Health Care Students Still Suffer Force

 Atremendous injustice is taking place in health care education, and most people are entirely unaware of it.

Today, almost four years since the Covid pandemic began, nearly all US medical students, nursing students, and students training in other healthcare fields are still being forced to choose between accepting continual booster doses of the Covid mRNA vaccines or being kicked out of their training programs. 

This remains so, even though many institutions that enforce these mandates on health care students do not do so for faculty, staff, and patients.

This remains so, despite the fact that among the nearly 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, only 67 still require Covid vaccination for their undergraduate students—and even some of those holdouts do not require boosters. However, many of these same institutions that have rightly dropped mandates for their general student population still mandate Covid vaccination and boosters for health care students.

This injustice needs to end.

First, it is outright discrimination. It is unconstitutional, unlawful, and wrong. No mandate, especially one requiring submission to an invasive medical treatment, should be made on the basis of an individual’s age, level of education, or rank in an organization. Health care students must enjoy equal protection under the law, equivalent to all others working in medical schools and hospitals.

Second, it does not stop disease spread. By now it has been firmly established—without further argument from vaccine manufacturers or the CDC—that Covid mRNA boosters do not create sterilizing immunity for individuals, and do not produce a herd immunity effect for the population. In fact, the CDC’s own website makes no mention whatsoever of prevention of contraction or transmission of Covid in its description of “Benefits of Getting a Covid-19 Vaccine.” 

Put simply, if I compel you to take a vaccine that neither stops you from contracting the disease nor stops you from transmitting the disease, this will not protect me from the disease. Forcing medical and nursing students to take repeated Covid boosters does not protect patients. 

It does, however, endanger students.

The dangers of repeated Covid boosters, especially in adolescents and young adults, are being increasingly acknowledged. The risks of vaccine-induced myocarditis and other severe and even deadly side effects are real and significant. Mandating repeated boosters at this late date, in an age group with a Covid case-fatality rate of less than 1 in 30,000 is wrong. The risk-to-benefit ratio is not even close to being favorable.

So why are Covid vaccines and boosters still being mandated for health care students?

Ask that question, and you are met with the same circular-finger-pointing excuses that shut down schools during the pandemic. No one claims responsibility, but everyone permits and promotes the injustice.

Even more troubling, health care students are commonly subjected to a cruel and dishonest game of bait-and-switch. According to the student advocacy group No College Mandates, “a healthcare student can secure a [vaccine] exemption for enrollment to study for a healthcare degree at the University of Pennsylvania or the University of Pittsburgh, but that same student cannot be placed in clinical rotations…unless they show proof of updated Covid vaccinations.”

When confronted, the universities often blame the clinical training sites with which they are affiliated. However, most schools do little or nothing to accommodate the students to whom they themselves granted exemptions, such as finding clinical sites that do not mandate boosters. Again, according to No College Mandates, one California State University department chair even declared “until 100% of [our] clinical sites drop the Covid vaccine requirement, our department will still require it.” 

Clinical sites, in turn, commonly cite local or state statutes—often vaguely or inaccurately—to justify their policies. John Coyle, attorney for a class action suit against Rowan College in New Jersey, characterizes schools blaming their clinical partners as a “shell game.”

There is likely an underlying and utterly non-medical reason that these mandates persist. A covert screening process, often used in large corporations’ Human Resources departments, appears to be taking place—this is an effort to weed out any and all individuals who do not passively comply with all regulations, however invasive or unnecessary they may be.

Such an approach poses grave dangers to the profession of medicine and to patient care. The history of medical progress, especially when it comes to good patient care, is filled with examples of reformers who fought harmful medical orthodoxy—and who were initially vilified. “Weeding out” independent minds who question convention in favor of submissive, incurious drones will have disastrous effects on patient care.

If a mandate does not apply to everyone, it should not apply to anyone. This is fundamental to equal protection under the law in the US.

