{"id":157633,"date":"2025-07-20T03:43:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T03:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-is-cancelling-medical-science-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T03:43:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T03:43:56","slug":"trump-news-at-a-glance-how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-is-cancelling-medical-science-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-news-at-a-glance-how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-is-cancelling-medical-science-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump news at a glance: How Robert F Kennedy Jr is cancelling medical science – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Measles on the rise and vaccination rates falling; EPA to be gutted of its crucial research function. Key US politics stories from Saturday 19 July at a glance
\u201cThe current administration is waging a war on science,\u201d warned Celine Gounder, a professor of medicine and an infectious disease expert at New York University in a keynote talk in May to graduates of Harvard\u2019s School of Public Health.
That war appeared to enter a new phase in the aftermath of a recent supreme court decision that empowered health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a prominent vaccine sceptic, and other agency leaders, to implement mass firings \u2013 effectively greenlighting the politicization of science.
Kennedy abruptly cancelled a scheduled meeting of a key health care advisory panel, the US Preventive Services Task Force, earlier this month. That, combined with his recent removal of a panel of more than a dozen vaccine advisers, signals that his dismantling of science-based policymaking is likely far from over<\/a>.
\u201cDo you enjoy getting sick from preventable diseases?\u201d Arwa Madhawi asks in her Week in Patriarchy column. \u201cDo you have a hankering to make once-declining viruses great again? If so, why not pop over to the US where the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr<\/a>, and his anti-vaccine cronies are making a valiant effort to overturn decades of progress in modern medicine.\u201d
Measles cases are at their highest rate in 33 years in the US, and while not entirely to blame, Trump\u2019s officials don\u2019t seem bothered. RFK Jr has downplayed<\/a> the numbers. Kennedy has announced that the federal CDC will stop recommending Covid-19 booster shots<\/a> for healthy children and pregnant women. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) said in a statement<\/a>: \u201cIt is very clear that Covid-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability\u201d. Leading medical associations are suing the Trump administration<\/a> as a result.
Two new surveys, published as a research letter in Jama Network Open, have found that only 35% to 40% of US pregnant women<\/a> and parents of young children say they intend to fully vaccinate their child. That means the majority of pregnant women and parents don\u2019t plan to accept all recommended kids\u2019 vaccines.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Friday it is eliminating its office of research and development (ORD) and cutting thousands of staff. One union leader said the moves \u201cwill devastate public health\u201d by removing \u201cthe heart and brain of the EPA\u201d. The ORD\u2019s work underpins the EPA\u2019s mission to protect the environment and human health.
The agency is replacing it with a new office of applied science and environmental solutions that will allow it to focus on research and science \u201cmore than ever before\u201d. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin \u2013 inevitably, a close Trump ally \u2013 said the changes would ensure the agency \u201cis better equipped than ever to deliver on our core mission of protecting human health and the environment, while powering the Great American Comeback\u201d.
Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House science committee, called the elimination of the research office \u201ca travesty\u201d. \u201cThe Trump administration<\/a> is firing hardworking scientists while employing political appointees whose job it is to lie incessantly to Congress and to the American people. The obliteration of ORD will have generational impacts on Americans\u2019 health and safety.\u201d
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
Ten more hostages will be released from Gaza \u201cvery shortly\u201d, Donald Trump<\/a> said at the White House. The news comes as the president continues to push for a 60-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have another 10 coming very shortly, and we hope to have that finished quickly,\u201d Trump said during a dinner with Republican senators. The current Israel-Hamas ceasefire proposal includes terms calling for the return of 10 hostages, and the remains of 18 others. In exchange, Israel<\/a> would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil\u2019s 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country\u2019s former president Jair Bolsonaro<\/a> avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a murderous military coup. In support of the far-right Bolsonaro, Trump has also placed tariffs on Brazil \u2013 appalling millions of Brazilians who want to see their former leader held to account.
Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, who won the presidency from Bolsonaro, denounced what he called \u201canother arbitrary and completely groundless measure from the US government\u201d. While the Bolsonaros have hailed Trump\u2019s actions, they also appear to have grasped how the announcement of tariffs has backfired<\/a>, allowing Lula to pose as a nationalist defender of Brazilian interests and paint the Bolsonaro clan as self-serving \u201ctraitors\u201d. Even influential rightwing voices in Brazil have criticised Trump\u2019s meddling in one of the world\u2019s most populous democracies.
Read the full story<\/sub><\/a>
The White House is trying to drive out the Federal Reserve chair who is refusing to do the president\u2019s bidding and cut interests rates, as the Fed waits to see how prices respond to Trump\u2019s tariffs. Critics warn deposing Jerome Powell would be a costly bid to pass the buck<\/a>, Callum Jones writes.
In post-2024 election polling, defense of democracy was a top issue for Democrats<\/a> but way down the list for those who voted for Donald Trump<\/a>: their top concerns were inflation and the economy. Democrats<\/a> lost the popular vote. If they are to win back voters who abandoned them in the last election, their messaging needs to change, writes Joan C Williams.<\/a>
Catching up? Here\u2019s what happened on 18 July.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Measles on the rise and vaccination rates falling; EPA to be gutted of its crucial research function. Key US politics stories from Saturday 19 July at a glance\u201cThe current administration is waging a war on science,\u201d warned Celine Gounder, a professor of medicine and an infectious disease expert at New York University in a keynote […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}