All posts tagged: CDC

Israel-Hezbollah; CDC director nominee; immigration : NPR

Israel-Hezbollah; CDC director nominee; immigration : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top stories A 10-day ceasefire to pause fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon begins today. President Trump announced the deal yesterday on social media after he had separate phone calls with leaders of Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah was not involved in the ceasefire discussions. Israel has vowed to keep its forces in southern Lebanon, saying it would attack if threatened by Hezbollah. The current two-week ceasefire between the U.S., Israel and Iran is set to expire in a few days. Iran has said it would not negotiate peace with the U.S. unless Israel entered a ceasefire in Lebanon. Tracer rounds illuminate the night sky as people fire live ammunition and fireworks into the air as a ceasefire was beginning between Israel and Hezbollah, in Beirut, Lebanon, in the early hours of Friday. Hassan Ammar/AP hide caption toggle caption Hassan Ammar/AP 🎧 …

CDC warns rotavirus at high levels in the U.S., with life-threatening symptoms for kids

CDC warns rotavirus at high levels in the U.S., with life-threatening symptoms for kids

Published by Sam Flores

It took just 48 hours for Ben Lopman’s 18-month-old son to go from being an energetic toddler to totally listless. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Lopman’s son Ruben was suffering from severe dehydration from rotavirus, one of the most common causes of diarrhea and vomiting in babies and children. He was so sick, he ended up in the hospital, desperately needing intravenous fluids to keep up his strength to battle the infection. Lopman, an infectious disease epidemiologist now at Emory University, was living in London when his son got sick. It was 2008, five years before the United Kingdom approved a vaccine to prevent the highly contagious virus. The boy eventually recovered. “It was scary,” said Lopman. “It also reminded me how severe this disease can be for any kid.” Ben Lopman’s 18-month-old son, Ruben, suffered from severe dehydration from rotavirus.Courtesy Ben Lopman Rotavirus, a seasonal virus similar to influenza, has been rising across the U.S. since January. With infection rates higher now than this …

Trump nominates Dr. Erica Schwartz for CDC director, calling on former deputy surgeon general

Trump nominates Dr. Erica Schwartz for CDC director, calling on former deputy surgeon general

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he was nominating Dr. Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Schwartz served as deputy U.S. surgeon general during Trump’s first term. “Erica graduated from Brown University for College and Medical School, and served a distinguished career as a Doctor of Medicine in the United States Military, the Greatest and Most Powerful Force in the World, and then served as my Deputy Surgeon General during my First Term,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, “She is a STAR!” Trump also announced his pick of three top health officials: Sean Slovenski, a healthcare industry executive, as the CDC’s chief operating officer; Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, as the agency’s chief medical director; and Dr. Sara Brenner, principal deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, as senior counselor for public health for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “This is a team with great …

CDC Caught Burying Report on Real Effects of COVID Vaccine

CDC Caught Burying Report on Real Effects of COVID Vaccine

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The Trump administration’s assault on vaccine science has taken a predictable turn. Bombshell reporting from the Washington Post just revealed that Jay Bhattacharya, the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has secretly blocked publication of a report that concludes COVID-19 vaccines are a significant boost to public health. Two CDC scientists, speaking to WaPo anonymously out of fear for retaliation, said the report found that COVID vaccines drastically minimize risk of hospitalization after catching the virus. According to the study, healthy adults who received a jab reduced their risk of urgent care visits by 50 percent, and their risk of a hospital stay by 55 percent, compared to those who went unvaccinated. The report had been slated to run on March 19 in the CDC’s research journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Bhattacharya, however, delayed the piece, arguing that there were concerns with the study’s methodology. “Dr. Bhattacharya wants to make sure that …

Vacationers beware – CDC issues travel warning as ‘life-threatening’ disease sees rising number of cases

Vacationers beware – CDC issues travel warning as ‘life-threatening’ disease sees rising number of cases

