Tag: cdc

CDC expands Ebola screenings to New York’s JFK airport

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded its passenger screening for Ebola to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The federal agency said the expansion of its around-the-clock Port Health Protection system went into effect at Kennedy airport Thursday night. 

 The CDC also said Kennedy previously conducted enhanced public health entry screening and has established operational procedures in place.

The enhanced screening” is also now underway at Washington Dulles International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in Houston, for air passengers arriving from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Uganda. 

“Public health entry screening serves as one component of CDC’s layered public health approach, which also includes overseas exit screening, airline illness reporting, and post-arrival public health monitoring,” the CDC said in a post on X.

The State Department issued a travel advisory recently, instructing all U.S.-bound American citizens and lawful permanent residents who have been in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan within 21 days of arrival in the U.S. to go through the “enhanced public health screening” carried out by the CDC and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The screenings come ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which is scheduled to take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico next month. The first match will take place in Mexico City on June 11.

The United States has not seen an Ebola case so far, though one American tested positive for the virus while overseas and is being treated in Germany.

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CDC Frames Bird Flu as Likely ‘Pathogen X’ Pandemic Scenario That Public Health Systems Are Preparing For

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) journal has published a new online report repeatedly framing avian influenza and pandemic influenza emergence as the conceptual foundation for future “Pathogen X” preparedness—signaling how public health planners are increasingly positioning bird flu as the next major pandemic scenario around which long-term infrastructure is being organized.

The paper, published yesterday in the CDC’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, is titled “Assessing Evidence to Guide Primary Prevention of Pathogen X.”

The journal is used to communicate the conceptual direction, priorities, and emerging frameworks of the U.S. public health establishment.

Rather than discussing bird flu as merely one possible zoonotic threat among many, the new CDC release repeatedly centers avian influenza spillovers, pandemic influenza emergence, reassortment, and mutation as the core framework through which the authors discuss future pandemic preparedness.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing spillovers of avian influenza show the magnitude and urgency of threats posed by viral pandemics,” the paper says.

The publication signals that bird flu is increasingly being positioned as the operational “Pathogen X” scenario around which future pandemic infrastructure, surveillance systems, countermeasure programs, and public expectations are already being organized.

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New website unmasks the VAERS safety data exposed by Senator Johnson

There are only two things you need to know about the documents released by Senator Johnson relating to the VAERS safety signals:

  1. The safety signals were real and serious
  2. The people at the FDA and CDC ignored them

You have to realize that on all these emails, they ALL knew it would be subject to FOIA. So they can’t write “she’s right, but we need to silence her.” They all are aware that the conversations are being recorded.

There is now a new website that organizes all the data.

This took just 4 days to create by one person, Marjorie Roswell. It is absolutely amazing.

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Why Overdose Deaths Are Falling—and It Isn’t Because of the Drug War

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that overdose deaths during the 12-month period ending in December 2025 declined by 13.9 percent compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 69,973, the overwhelming majority of which were due to fentanyl. While a drop in overdose deaths is welcome news, it is important to keep in mind that the total number of overdose deaths for the year ending in December 2019 was 70,630. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that the pre-pandemic trend line had grown exponentially since the late 1970s before the COVID pandemic disrupted that trend with spikes in overdose deaths, substance use, and suicide rates. The new numbers may signal a return to that trend.

Younger Americans Are Using Fewer Drugs

Another factor that may be contributing to the decline in overdose deaths is that younger Americans appear to be using many psychoactive substances less than previous generations. Federally funded surveys, such as the Monitoring the Future survey, have documented substantial long-term declines in adolescent cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and many illicit drugs, while CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey data show major reductions in teen alcohol use and cigarette smoking over the past two decades. Even youth vaping rates have fallen from their 2019 peak, according to the FDA/CDC National Youth Tobacco Survey. 

Researchers increasingly describe Gen Z as engaging in less risk-taking behavior overall than earlier cohorts, including less drinking, smoking, and drug use. While this trend alone probably does not fully explain the recent decline in overdose deaths, particularly since most fatal overdoses occur among adults in their 30s to 50s, it may reduce the number of younger people who progress into the highest-risk patterns of substance use associated with overdose mortality.

As pandemic-era supply chain and transportation disruptions eased, illicit drug markets also have become more diversified. During the pandemic, fentanyl largely displaced heroin in many regions of the country. More recently, some researchers and harm-reduction workers have reported signs that heroin availability has modestly rebounded in certain markets. Because heroin is less potent and generally longer-acting than fentanyl, some opioid users who developed tolerance to fentanyl may prefer heroin when it is available, potentially reducing exposure to the highly concentrated fentanyl products that drove record overdose deaths during the pandemic.

