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      Who is Jim O’Neill? CDC chief set to bolster RFK Jr plan to remake vaccine policy

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      The White House has chosen a top aide to health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to temporarily lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – an appointment that is expected to bolster Kennedy’s goals of remaking federal vaccine policy.Jim O’Neill, a biotech investor and speechwriter for the health department during the George W Bush administration, was tapped as acting director of the agency that oversees vaccine recommendations, a White House official confirmed to the Guardian.O’Neill’s appointment follows the firing of infectious disease expert Susan Monarez as the CDC director, after she refused to resign under pressure from Kennedy and his allies in what her lawyers have called a “targeted” retaliation for refusing to support unscientific directives. Her firing has prompted turmoil within the US’s top public health agency, and at least three top officials have also quit in protest.The agency has been paralyzed in recent weeks, with staff still reeling from mass layoffs and a shooting this month at the agency headquarters that killed a police officer. Meanwhile, Kennedy – a prominent anti-vaccine advocate for two decades – had fired top agency leaders and recently reconstituted an expert panel on immunizations.Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate as CDC director less than a month ago, was viewed by agency staff and outside experts as someone who could potentially help moderate Kennedy’s anti-vaccine agenda.O’Neill, unlike Monarez, has no training in medicine or infectious disease science. He is a former speechwriter for the health department, during the Bush years, who went on to work for the tech investor and conservative megadonor Peter Thiel.During the Covid pandemic, O’Neill voiced public support for unproven treatments that were not supported by scientific evidence, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as well as vitamin D as a supposed “prophylaxis”.He also posted a number of conspiratorial theories on social media, including the baseless claim that “the name #COVID was chosen to conceal the origin of the virus. This name made it harder to study and probably slowed the response.”In the coming weeks, the CDC is scheduled to hold a meeting of its vaccine advisers and O’Neill is expected to play a key role. The process could lead to new, restrictive guidelines on which Americans will be allowed to receive updated Covid vaccines.Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate’s health, education, labor and pensions committee, called for the vaccine advisory panel to “indefinitely postpone” its scheduled September meeting, amid the chaos at the CDC.“If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership,” Cassidy said in a statement.O’Neill can only serve as an interim leader of the agency until a permanent director is confirmed by the Senate.During confirmation hearings for his current post as deputy secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, O’Neill insisted he was “pro-vaccine”, but Democrats in the hearings voiced skepticism, given O’Neill’s close allyship with Kennedy.News of O’Neill’s appointment has sparked criticism among healthcare professionals. Atul Gawande, a surgeon, author and public health expert asked: “Has America run out of actual health practitioners with demonstrated experience improving public health outcomes?”“Or maybe,” he added, “it is just ones willing to betray the tenets and beneficiaries of public health that Trump and RFK Jr want them to do.”Lauren Gambino contributed reporting More

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      RFK Jr ally reportedly chosen to lead CDC as departing officials hit out at vaccine messaging – live

