National, Regional and Local News

[Owendonovan]

So great, so very very great.

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JD Vance’s 12-year-old relative denied heart transplant because she is unvaccinated
By Isabel Keane
Published Feb. 12, 2025, 7:53 a.m. ET


Adaline Deal, 12, a relative of JD Vance, was born with two rare heart conditions that require a heart transplant.
Jeneen Deal / Facebook

A 12-year-old Indiana girl who is related to Vice President JD Vance has been barred from a spot on a heart transplant list because she’s not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu, according to her parents.

Adaline Deal, a distant relative of the VP by marriage through his half-siblings, was born with two rare heart conditions that her family knew would one day require a transplant, her mother Janeen Deal told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Adaline — who was adopted from China when she was 4 — was treated at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for nearly 10 years, and her parents hoped she would get the transplant there.

But the hospital requires transplant patients to be vaccinated, and declined to make an exemption even when told it goes against the family’s religious beliefs as nondenominational Christians, the parents said.

“I thought, wow. So, it’s not about the kid. It’s not about saving her life,” Janeen Deal told the newspaper of the hospital’s decision to deny her daughter.

The mom, who believes vaccines are unsafe, said she and her husband decided not to vaccinate Adaline against COVID-19 or the flu after “the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts.”

Vaccinations against preventable diseases are recommended for transplant recipients because those patients are much more vulnerable to infections.

For patients with severe illnesses like Adaline, who has Ebstein’s anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, there is a higher risk of death if infected with COVID compared to other patients, according to Dr. Camille Kotton, the clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“The first year after transplant is when they’re at highest risk for infection, but they do have a lifelong risk of severe disease and transplant patients are still dying because of COVID-19,” Kotton said.

Janeen, however, said she was confident her family, including their 11 other children, would not have any problems with COVID-19 after the transplant.

“We’ll take it as we can if it happens,” Janeen said. “But I know I cannot put this (vaccine) in her body knowing what we know and how we feel about it.”

A Cincinnati Children’s spokesperson declined to confirm that Adaline had been kept off the transplant list, but told the Enquirer that the hospital’s clinical decisions are “guided by science research and best practices” and that the hospital follows guidelines from the National Institutes of Health.

“We tailor care plans to each patient in collaboration with their family to ensure the safest, most effective treatment,” spokesperson Bo McMillan said.

Adaline’s parents now hope to take her to a different transplant center that won’t require her to be vaccinated, with a GoFundMe for the transplant raising more than $50,000 as of Wednesday morning.

https://nypost.com/2025/02/12/us-news/j ... accinated/

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This poor child.

I saw this on r/leopards ate my face and thought "this has to be fake news".

[ponchi101]

Do they understand that you need to be vaccinated for almost anything because after you get the transplant, you will be on such a heavy load of immunodepressants that your life is at risk almost all the time?
Oh, sorry, I answered my own question. They do not understand.

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All VA employees just received an email from the new VA secretary about proper display of flags. I thought how weird and then read down the email and realized that the administration is only actually worried about the pride flag it seems and tried to bury that in the email. Yeah, we see what you are doing.

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[ponchi101]

Wow. I gather that black box will be needed.

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Kennedy Center staff describe climate of fear as events drop from calendar
Issa Rae became the first major artist to publicly cancel an upcoming show at the center after President Trump took over its board and leadership.

By Travis M. Andrews, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Michael Andor Brodeur
The fallout from President Donald Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center’s board and purge of its leadership continued Thursday, as the center’s staff worried about the storied arts institution and shows began to disappear from its lineup.

Comedian, actress and Hollywood creator Issa Rae said on Instagram that she was pulling her sold-out show, “An Evening With Issa Rae,” from the slate of programming, becoming the first major artist to publicly cancel an upcoming show at the Kennedy Center.

“Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I’ve decided to cancel my appearance at this venue,” she wrote, adding that tickets will be refunded.

The cancellation comes the day after the new board of trustees installed Trump as its new chair, while also voting to terminate Deborah Rutter as president and making former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell interim president.

After the shake-up, musician Ben Folds and opera singer Renée Fleming said they were stepping down as artistic advisers with the center, as did the treasurer of its board of trustees, TV producer Shonda Rhimes.

The center terminated its general counsel and the head of its public relations department, according to people with close knowledge of the Kennedy Center who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared reprisal. The center’s new public relations staff did not immediately respond to questions about firings or show cancellations.

