HHS Proposes Rules to Bar Hospitals from Performing Gender Affirming Care to Minors

The Department of Health and Human Services today published in the Federal Register two Releases proposing rule changes that would effective...

Trump Voter Feels Abandoned After HHS Closes Cancer Compensation Board

Reclaiming Human Services: Confronting Racial Capitalism with Faith, Justice, and Courage

What if the systems designed to help us are also built to exploit us? What if the systems designed to help us are also built to exploit us?This uncomfortable question lies at the heart of today’s h…

Exclusive: Ten dead after welfare glitch ignored by government

Computer programming errors that caused welfare recipients to be wrongly cut off from income support were first discovered years before departmental officials acted to fix them – but the system was not paused for fear it could hurt the profits of privatised employment service providers. Documents released under freedom of information reveal the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) first picked up on the glitch in April 2020 but did nothing about it for more than three years.

UAW Statement on NIH Freezes - UAW | United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America

Just days after the first contract took effect covering 5,000 members of UAW 2750 at the National Institutes of Health, the Trump Administration has imposed an unprecedented set of restrictions on the nation’s premier public research institution. These include a communications blackout, canceling all meetings, a travel ban for employees, strict limitations on spending research […]

Block Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of HHS and Protect America’s Health Now!

The confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services could have a drastic and terrible impact on global health. Many of his views run counter to long-standing national and international goals for public health. If confirmed as HHS secretary, Kennedy would oversee the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is in charge of reviewing and approving new vaccines. He would be in charge of the Vaccines for Children program, which has saved over 1 million lives by immunizing children against diseases such as polio and measles. Both diseases are now rare in the U.S. thanks to immunization programs, but whereas polio has been virtually eliminated, measles cases are on the uptick, due to recent vaccine skepticism. Kennedy claims he is not “anti-vaccine,” but he continues to hold the view that vaccines are a cause of autism, despite being debunked by decades of research. And on social media, Kennedy came out avidly against the COVID vaccines, going so far as to call them a “crime against humanity.”   According to the latest research, COVID vaccines prevented over 3.2 million deaths in the U.S. Kennedy’s outspoken views increased the partisan divide on a public health issue that should never have been politicized in the first place. If the nation and world were to be faced with another pandemic, on Kennedy’s watch, there is no reason to think that the United States would develop any effective vaccines at all. Vaccines may be a “crime,” in Kennedy’s words, but using heroin, on the other hand, he told Shawn Ryan, improved his grades: "I did very, very poorly in school, until I started doing narcotics," he said. "Then I went to the top of my class, because my mind was so restless and turbulent and I could not sit still. It worked for me. And if it still worked, I'd still be doing it." Kennedy has some other unusual views about public health. For example, in his bizarre story about finding a bear that had been killed on the road, then dumping it in Central Park, he initially put the dead bear in his van because he was planning to eat it. Kennedy has also claimed that chemicals in drinking water might be causing children to change their sexual orientations.   Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Trump’s former FDA commissioner, is concerned that if Kennedy is confirmed, it will result in a quantifiable increase in avoidable deaths: “I think if RFK follows through on his intentions, and I believe he will, and I believe he can, it will cost lives in this country. You’re going to see measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rates go down. And… if we lose another 5%, which could happen the next year or two, we will see large measles outbreaks. For every 1,000 cases of measles that occur in children, there will be one death. And we are not good in this country at diagnosing and treating measles.” Gottlieb went on to say that he thinks there is more skepticism about Kennedy’s nomination amongst GOP senators than is currently being reported. Let’s do our part to increase the Senate’s skepticism: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to be HHS Director poses a serious risk to the public health. Click “START WRITING” and urge the Senate to reject Robert F. Kennedy’s nomination for HHS Secretary now! >>