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      The White House has picked an aide to health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionNews of the temporary appointment was first reported by the Washington Post.The aide is Jim O’Neill, currently the deputy health secretary. A former speechwriter for the health department in the George W. Bush administration, O’Neill then worked for Silicon Valley investor, and JD Vance backer, Peter Thiel for a decade.In 2020, O’Neill’s frequent tweets on the Covid pandemic included this comment about China’s wildlife trade: “It’s almost like the communists want to spread disease.”He also called Facebook Orwellian for announcing that it would direct users who spread misinformation about the virus to the World Health Organisation.As Donald Trump threatens to expand federal control over cities and states run by elected Democratic officials, by deploying the National Guard, 19 of the 23 Democratic governors issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning his actions.“The President’s threats and efforts to deploy a state’s National Guard without the request and consent of that state’s governor is an alarming abuse of power, ineffective, and undermines the mission of our service members”, the governors said.The statement comes as Trump hints that his next targets for federal intervention may include two heavily Democratic cities: Chicago and Baltimore.“This chaotic federal interference in our states’ National Guard must come to an end”, the governors added.The signatories included several potential candidates for the 2028 presidential nomination, including: Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. The four Democratic governors who did not join the statement include the party’s 2024 nominee for vice-president, Tim Walz of Minnesota, as well as Katie Hobbs of Arizona, Ned Lamont of Connecticut and Josh Green of Hawaii.The White House has picked an aide to health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionNews of the temporary appointment was first reported by the Washington Post.The aide is Jim O’Neill, currently the deputy health secretary. A former speechwriter for the health department in the George W. Bush administration, O’Neill then worked for Silicon Valley investor, and JD Vance backer, Peter Thiel for a decade.In 2020, O’Neill’s frequent tweets on the Covid pandemic included this comment about China’s wildlife trade: “It’s almost like the communists want to spread disease.”He also called Facebook Orwellian for announcing that it would direct users who spread misinformation about the virus to the World Health Organisation.Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, just called for a vaccine advisory panel to indefinitely postpone its scheduled September meeting.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which was reshaped by the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, in June, when he fired all 17 of its members and replaced them with a smaller number of experts, including several Covid vaccine critics, was expected to meet 18 September to decide on whether or not to approve updated Covid vaccines.In a statement on Thursday, attributed by his office to “Dr Cassidy”, the Republican senator and longtime vaccine advocate who reluctantly voted to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, said:“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting. These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership”.The new vaccine advisory panel members chosen by Kennedy, an anti-vaccination advocate, include Retsef Levi, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who has baselessly claimed that Covid vaccines are killing young people and should be stopped and Robert Malone, who did early on mRNA technology but beame a hero to anti-vaxxers during the pandemic by claiming, without evidence, that mRNA Covid vaccines might cause cancer.Senator Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee, has called for a bipartisan congressional investigation into Susan Monarez’s firing as director of the CDC.In a letter to his Republican counterpart, senator Bill Cassidy, Sanders called the termination “reckless” and “dangerous”. He urged Cassidy to open a bipartisan investigation, and require secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to testify at a hearing in front of the HELP committee.“It is absolutely imperative that trust in vaccine science not be undermined. The well being of millions of people are at stake,” Sanders wrote.Yesterday, Cassidy posted on X that the CDC “departures” would require “oversight”.Debra Houry, who served as chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at the CDC, said that she, Daskalakis and Jernigan agreed to leave together because of their work on vaccine science and outbreaks.“We have reached the tipping point and we knew it was a powerful statement for the three of us to do this together,” Houry said.She encouraged reporters to “report on the harms that are being done by losing our staff,” and called out secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s vaccine messaging. “Look at measles, we have the highest number of cases in the US in 30 years because we had unvaccinated populations, and a secretary that’s promoted vitamins over vaccines,” she said.Some of the senior CDC officials who recently resigned just spoke at the demonstration opposite the agency’s Atlanta headquarters.“Let’s get the politics out of public health,” said Daniel Jernigan, who worked at the CDC for 30 years and played a key role in influenza and pandemic preparedness. “Let the science lead us, because that’s how we get to the best decisions for public health.”Demetre Daskalakis, known for his leadership in HIV prevention and vaccination programs, as well as the Biden administration’s response to the Mpox outbreak, addressed the staffers who walked-out today. “You are the people that protect America, and America needs to see that you are the people that protect America, and we are going to be your loudest advocates,” he said.Hundreds of staffers have gathered across the street from the CDC headquarters to support vaccine research, and public health leaders who resigned or fired by the Trump Administration in recent days.Demonstrators held up signs that read “you are heroes” and “CDC saves lives”.The senior leaders that resigned yesterday, Debra Houry, Demetre Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan and Jennifer Layden, were escorted off campus this morning, denied a dignified exit by agency leaders.The agency is reeling from the firing of CDC chief Susan Monarez by the White House, and is still recovering from the attack of a gunman – who fired more than 500 rounds into the Atlanta offices before killing DeKalb police officer David Rose.

