National, Regional and Local News

[ponchi101]

Measles parties. How 19th century...

[ti-amie]

Mueller, She Wrote
‪@muellershewrote.bsky.social‬
NEW: A source tells me that response teams for FEMA set to deploy to the South Carolina wildfires are unable to travel because their government issued travel cards have had their limits reduced to $1. FEMA response team cards were supposed to be exempt.

‪praying mantis‬ ‪@gentlem.bsky.social‬
·
40m
www.wfmynews2.com/article/news...
Please use your platform to distribute this emergency information which covers a wide area. Please do this as swiftly and repeatedly as possible. We are trying to keep loss of life to a minimum. Thank you.


https://www.wfmynews2.com/article/news/ ... 6182043896

[ti-amie]

RFK Jr. promotes cod liver oil as measles remedy while refusing to advocate for vaccines
The health and human services secretary has been championing a number of unconventional treatments in response to the growing measles outbreak in West Texas
By Alana Loftus
13:25 ET, Wed, Mar 5, 2025 | UPDATED: 13:28 ET, Wed, Mar 5, 2025

Robert F Kennedy Jr has offered his response to the escalating measles outbreak in West Texas, advocating for a range of unconventional treatments over vaccinations. The health and human services secretary endorsed several remedies on Tuesday, including cod liver oil and vitamin A.

In an interview with Fox News, he revealed that the federal government was dispatching doses of vitamin A to Gaines County, the heart of the outbreak, and coordinating ambulance services.

Previously, officials from Health and Human Services had stated they were sending doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to Texas, but Mr. Kennedy did not reference this or discuss vaccination at all during his interview.

RFK asserted that doctors in Texas had witnessed "very, very good results," treating measles cases with a steroid named budesonide, an antibiotic known as clarithromycin, and cod liver oil, which he claimed contained high levels of vitamins A and D.

However, according to the Seattle Times, Dr Sean O'Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, stated that while physicians sometimes administer doses of vitamin A to treat children with severe measles cases, cod liver oil is "by no means" a treatment backed by evidence.

Moreover, Dr O'Leary said he had never heard of a physician using the supplement as a treatment for measles.

RFK's notoriously shaky stance on vaccines, coupled with a history of misinformation, has been thrust into the spotlight following his appointment to a key position. The measles outbreak that began in late January spiraled out of control quickly.

Tragically, a 6 year old who had not been vaccinated succumbed to measles last week in Texas, marking the first such death in the US since 2015. The Washington Post has reported a surge of 159 measles cases in the state.

The CDC is stepping up its game, sending "disease detectives" to Texas this Tuesday in hopes of curbing the rapid spread of the virus.

At a cabinet hearing last week, RFK addressed his fellow health officials, saying, "I support the measles vaccine, I support the Polio vaccine. I will do nothing as HHS secretary to make it difficult or discourage people from taking it."

His assertions were immediately met with skepticism. Another member fired back, pointing to the stark contrast between his recent stance and his claims in a book he authored, "anybody who believes that ought to look at the measles book you wrote saying 'parents have been misled into believing that the measles is a deadly disease, that's not true."

RFK now grapples with criticism over his past remarks. He has previously claimed in a 2021 book's foreword that Americans have been deceived into thinking "misled ... into believing that measles is a deadly disease and that measles vaccines are necessary, safe, and effective."

He further claimed that measles outbreaks "have been fabricated to create fear" in order to "inflict unnecessary and risky vaccines on millions of children."

https://www.the-express.com/news/health ... il-measles

[ponchi101]

For those that said that Anthony Fauci had "blood on his hands". And I heard that he should have been tried for crimes against humanity.
Anyway, they will never listen.

[ti-amie]

Video at the link

[ti-amie]

Trump freezes $1 billion in food aid given to local schools and food banks to help low-income families
The Trump administration reportedly said it had determined this funding ‘no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate’

Kelly Rissman
in New York
Tuesday 11 March 2025 17:04 GMT

The Department of Agriculture has slashed over $1 billion in funding aimed at helping schools and food banks purchase from local farmers, according to a nonprofit.

“Multiple states” were recently notified of these cuts, the nonprofit School Nutrition Association said in a statement Tuesday.

An estimated $660 million in funds through the Local Food for Schools program for 2025 will no longer be available to support childcare institutions and schools, the group added.