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Former CDC director on Ebola outbreak: ‘I suspect this is going to become a very significant pandemic’

Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said Wednesday he suspects the spreading Ebola outbreak in Africa will spread across three new countries and become a “very significant pandemic.”

“I suspect this is going to become a very significant pandemic, probably going to leak into Tanzania, leak into southern Sudan, maybe leak into Rwanda,” Redfield said during an appearance on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” 

“So, it’s going to be very disruptive,” he added. 

A majority of the Ebola cases are in Congo and Uganda. 

Local health officials in the two nations reported 536 suspected cases, 105 probable cases, 34 confirmed cases and around 134 suspected deaths from the outbreak, according to the CDC.

“This is an outbreak right now that is really a significant outbreak that’s of significant public health international concern, partially because what you said, it wasn’t recognized very quickly. I’m not sure why,” Redfield told anchor Elizabeth Vargas. 

“Normally when we have these Ebola outbreaks, and I had three of them when I was CDC director, all of which were in the DRC, normally we recognize them when we have five, 10 cases, you know, at most,” he continued. “This one really wasn’t picked up until there was over 100 cases.”

The former CDC director added, “As you said, now there’s over 500 cases. There’s close to 150 deaths already, and it’s moving very rapidly.”

The May outbreak marks the 17th outbreak of Ebola in the region within the past 50 years, and officials said the most recent outbreak ended last December, the CDC noted.

One American worker reportedly came in contact with the virus while working in Congo and was transported to Germany for treatment.

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The Absurdity of Public Health

The United States medical system, combined with the industrial food complex, kill and maim people on a colossal scale every single year.

Heart disease kills over 683,000 Americans annually. Cancer kills another 620,000. Stroke, diabetes, chronic lung disease, sepsis, obesity-related metabolic disease, opioid overdoses, and preventable medical errors collectively account for millions of deaths, disabilities, and shattered families.

And yet, if you browse the front page of the CDC website on any given week, there is a decent chance you will find public health officials issuing urgent alerts about backyard chickens, raw milk, pet turtles, or someone hugging a duck too enthusiastically.

Seriously.

At the very moment when roughly 1,870 Americans are dying every day from heart disease and another 1,700 from cancer, federal public health agencies are sounding alarms about salmonella from backyard poultry.

The contrast has become almost surreal.

One recent CDC warning involved 34 reported salmonella cases linked to backyard poultry across 13 states. Thirteen hospitalizations were reported. No deaths. Another CDC investigation from 2024 linked backyard poultry exposure to 470 salmonella cases and one death nationwide.

To be clear, salmonella infections are unpleasant. Severe cases can absolutely happen, particularly in small children or immunocompromised individuals. Basic hygiene around animals and food handling matters. But the sheer disproportion between the magnitude of America’s actual health catastrophes and the obsessive messaging priorities of modern public health is impossible to ignore.

Americans are drowning in chronic disease.

Over 40 percent of U.S. adults are now obese. Diabetes continues to explode. Cardiovascular disease remains the nation’s leading killer. Cancer rates in younger adults continue to rise. Meanwhile, researchers from Johns Hopkins estimated that medical errors themselves may contribute to more than 250,000 deaths per year, potentially making preventable medical harm the third leading cause of death in America.

Yet somehow the institutional energy of public health repeatedly gravitates toward regulating raw milk farmers, warning people not to kiss chickens, and issuing carefully branded panic messaging campaigns over statistically tiny risks.

Why?

Because modern public health increasingly behaves less like a system designed to improve population health and more like a managerial communications apparatus. The goal is no longer primarily to build a healthier citizenry. The goal is to demonstrate vigilance, maintain bureaucratic relevance, manage narratives, and continuously remind the public that experts are monitoring every conceivable risk, no matter how trivial.

And triviality matters here.

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The Autism Question Medicine Refuses to Answer

RFK Jr. told Tucker Carlson the CDC buried its own internal study showing a 1135% INCREASE in autism risk from hepatitis B vaccination.

The researchers were shocked.

So they covered it up.

How?

“They got rid of all the older children essentially and just had younger children who are TOO YOUNG TO BE DIAGNOSED [with autism],” Kennedy explained.

Imagine discovering evidence of catastrophic harm and making sure no one ever found out.

Then, telling everyone it’s “safe.”

If health authorities are willing to keep a signal this alarming hidden from you, what else are they not telling you about vaccines?

Is it possible that your child’s allergies or chronic immune issues didn’t appear organically, but were triggered by vaccination instead?

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Former CDC Autism Scientist Extradited to U.S. on Fraud, Money Laundering Charges

A former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) scientist who played a key role in research that denied any link between vaccination and autism was extradited to the U.S. last week to face charges of wire fraud and money laundering stemming from a 2011 indictment.