      The dispute over the firing of Susan Monarez, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), continued today. Earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that a new nominee for CDC director would be announced “very soon”, but Monarez’s lawyers have said that she won’t leave her post unless the president himself terminates her. A Trump spokesperson said today that secretary Kennedy’s firing stands, and Monarez wasn’t “aligned” with the administration’s Maha agenda.

      Following Monarez’s firing, four senior CDC leaders abruptly resigned, expressing frustration with Kennedy’s approach to vaccines and his management style. Read more from my colleague, Marina Dunbar here.

      In response to the tumult at Health and Human Services, there have been several calls from public health experts for secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to resign, and Senator Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee, has also called for a bipartisan investigation into Monarez’s firing.

      Meanwhile, Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook has filed a lawsuit claiming Donald Trump has no authority to fire her. A notable feature of Cook’s lawsuit against the president is that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, and the rest of the board, are also listed as defendants. Cook’s lawyers argue that she only “found out about the attempt to remove her through President Trump’s Truth Social post,” which they say afforded her “neither a notice nor a hearing” guaranteed by the Federal Reserve Act. A judge has set a hearing in the case for Friday 29 August at 10am ET.

      The president extolled the “great success” of the GOP on Truth Social today, and said he’s floating the idea of a national convention for the Republican Party, “just prior to the Midterms.” An event which traditionally takes place every four years to select the party’s presidential nominee.

      At the White House earlier, Border czar Tom Homan said that there will be a “ramp up” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operations in Chicago, and other Democratic-led cities, after Labor Day. He added that these cities “refuse to work with ICE” and release “public safety threats” into the country.
      Attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel are set to testify in front of the House judiciary committee, and face questions about the justice department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, according to a report from Politico.Per the two sources granted anonymity to speak with Politico, Patel is set to give testimony 17 September, and Bondi will face the committee on 9 October.A federal judge in DC has scheduled a hearing in the lawsuit filed by Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor that Donald Trump has moved to fire.Judge Jia Cobb – a Biden appointee – has been assigned the case. The hearing is set for 29 August at 10am ET.The press secretary was also misleading when asked whether the president believes Covid vaccinations should be covered by health insurance, regardless of age and pre-existing conditions.“The FDA decision does not affect the availability of Covid vaccines for Americans who want them,” Leavitt said. But the agency has authorized the updated vaccines for people 65 and older, who are known to be more at risk from serious illnesses from Covid infections.As my colleague, Oliver Milman, reported yesterday, younger people will only be eligible if they have an underlying medical condition that makes them particularly vulnerable.This means that the upcoming fall and winter seasons will be the first where the US government hasn’t recommended widespread Covid vaccinations.Karoline Leavitt avoids a reporter’s question asking why Donald Trump has yet to acknowledge the shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta earlier this month. Instead, she recounts the response from health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
      We absolutely were very much aware of that shooting, the secretary of health and human services put out a statement immediately. He was in touch with the CDC, and he actually traveled to Georgia to assess the situation, and to mourn with the people who work in that building there.
      Leavitt also said that she wasn’t aware of any kind of taskforce going through high level appointees who aren’t “aligned” with the administration’s agenda.When asked if agency officials should be afraid of repercussions for speaking out publicly or privately, Leavitt’s answer was opaque:
      If you’re doing your job well, and if you are executing on the vision and the promises that the president made to the public who elected him back to this office, then you should have no fear about your job. Just do your job. That’s what this president wants to see.
      When asked about the firing dispute of Susan Monarez, Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the director was “not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.”Leavitt said when Monarez refused to resign, at secretary Kennedy’s behest, the president fired her. “Which he has every right to do,” she added.“This woman [Monarez] has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission. A new replacement will be announced by either the president or the secretary very soon,” Leavitt said.Karoline Leavitt said today that Chicago has seen the “most murders of any US city” for 13 consecutive years.While Chicago saw 573 homicides last year, according to FBI data, the city didn’t experience the highest murder rate in the US. St Louis, Missouri, actually saw the highest rate of homicides in both 2023 and 2024. More