“This program will strengthen the food system for schools and childcare institutions by helping to build a fair, competitive, and resilient local food chain, and expand local and regional markets with an emphasis on purchasing from historically underserved producers and processors,” the USDA website says about the Local Food for Schools program.

The Independent has reached out to the USDA for comment.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education confirmed it received a notice of termination from the USDA on Friday of the second round of Local Food for Schools grant funding, an award of $12.2 million, claiming that they “determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate,” the state’s governor Maura Healy said in a Monday statement.

The governor suggested the cuts were made as part of a Department of Government Efficiency-led effort to reduce spending in the federal government.

“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have declared that feeding children and supporting local farmers are no longer ‘priorities,’ and it’s just the latest terrible cut with real impact on families across Massachusetts,” said Governor Healey. “There is nothing ‘appropriate’ about it. Trump and Musk are continuing to withhold essential funding in violation of court orders, and our children, farmers and small businesses are bearing the brunt of it.”

The Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which provides food to food banks and organizations that reach underserved communities, was also included in the cuts, Politico reported.

The department notified states that it was unfreezing funds for existing agreements for this program but did not plan to carry out a second round of funding for fiscal year 2025, the outlet reported. An estimated $420 million of federal funds were expected to go toward the program in 2025, the USDA website shows.

A USDA spokesperson told the outlet that funding “is no longer available and those agreements will be terminated following 60-day notification.” The spokesperson added: “These programs, created under the former Administration via Executive authority, no longer effectuate the goals of the agency. LFPA and LFPA Plus agreements that were in place prior to LFPA 25, which still have substantial financial resources remaining, will continue to be in effect for the remainder of the period of performance.”

Last week, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said this program can no longer operate in the state after the USDA said it was ceasing reimbursements for any costs incurred after January 19. The same applied to the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program, which aims to “build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain.” Reimbursement claims submitted for costs incurred after January 19 are being returned with “no explanation or timeline for reimbursements to resume,” the statement read.

"Cutting funds for these programs is a slap in the face to Illinois farmers and the communities they feed," said Governor Pritzker. "The Trump Administration's refusal to release grant funds doesn't just hurt farmers in the program, it devastates our most vulnerable, food-insecure communities relying on meat, fresh produce and other nutritious donations."

Congress is also weighing cuts to school meal programs, the School Nutrition Association warned in its announcement. The nonprofit urged the public to call on Congress members to oppose these cuts.

“With research showing school meals are the healthiest meals Americans eat, Congress needs to invest in underfunded school meal programs rather than cut services critical to student achievement and health,” said the group’s president Shannon Gleave. “These proposals would cause millions of children to lose access to free school meals at a time when working families are struggling with rising food costs. Meanwhile, short-staffed school nutrition teams, striving to improve menus and expand scratch-cooking, would be saddled with time-consuming and costly paperwork created by new government inefficiencies.”

Alexis Bylander, interim child nutrition programs and policy director of the D.C.-based nonprofit Food Research & Action Center, said this decision has “devastating impacts.”

“The Trump administration’s decision to cut funding for cooperative agreements that support schools and other organizations’ ability to purchase local foods will have a devastating impact on students, schools, farmers, and local economies,” Bylander said in a statement. “As food costs continue to rise and schools struggle to stretch their meal budgets, now is the time to bolster efforts that improve access to affordable and healthy local foods, not gut them.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 13125.html

[ti-amie]

‘Ongoing destruction of evidence’: Trump admin shredding and burning ‘classified’ USAID docs with info that’s ‘essential’ for rehiring unlawfully fired workers, unions say
Chris Perez Mar 11th, 2025, 7:57 pm

The Trump administration is shredding and burning “classified” employee documents at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with personnel info that would be “essential” to rehiring unlawfully fired federal workers, according to labor groups suing the president, should it be required as a result of their litigation.

“Plaintiffs file this emergency motion for temporary restraining order to stop Defendants’ imminent and ongoing destruction of evidence,” the groups said in a Tuesday filing.

“Defendants are, as this motion is being filed, destroying documents with potential pertinence to this litigation,” the coalition alleged. “Plaintiffs will suffer immediate, irreparable injury should the agency continue to destroy records.”

