That halt was a response to reports of 17 serious adverse events in people who had received the vaccine, including two fatalities. The adverse events were primarily neurologic and cardiac, and all occurred in people ages 60 or older. Six of the reports came from the U.S., while the rest occurred globally among the roughly 80,000 vaccine recipients worldwide.
CDC Launches New National Campaign to Tackle Mental Health, Substance Use Among Teens
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a new campaign on Tuesday aimed at tackling mental health and substance use among teens ahead of the upcoming school year.
The federal campaign, entitled Free Mind, aims to provide teens and their parents or caregivers with “resources and information about substance use, mental health and the connection between the two.” The efforts revolve around the messaging that “drugs and mental health don’t mix” according to the landing page of the new campaign on the CDC’s website.
“When you deal with lots of emotions, you might be tempted to turn to drugs and alcohol or cope by misusing medications that are not prescribed to you,” the website states.
Substance use, however, can cause or worsen anxiety, sadness, anger and depression, according to the CDC. It can also affect a patient’s memory or mood.
There’s a War Brewing Between Medical Groups and RFK Jr. It’s About to Explode.
Dr. Beth Oller is no stranger to answering questions about COVID-19 and flu shots.
As a family physician in Stockton, Kansas, she has fielded questions over the years about vaccine safety and effectiveness. But lately there are new questions that stump her: Can I get the shot this fall, and will my insurance cover it?
“I legitimately don’t know, and that’s why it’s so confusing,” said Oller, who is also a clinical instructor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita.
Though Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has changed guidance recommending the COVID-19 shot for healthy people, medical groups representing doctors have publicly rejected those changes.
