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Inside the Push to Keep RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Agenda Alive
In February at Republicans’ private Capitol Hill clubhouse, President Donald Trump’s chief pollster delivered a message about voters and their desire to hear about affordability. The briefing, attended by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., additional Cabinet members and others, didn’t focus on immunizations, as Republican strategists had concluded vaccine skepticism carried political risks.
Inside the Department of Health and Human Services, officials understood that a sweeping change the month before that recommended fewer childhood vaccines had been their last major effort on immunizations for a while after it had been a core agenda item, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
But outside the public eye, a small circle of Kennedy’s allies has kept working to reshape the federal apparatus that guides vaccines. This account of the behind-the-scenes effort is based on interviews with more than 15 people familiar with the matter, in addition to medical experts and Kennedy allies, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations or internal deliberations, or out of fear of retaliation.
How ‘Forever Chemicals’ Impact Your Child’s Bones
Children with more exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, had lower forearm density by age 12 and could face greater fracture risk, researchers found, with girls apparently more vulnerable than boys.
“Adolescence is a key period for building strong bones, and achieving optimal bone mass during this time can reduce lifelong risks of fractures and osteoporosis,” lead author Jessie P. Buckley, professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, said in a statement. “Our findings suggest reducing PFAS exposure during key developmental windows could support healthier bones throughout life.”
PFAS are a class of fluorinated compounds used in industrial and consumer products for their stain- and water-resistant properties. People are exposed to these chemicals through consumer products, indoor air, dust, drinking water, seafood and proximity to contaminated areas. PFAS are persistent in the environment and take years to diminish once inside the body.
Pregnant Woman Exposed to 45 Common Chemicals, Study Finds
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Pregnant women are exposed to dozens of common chemicals linked to early delivery and low birth weight, according to a new study. Researchers tested urine samples from more than 5,000 women who gave birth between 2000 and 2021, and compared the findings with pregnancy outcomes.
They screened for 113 chemicals commonly found in food, water, air pollution, personal care products, fragrances and other household items. On average, the tests detected 45 chemicals in each sample, with as many as 64 found in some participants.
Among them were phthalates used to make plastics more flexible, as well as some newer plasticizers. Some of these compounds were consistently associated with earlier delivery and lower birth weight, according to the results.
AI Chatbots Boost Parents’ Willingness to Vaccinate Kids Against HPV, but Only in the Short Term
Parents were more willing to allow their children to receive a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV) if they interacted with a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI) compared with parents who received no information about the vaccine.
The chatbot’s effects faded after 45 days, suggesting the benefits were short-lived, according to a randomized controlled trial of 1,297 parents of children not yet immunized against HPV. The results were published last week in JAMA Network Open.
The chatbot also performed no better than traditional public health materials, according to the clinical trial, which was led by researchers with the University of Pennsylvania’s computer and information science department. Public health materials, however, maintained a modest effect at 45 days.
Tweens on Social Media: Experts Say It Could Lead to Earlier Substance Use
The minimum age requirement for most social media platforms is 13 years old, but nearly 40% of adolescents between the ages of 8 and 12 use social media. Doing so could lead these tweens to earlier experimentation with drugs and alcohol.
New research published this week in The American Journal of Psychiatry finds that the earlier and more rapidly adolescents use social media, the more likely they are to experiment with substances such as alcohol, tobacco and cannabis. Many factors can lead to substance use among adolescents, experts say, including their peers and family environments.
Although these new findings can provide a correlation and association between the two, they cannot prove that early social media use can cause experimentation with substances. Dr. Jason M. Nagata, lead study author and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, found four social media use patterns for adolescents between the ages of 9 and 16.
Our Kids Are in Therapy More Than Ever — So Why Are So Many Still Struggling?
The Good Men Project reported:
By many measures, American teenagers are receiving more mental health support than at any point in recent history. More adolescents are in therapy, and more are prescribed psychiatric medications. Schools employ more counselors. Mental health language has become mainstream. Over the past two decades, the mental health treatment community has worked to remove the shame from emotional suffering — and in many ways, that effort has succeeded.
Today, teenagers speak openly about anxiety, depression, trauma, and loneliness in ways previous generations rarely could. Public figures regularly share their own mental health challenges, and seeking help is widely accepted. That is meaningful progress.
So why do so many young people still appear deeply distressed?
This question is not rhetorical. The United States is facing what the U.S. Surgeon General has formally described as a youth mental health crisis. Rates of anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and suicidal distress among adolescents have climbed dramatically over the last two decades. Teen suicide, after declining through much of the 1990s and early 2000s, rose sharply beginning around 2007.