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning on March 23 to all travelers returning to the US from countries like Cuba, Vietnam and Samoa, due to the rising number of cases of “breakbone fever”, also known as dengue fever. The illness is spread not through person-to-person contact, but through infected Aedes mosquitos from tropical and subtropical regions, with 25% of people bitten reporting symptoms. The symptoms include fever, nausea, vomiting, a rash, pains in the muscles and joints, and minor bleeding. In severe cases, symptoms can include belly pain, internal bleeding, rapid breathing and persistent vomiting. © Getty ImagesDengue fever is spread via mosquitos The CDC advised that anyone who had symptoms of severe dengue fever should “see a healthcare provider or go to the emergency room immediately,” as “severe dengue is a medical emergency [and] requires immediate medical care.” The severe form of dengue is called dengue hemorrhagic fever, which can lead to shock and even death. The agency added that they had “identified a higher-than-expected number of dengue cases among …

RFK Jr. Is Losing His Grip on the CDC

RFK Jr. Is Losing His Grip on the CDC

Published by Daniella Wilson

Today, Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya said something that no other prominent health leader in the Trump administration has. “I think it is vital that every kid in this country get the measles vaccine. Absolutely vital,” he told CDC staff at a meeting this morning. That declaration went further than Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s previous tepid endorsement of the vaccine did—and is in line with what past CDC directors have said about immunization. In fact, the whole point of the meeting seemed to be to signal a turn toward normalcy, away from the more extreme elements of Kennedy’s agenda. Bhattacharya told the CDC’s beleaguered employees that the agency needed to “move on” from the chaos of the past year. He encouraged employees to “remove politics” from their work and “focus on what we know how to do.” He echoed Kennedy’s slogan while acknowledging the limits of his position, but also seemed to contradict it, saying, “You can’t just snap your fingers and make people healthy again.” By tomorrow, Bhattacharya’s position …

Turmoil at the CDC continues as the administration searches for a new director : NPR

Turmoil at the CDC continues as the administration searches for a new director : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, will continue to also oversee the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention while the administration searches for a permanent director. Nathan Howard/AP hide caption toggle caption Nathan Howard/AP The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is once again searching for a new leader. During the current Trump administration, the embattled agency tasked with protecting the nation’s health has had a Senate-confirmed director for less than a month, and it has lost at least a quarter of its staff due to cuts and attrition. Now the administration is poised to miss a deadline that ensures leadership continuity. Wednesday marks 210 days since the last CDC director Susan Monarez was ousted, which is the limit for how long someone can lead the agency as an acting director, according to the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998. It’s a rule intended to prevent a president from circumventing the Senate confirmation process for positions that require it. “Secretary Kennedy and [senior adviser] Chris Klomp are working with the White …

CDC: Little-Known Virus With No Vaccine Spreading In US

CDC: Little-Known Virus With No Vaccine Spreading In US

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), The human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is spreading in the United States, including in California and the Great Lakes region, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A person receives a vaccine in Los Angeles in a file photograph. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images Symptoms include cough, fever, and nasal congestion, and, unlike better-known respiratory viruses, HMPV does not have a vaccine or known treatments, the CDC stated. “There’s no specific treatment that’s generally recommended,” Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California–Davis Children’s Hospital, said in a video released by the school. “For the youngest children, using a bulb syringe to clear the congestion can be useful. Sometimes a humidifier or vaporizer may be useful, especially if they have something like croup as a complication of infection and trying to make sure that they don’t get dehydrated and get enough fluids.” Hospitalized patients typically receive supportive care, or oxygen if they need it, and intravenous fluids to prevent or …

Firings, funding cuts, and a shooting leave CDC demoralized : NPR

Firings, funding cuts, and a shooting leave CDC demoralized : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Demonstrators protest staffing cuts outside the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on April 1, 2025. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid off thousands of HHS employees across multiple agencies, as part of an overhaul announced in March, 2025. Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images On the coffee table at her home in Atlanta, Sarah Boim has a pile of documents from her old job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. They are printouts of her own employment records. Boim lost her job in the first big wave of CDC firings — when about 1,000 people were suddenly let go last February. “This is the termination letter. I also printed off my performance review from 2024,” she said. “I knew I wouldn’t have access to it, and everything was so chaotic that I needed proof of what was happening.” Boim worked in the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, handling communications about radon, …