Last month, the plaintiffs — two government employees unions led by the American Foreign Service Association, the exclusive representative for the U.S. Foreign Service — filed a lawsuit accusing Trump and agency heads of “unlawful actions” that “exceed presidential authority and usurp legislative authority conferred upon Congress by the Constitution, in violation of the separation of powers.”

On Feb. 7, the same day the suit was filed, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols granted a “limited” temporary restraining order barring the government from placing USAID employees on administrative leave and performing expedited evacuations of such employees from their overseas posts. The order rejected a request to block a 90-day pause on “foreign assistance funding.”

On Feb. 21, Nichols dissolved the TRO and denied a request from the labor groups for a preliminary injunction. Things remained unchanged up until this week when the plaintiffs motioned to stop the shredding and burning of “critical” employee data after hearing about it in an email sent out by USAID’s acting executive secretary, Erica Carr, who allegedly told officials: “Shred as many documents first, and reserve the burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.”

In their motion, the unions suing Trump said Carr’s email claimed the USAID was “clearing [its] classified safes and personnel documents” from the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., starting at 9:30 am Tuesday. The email allegedly directed USAID staff to “shred as many documents” as possible and to use “burn bags for when the shredder becomes unavailable or needs a break.” An alleged screenshot of Carr’s email was included in the Tuesday motion.

“This directive suggests a rapid destruction of agency records on a large scale that could not plausibly involve a reasoned assessment of the records retention obligations for the relevant documents under the FRA or in relation to this ongoing litigation,” the motion said. “The ‘classified’ and ‘personnel’ documents that are currently being shredded contain information that will be critical to the continued operation or — as the agency continues to be dismantled — the reconstitution of the agency. For example, if the agency is required as a result of this litigation to rehire terminated employees, personnel records that identify USAID employees and contain personal contact information will be essential to rehiring those employees.”

The motion alleged that union lawyers sought information from the Trump administration and Justice Department as to whether the alleged document destruction efforts were ongoing. The DOJ told them it was investigating the matter.

“Plaintiffs, however, cannot wait,” the motion said. “Immediate injunctive relief is necessary to halt this destruction.”

Nichols has yet to respond to the motion, with no orders being filed by the judge as of 7:30 p.m. EST Tuesday.

The USAID case comes as organizations that entered into contracts or received grants from the State Department and USAID have been suing the Trump administration over an executive order by the president that required a blanket freeze of all foreign aid funding. The coalition of foreign aid groups has argued that it was an unconstitutional exercise of presidential power “in contravention of congressional will” — as well as an “arbitrary and capricious agency action” — that will lead to starvation and the deaths of many.

The Trump administration was ordered Monday to cough up nearly $2 billion in foreign aid that it owes for existing contracts and grants authorized by Congress, with a federal judge ruling that it was unconstitutional of Trump to “unlawfully impound funds” earlier this year through his USAID freeze.

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/on ... nions-say/

[ponchi101]

Random thought.
It is interesting that both Musk and Trump, men that are anything but self made, are simply implementing a system of extreme capitalism. No aids to anybody. No support for anybody.
I am sure that they see this (or Musk does, as I really do not think Trump is dictating policy) as a case that "look how far I got, ALL ON MY OWN. If you are not rich, it is your fault!"
Despite their cushy upbringing.

[Owendonovan]

That's the thing about maga, they all think they've achieved all they have in life, big or small, all by their lonesome. They all seem to believe they deserve to be millionaires and no one has ever worked harder than them.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Seth Abramson‬ ‪@sethabramson.bsky.social‬

Don't worry, none of the MAGAs who screeched about Democrats not standing up during the State of the Union when the biggest enemy cancer research in America has ever had used a pediatric brain cancer patient as a prop are going to take this deportation of a _U.S. citizen_ sitting down

{*crickets*}

[ti-amie]

Measles is unlike other viruses: What to know about long-term complications
The virus targets certain types of immune cells in the body, destroying them in the process.

March 12, 2025, 5:00 AM EDT
By Akshay Syal, M.D.
Measles isn’t just a rash and a fever.

The disease outbreak in West Texas that continues to grow has sent 29 people, most of them small children, to the hospital. Two people have died, including a 6-year-old child.

It’s not yet known how many people have gotten sick in the outbreak — there are at least 223 confirmed cases, but experts believe hundreds more people may have been infected since late January. As public health officials try to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus, some experts are worried about longer-term complications.

