Nearly 368,000 pounds of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon products are being recalled over possible contamination with listeria bacteria that can cause food poisoning, federal health officials said Wednesday. 

No illnesses have been confirmed to date, U.S. agriculture department officials said. 

Kraft Heinz Food Company of Newberry, South Carolina, announced the recall of the fully cooked turkey bacon that was produced from April 24 to June 11. The problem was discovered when the company’s laboratory testing indicated potential listeria contamination. 

"We need to stop trusting the experts," Kennedy told Tucker Carlson.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on the latest episode of Tucker Carlson’s podcast on Monday and it’s filled with the ramblings of a man completely detached from reality.

Kennedy falsely suggested vaccines cause autism, more or less endorsed the idea that Anthony Fauci should go to prison, and says that AI will allow the FDA to approve new drugs very quickly. It’s quite a mess.

These absolutely unhinged ideas wouldn’t be such a problem if this were any other fringe lunatic appearing on the podcast of a racist former Fox News host. But Kennedy happens to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a man who’s been given enormous power over America’s entire healthcare system thanks to Donald Trump.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed the largest cuts to Medicaid since the program began in the 1960s, a move that would erode the social safety net and cause a spike in the number of uninsured Americans over the next decade.

The tax and spending bill is projected to cost more than $3 trillion during that time, but it would be partially paid for with about $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.

Almost 12 million lower-income Americans would lose their health insurance by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

It still needs to pass the House again, where some moderate Republicans have expressed concerns about the cuts.

Experts say the push to cut federal funding for programs that provide health coverage to children speaks to the lack of youth protections in the US

Children’s right to healthcare is not protected in the US. A fact experts say is apparent in the federal budget currently under debate, which would see significant cuts to programs that help low income children afford food and healthcare, like Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (Chip) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap).

“There’s no right to these programs,” said Jonathan Todres, a leading expert on children’s rights and law professor at Georgia State University College of Law. “Medicaid, Chip, those all support millions of children, but they don’t establish a right. So at any time the government can choose to cut these programs.”

Medicaid and Chip provide health coverage to two in five US children, while Snap provides meals to one in five. The current budget would cut $863.4bn from Medicaid and Chip, and $300bn from Snap, over the next decade. Although children under the age of 18 make up about 22% of the US population, Todres notes that spending on youth only amounts to about 10% of the federal budget.

State and federal prosecutors have charged more than 320 people and uncovered nearly $15 billion in false claims in what they described Monday as the largest coordinated takedown of health care fraud schemes in Justice Department history.

Law enforcement seized more than $245 million in cash, luxury vehicles, cryptocurrency, and other assets as prosecutors warned of a growing push by transnational criminal networks to exploit the U.S. health care system.

As part of the sweeping crackdown, officials identified perpetrators based in Russia, Eastern Europe, Pakistan, and other countries.

As we reported earlier this month, many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.

The consequences can be dire. As we heard from spouses, friends, children, and parents looking on in alarm, instances of what's being called "ChatGPT psychosis" have led to the breakup of marriages and families, the loss of jobs, and slides into homelessness.

And that's not all. As we've continued reporting, we've heard numerous troubling stories about people's loved ones being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even ending up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot.

"I was just like, I don't f*cking know what to do," one woman told us. "Nobody knows who knows what to do."

Unusually aggressive lone star ticks, common in the south-east, are spreading to areas previously too cold for them

Blood-sucking ticks that trigger a bizarre allergy to meat in the people they bite are exploding in number and spreading across the US, to the extent that they could cover the entire eastern half of the country and infect millions of people, experts have warned.

Lone star ticks have taken advantage of rising temperatures by the human-caused climate crisis to expand from their heartland in the south-east US to areas previously too cold for them, in recent years marching as far north as New York and even Maine, as well as pushing westwards.

The ticks are known to be unusually aggressive and can provoke an allergy in bitten people whereby they cannot eat red meat without enduring a severe reaction, such as breaking out in hives and even the risk of heart attacks. The condition, known as alpha-gal syndrome, has proliferated from just a few dozen known cases in 2009 to as many as 450,000 now.

The case grew out of a conservative religious challenge to the approval of HIV prevention treatments that insurers are required to provide at no cost to patients.

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to an Affordable Care Act provision that set up a panel to recommend preventive care services that insurers must provide at no cost to patients.

The court, split 6-3, ruled in favor of the Trump administration, which was defending the law, saying the task force members are lawfully appointed under the Constitution's appointments clause.

