RFK Jr. taps allies and COVID vaccine critics among picks for CDC advisory panel. Here’s who’s on the list.

RFK Jr. taps allies and COVID vaccine critics among picks for CDC advisory panel. Here’s who’s on the list.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday he’s naming eight new advisers to serve on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine recommendations committee, after firing the committee’s entire previous roster of 17 advisers.  “All of these individuals are committed to evidence-based medicine, gold-standard science, and …

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RFK Jr. Defends HHS Overhaul as Democrats Denounce ‘War on Science’

RFK Jr. Defends HHS Overhaul as Democrats Denounce ‘War on Science’

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered a defiant defense on Wednesday of his drastic overhaul of federal health agencies, insisting to members of Congress that he had “not fired any working scientists” and was “not withholding money for lifesaving research” despite evidence to the contrary. In back-to-back appearances before …

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Upheaval in Washington Hinders Campaign Against Bird Flu

Upheaval in Washington Hinders Campaign Against Bird Flu

The campaign to curb bird flu on the nation’s farms has been slowed by the chaotic transition to a new administration that is determined to cut costs, reduce the federal work force and limit communications, according to interviews with more than a dozen scientists and federal officials. On poultry farms, …

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Lab Animals Face Being Euthanized as Trump Cuts Research

Lab Animals Face Being Euthanized as Trump Cuts Research

On April 1, the Trump administration’s effort to slash government funding arrived in Morgantown, W.Va., where federal scientists spent their days studying health and safety threats to American workers. That morning, hundreds of employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health were notified that they were being terminated …

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Autism rate rises to 3% of children in CDC study

Autism rate rises to 3% of children in CDC study

One out of 31 children — more than 3% of kids — have been identified with autism, according to the latest results published Tuesday from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that tracks trends of autism’s prevalence across some communities in the U.S. “They’ve again gone up dramatically, …

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The Many Ways Kennedy Is Already Undermining Vaccines

The Many Ways Kennedy Is Already Undermining Vaccines

During his Senate confirmation hearings to be health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presented himself as a supporter of vaccines. But in office, he and the agencies he leads have taken far-reaching, sometimes subtle steps to undermine confidence in vaccine efficacy and safety, public health experts say. The National Institutes …

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C.D.C. Cuts Threaten to Set Back the Nation’s Health, Critics Say

C.D.C. Cuts Threaten to Set Back the Nation’s Health, Critics Say

The extensive layoffs of federal health workers that began on Tuesday will greatly curtail the scope and influence of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world’s premier public health agency, an outcome long sought by conservatives critical of its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The reorganization of the …

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Federal Workers Walk Into Chaos Amid Return to Office

Federal Workers Walk Into Chaos Amid Return to Office

For some federal employees, returning to the office has meant an expansion of their duties to include cleaning toilets and taking out the trash. For others, it has been commuting to a federal building only to continue doing their work through videoconferencing. Some showed up at the office just to …

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