Tag: safety

RFK Jr. Updates Guidelines for CDC Vaccine Advisory Panel to Include Risk Assessment

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on April 9 issued a revised charter for a key vaccine advisory panel, expanding its role to emphasize vaccine safety risks and widening the criteria for membership selection.

The new charter came after a judge ruled last month that previous votes from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) were invalid and blocked its new vaccine schedule for children.

The ACIP is a federal advisory committee that provides recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the use of vaccines to control diseases and helps establish immunization schedules for children and adults in the United States.

In the updated charter, signed by Kennedy on March 31 and published on April 9, the panel’s tasks now include advising the CDC on “gaps in vaccine safety research including adverse effects following vaccination.”

The charter says the ACIP will consider the “cumulative effects of vaccines and their constituent components” and engage in “re-analysis of vaccine safety and efficacy” as gaps are identified.

The new charter broadens the membership criteria of potential panelists beyond those with expertise in the use and research of vaccines and immunization practices, specifically adding toxicology and data science.

It states that members “shall be selected from authorities who are knowledgeable in the fields of medicine, vaccines, immunization practices, immunology, toxicology, pediatric neurodevelopment, epidemiology, data science, statistical analysis, health economics, recovery from serious vaccine injuries, or public health; have expertise in the use of vaccines or other immunobiologic agents in clinical practice or preventive medicine, have expertise with clinical or laboratory vaccine research, or have expertise in assessment of vaccine safety and efficacy.”

Ronald G. Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said the revised charter appears to shift ACIP’s focus toward vaccine safety and adverse events, rather than maintaining its traditional approach that considered “the full scope of vaccine data.”

“These changes suggest that routine immunization is unsafe — adding to confusion and increasing vaccine hesitancy,” Nahass said in a statement, warning that the updated charter could lead to lower vaccine uptake.

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said, “The ACIP charter renewal and its publication are routine statutory requirements and do not signal any broader policy shift.”

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Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana Home Cultivation Amid Concerns About Pesticide-Tainted Products, Poll Shows

Three out of five Americans say it should be legal for people to grow their own marijuana plants at home, according to a new poll that also shows cannabis consumers are broadly concerned about harmful pesticides in the products they consume.

The survey, which was conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Royal Queen Seeds (RQS), found that 61 percent of U.S. adults back legalizing marijuana home cultivation, which the company points out is greater than 43 percent of Americans who say they have consumed cannabis—showing that support for the freedom extends beyond those who want to exercise it for themselves.

At the same time, however, 72 percent of consumers are very concerned about pesticides in their cannabis products, while 65 percent say that media coverage of tainted marijuana has made them more likely to want to grow their own instead of buying it.

The poll also found that two-thirds of cannabis consumers (67 percent) would choose cannabis grown without pesticides even if it had lower THC than products that did use agrochemicals.

“Consumers today are more informed and more intentional about what they put into their bodies,” Shai Ramsahai, president of RQS, said in a press release. “Blindly buying products just because of a high THC percentage is a fading trend. People want cannabis they can trust, and many are turning to home cultivation to take control over quality and safety.”

Other findings of the new poll include:

  • More than 3 in 4 cannabis consumers (76 percent) say they prefer the “high” of marijuana over the “buzz” of alcohol.
  • 39 percent of Americans (and 68 percent of cannabis users) would be more impressed if someone brought home-grown marijuana to a dinner party than a bottle of expensive wine.
  • 80 percent of cannabis consumers say their use of marijuana has a broader wellness connection in their habits.

The poll involved interviews from March 17-19 with 2,017 U.S. adults aged 21 and older, among whom 851 have consumed cannabis, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points.

The survey is the latest in a series of polls commissioned by RQS.

Last year, the company found that half of U.S. marijuana consumers said they expected to consume more cannabis under the Trump administration than they have before.

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The biotechnology industry has no right to secrecy

In his column ‘Biosafety Now’, Dr. Simon Wain-Hobson revisits controversial gain-of-function research conducted in 2014, funded by US NIH contract HHSN26620070001, which successfully managed to transfer the H7N1 avian (bird flu) virus from ostriches to ferrets. Once transferred, the virus established itself in the “captive” laboratory ferrets sufficiently to cause airborne transmission to other ferrets without loss of virulence.