Practically speaking, these institutions should immediately drop these unjust, unconstitutional, and unhealthy mandates for their own good as well as that of their students. The Covid pandemic is over. No Covid emergency exists. Institutions that persist will be held accountable over time, and the legal jeopardy they place themselves in by continuing these mandates is potentially immense. 

Health care students must take note of the unnecessary risks their universities are unjustly imposing upon them, gather together, speak out, and demand these mandates be dropped immediately and permanently.

Elected officials must take action to eliminate this and other residual injustices of the Covid pandemic, and to pass legislation to prevent such illegal overreach in the future.

Individual citizens must express their concerns to their elected officials and to the institutions where they receive health care.

The Covid catastrophe did immense damage to medical care, much of it the result of gross mismanagement at the highest levels of the industry. Those just entering it must be treated with renewed respect and consideration if they are to correct the mistakes of their predecessors. Ending this injustice is an excellent place to start. 

C.J. Baker, M.D. is an internal medicine physician with a quarter century in clinical practice. He has held numerous academic medical appointments, and his work has appeared in many journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine. From 2012 to 2018 he was Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester.

https://brownstone.org/articles/health-care-students-still-suffer-force/

'Grease-proof food packaging containing ‘forever chemicals’ no longer being sold: FDA'

 Grease-proof food wrappers being sold in the U.S. will no longer contain toxic “forever chemicals,” the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Wednesday.

Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, said in a written statement that food packaging manufacturers are no longer selling wrappers containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

This does not mean that PFAS are fully out of the food chain — restaurants may continue to use packaging that contains PFAS that they have already purchased. 

A spokesperson for the FDA told The Hill that industry has estimated that it could take 18 months for companies to run through their stockpiles. 

But, the spokesperson also said that the agency believes that many products have already been phased out. 

PFAS is the name of a large class of chemicals that resist grease, oil, water and heat. The chemicals have been linked to health effects including certain cancers, weakened immune systems and fertility issues. 

They have been used to make waterproof, nonstick, grease-resistant and stain-resistant products including food packaging, pans, raincoats and more. 

They have also been found to be pervasive both in waterways and people — including in the blood of 97 percent of Americans.

They are known as “forever chemicals” because in nature they can last for a very long time without breaking down.

Jones touted the announcement that no more packages containing PFAS would be sold as a “‘win’ for public health.”

“The major source of dietary exposure to PFAS from food packaging like fast-food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, take-out paperboard containers and pet food bags is being eliminated,” Jones said in a written statement.

Testing has identified PFAS in food packaging, including packaging used by major fast food chains. 

The agency said that Wednesday’s announcement means manufacturers have fulfilled a voluntary commitment they previously made not to sell wrappers that contain certain types of PFAS.

Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs of the Environmental Working Group, a health and environmental advocacy organization, said in a written statement that the action is a “a step forward” but that it also “falls short.”

“The clock is ticking, and until June 2025, PFAS-laden products will continue to line store shelves. It’s time for consumers to demand more than half-measures and stand up against toxic substances in their food,” she said. 

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4495796-grease-proof-food-packaging-containing-forever-chemicals-no-longer-being-sold-fda/

Department of Homeland Security is making the homeland less secure

 Imagine having a Department of Education that closed all the schools or a Department of Defense that unilaterally disarmed the military. What if the Department of Energy decided to halt power generation or the Justice Department ceased all prosecutions? Americans would rightly conclude that those Cabinet departments were useless and, worse, placed the nation in grave danger.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), formed after the 9/11 terror attacks, has stopped providing security for the homeland. It has intentionally made American citizens less safe, receiving billions of taxpayer dollars to not do what it is supposed to do.

Today’s DHS — under its easily manipulated leader, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — is obsequiously carrying out the political aims of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party. Those aims seem to reflect a cynical operating philosophy: that the illicit admission without due process of nearly 10 million people into the country over the past three years will result in census configurations that will create congressional seats and electoral college numbers favorable to the Democratic Party.

