Health News that Trump Doesn't Want You To Know

[KaraBulut]

Trump pulled the US out of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the day he took office - 20 Jan 2025.

Withdrawing The United States From The World Health Organization

WITHDRAWING THE UNITED STATES FROM THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the

www.whitehouse.gov

Trump and his White House staff have also decided that they will determine what Americans need to know about pubic health. They have silenced the major Federal public health organizations like the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). CDC's premier publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that has been published weekly since 1961 has been silenced.

Trump officials exerting unprecedented control over CDC scientific journal

"The MMWR has lost its autonomy," one health official told CBS News.

www.cbsnews.com

What news are we missing?

 

[KaraBulut]

COVID is still killing people.

81 countries reported COVID statistics to the WHO, with 31 of those countries reporting at least one death. Deaths were up 24% in the last month of 2024. New variants continue to be identified, as COVID continues to adapt to become increasingly contagious.

COVID-19 epidemiological update – 17 January 2025

Edition 175

www.who.int

In the US, outbreaks were occurring in the upper midwest- Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and New York all reported increasing cases and a higher number of deaths in the general population. In the south, Arkansas has been a hot spot for COVID outbreaks and deaths.

 

[Alistair]

The FDA as well. How many deaths are going to result in the FDA being shut down and quieted.

 

[KaraBulut]

In Nevada, a new variant of avian influenza (H5N1) was identified. The new variant has a genetic change that is believed to make it more infectious to mammals, including humans. The new variant has been found in cow's milk in Nevada. This comes as a dairy worker in Nevada was tested positive for H5N1- the first dairy worker in the state to have a confirmed case of avian influenza.

So far, most cases of avian influenza in cattle were the B3.13 variant, which has affected cattle who come into contact with wild birds but has, thus far, has been less likely to infect humans who tend to cattle. No human-to-human case of B3.13 influenza has been found. The new variant, D1.1, was identified after Nevada farmers reported a large die-off of wild birds on their farms. The D1.1 variant has a mutation that would allow it to more efficiently make copies of itself in mammals.

Because this information is not being reported by the CDC, no guidance has been given on how to prevent D1.1 infection in dairy workers.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/08/health/bird-flu-variant-nevada-human-case/index.html

 

[KaraBulut]

Kansas is having an outbreak of tuberculosis, their biggest outbreak since the 1950s.

The Kansas outbreak is centered around Kansas City, KS. This is particularly of concern because Kansas City straddles the border with Missouri.

Public health authorities have not determined what is causing the outbreak. They have identified 67 people with active TB and 79 people with dormant TB. Dormant TB is not considered to be contagious but dormant TB can reactivate at any time, if not monitored and treated.

In Missouri, 87 cases were identified in January. This makes this outbreak of TB the largest outbreak in a decade.

Kansas Is Dealing With Major Tuberculosis Outbreak

State health officials said that dozens of people in the Kansas City, Kan., area have the disease, which has drawn a federal response.

www.nytimes.com

 

[KaraBulut]

In the Trump's Administration's effort to cancel LGBT people, the Federal webpages and databases on STIs, including HIV, contraception and transgender care have been pulled from public access.

CDC webpages go dark as Trump targets public health information

Resources for contraception, gender-affirming care, STIs and HIV flicker in and out of existence or vanish completely

www.theguardian.com

 

[KaraBulut]

One of the CDC reports that the Trump Administration has blocked from release: public health officials are investigating how house cats in a Los Angeles County home died after consuming raw milk.

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/vet/docs/AHAN/AHAN_H5BirdFluConfirmed4CatsRecalledRawMilk_PresumptivePositiveCatRawDiet_12202024.pdf

This is after a 2024 incident on a Texas dairy farm contracted avian influenza. About half of the cats who contracted avian flu died. It's believed that the cats died after drinking raw milk from the farm's cows.

Cats died after drinking raw milk from bird flu-infected cows

Cat deaths and neurological disease are "widely reported" around farms where the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected, health officials say.

www.cbsnews.com

Cats at the Texas farm had been fed raw milk from cows that turned out to be infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI H5N1. A day after the farm first started noticing cows were getting sick, the cats started getting sick too. By the end, more than half of the cats had died...

"Tests of the samples collected from the brains and lungs of dead cats yielded results suggesting "high amounts of virus." Autopsies of the cats also revealed "microscopic lesions consistent with severe systemic virus infection," they said, including to the eye and brain.

Guess who is a big proponent of raw milk?

Led by RFK Jr., conservatives embrace raw milk. Regulators say it's dangerous.

In summertime, cows wait under a canopy to be milked at Mark McAfee's farm in Fresno, California. From his Cessna 210 Centurion propeller plane, the 63-year-old can view grazing lands of the dairy company he runs that produces products such as unpasteurized milk and cheese for almost 2,000 stores.

www.news-medical.net

In summertime, cows wait under a canopy to be milked at Mark McAfee's farm in Fresno, California...