Measles is unlike other childhood viruses that come and go. In severe cases it can cause pneumonia. About 1 in 1,000 patients develops encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and there are 1 or 2 deaths per 1,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus can wipe out the immune system, a complication called “immune amnesia.”

When we get sick with viruses or bacteria, our immune systems have the ability to form memories that quickly allow them to recognize and respond to the pathogens if they’re encountered again.

Measles targets cells in the body, such as plasma cells and memory cells, that contain those immunologic memories, destroying some of them in the process.

“Nobody escapes this,” said Dr. Michael Mina, a vaccine expert and former professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who has led some of the research in the field.

In a 2019 study, Mina and his team found that a measles infection can wreck anywhere from 11% to 73% of a person’s antibody stockpile, depending on how severe the infection. That means that if people had 100 antibodies to chickenpox before they had measles, they may be left with just 50 after measles infections, potentially making them more vulnerable to catching it and getting sicker.

Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunology at the Yale School of Medicine, said: “That’s why it’s called amnesia. We forget who the enemies are.”

“There’s no world in which you get measles and it doesn’t destroy some [immunity],” he said. “The question is does it destroy enough to really make a clinical impact.”

In an earlier study from 2015, Mina estimated that before vaccinations, when measles was common, the virus could have been implicated in as many as half of all childhood deaths from infectious disease, mostly from other diseases such as pneumonia, sepsis, diarrheal diseases and meningitis.

The researchers found that after a measles infection, the immune system can be suppressed almost immediately and remain that way for two to three years.

“Immune amnesia really begins as soon as the virus replicates in those [memory] cells,” Mina said.

The best defense against serious complications is the measles vaccine. Two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective in preventing infection.

What is ‘immune amnesia’?

Our bodies are constantly exposed to a variety of bacteria and viruses in the environment. Over time, our immune systems can learn to remember the specific intruders and spring into action quickly if they find something that doesn’t belong in the body.

“Kids are in contact with all sorts of microbes, and most of those encounters don’t lead to illness,” said Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatrician and the director of the division of pediatric infectious disease at NYU Langone Health. “The child will often recover and have memory, so if they see the same strain of a virus that causes diarrhea they will get less sick the second time that they’re exposed to it.”

With immune amnesia, he said, if people are exposed to the same strain of virus again, their bodies behave as if it was the first time and they don’t have that robust protection.

That means the measles virus can destroy the immunity people have built up over time to things like the common cold, the flu, bacteria that can cause pneumonia or any other pathogen.

Mina draws a comparison to HIV, saying the level of immunosuppression in a severe measles infection can be compared to untreated HIV for years. He cautioned, however, that HIV affects different parts of the immune system and that people’s immune systems can eventually recover from measles.

How does measles wreck the immune system?

The highly contagious virus can destroy long-lived plasma cells that reside in our bone marrow and are essential to our immune systems. The cells are like factories that pump out antibodies to protect us from intruders that enter our bodies.

“It’s almost like bombing a sacred city,” Mina said, referring to the potential devastation of plasma cells after a measles infection.

Measles also targets cells in our bodies called memory cells, cells that remember what intruders look like so our immune systems can quickly identify and fight them in the future.

Once we breathe in the virus, it gets engulfed by cells called macrophages, which act as a “trojan horse” to take the virus to our lymph nodes, Iwasaki said.

Once there, the virus is able to bind to and destroy those memory cells, wiping out some of our built-up immunity in the process.

“Once [memory cells] are eliminated, we basically don’t have memory for those particular pathogens anymore, so you become more susceptible to pretty much any infection that’s unrelated to measles,” Iwasaki said.

Does the immune system recover?

The way the body starts to regain its immune memory after being walloped by measles is by getting exposed to other viruses and bacteria and becoming sick again, building up immunity.

While such immunity can be relearned, it can lead people to be especially prone to other infections right after measles, said John Wherry, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

“As every parent of a daycare-old child knows, if you’re building a lot of immunity in that time you’re suffering through it,” Wherry said.

Mina compared relearning our immunity to why it seems babies are frequently sick.

“That sickness that babies get is not because babies are more fragile. It’s just because they don’t have the same immunological memory set yet,” he said. “They have to spend a few years to get it built up through exposure, and that’s kind of what people go through after measles.”

