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Government
‘Ambitious’ Timeline Means DeSantis Could Pass New Vax Rules Before He Leaves Office
Gov. Ron DeSantis’s efforts to pare back the number of vaccines children must receive to enter school or daycare could pay off for him before he leaves office on Jan. 5 in light of a state administrative judge’ agreement Thursday to expedite a hearing on challenges to them. Florida Division of Administrative Hearings Judge David Watkins consolidated two separate challenges to the proposed new rules and set the week of Dec. 14 to hear arguments.
Albeit a tight timeframe, the schedule could allow the DeSantis administration to implement the changes if Watkins recommends in favor of the Florida Department of Health, Jacksonville healthcare attorney Chris Nuland said.
“It’s ambitious, but not impossible. The judge would have to be diligent in preparing an order during the Christmas and the New Year holidays,” Nuland told the Phoenix.
But “if the department wins prior to inauguration day, then the rule can go into effect without any action by the new administration.”
Democrat State Officials Want Faith Leaders To Convince Religious Groups To Get Vaccinated
The Pennsylvania Department of Health wants faith leaders to help convince the Amish to get vaccinated. The state’s newly formed Vaccine Education Workgroup wants to strengthen partnerships between faith leaders and public health professionals as a strategy to convince the Amish to get vaccinated. Lancaster County, PA, is home to the largest Amish population in the United States and is known for having vaccination rates lower than the general population.
“In Amish communities, trusted local faith leaders were identified as potential messengers, though not always easily engaged,” state meeting minutes from the Vaccine Education Workgroup. “Partnerships built during the COVID-19 response — between public health professionals, community leaders, and faith-based organizations — should be maintained and strengthened rather than allowed to fade as emergency funding ends.”
The workgroup, created by Governor Josh Shapiro through an October 2025 executive order, is led by Secretary of Health Dr. Debra Bogen and comprises Shapiro’s deputy chief of staff, doctors, and local public health leaders. Its top priorities in achieving the goal of increased vaccine uptake include creating vaccine safety messaging, countering misinformation from the federal government, and building community trust, public records show. The vaccine workgroup discussed how faith leaders can play an important role in getting people vaccinated.
FDA Plans to Update Infant Formula Nutrition Requirements for First Time in Nearly 30 Years
The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing changes to nutrient requirements for infant formula. The update marks the first nutrition review for formula in nearly 30 years, the agency’s acting director, Kyle Diamantas, said Thursday.
The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing changes to nutrient requirements for infant formula. The update marks the first nutrition review for formula in nearly 30 years, the agency’s acting director, Kyle Diamantas, said Thursday.
The review is part of the Trump administration’s Operation Stork Speed initiative, which was announced in March 2025. The first phase of the review makes changes to four of the 30 required nutrients in formula: iodine, manganese, vitamin A and vitamin D.
Children’s Health
Consumer Reports Urges Parents to Stop Using Millie Moon Diapers
When it comes to diapers, Millie Moon is a popular choice. The line, which first launched at Target and has since expanded to other retailers, markets itself as a “luxury diaper” made with premium materials and designed to be super soft. But if you use Millie Moon diapers on your baby, you’ll want to pay attention: Consumer Reports has called for Millie Moon to recall its diapers, citing the growing number and severity of incidents reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
These incidents involve skin irritation and reactions. NBC Selected has not independently verified these incidents. Consumer Reports is advising parents and caregivers to stop using them while the cause of the infant skin reactions is investigated. Read on to learn more about what this news really means — including what parents are reporting, what the company says, and what to do if your baby has been wearing them.
Parents have described redness, swelling, blisters, peeling, bleeding and other painful infant skin reactions, some of which required medical care. Consumer Reports says that numerous reports describe medical treatment, including at least three emergency room visits. In one case reported by Fox59 in Indianapolis, a 2-year-old needed skin grafts for injuries his parents say came from a Millie Moon potty training diaper.
Meta Settles With Teen Over Claims Social Media Caused Depression, Eating Disorders
Meta Platforms has settled with a teen plaintiff who accused the company of designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive, causing her mental health problems and disordered eating, attorneys for the plaintiff said on Friday. The settlement came after jury selection began on Wednesday for a trial that was slated to test the claims of two teens, identified as S.J. and K.D.B., against Meta and Snapchat parent Snap.
Meta had settled with S.J. days before the trial, so Friday’s settlement with K.D.B. means the trial is expected to proceed against Snap only.
“We remain committed to improving safety for kids on social media apps and holding tech companies accountable, and we are pleased to have brought this matter to a just resolution on behalf of our client,” Emily Jeffcott, an attorney for K.D.B., said in a statement.
Meta, OpenAI Agents’ Cuddly Appearance Sparks Child Safety Fears
Meta Platforms Inc.‘s and OpenAI Inc.‘s personal AI agents, featuring cartoonish mascots, are raising concerns that they’ll appeal to children and put them at risk.
The default for Meta’s Muse AI assistant is a furry character named Jolly, while OpenAI’s Dots are characterized by soft, abstract, and colorful shapes.