Poul Thorsen, 65, a Danish native, began working for the CDC in the late 1990s. In 2011, a federal grand jury indicted him for the alleged misuse of over $1 million in CDC grant money that was earmarked for autism and public health research. Thorsen is accused of redirecting the funds for his personal use.

Despite the indictment — and the existence of an extradition treaty between the U.S. and Denmark — Thorsen continued to live and work in Denmark. However, he was arrested in Germany last year on an INTERPOL warrant.

On May 8, U.S. Air Marshals escorted him from Germany to Atlanta, where he was arraigned.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which listed Thorsen on its most wanted list in 2012, posted a video of his extradition.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Thorsen faces two counts of wire fraud and nine counts of money laundering. He is being held without bail until trial.

In 2011, studies Thorsen co-authored were used to dismiss cases filed by the parents of autistic, vaccine-injured children that were part of the Omnibus Autism Proceedings pending before the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP).

A 2016 book, “Master Manipulator: The Explosive True Story of Fraud, Embezzlement, and Government Betrayal at the CDC,” focused on the Thorsen case, describing him as “a world-class villain whose manipulation of health data gave CDC and big pharma what they wanted: a report clearing thimerosal of any possible role in the autism crisis.”

Mary Holland, CEO of Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said Thorsen “was central to the CDC and Pharma lies that ‘vaccines do not cause autism.’”

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for CHD, said Thorsen’s work “set autism research back more than 20 years.”

“Previous administrations did not appear interested in pursuing Thorsen,” according to the MAHA Report. As a result, Thorsen was “living openly, apparently without concern of being captured in Denmark.”

HHS and DOJ did not respond to The Defender’s requests for comment.

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Senator Finds More Evidence Federal Officials Evaded FOIA

A U.S. senator and his team say they have uncovered additional evidence that federal officials worked to evade requests made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Several emails obtained by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) showed personnel with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were aware of FOIA requests and sought to evade them. FOIA enables people to request records from the government. It requires officials to retain and produce requested records, subject to certain exemptions.

In a Nov. 26, 2022, missive, Allison Lale, a medical officer with the CDC, asked a colleague about receiving safety analyses of COVID-19 vaccination from the FDA.

Pedro Moro, a CDC epidemiologist, responded. “I think that because of the FOIAs we may have asked FDA to stop sending these weekly data mining outputs,” Moro wrote.

“Oh interesting,” Lale said. She added that during calls for a CDC-managed program, “we used to just verbally mention” that certain terms had not triggered safety signals, or signs vaccines were causing problems.

“But we could also leave it out if that [sic] this creates more hassle,” she added.

In a separate email chain, FDA officials were told by an FDA vaccine safety analytic expert, Dr. Ana Szarfman, that the approach they were using to analyze the safety of COVID-19 vaccines was faulty. The information sparked a long discussion, during which officials considered asking the expert to contact an outside expert on the matter.

“Before we potentially reach out to Ana, we should meet internally – many considerations not suited to email…” David Menschik, an FDA official who distributed the data mining reports, wrote on April 15, 2021.

“Sounds good,” Bethany Baer, another FDA worker, responded. “Happy to meet and discuss anytime open on my calendar.”

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New York Times does it again, pushing pro-vaccine narrative over journalism

A recent New York Times article examining Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and developments at the CDC is drawing criticism over what some describe as one-sided vaccine coverage.

The article, published March 23, relied heavily on interviews with former CDC officials and presented commonly cited claims that vaccines are safe and effective, while offering little perspective from those who question that view.

It also highlighted Kennedy’s work and advocacy, including claims that he has spread misinformation about vaccines.

The coverage pointed to a 2025 measles outbreak in a Texas community with low vaccination rates, attributing reported deaths to measles. Other accounts cited by Children’s Health Defense have raised questions about those conclusions.

The article also addressed statements about vaccine ingredients, including the use of fetal cell lines in some vaccines. Kennedy has raised concerns about the presence of human DNA fragments, which some individuals cite as a religious or ethical issue.

On autism, the article echoed the widely held view that rising diagnosis rates are largely due to expanded screening and reporting. Critics argue that explanation does not fully account for the increase.

The article further referenced concerns about what it described as “spurious harms” linked to vaccines. However, federal data show billions of dollars have been awarded through the vaccine injury compensation program.

It also cited public health positions on issues such as fluoridated drinking water and routine vaccination schedules recommended by major medical organizations.

The broader debate over vaccine mandates and informed consent was also raised, including whether individuals should have the right to decline vaccines for religious or personal reasons.

The discussion comes as vaccination rates for some vaccines have declined, religious exemptions have increased, and lawmakers consider changes to vaccine policy, including liability protections and exemption laws.

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