McAfee, founder and CEO of the Raw Farm, who also leads the Raw Milk Institute, says he plans to soon be in a position to change that message.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vaccine activist President Donald Trump has tapped to run the Department of Health and Human Services, recruited McAfee to apply for a job as the FDA's raw milk standards and policy adviser, McAfee said. McAfee has already written draft proposals for possible federal certification of raw dairy farms, he said.

 

[rareboy]

The question still remains.

How does TrumpCo. benefit from the destruction of health information?

It really does seem like it would be the kind of far right religious ideology informing Project 2025....like during the COVID days when they were all running around saying they were inoculated by Jesus or some nonsense like that, but this stands to take out more Republicans than Democrats

Larger liberal states will certainly have more robust public health agencies with health data analysts...their problem will be trying to co-relate info with adjacent poorer states who likely won't have these resources but may be the source of higher rates of disease and infections.

The states should respond by creating a new 'national' networking system to mitigate the damage.

It would be a reminder that it may actually be the most populous and powerful liberal states that save the federal republic while the poorest red states with on the vine like they did back in the day.

 

[KaraBulut]

Researchers are looking at a class of chemicals called Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are found in teflon-coated cookware, stain and water repellant fabrics, shampoos and, unfortunately, chemicals used by firefighters to combat fires. PFAS are not degradable and tend to built up in human tissue after exposure.

The CDC was set to release some research about PFAS exposure in firefighters who worked on the Hawaii fires in Maui in 2023. The firefighters were found to have elevated levels of PFAS after being exposed to chemicals while fighting the Hawaii fires.





The Biden Adminstration passed rules about PFAS testing in drinking water. Those rules are expected to be overturned by Trump.

Study finds health disparities in PFAS levels linked to drinking water, food access and industrial pollution

Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC found that certain neighborhood factors were associated with higher levels of PFAS in the blood of Southern California residents, which increases the risk for disease.

keck.usc.edu

The study was timely because the EPA is in the process of doing a massive hazardous materials cleanup in Los Angeles following the fires there last month.

EPA in the Pacific Southwest on Instagram: "EPA is removing hazardous materials from areas affected by the Los Angeles wildfires. We’re taking action to protect residents returning to their homes and businesses and remove hazards from the environmen

139 likes, 5 comments - epa_pacificsouthwest on January 31, 2025: "EPA is removing hazardous materials from areas affected by the Los Angeles wildfires. We’re taking action to protect residents returning to their homes and businesses and remove hazards from the environment. This is a crucial...

www.instagram.com

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/17/nx-s1-5261085/los-angeles-wildfires-hazardous-waste

https://lapublicpress.org/2025/01/toxic-exposure-fire-air-quality-pollution/

 

[rareboy]

^ I suppose this is the real answer. Conceal all the environmental health risks of chemicals so that your corporate donors never have to fear lawsuits or the government claims for damage.

 

[KaraBulut]

The question still remains.

How does TrumpCo. benefit from the destruction of health information?

In some ways, it's what they always do. When Republicans come into office, they put a staffer on the task of wiping all information about abortion and birth control from Federal websites, in favor of abstinence programs. Democrats come into office and they undo what the Republicans did. Then Republicans return and the process starts over.

The CDC/NIH/FDA/HHS thing probably related to February-2020 and Mar-2020 press conferences by Dr Nancy Messonnier MD*, then the Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD).

CDC Newsroom

Press releases, advisories, telebriefings, transcripts and archives.

archive.cdc.gov

https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/85746

In those press conferences, Dr Messonnier did what she routinely did- gave a very frank assessment of what was going on with practical advice (e.g. older people should make sure they have plenty of refills of their medications and to stock up on grocery items). But at the time, Dr Messonnier's advice was not the same "nothing to see here" advice about COVID-19 that the White House was putting out ("it will just go away"). The White House was furious.

The White House shut down Dr Messonnier as part of their effort to cover-up what was happening. She left the CDC in 2021.

I heard some of Dr Messonnier's press conferences. Almost everything she told us to plan for eventually happened. She was right. The White House was wrong.

*In a weird twist of fate, Dr Messonnier is the sister of Rod Rosenstein, who was the Deputy Attorney General at the DOJ under Trump. He's the one who wrote the infamous memo that got James Comey fired from the FBI. He later appointed Bob Mueller as special counsel investigating the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.

 

[KaraBulut]

Never seen a case of measles?

That may change.

Texas is having a measles outbreak. In some counties in Texas, 1 in 5 schoolchildren are not vaccinated for measles. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases- 1 person with measles typically creates 12-18 cases of measles in an unvaccinated population.

A couple of weeks ago, 2 children were diagnosed with measles. Then last week, it was 6 children. This weekend, the count was up to 14 with another 6 possible cases in close contacts.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/07/health/west-texas-measles-outbreak/index.html

A measles outbreak is growing in a rural area of West Texas where vaccination rates are well below the recommended level.