Privacy and children’s safety advocates are sounding the alarm that the AI assistants’ design could make children see them as toys. “It’s one thing for companies to anthropomorphize their products — that is, I think, a manipulative but pretty common thing to do — but they didn’t have to make it so cute, cuddly, and have these very child-appealing features to it,” said Calli Schroeder, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
The products’ releases come as AI makers already are grappling with litigation over chatbot harm to mental health, she said.
Big Chemical
Plastics Industry Memos Reveal a 1974 ‘Horror Story’ About Particles Reaching the Brain
Industry records indicate that chemical executives were grappling with evidence that ingested plastic particles could leave the intestines and lodge in organs, including the brain and liver, as early as 1974.
The documents in question also show companies weighing how to contain the damage from those findings while protecting PVC’s role in food packaging.
According to internal records reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, executives in the plastic, chemical, and fossil fuel sectors shared and discussed a 1974 presentation by German gastroenterologist Gerhard Volkheimer on a process known as persorption – where insoluble microparticles pass through the intestines.
Scientists Warn of Dangers as Mexico Approves World’s First Gene Silencing RNAi Biofungicide
Mexico has approved the world’s first RNAi (RNA interference – a GM gene silencing technology) biofungicide – and scientists are warning about the risks. The technology “is not an innovation compatible with human rights standards”, biologist Erica Hagman Aguilar told the investigative news outlet Contralínea. This is because it fails to comply with the constitutional mandate of the precautionary principle regarding risks to public health and the environment.
The biofungicide, marketed as Oifirax, is specifically approved to combat grape powdery mildew, a fungal disease caused by the pathogen Erysiphe necator. The product uses targeted double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) via spray-induced gene silencing to deactivate genes in fungi that cause diseases in plants.
In a peer-reviewed paper, scientists have warned that dsRNAs are remarkably stable in the environment, can remain intact after passing through the digestive systems of insects and worms, and can readily transfer to mammals through food where they can circulate in blood and alter gene expression in organs. The concern is that these molecules could silence or otherwise disrupt the genes of beneficial and non-target insects, as well as humans and other animals, with unknown but potentially fatal consequences.
Big Pharma
Are GLP-1s Practical and Safe for Adolescents With Obesity?
GLP-1 medications have become a popular tool for weight loss. But are they appropriate for all age groups? Short for glucagon-like peptide-1, GLP-1s are medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration that treat type 2 diabetes and now obesity. They work by mimicking a natural hormone in the gut that lowers blood sugar, simulates the feeling of fullness and slows digestion.
Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the FDA have approved certain GLP-1s for youth ages 12 and older who experience persistent obesity after a trial of lifestyle modification. However, a new review from the University of Georgia published in the journal Appetite suggests there is still uncertainty about how the drugs may impact adolescent development, both physically and mentally.
Eating Disorders Are on the Rise. GLP-1s Could Make Things Worse.
GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are one of the biggest biotech breakthroughs of the last decade. But to some clinical psychologists, they can represent something more sinister — a potential trigger for eating disorders. A new report suggests that the global incidence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa shot up between 1990 and 2023 — by a whopping 71%. By 2023, there were an estimated 18.1 million people living with one of these two disorders.
What’s worse is that the number is likely to be much higher than that once we factor in other eating disorders. And, disturbingly, those in the field are already starting to see GLP-1 weight-loss drugs exacerbating the issue.
Cheri Levinson is a clinical psychologist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky who has specialized in eating disorders for almost 20 years. She says she’s now seeing more patients with more severe symptoms than at any other time in her career, and that many of them are misusing GLP-1s. “This is the worst I’ve seen things,” she says.
Big Brother (Big Tech)
Flock: The New Face of an Old Problem
Flock — while just one company that supplies automatic license-plate readers to police departments across the country — has become the subject of outrage and concern from activists, advocates, everyday people and lawmakers at every level of government.
In September, the Senate Judiciary Crime and Counterterrorism Subcommittee held a hearing on Flock cameras, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib joined the ranks of lawmakers including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders when she introduced a bill in October that would ban ALPRs.
When Congress returns from recess in November, addressing the many ways that the government conducts mass warrantless surveillance is likely to be a high priority. ALPRs in particular have become symbolic of this much larger issue. But license-plate readers in some form have been around for nearly two decades. So why is everyone paying attention now?
Flock Can’t Seem to Take No for an Answer, as Its Cameras Reappear in Another City That Rejected Them
It’s fair to say that Flock is one of the most hated companies in the US right now. So, what better way to improve its public image than to ignore a city’s instructions and reinstall two cameras when explicitly told not to — and it’s not the first time this has happened.
The surveillance giant’s latest PR disaster took place in Dayton, Minnesota, reports The Drive. The city’s local government posted on Facebook that the Police Department was made aware of a maintenance work order produced by Flock on September 17, 2026.
The city notified Flock a day later, informing it that the program was on hold and no work orders were to be completed. But the company appeared to just ignore this, reinstalling its cameras and putting them into service. Local residents spotted the cameras and informed police, who were directed to remove the devices.