H7N1 is as deadly for humans as Ebola, but up until now has been rarely contracted. The implications of a biotechnology research programme which transformed the virus sufficiently to enable airborne transmission between mammals will not be lost on any of our readers. This is just another of the almost pandemics that gain-of-function research regularly creates. As we reported in our article, ‘Government Assurances of Biotech Safety Are Worthless. Here is the Evidence’, exotic gain-of-function experimentation is still continuing around the world to this day, whilst lab escapes are routine. 

However, biotechnology researchers are undaunted by the risks to public health, like Margaret Thatcher, “they are not for changing.” One can only presume that they have confidence that there will be enough body bags to go around when the inevitable next pandemic happens.

The UK Guardian reports that a 51-year-old career criminal, ironically called James Farthing, who won US$167 million in the lottery a year ago, has been arrested three times since for petty theft. He has been unable to change the direction of his life even though he has the material means to do so. “A leopard cannot change its spots.” Nothing could be more true of the mad disregard for risk that has continued on from the pandemic. The NZ Herald records an interview with New Zealand Labour Leader Chris Hipkins, who says he has no regrets that he failed to inform the public of the significant risk of heart disease that teenagers faced following the mRNA covid vaccine. A matter that was flagged by the recent Royal Commission Report. Hipkins excused himself, saying:

“In terms of my conscience, I never communicated medical advice around vaccination. That was always done by relevant health practitioners, including the director-general of health and the director of public health. I did not communicate, at any point, right the way through, that information other than reiterating the high-level messages around making sure you’re making informed decisions and consulting with medical practitioners.”

Of course, the “high-level messaging” that Hipkins is referring to was his constant encouragement for everyone, including school children, to get mRNA vaccines immediately on pain of losing their job or their ability to participate in social activities. If that is not offering medical advice, I don’t know what is. Hipkins appeared before the Royal Commission to answer questions but, incredibly, was allowed to do so in private. 

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MAHA Leaders Demand EPA Protect Americans From Toxic Chemicals

Leaders, farmers and organizations aligned with the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement are calling on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin to protect the health of the American public from pesticides, plastics and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals that are contributing to infertility, cancer and other chronic diseases.

The 36 MAHA organizations and leaders sent a letter urging the EPA to walk their talk in the forthcoming “Make America Healthy Again” agenda — which may be released any day — with concrete actions that will reduce Americans’ exposure to toxic chemicals, curb the influence of corporations over the agency and address rising rates of chronic disease.

“The American people were promised a Make America Healthy Again agenda that would finally confront the root causes of chronic disease in this country. That must include tackling the toxic chemicals Americans are exposed to every day through pesticides, PFAS, and plastics,” said Vani Hari, Author & Food Activist.

“We desperately need the EPA to put the health of families and children ahead of the interests of chemical companies.”

The letter demands, among other actions, that EPA initiate an emergency review of pesticides that are allowed in the U.S. but banned in the European Union — a policy supported by 87% of Americans.

The groups are also calling for tighter scrutiny of persistent, toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and better monitoring of microplastics in drinking water.

The MAHA leaders point to industry influence at the EPA as the heart of the failure to protect the public from harmful chemicals.

They noted that revolving-door appointments, industry-funded science and regulatory loopholes have become the norm at the agency. EPA needs to chart a new course, they said, and that means prioritizing human health over the interests of chemical corporations.

“The EPA’s public support for glyphosate and pesticide liability protections in the face of growing evidence of scientific harm by independent scientists is a major betrayal of MAHA’s mission and President Trump’s campaign promise to RFK, Jr. [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] to reign in toxic chemicals in our food system,” said David Murphy, the founder of United We Eat and a longtime advocate for food and agricultural reforms.