The nation’s security and safety are being placed in peril because of the power lust of a few party-first politicians. These politicians may sanctimoniously argue that compassion motivated them to allow unfettered immigration, but that excuse was exposed by the hypocritical squeals of protest from party-controlled “sanctuary” cities suddenly forced to absorb just a fraction of illegal crossers. Compassion was easy when it was from a distance and didn’t affect the compassionate.

What exactly are the dangers? The first concerns the safety of Americans. While safety and security are closely aligned, safety directly addresses freedom from crime victimization. Since 2021, the number of illegal immigrants with a criminal record encountered at the border has soared by an average of 136 percent. At the same time, the number of assaults, homicides and sexual assaults committed by people here illegally has exploded.

Which murder victim’s life was worth purposefully leaving the border open? Was it the life of the young University of Georgia student suspected of being killed last week by a man here illegally from Venezuela? Was her life or others before her worth the open-border policy? It is a policy that seemingly implies all the added violence is acceptable damage for the additional seats in Congress a political party stands to gain. What kind of conscience dulls itself to such a degree simply for power?

Most people illegally entering the U.S., of course, are not criminals or intent on committing criminal acts. But there is no denying that, had more secure policies been in place, there would be people in this country today who would still be alive. And, sadly, many more will be killed or attacked in the future if the current border policy remains unchanged. When policy tolerates preventable violence against innocents, it is not policy, it is crime.

The second danger concerns national security, a broad term that captures threats from hostile nations or terror groups. It was this type of destructive harm that I and nine other former high-ranking FBI colleagues recently called out in a letter to Congress. (Read it here.) Our 150 years of cumulative experience combatting the most severe national security risks compelled us to draw attention to one of the most pernicious threats in the nation’s history.

Since 2021, there has been a massive surge in the number of single, unaccompanied, military-aged males appearing at our borders. This represents a dramatic shift in the demographics of those attempting illegal entry, as this group now accounts for nearly 65 percent of border crossers — dwarfing the number of families fleeing poverty, who used to predominate.

Significant numbers of these single males originate from countries that are State Sponsors of Terrorism or terror regions. Since 2021, more than 300 individuals on the Terrorism Watch List have been encountered attempting entry into the U.S., compared to just 14 over the four previous years.

There has been a surge in the number of Chinese presenting at the border. China is not known for allowing mass emigration, yet nearly 30,000 mostly young Chinese men have appeared at the U.S. border.

China’s strategy for weakening the U.S. relies on two main actions. The first is a recent discernible shift from simple economic espionage and theft of intellectual property to active malware-driven intrusions into the nation’s critical infrastructure, aiming to catastrophically shut down vital systems should global conflicts warrant.

The second is the flooding of the U.S. with fentanyl in amounts much more than demand can consume. Beyond its devastating effects on the addicted, fentanyl is dangerous enough to be a bioweapon.

China can wreak substantial havoc remotely through cyber intrusions and delivery of fentanyl via Mexican cartels. But the full effects of the potential damage cannot be accomplished entirely remotely. Having “boots on the ground” inside the U.S. could ensure success of particular attacks. Is this sudden incursion of military-aged males from China a coincidence?

An FBI counterintelligence initiative to interview a sizable number of these young men from China would quickly confirm whether there is operational intent behind this surge. If that is not being done, congressional overseers should demand to know why.

Young men now in the U.S. who can carry out an operational plan, whether on behalf of a terror organization or China, are a clear and present danger. The prioritization during the last three years of political party power ahead of the safety and security of the American public is one of the more shameful episodes in our nation’s history. If only the American people had a Homeland Security Department willing to resist shallow politics and actually secure the homeland.

Kevin R. Brock is a former FBI assistant director for intelligence and principal deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He currently consults independently.

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/4497238-the-department-of-homeland-security-is-making-the-homeland-less-secure/

Boiling tap water may be solution to microplastics

 Worried about plastic pollution in your tap water? Try boiling in it, a new study suggests.

Boiling tap water can destroy at least 80 percent of three of the most common plastic compounds that can be found in your water, according to findings published Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters.

This means drinking tap water that has been boiled, something commonly done in East Asian kitchens already, may be a safer bet than drinking bottled water. Columbia researchers found last month that bottled water can contain up to a quarter-million fragments of nanoplastics per liter.