In late January, two children in Gaines County were hospitalized for measles. On Wednesday, the state health department shared in a health alert that the number of confirmed cases had grown to six.

As of Friday afternoon, the outbreak has jumped to 14 confirmed cases and six probable cases among people who are symptomatic and had close contact with infected individuals, Zach Holbrooks, executive director of the South Plains Public Health District, told CNN....

All the cases are believed to be among people who are not vaccinated against measles, Holbrooks said, and most of them are in children.

 

[KaraBulut]

Multiple states are reporting school closures due to flu outbreaks. Epidemiologists are saying this is the worst influenza outbreak in 15 years. Fortunately, the outbreak seems to be causing mild symptoms, with a higher number outpatient visits but lower numbers of people being sick enough to be seen in the emergency room.

Doctors' visits for flu highest in 15 years, most since swine flu pandemic: CDC

Outpatient health care visits for flu-like illnesses are at their highest levels in 15 years, according to data updated Friday by the CDC.

abcnews.go.com

Doctors' visits for flu highest in 15 years, most since swine flu pandemic: CDC

More than 30% of tests came back positive for flu as of the week ending Feb. 1.
Outpatient health care visits for flu illnesses are at their highest levels in 15 years, according to data updated Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nearly 8% of outpatient health care visits for respiratory illnesses are due to flu-like illness, which is the highest seen since the 2009-10 flu season, during the swine flu pandemic, data shows.

 

[Araucaria]

OK, Trump is shutting down the CDC, just as tuberculosis is spreading. And H5N1 is furiously doing the biological equivalent of the computer in War Games, which was throwing every possible combination of keyboard characters to break the nuclear launch codes. It seems it's just a matter of time before it finds the genetic code to enable human-to-human transmission. And this is happening right when we have an information and research blackout? We saw what the first Trump administration did with Covid. It's looking like it's time to be very afraid, indeed.

 

[rareboy]

Welp...won't be going near Montana again. Ever.

Montana Considers Becoming First US State To Ban mRNA Vaccine Use

A bill outlining the proposal was heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Friday.

www.iflscience.com

 

[smokeshadow]

FINALLY. . .someone doing some pushback

'Serious Injuries to Public Health': Judge Scorches Trump Removal of Health Websites

A federal judge has directed harsh criticism at the Trump administration for removing countless public health web pages and websites, ordering them restored by midnight, and suggesting their deletion may have risked violating federal law. U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush...

www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

 

[KaraBulut]

OK, Trump is shutting down the CDC, just as tuberculosis is spreading. And H5N1 is furiously doing the biological equivalent of the computer in War Games, which was throwing every possible combination of keyboard characters to break the nuclear launch codes. It seems it's just a matter of time before it finds the genetic code to enable human-to-human transmission. And this is happening right when we have an information and research blackout? We saw what the first Trump administration did with Covid. It's looking like it's time to be very afraid, indeed.

We have annual flu outbreaks. COVID peaks after just about every holiday now. In the past few years, measles pops up in California and Florida because of the anti-vaxxers.

What is scary about the current moment is that we're in the dark. If the CDC and local health departments aren't sending alerts and surveillance data hospitals and doctors, then a child with fever will be treated with Tylenol or a child with a rash will be given benadryl. When we know there's measles in the community, we know to look for it. When there's a flu outbreak, we will do rapid tests to check for flu.

 

[rareboy]

FINALLY. . .someone doing some pushback

'Serious Injuries to Public Health': Judge Scorches Trump Removal of Health Websites

A federal judge has directed harsh criticism at the Trump administration for removing countless public health web pages and websites, ordering them restored by midnight, and suggesting their deletion may have risked violating federal law. U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush...

www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

But will this be one of the court orders the Executive Branch decides to ignore to test the limits of their powe?

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Welp...won't be going near Montana again. Ever.

Montana Considers Becoming First US State To Ban mRNA Vaccine Use

A bill outlining the proposal was heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Friday.

www.iflscience.com

DO NOT let Texabamassippi hear about this.

 

[rareboy]

Kansas is having an outbreak of tuberculosis, their biggest outbreak since the 1950s.

The Kansas outbreak is centered around Kansas City, KS. This is particularly of concern because Kansas City straddles the border with Missouri.

Public health authorities have not determined what is causing the outbreak. They have identified 67 people with active TB and 79 people with dormant TB. Dormant TB is not considered to be contagious but dormant TB can reactivate at any time, if not monitored and treated.

In Missouri, 87 cases were identified in January. This makes this outbreak of TB the largest outbreak in a decade.

Kansas Is Dealing With Major Tuberculosis Outbreak

State health officials said that dozens of people in the Kansas City, Kan., area have the disease, which has drawn a federal response.

www.nytimes.com

Hey Toto...