How measles can cause brain inflammation

More frightening is an untreatable measles complication called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), a brain disease that can occur 10 years or more after someone recovers from the infection and is almost always fatal.

“There’s no world in which you get measles and it doesn’t destroy some [immunity],” he said. “The question is does it destroy enough to really make a clinical impact.”

In an earlier study from 2015, Mina estimated that before vaccinations, when measles was common, the virus could have been implicated in as many as half of all childhood deaths from infectious disease, mostly from other diseases such as pneumonia, sepsis, diarrheal diseases and meningitis.

The researchers found that after a measles infection, the immune system can be suppressed almost immediately and remain that way for two to three years.

“Immune amnesia really begins as soon as the virus replicates in those [memory] cells,” Mina said.

The best defense against serious complications is the measles vaccine. Two doses of the vaccine are 97% effective in preventing infection.

For reasons not well understood, the measles virus can cause a persistent infection that can lead to damage in the brain, resulting in cognitive decline, coma and death.

Researchers believe SSPE, once considered rare, may be more common than realized. A review of measles cases in California from 1998 to 2015 found that SSPE cases occurred at a higher-than-expected rate among unvaccinated children.

The disease is progressive, and symptoms typically occur in phases, said Dr. Bessey Geevarghese, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Northwestern Medicine.

“It can start with just personality changes and behavioral changes,” she said. In children, it can be something as subtle as worse performance in school.

The disease then progresses and can eventually cause seizures and abnormal movements, Geevarghese said. Finally, parts of the brain that regulate our vital signs, like breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, are damaged, which can lead to death.

There is no cure for the disease, and it is almost always fatal. Patients usually survive one to three years after diagnosis. In the United States, there are typically four to five cases every year, but that may be an underestimate, said Ratner, of NYU Langone Health.

“It’s probably more common than we think it is, because it’s not necessarily always diagnosed,” he said. “But as these outbreaks become more common, I think we will obviously see more cases of SSPE.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-n ... rcna195918

[ti-amie]

RFK Jr says 'it used to be better when everyone got measles' as outbreak spreads
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that contracting measles is the best defense against the disease - as an outbreak spreads across the U.S.

ByJack HobbsNews ReporterNina JoudehSenior Reporter
14:14 ET, MAR 12 2025

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suggested that catching measles may be better than vaccination amid a spreading outbreak in Texas. Over 220 cases have been identified in the Lone Star State, with additional reports coming from California, New York, and Maryland, The Daily Beast highlights.

Talking to Sean Hannity on Fox News Tuesday evening, RFK Jr. voiced his preference for natural immunity through experiencing the virus firsthand: "It used to be, when I was a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection," he shared.

He also raised questions about vaccine efficacy, saying, "The vaccine doesn't do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people, it wanes." Texas has seen a lower rate of vaccinations compared with other states, fueled by COVID-related skepticism, reports the Irish Star.

However, the CDC has noted that receiving two doses of the MMR vaccine can provide up to 97 percent protection against measles.

Kennedy delved further into details around maternal immunity, describing how disease defenses are passed from mother to child both before birth and through breastfeeding after birth. He expressed doubts regarding the MMR vaccine's capacity for this: "It does not appear to provide maternal immunity; it used to be that very young kids were protected by breast milk," RFK remarked.

"Women who get vaccinated do not provide that level of immunity that the natural measles infection did. So you're now seeing measles hit very very young kids and hitting older people within whom the vaccine has waned." Kennedy stressed that the "government shouldn't force" individuals to get vaccinated. He openly expressed his criticism towards the MMR vaccine, telling Hannity it leads to "adverse effects.

"There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself cause, like encephalitis and blindness, etc., so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves," he stated, while acknowledging that the vaccine does "stop the spread of the disease."

Encephalitis International, a nonprofit organization, reported that between one and two out of every 1,000,000 vaccinated children will develop encephalitis as a result-this is less than the incidence of all types of encephalitis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that any side effects from the MMR vaccine are usually "mild" and "go away on their own."

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics ... ed-1026888

[ti-amie]

I wish someone would ask him about his vaccine status, his wife's status, and his grandchildren's as well.

[ponchi101]

He would lie.
And some people see this man as a hero.