Also Thursday, David Rubenstein, the deposed chair of the center’s board of trustees, broke his silence with a statement posted on social media praising the center. It did not mention his successor.

“I am sorry that I could not be in Washington yesterday with Deborah Rutter and all of you,” Rubenstein said. He praised Rutter and the Kennedy Center staff for “supporting the Kennedy Center over many years and through a number of difficult times” and making it “the beacon for the performing arts its founders intended.”

“President Kennedy would be proud of your selfless work, your long hours, your commitment to excellence, and your dedication to the performing arts,” he said.

Rubenstein, originally appointed by President George W. Bush, was recently terminated along with every board member appointed by President Joe Biden.

Meanwhile, other shows connected with the Kennedy Center have been canceled or scrubbed from its website.

In 2023, the center commissioned “Finn,” a children’s musical about a shark who finds he fits in more with smaller fish than his fellow predators. A creator of the show said it could be read as a metaphor for LGBTQ+ experience, though there is nothing in the musical explicitly about the community.

“We just really wanted to write a show that we wish we had 20 years ago,” said Michael Kooman, who created the show with Chris Nee and Christopher Dimond. “A show that would make growing up a little bit easier for someone who feels like they’re different.”

During a limited run of roughly four weeks, it received rave reviews, frequently sold out and turned a profit, Kooman said. The musical was about to embark on a two-year tour, which was produced by the Kennedy Center. On Wednesday, before the board meeting, the “Finn” creative team received a phone call from the center telling it the tour was canceled because “the financials weren’t working out,” Kooman said.

“It’s hard to ignore the circumstances in which the cancellation of the tour is happening,” he added.

In a statement, the union Actors’ Equity Association said it was “outraged” at the cancellation. “It is disturbing to see the new leadership of this institution move so swiftly to suppress viewpoints they do not agree with,” the union wrote, adding that it intends to enforce its contracts with the center.

“A Peacock Among Pigeons,” a National Symphony Orchestra concert billed as a “celebration of love, diversity, and the vibrant spirit of the LGBTQ+ community” and scheduled to take place during World Pride 2025, has been removed from the website. The Washington Post has not been able to confirm whether it has been canceled.

Trump’s unprecedented takeover has deeply rattled the Kennedy Center’s staff and leaders across the cultural sector. The institution, billed as the nation’s cultural center and a “living” memorial to President John F. Kennedy, is historically nonpartisan, best known as a hub for stately classical performances, opera and theater. Its presidential appointees tend not to directly manage the roughly 2,000 events it runs for some 2 million visitors a year. Trump signaled he was interested in changing its programs, pointing to drag performances, which last year made up a tiny portion of its show calendar.

Several Kennedy Center staffers, who spoke with The Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, described a week of chaos, fear and confusion under the new leadership.

Trump’s comments “collapsed all the nuance of what we do,” said one staffer, who described the work as more than a job or a passion. “My identity is caught up in this place,” the staffer said. And now, “I don’t feel safe.”

A former staffer with knowledge of Trump’s interactions with the center during his first term said he previously showed little interest in the arts institution.

“It’s concerning he would want to exert this much power over a nonprofit,” the former staffer said. “... The people whose lives he’s throwing into chaos aren’t government employees. They’re arts administrators.”

Some welcomed the changes. Marc Rotterman, a political commentator who lived in Washington for decades and worked in the Reagan administration, said that over the past decade, the programming at the center has become prohibitively expensive and the offerings have become too reliant on Hollywood celebrities. He’d like to see more country artists, Southern rock and bluegrass and is hopeful the new regime can bring more of that programming to the center.

“It doesn’t all have to be bow tie and chardonnay and cheese,” Rotterman said. “Maybe the blue-collar crowd with a Budweiser could appear once in a while.”

A few blocks from the Kennedy Center, local advocacy organizations rallied dozens of residents for a transgender and queer dance party and protest in Washington Circle on Thursday evening.

Shuttles to the Kennedy Center were lined up and sitting empty at the nearby Foggy Bottom Metro stop just before 6:30 p.m.

Two drag performers, decked out in wigs and slimming dresses, stood out among a crowd bundled up for warmth on the blustery night. Organizers blared music as attendees swayed along and some held up signs, one which read: “There is no art without drag.”