The researchers looked at the impacts of boiling on three compounds that have been found in water — polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene.

Because these compounds don’t fully break down, they ultimately fragment into nanoplastics the approximate size of a virus — making them the ideal size to wreak havoc with the machinery of human cells, and to cross through key protective filters like the intestinal lining and blood brain barrier.

Of the tested compounds, the most concerning is polystyrene, which can inflame the intestine and may kill red blood cells. The others are largely believed to be safe, though endocrinologists argue that the methodology for determining whether plastics are safe has serious flaws.

In the study, scientists put the three plastic compounds into ‘hard water’ — a common type of U.S. freshwater that contains high levels of calcium carbonate and magnesium. 

Those compounds are characteristic of groundwater pulled from cavities in underground limestone deposits, a rock that is mostly made up of calcium carbonate.

When the plastic-containing water was boiled, these calcium carbonates formed tiny clumps around most of the microscopic plastics, trapping them within and rendering them harmless.

“This simple boiling-water strategy can ‘decontaminate’ [nano- and microplastics, or NMPs] from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of NMPs through water consumption,” the report authors wrote.

The report comes with significant caveats, however.

Scientists only looked at three of the most common — and in the case of polyethylene and polypropylenes, the safest — plastic polymers. They didn’t look at vinyl chloride, for example, a compound of serious concern last month’s study found in bottled water.

Boiling also didn’t manage to remove all of the polymers. 

That’s worrisome because Monday’s report from the Endocrine Society suggested that because plastic particles are so similar to the chemical messengers that run many key biological systems — and because those systems are so sensitive — there may be no safe level of exposure.

Finally, scientists like those at the Endocrine Society are increasingly focused on a risk that goes beyond the plastic compounds themselves: the fact that those polymers are often mixed with “plasticizers” like BPA, PFAS and phthalates which can wreak havoc on the endocrine, circulatory and reproductive systems.

It is unclear whether boiling water breaks down these materials. The study only looked at the plastic polymers, not these potential additives.

Finally, this method requires either hard water — or the addition of calcium carbonate to work — something that is common but far from universal across the world.

Nonetheless, when stacked up next to last month’s findings about microplastics in bottled water, the report suggests a potential answer to how to protect against at least some forms of plastic pollution.

https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/4494416-boiling-tap-water-may-be-solution-to-microplastics/

Trump appeals Illinois ballot ban

 Former President Trump has appealed an Illinois judge’s ruling to remove him from the state’s ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

Trump’s legal team filed the appeal on Wednesday night to the Appellate Court of Illinois, asking that Judge Tracie Porter’s ruling be overturned. Porter’s ruling, issued Wednesday, ordered the state election board to remove the former president from the state’s March 19 primary ballot.

Porter put her order on pause until Friday to allow Trump’s legal team to appeal the matter.

The appeal, filed Wednesday night, asks the appeals court to “reverse and vacate” Porter’s ruling and reaffirm the state’s Electoral Board decision.

In a separate request dated Wednesday, Trump’s legal team asks Porter to extend the pause beyond Friday until the Appellate Court hands down a final order.

Trump’s lawyers argued keeping Trump’s name on the ballot would “reduce the great risk of voter confusion and logistical difficulties for election officials” ahead of the state’s primary.

The ruling made Illinois the third state to attempt to kick Trump off the ballot, following Colorado and Maine’s rulings in recent months.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing Trump’s appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court decision, which ruled in December he is not eligible for the state’s ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrectionist clause. The state’s high court ruled the former president participated in an insurrection through his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.

A court in Maine ruled last month Trump can stay on the state’s ballot — following the state secretary of state’s decision to disqualify him — until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its ruling.

Porter’s ruling was in response to challenge filed by national nonprofit Free Speech For People, which has numerous ballot challenges in numerous states, including Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Oregon.

