Login
Trump Tried to Appease MAHA’s Fury Over Roundup. It Backfired.
On a 200-acre farm and cattle ranch in Bandera, Texas, Mollie Engelhart grows organic produce, sells raw milk, and writes a daily column about the power of regenerative agriculture. She’s a farmer and a Make America Healthy Again mom who doesn’t like being called a MAHA mom. She prefers to think of herself as “MAHA-aligned.”
In May, Engelhart opened her ranch to a couple hundred pro-MAHA politicians, activists, and leaders for a two-day MAHA farming retreat. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was there. Engelhart’s brother, Ryland, is one of the more well-known figureheads of the movement.
Her biggest issue with the MAHA label is what she considers the “blue team or red team” politicization of it. Like many MAHA-aligned supporters, she voted for President Donald Trump in the last election largely because of RFK Jr.’s endorsement and their joint promise to clean up America’s chemical-laden food system.
Back then, she had faith Trump would make good on that promise. But in the last year and half, that faith has frayed. “I think that one hundred percent the MAHA movement is very disappointed and disenchanted, and I am not the only one,” said Engelhart. “MAHA voters are homeless.”
White House Weighing Contenders for FDA’s Top Job
The final list of contenders for the top job at the Food and Drug Administration has been sent to the White House for a final review and decision, Stat reported on Wednesday.
Heidi Overton, a White House adviser; Jeffrey Vacirca, an oncologist and health system executive; and Stephen Ferrara, a health affairs official at the Department of Defense, are among the finalists for the position. The finalists are being considered alongside other people who could potentially work with them to lead the FDA, the American news outlet added, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The team-based approach would ensure the next commissioner has a balanced team surrounding them. This comes after the former FDA chief, Marty Makary, resigned in May after a tumultuous 13-month stint. Trump officials have become increasingly convinced that he should leave due to months of chaos at the agency and mounting complaints from some in the pharma industry, The Wall Street Journal had then reported.
A group within Health and Human Services was unhappy with Makary’s leadership and had been looking into ways to remove him for months, Stat had additionally said, citing sources within the FDA.
FDA Report Concludes That Arsenic, Lead, and Other Metals in Tampons Aren’t Harmful
A new study from the United States Food and Drug Administration confirmed that heavy metals, like arsenic and lead, present in several tampon brands aren’t released at levels high enough to cause concern for the people using them. The study, which was published in the journal Toxicological Sciences, was a response to 2024 research that found more than a dozen metals in widely used tampons.
On Monday, the agency said that “while trace metals are present in tampons, the amount released during use is too small to cause harm.” FDA researchers studied 11 different tampons from six brands — but did not directly name them in the study. The team confirmed the presence of 19 metals in varying levels, depending on the product. It’s possible the metals were absorbed from the soil by the natural materials used to make the menstrual products or unintentionally added in manufacturing, according to the study.
Titanium dioxide used to whiten tampons may also be a contributing factor in the detection of titanium, the researchers said. “In evaluating harmful metal exposure from tampons, the key considerations are whether metals are released from the tampon during use, whether those metals are absorbed through the vaginal lining, and whether any absorbed amount reaches a level that could affect health. The study confirmed the presence of lead and 20 other metals. However, the FDA found that the levels were far below what would be considered harmful,” the study reads.
Trump CDC Nominee Schwartz Set for July 15 US Senate Confirmation Hearing
Erica Schwartz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on July 15 for her confirmation hearing, the committee said on Wednesday. In April, Trump nominated Schwartz, who had served as deputy surgeon general during the COVID-19 pandemic, to become director of the CDC following multiple leadership shakeups at the health agency.
The hearing is the first concrete step toward confirming a major health agency leader since the Senate confirmed CDC Director Susan Monarez last year. Monarez was fired less than a month later. Top posts across U.S. health agencies remain unfilled deep into Trump’s second term, and the CDC has been in near-constant turmoil since Trump took office.
In March 2025, Trump withdrew his first CDC nominee for the role, former Florida Republican congressman Dave Weldon, a physician long critical of vaccines, hours before his scheduled confirmation hearing after it became clear he lacked the votes. Monarez was fired less than a month into the job after clashing with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy, including what she said were his demands that she pre-approve changes to the childhood vaccine schedule and fire career scientists. Four top CDC officials resigned in protest.
Cancer Cases Worldwide Are Expected to Soar in the Coming Decades, a Report Finds. Here’s Why.
Annual cancer cases are projected to rise considerably worldwide by 2050, according to a World Health Organization report on cancer published Wednesday. With its assessment, the United Nations body tempered optimism about improvements in cancer surveillance and treatment and warned that global health care inequities are driving further cases and deaths. Around 20.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2024, according to the findings. That number could reach 35 million a year by 2050.
The new cases will disproportionately appear in lower-income countries with poorer access to cancer surveillance and treatment, according to the report. “Far too many people are still being left behind,” André Ilbawi, the team lead for cancer control at the WHO, said at a news conference about the study this week.
The reasons for the increasing cancer rates are complex. Two key drivers the WHO’s report highlights are exposure to known risk factors, such as smoking and alcohol, and an aging population. Experts have also cited improvements in cancer surveillance, which has allowed doctors to detect and diagnose more cancers than before.