The White House released a full list of Trump’s new appointees Thursday. They are as follows:

Donald J. Trump of Florida
Pamela Gross of Florida
Mindy Levine of New York
Lynda Lomangino of Florida
Allison Lutnick of New York
Dan Scavino of New York
Usha Vance of Ohio
Susie Wiles of Florida
John Falconetti of Florida
Cheri Summerall of Texas
Sergio Gor of Florida
Emilia May Fanjul of Florida
Patricia Duggan of Florida
Dana Blumberg of New York

Hau Chu contributed to this report.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertai ... f-fallout/

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JD Vance’s 12-year-old relative denied heart transplant because she is unvaccinated
By Isabel Keane
Published Feb. 12, 2025, 7:53 a.m. ET


Adaline Deal, 12, a relative of JD Vance, was born with two rare heart conditions that require a heart transplant.
Jeneen Deal / Facebook

A 12-year-old Indiana girl who is related to Vice President JD Vance has been barred from a spot on a heart transplant list because she’s not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu, according to her parents.

Adaline Deal, a distant relative of the VP by marriage through his half-siblings, was born with two rare heart conditions that her family knew would one day require a transplant, her mother Janeen Deal told The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Adaline — who was adopted from China when she was 4 — was treated at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for nearly 10 years, and her parents hoped she would get the transplant there.

But the hospital requires transplant patients to be vaccinated, and declined to make an exemption even when told it goes against the family’s religious beliefs as nondenominational Christians, the parents said.

“I thought, wow. So, it’s not about the kid. It’s not about saving her life,” Janeen Deal told the newspaper of the hospital’s decision to deny her daughter.

The mom, who believes vaccines are unsafe, said she and her husband decided not to vaccinate Adaline against COVID-19 or the flu after “the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts.”

Vaccinations against preventable diseases are recommended for transplant recipients because those patients are much more vulnerable to infections.

For patients with severe illnesses like Adaline, who has Ebstein’s anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, there is a higher risk of death if infected with COVID compared to other patients, according to Dr. Camille Kotton, the clinical director of transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“The first year after transplant is when they’re at highest risk for infection, but they do have a lifelong risk of severe disease and transplant patients are still dying because of COVID-19,” Kotton said.

Janeen, however, said she was confident her family, including their 11 other children, would not have any problems with COVID-19 after the transplant.

“We’ll take it as we can if it happens,” Janeen said. “But I know I cannot put this (vaccine) in her body knowing what we know and how we feel about it.”

A Cincinnati Children’s spokesperson declined to confirm that Adaline had been kept off the transplant list, but told the Enquirer that the hospital’s clinical decisions are “guided by science research and best practices” and that the hospital follows guidelines from the National Institutes of Health.

“We tailor care plans to each patient in collaboration with their family to ensure the safest, most effective treatment,” spokesperson Bo McMillan said.

Adaline’s parents now hope to take her to a different transplant center that won’t require her to be vaccinated, with a GoFundMe for the transplant raising more than $50,000 as of Wednesday morning.

https://nypost.com/2025/02/12/us-news/j ... accinated/

It's ridiculous that the hospital had to post this but here we are.

Statement on Transplant Evaluations and Immunization Considerations
Wednesday, February 12, 2025

For decades, Cincinnati Children’s has been a leader in pediatric organ transplantation, specializing in heart, intestine, kidney, liver, lung, and pancreas transplants.

We approach every transplant evaluation with a focus on long-term success, guided by medical science and an unwavering commitment to patient safety.

Organ transplantation is one of the most complex procedures in medicine, requiring careful evaluation of each individual patient by a multi-disciplinary team. Our transplant team – including expert physicians, psychologists, ethicists, and social workers – conducts a thorough evaluation to determine a child’s eligibility for transplant and placement on the waiting list.

Organ donation is a profound and selfless gift from another patient and family, and the number of available organs is limited. Our responsibility is to ensure that every donated organ is used in a way that maximizes successful outcomes for children in need.

Because children who receive a transplant will be immunosuppressed for the rest of their life, vaccines play a critical role in preventing or reducing the risk of life-threatening infections, especially in the first year. These decisions involve discussion between our providers and the patient’s family.

At Cincinnati Children’s, we are committed to providing world-class, individualized care that gives every child the greatest opportunity to live their best possible life.

Contact Information
mediarelations@cchmc.org