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New York’s Governor Seems Indifferent to the Health Consequences of a Steep Tax on Nicotine Pouches

By pushing a 75 percent wholesale tax on nicotine pouches, New York State Budget Director Blake Washington says, Gov. Kathy Hochul is trying to address “a public health concern.” That rationale is absurd on its face, since this tax would sharply raise the cost of a nicotine product that is far less hazardous than cigarettes, perversely discouraging smokers from making a switch that could save their lives.

Hochul, who seems determined to portray a money grab as a benevolent intervention, is either oblivious or indifferent to the health consequences of taxing nicotine patches at the same rate as cigarettes. “We see it as a distinction without a difference,” Washington told reporters in January.

That position ignores the huge difference between inhaling tobacco smoke, which contains myriad toxins and carcinogens, and orally absorbing nicotine from a pouch placed between the lip and gums. Hochul’s framing also contradicts what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said four days before the end of the Biden administration, when it authorized the marketing of Zyn nicotine pouches in two doses and 10 flavors.

That decision was based on the FDA’s determination that “the new products offer greater benefits to population health than risks.” The data, said Matthew Farrelly, director of the Office of Science at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, “show that these nicotine pouch products meet that bar by benefiting adults who use cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and completely switch to these products.”

Nicotine pouches contain “substantially lower amounts of harmful constituents than cigarettes,” the FDA noted. They therefore offer “a lower-risk alternative for adults who smoke cigarettes.”

How much lower? To give you a sense of the difference, the Royal College of Physicians estimates that “the hazard to health” from e-cigarettes, which likewise do not contain tobacco or burn anything but do require inhalation, “is unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco.”

Nicotine pouches “contain far, far fewer harmful constituents compared to traditional tobacco products,” notes Mary Hrywna, a tobacco control specialist at the Rutgers School of Public Health. The FDA’s Zyn decision implicitly acknowledged that nicotine pouches are “much safer than cigarettes,” says Ray Niaura, a professor at New York University’s School of Global Public Health.

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An Embarrassing Mistake May Have Skewed Microplastics Research All Along

Earth’s worrying pall of microplastics—recorded by scientists practically everywhere, across our planet’s oceans, aloft in clouds above Mount Fuji, burrowed into human brains, and even in the testicles of our poor damn dogs—might be modestly less apocalyptic than previously thought.

Researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) have identified a surprising and arguably mildly embarrassing error that might be contributing to dramatic overestimates of microplastics content across multiple studies: flecks of debris shed by the standard latex and nitrile gloves that scientists typically use in the lab. Tiny soap-like salts, called stearates, coat these gloves as remnants of the manufacturing process, according to the new U-M study, where they can rub off, creating thousands of false positives per square millimeter (or about one-thousandth of a square inch).

The U-M team replicated a common test surface for microplastics work to evaluate how seven different types of disposable lab gloves could muddy the final microplastics count in each case.

“The type of contact we tried to mimic touches upon all varieties of microplastics research,” according to a statement from the study’s lead author Madeline Clough, a recent doctoral graduate at U-M. “If you are contacting a sample with a gloved hand,” Clough said, “you’re likely imparting these stearates that could overestimate your results.”

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RFK Jr. Announces Investigation Into Removing Microplastics From the Human Body

The federal government will spend $144 million to investigate microplastics and figure out how to remove them from human bodies, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials announced on April 2.

The program—Systematic Targeting Of MicroPlastics (STOMP)—is tasked with measuring, researching, and removing microplastics and nanoplastics from humans.

Tests reveal that microplastics, or small pieces of plastic, have been found in many people and have been associated with health problems. Ingestion can occur through consumption of food and water, as well as contact with the air.

“We are not dealing with a distant or theoretical risk,” Kennedy said during a news conference in Washington. “We are dealing with a measurable and growing presence inside the human body.”

However, officials said more data are needed, including ways to safely remove the microplastics.

“We cannot treat what we cannot measure,” Kennedy said. “We cannot regulate what we don’t understand.”

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USDA Issues Public Health Alert Over Chicken Nuggets Sold in Walmart

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a public health alert for frozen chicken nuggets sold by Oklahoma-based Dorada Foods as the products could be contaminated with “unsafe levels of lead,” the agency said in an April 1 announcement.