Porter’s ruling overturned a decision from the Illinois State Board of Elections, which unanimously ruled last month Trump could remain on the state’s primary ballot. The board — made up of four Republicans and four Democrats — said last month it did not have the jurisdiction to weigh in on the matter.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung on Wednesday criticized Porter’s ruling, calling her an “activist Democrat judge.”

“The Soros-funded Democrat front-groups continue to attempt to interfere in the election and deny President Trump his rightful place on the ballot,” Cheung said in a statement to The Hill.  

“Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions. This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal.”

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4497563-trump-appeals-illinois-ballot-ban/

'Alabama House passes protections for IVF providers'

 The Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday giving in vitro fertilization (IVF) service providers civil and criminal immunity from prosecution or legal action related to the “goods and services” they provide, just weeks after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under the law.

The bill passed the Alabama House of Representatives with 94 yeas, six nays and three abstentions. It will now head to the Alabama Senate.

The legislation would “provide civil and criminal immunity to persons providing goods and services related to in vitro fertilization in certain circumstances; to provide retroactive effect; and to provide for the repeal of the act on a certain date.”

This exemption does not apply in situations that involve “an act or omission that is both intentional and not arising from or related to IVF services.”

This comes after several fertility clinics, including the largest health care provider in Alabama, paused IVF services due to concerns of legal action in the event that frozen embryos stored at their facilities were destroyed.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that an 1872 law that allows families to sue for damages in the event of a wrongful death of minor did not have any exemptions, explicit or unwritten, for frozen embryos.

While the court acknowledged concerns that allowing embryos to be considered children would make IVF services more difficult to provide in Alabama, it stated in its ruling that those issues were for the state Legislature to address.

This cleared the way for patients whose embryos had been accidentally destroyed at an Alabama fertility clinic to sue for damages, after a lower court had previously dismissed the lawsuit upon finding frozen embryos did not meet the definition of a “‘person’ or ‘child.'”

The high court’s ruling and the subsequent pause on services has led members of the GOP to scramble, as they both agree with the court finding embryos can be considered children while opposing the inadvertent restrictions the decision placed on IVF access.

Senate Democrats earlier this week attempted to force a vote on a bill that would similarly protect access to IVF services, but Republicans blocked it, claiming the legislation was full of “poison pills” and overreached its aims.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4497878-alabama-house-passes-ivf-protections/

Imunon: Confirms Immunogenicity, Protection in Live Virus Challenge Against Covid Variant XBB.1.5

 IMUNON, Inc. (NASDAQ: IMNN), a clinical-stage drug-development company focused on developing non-viral DNA-mediated immunotherapy and next-generation vaccines, announces positive results from a live virus challenge study conducted for IMUNON by the Wistar Institute with IMNN-101 against the SARS-CoV-2 variant XBB.1.5. This study was conducted using the clinical vector that IMUNON intends to bring into its Phase 1 study during the second quarter and showed IMNN-101 immunogenicity and protective activity in a live viral mouse challenge.

The SARS-CoV-2 XBB.1.5 variant was declared as the variant of concern for the 2023-2024 vaccine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. IMNN-101 is formulated with a synthetic DNA delivery system and administered by intramuscular injection.

IMUNON has reported that intramuscular administration of a single dose of IMNN-101 in mice produced IgG neutralizing antibody and T-cell responses. In an ongoing study, the IMNN-101-induced immune response was maintained for up to four months after vaccination. In a head-to-head comparison, the T-cell responses were substantially higher in PlaCCine-treated mice versus mRNA-treated mice. In addition, the vaccine candidate showed stability at refrigerated temperatures for at least four weeks.

The study conducted by the Wistar Institute confirmed that IMNN-101 elicited robust IgG and neutralizing antibody responses in a dose-dependent manner after a single injection. Challenging the mice with live virus 21 days after the second vaccination showed complete protection.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/02/29/2837973/0/en/Independent-Lab-Confirms-Immunogenicity-and-Protection-with-IMUNON-s-IMNN-101-in-a-Live-Virus-Challenge-Against-SARS-CoV-2-Variant-XBB-1-5.html