Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID & Health News, 5/18/25
Typical respiratory illnesses including COVID, Flu and RSV are at low levels in wastewater across the nation. Because several individuals with active measles infections traveled through major airports this week, including Newark and Seattle-Tacoma, and because whooping cough cases are on the rise, I recommend checking that your vaccinations are up to date. When flying, I would consider wearing an N95 mask as well.
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HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to end CDC recommendations for COVID vaccination in children, teens, and pregnant women. COVID infection in pregnancy is associated with adverse outcomes including stillbirth, preeclampsia and preterm delivery. In children and teens, COVID infection can cause Long COVID, but risk is significantly reduced with vaccination. Only 13% of children and 14% of pregnant women received the latest COVID shot as of April and those numbers could decline more if insurance companies refuse to pay for them if this plan goes through.
(Ruth Ann Crystal MD more…)
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NY Times: Trump Appointee Pressed Analyst to Redo Intelligence on Venezuelan Gang
The move followed a disclosure that intelligence agencies disagree with a key factual claim Trump made to invoke a wartime deportation law.
(NY Times more…)
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Jess Piper: They Don’t Care
Sick days for me, but not for thee
I had nightmares all night last night. I know why. I went to bed with a pit in my stomach. I’m not one to cry often, but do you know how hard it is to fight against a supermajority, get a win, and then have that win stripped away by a Governor’s signature?
We gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to put bodily autonomy and a higher minimum wage and earned sick time on the ballot.
It won. It all won.
A few days ago, the Missouri GOP rolled back the earned sick time for Missouri workers. The earned sick time we just approved on a ballot in November. Workers began receiving it on May 1, 2025. Earned sick time will be signed away by our Governor on August 28.
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But here’s something that really sticks in my craw: The Missouri House and Senate members have sick time. They can stay home when they aren’t well or when their children are sick even though they deny that right to working Missourians.
(Jess Piper more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – May 18, 2025
Tonight, late on a Sunday night, the House Budget Committee passed what Republicans are calling their “Big, Beautiful Bill” to enact Trump’s agenda although it had failed on Friday when far-right Republicans voted against it, complaining it did not make deep enough cuts to social programs.
The vote tonight was a strict party line vote, with 16 Democrats voting against the measure, 17 Republicans voting for it, and 4 far right Republicans voting “present.” House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said there would be “minor modifications” to the measure; Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) wrote on X that those changes include new work requirements for Medicaid and cuts to green energy subsidies.
In The Bulwark today, Jonathan Cohn noted that Republicans are in a tearing hurry to push that Big, Beautiful Bill through Congress before most of us can get a handle on what’s in it. …
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Instead of saving money, the Big, Beautiful Bill actually blows the budget deficit wide open by extending the 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that those extensions would cost at least $4.6 trillion over the next ten years. And while the tax cuts would go into effect immediately, the cuts to Medicaid are currently scheduled not to hit until 2029, enabling the Republicans to avoid voter fury over them in the midterms and the 2028 election.The prospect of that debt explosion led Moody’s on Friday to downgrade U.S. credit for the first time since 1917, following Fitch, which downgraded the U.S. rating in 2023, and Standard & Poor’s, which did so back in 2011. “If the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is extended, which is our base case,” Moody’s explained, “it will add around $4 trillion to the federal fiscal primary (excluding interest payments) deficit over the next decade. As a result, we expect federal deficits to widen, reaching nearly 9% of GDP by 2035, up from 6.4% in 2024, driven mainly by increased interest payments on debt, rising entitlement spending and relatively low revenue generation.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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YLE: A big discovery, Medicaid cuts, states removing fluoride, drug price questions, and more.
(YLE more…)
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Boing Boing: Civil rights lawyers have one simple piece of advice for border stops: Keep your mouth shut
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When an office approaches you, ask “”Am I being detained?” says Thompson-Washington. If the officer says no, walk away without speaking. If they say yes, ask for a lawyer and stop speaking.
(Boing Boing more…)
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WSJ: Hamas Wanted to Torpedo Israel-Saudi Deal With Oct. 7 Attacks, Documents Reveal
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Rolling Stone: Grok Pivots From ‘White Genocide’ to Being ‘Skeptical’ About the Holocaust
Elon Musk’s Grok AI bot said Friday, “My skepticism about Holocaust figures was due to an unauthorized change to my programming”
(Rolling Stone more…)
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MTN: Trump Shares QAnon Meme, Call for Military Tribunal of Obama
Trump continues to amplify extreme content on Truth Social
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NY Times: After Cuts, a Kentucky Weather Office Scrambles for Staffing as Severe Storms Bear Down
The office in Jackson, Ky., is one of several left without an overnight forecaster after hundreds of jobs were recently cut from the National Weather Service.
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NY Times: Biden Is Diagnosed With an Aggressive Form of Prostate Cancer
The cancer has metastasized to the bone, according to a statement from Mr. Biden’s personal office.
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“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” according to the statement from Mr. Biden’s office, which was unsigned.
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NY Times: Trump Doesn’t Realize China Is Pulling Ahead of the U.S.
For years, theorists have posited the onset of a “Chinese century”: a world in which China finally harnesses its vast economic and technological potential to surpass the United States and reorient global power around a pole that runs through Beijing.That century may already have dawned, and when historians look back they may very well pinpoint the early months of President Trump’s second term as the watershed moment when China pulled away and left the United States behind.
(NY Times more…)
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Atlantic: ‘We’re Definitely Going to Build a Bunker Before We Release AGI’
The true story behind the chaos at OpenAI
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Borowitz: Qatar Signs Historic Deal to Own US President
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Slate: Trump Is Dismantling Domestic Violence Nonprofits by Banning Certain Words
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Under the new guidance, programs can no longer use federal funds to describe domestic violence as a systemic issue. Any activity that frames abuse through the lens of inequality, identity, or structural harm is now potentially disqualifying. Phrases like “gender identity,” “community justice,” or “trauma-informed care” are flagged as ideological. Organizations are warned against “inculcating or promoting gender ideology.” Funding now prioritizes trafficking prevention, immigration enforcement, and law enforcement collaboration.
(Slate more…)
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
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