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Health Policy InsightAmong the names announced by the US health secretary are several who have expressed anti-vaccine views
Robert Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, named new members to serve on a key panel of vaccine advisers on Wednesday after abruptly firing all 17 sitting members of the independent panel of experts, according to a post on X.
The eight new members of the advisory committee for immunization practices (ACIP) are: Joseph R Hibbeln, Martin Kulldorff, Retsef Levi, Robert W Malone, Cody Meissner, James Pagano, Vicky Pebsworth and Michael A Ross.
Continue reading...More than 200 health experts say regulatory proposals will lead to biggest increase in pollution in decades
US power plants will be allowed to pollute nearby communities and the wider world with more unhealthy air toxins and an unlimited amount of planet-heating gases under new regulatory rollbacks proposed by Donald Trump’s administration, experts warned.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would repeal a landmark climate rule that aims to mostly eliminate greenhouse gases from power plants by the 2030s and would, separately, weaken another regulation that restricts power plants’ release of hazardous air pollutants such as mercury.
Continue reading...NPCC’s Gavin Stephens says settlement in spending review will cover little more than inflationary pay rises
Green party MPs and activists joined a protest outside parliament today saying the government should use the spending review to announce a wealth tax. In a post on social media, Adrian Ramsay, the party’s co-leader, said:
We expect the chancellor to take another axe to public spending today: decline by design from a govt that refuses to tax wealth to properly fund our overstretched public services & support the most vulnerable. We need to invest in a secure & fairer future. #TaxExtremeWealth
Continue reading...Tribunal says consultant’s failings in treatment of Martha Mills ‘single lapse of judgment in an otherwise exemplary career’
A senior doctor who was found guilty of “misconduct which impairs his fitness to practise” in his treatment of 13-year-old Martha Mills will face no sanction due to “exceptional circumstances”.
The disciplinary tribunal said on Wednesday that it would take no further action with respect to Prof Richard Thompson because it was a “single lapse of judgment in an otherwise exemplary career”. It said there were no outstanding public protection issues and it was not the tribunal’s role to punish him.
Continue reading...‘My body, my data’ law is necessary to protect women from persecution in post-Roe era, lawmakers say
Three Democratic members of Congress have introduced a bill to limit companies’ ability to hoover up data about people’s reproductive health – a measure, they say, that is necessary to protect women from persecution in the post-Roe v Wade era.
Representative Sara Jacobs of California, Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on Wednesday filed the “my body, my data” bill in both the US House and Senate. The bill aims to block companies from collecting, using, retaining or disclosing information about someone’s reproductive health unless that data is essential to providing a requested service. This provision would apply to information about pregnancy, menstruation, abortion, contraception and other matters relating to reproductive health.
Continue reading...The UK faces a critical choice: follow the global trend of disengagement or stand firm in backing health security
Right now, aid reductions across the globe are jeopardising decades of progress against preventable diseases, leaving millions of people vulnerable. This retreat from global health threatens to unravel hard-won advances against diseases we have nearly conquered.
Polio, which paralysed hundreds of thousands of children annually just 40 years ago, has been eliminated in most parts of the world. Meanwhile, there has been a resurgence of diseases such as measles and cholera in populations besieged by conflict and climate emergencies.
Sarah Champion is the Labour MP for Rotherham
Continue reading...Head of NHS England to say robot-assisted surgery will become ‘the default’ for 90% of keyhole operations by 2035
Millions more people will have robotic surgery over the next decade under NHS plans to slash the huge waiting list for hospital treatment.
The move will mean a significant expansion in how often surgeons use robots when treating people for cancer, hysterectomies and joint replacements, as well as in medical emergencies.
Continue reading...By the time I got a diagnosis, I had seen four different doctors over the span of six years
My baby nephew grabbed my arm, eager to show me his toy trucks.
“Don’t ever touch me there again!” I snapped.
Continue reading...Health officials, scientists and vaccine researchers sound alarm after health secretary fires 17 advisory members
Robert F Kennedy’s “clean sweep” of a critical vaccine advisory panel spread shock and dismay among health experts, as many warned the health secretary’s decision would erode trust in the US vaccine approval system.
The secretary fired all 17 members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory committee for immunization practices (ACIP) – a group of scientific experts who recommend how vaccines should be administered and distributed.
Continue reading...Taxes now account for $28 of the average $40 price for a packet, following a triple-fold excise hike in 10 years from 46c to $1.40 per cigarette
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Economists say regular increases to the tobacco excise have stopped working to further lower smoking rates, and are instead encouraging a soaring cigarette black market.
Instead, they suggest either a freeze or a cut to the excise rate while Australia cracks down on illicit tobacco. However a public health advocate warned policymakers not to be “conned” into a radical tax cut.
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