The warning is applicable to ready-to-eat chicken nuggets sold by the company in 29-oz. plastic bags under the name “Great Value Fully Cooked Dino Shaped Chicken Breast Nuggets.” The item, manufactured on Feb. 10, comes with the lot code 0416DPO1215 and has a “Best If Used By” date of Feb. 10, 2027, FSIS said.

The products were shipped and sold at Walmart locations across the United States. Great Value is a primary private-label brand of Walmart.

“Lead is especially dangerous for pregnant women, infants, and young children because it can harm developing brains and nervous systems, sometimes causing lasting problems. There is no safe amount of lead exposure,” FSIS warned.

“Guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration provide an interim reference level (IRL) of 2.2 micrograms. The amount of lead found in these nuggets could be as much as five times higher than this IRL for children. Health experts also say these nuggets may be a risk for women who are pregnant or who could become pregnant.”

In a January 2025 post, the Food and Drug Administration warned that lead toxicity can affect people of any age and health status.

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America’s Half-Trillion-Dollar Sewage Problem

Beneath city streets and suburban neighborhoods, a vast network of pipes and wastewater treatment systems is reaching the end of its life. This subterranean infrastructure is already suffering tens of thousands of failures per year, while exposing millions of Americans to contamination risks.

Utilities, plumbing experts, and environmentalists warn that the scope of the problem has expanded rapidly in recent years. As of 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that $630 billion in wastewater infrastructure investment would be needed to repair and replace deteriorating systems. At the same time, extreme weather events and growing populations were putting additional strain on America’s aging pipes.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), in its 2025 report card, gave U.S. wastewater infrastructure a D-plus, which the group largely attributed to a lack of funding to meet the needs of communities with failing systems.

Meanwhile, average utility prices for wastewater consumers increased from $35 per month to nearly $65 per month between 2010 and 2020, ASCE researchers found. Even still, they said, rising utility prices aren’t “keeping pace with the growing costs for utilities to provide routine operation and maintenance.”

Paradoxically, as household water and sewer bills increased more than 24 percent between 2020 and 2025, wastewater infrastructure renewal and replacement rates for large-scale projects actually decreased over the past decade, from 3 percent to 2 percent, according to the ASCE analysis.

The scope of the problem becomes clearer when considering the sheer volume of sanitary sewer overflows. As of April 2025, the EPA estimated there were between 23,000 and 75,000 overflow incidents per year, and that didn’t include sewage that backed up into buildings or residential homes.

Some of the reasons for these spills included blockages, line breaks, design defects, and overloaded treatment systems.

A spokesperson for the EPA told The Epoch Times that the agency is “committed to accelerating investments in water infrastructure by stewarding federal funding appropriated by Congress.”

Recent funding highlights from 2025 include the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, which committed $13 billion for infrastructure improvements in communities across the nation, according to the EPA spokesperson.

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FDA Warns of Deaths Linked to Drug It Wants Removed From Market

The Food and Drug Administration said in a March 31 alert that it has learned of eight deaths linked to a drug called avacopan that is used to treat blood vessel inflammation.

A review of studies, documents from avacopan manufacturer Amgen, and reports to the FDA’s adverse event reporting system resulted in the identification of 76 cases of drug-induced liver injury “with reasonable evidence of a causal association with avacopan use,” the FDA said in a drug safety alert.

Fifty-four of the cases led to hospitalization, and eight ended in death.

Some of the cases involved a syndrome that features the destruction of bile ducts in the liver, which can lead to permanent liver damage.

“Patients should contact their health care professional immediately if they develop any signs or symptoms that may indicate liver injury, such as: feeling more tired than usual; nausea; vomiting; unusual itching; light-colored stools; yellowing of skin or eyes; dark urine; swelling in the stomach or abdomen; or pain in the right upper abdomen,” the FDA stated. “Patients should talk to their health care professional about the safety risks associated with Tavneos and whether to continue therapy or switch to alternative treatments.”

Avacopan, also known as Tavneos, was approved by the FDA in 2021 for the treatment of severe active anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody-associated vasculitis, or blood vessel inflammation.

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