The task force members are under the supervision of the health and human services secretary, a position held by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which addresses any concerns that it is not accountable to the executive branch, the court found in an opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Three conservative justices dissented.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32060710

Decision to restrict thimerosal in immunizations could impact future vaccine availability on a global scale

A critical federal vaccine panel has recommended against seasonal influenza vaccines containing a specific preservative – a change likely to send shock through the global medical and scientific community and possibly impact future vaccine availability.

The panel was unilaterally remade by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic who has urged against the use of thimerosal despite a lack of evidence of real-world harm.

Across three votes, members voted in favor of restricting thimerosal in seasonal influenza vaccines across all age groups – with five in favor of the restriction, one abstention and one vote against.

“The risk from influenza is so much greater than the nonexistent – as far as we know – risk from thimerosal,” said Dr Cody Meissner, a panel member and professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine who was the lone “no” vote.

A well written piece.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a growing public health concern worldwide, as one of the leading causes of vision impairment. We aimed to estimate global, national, and region-specific prevalence and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) along with tobacco as a modifiable risk factor to aid public policy addressing AMD.

Findings

Globally, the number of individuals with vision impairment due to AMD more than doubled, rising from 3·64 million (95% uncertainty inverval [UI] 3·04–4·35) in 1990 to 8·06 million (6·71–9·82) in 2021. Similarly, DALYs increased by 91% over the same period, from 0·30 million (95% UI 0·21–0·42) to 0·58 million (0·40–0·80). By contrast, age-standardised prevalence and DALY rates declined, with prevalence rates decreasing by 5·53% (99·50 per 100 000 of the population [95% UI 83·16–118·04] in 1990 to 94·00 [78·32–114·42] in 2021) and DALY rates dropping by 19·09% (8·38 [5·70–11·53] to 6·78 [4·70–9·32]). These rates showed a consistent decrease in higher SDI quintiles, reflecting the negative correlation between HAQ Index and AMD burden. A general downward trend was observed from 1990 to 2021, with the largest age-standardised reduction occurring in the low-middle SDI quintile. The global contribution of tobacco to age-standardised DALYs decreased by 20%, declining from 12·45% (95% UI 7·73–17·37) in 1990 to 9·96% (6·12–14·06) in 2021. By 2050, the number of individuals affected by AMD is projected to increase from 3·40 million males (95% UI 2·81–4·17) in 2021 to 9·02 million (5·72–14·20) and from 4·66 million females (3·88–5·65) to 12·32 million (8·88–17·08). Eliminating tobacco use could reduce these numbers to 8·17 million males (5·59–11·92) and 11·15 million females (8·58–14·48) in 2050.

Interpretation

While the total prevalence and DALYs due to AMD have steadily increased from 1990 to 2021, age-standardised prevalence and DALY rates have declined, probably reflecting the effect of population ageing and growth. The consistent decrease in age-standardised rates with higher SDI levels highlights the crucial role of health-care resources and public policies in mitigating AMD-related vision impairment. The downward trend observed from 1990 to 2021 might also be partially attributed to the reduced effect of tobacco as a modifiable risk factor, with declines in tobacco use seen globally and across all SDI quintiles. The burden of vision impairment due to AMD is projected to increase to about 21·34 million in 2050. However, effective tobacco regulation has the potential to substantially reduce AMD-related vision impairment, particularly in lower SDI quintiles where health-care resources are limited.

UK health officials launch study into side-effects of weight loss drugs after increased reports of acute pancreatitis

Hundreds of people have reported problems with their pancreas linked to taking weight loss and diabetes injections, prompting health officials to launch a study into side-effects.

Some cases of pancreatitis reported to be linked to GLP-1 medicines (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) have been fatal.

The move comes after an increase in reports of acute pancreatitis to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) Yellow Card scheme, which monitors any adverse reactions to medications and medical devices in the UK.

Health secretary unilaterally appointed ACIP’s eight new members, several of whom are critical of immunizations

The first meeting of a critical federal vaccine panel was a high-profile display of how the US health secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr has injected chaos into vaccine policy infrastructure.

Wednesday’s meeting was held amid controversy, not only regarding the new members unilaterally appointed by Kennedy, but also the questions they would consider, their conflicts of interest and views on vaccines, and the scheduled speakers.

The new chair of the committee, former Harvard University professor of medicine Dr Martin Kulldorff, who was fired for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid-19, began the meeting by criticizing both his former employer and the media.