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      White House reportedly picks Kennedy deputy to replace fired CDC chief

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      The White House has reportedly chosen a deputy of Robert F Kennedy Jr to serve as the acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a decision that comes as the standoff over the firing of director Susan Monarez, has deepened, with Monarez’s lawyers claiming she will not depart unless Donald Trump himself removes her.The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the decision, that the White House has selected Jim O’Neill, currently the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The decision would give Kennedy a CDC chief who will be on board with his efforts to overhaul federal vaccine policy, the Post reported.Monarez, an infectious disease specialist who was confirmed as CDC chief just a month ago, was fired on Wednesday, according to a statement from the HHS, which gave no reason for the departure.However, the apparently ousted director has refused to be removed. Her lawyers claim that while the White House has said that she is “not aligned with the president’s agenda”, only the president himself can dismiss her.“As a presidential appointee, senate confirmed officer, only the president himself can fire her,” Monarez’s lawyer Mark Zaid posted on Bluesky.“For this reason, we reject notification Dr Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director. We have notified the White House Counsel of our position.”A spokesperson for Trump, Kush Desai, said: “As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.”Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at her press briefing that a replacement for Monarez would be announced “very soon”.The decision to remove Monarez has sparked further turmoil within the CDC, with four of its other senior leaders resigning over what they condemned as political interference in their work, budget cuts and the spread of misinformation under the Trump administration.The CDC is ultimately overseen by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary who is known for founding an anti-vaccine group and in his current role has cut funding for medical research, removed scientific advisers and on Wednesday restricted the use of Covid vaccines for Americans.“First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk,” Monarez’s lawyers said in a statement.“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”Monarez and Kennedy clashed over vaccine policy, while CDC leaders were angry and upset over how the administration handled a deadly situation earlier this month when a gunman fired upon the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer, according to the New York Times.The four senior officials to resign from the CDC are Debra Houry, the chief medical officer; Daniel Jernigan, the vaccine safety chief; Jennifer Layden, head of the office for public health data; and Demetre Daskalakis, who ran the office that issues vaccine recommendations.On social media, Bernie Sanders, an independent US senator who serves as the ranking member on the health, education, labor and pensions committee, said that the attempt to fire Monarez was “outrageous” and demanded a hearing.“Vaccines save lives. Period,” Sanders said on X. More

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      CDC officials who quit in protest lead call to ‘get politics out of public health’

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      Senior CDC vaccine research and public health leaders who resigned in protest told hundreds of supporters across the street from campus on Thursday that the Trump administration needs to “get politics out of public health”.The agency is reeling from the firing of the CDC chief, Susan Monarez, but Monarez, who was confirmed as CDC chief just a month ago, has refused to be removed. Four senior leaders – Debra Houry, Demetre Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan and Jennifer Layden – then resigned in protest, citing the alleged spread of misinformation under the Trump administration and political interference in their work. The staffers cheered and applauded them at the event on Thursday.“You are the people that protect America, and America needs to see that you are the people that protect America, and we are going to be your loudest advocates,” said Daskalakis to the throng. Daskalakis, who was accompanied at the rally by Houry and Jernigan, is now the former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and is known for his leadership in HIV prevention and vaccination programs and the Biden administration’s response to the mpox outbreak.The three, plus Jennifer Leyden, who led the office of public health data, resigned together on Thursday to make a statement about the damage the administration had done to public vaccine research, and in protest of the administration’s response to vaccine disinformation, they said.“We agreed to do this together. We’ve been talking about it for months, and then past few days, it was just escalating,” said Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer. “If one of us retired, it would have been a blip. When the three of us do it together, it’s more powerful and just shows the state of our agency.” She and the others are asking for Congress to intervene, to put a stop to political interference in the organization’s work.The agency is overseen by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who in recent days restricted the use of Covid vaccines for Americans and has removed scientific advisers and cut funding for medical research. Kennedy has reportedly tapped the deputy health secretary, Jim O’Neill, an investor in libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel’s orbit, as the CDC’s interim leader. Monarez was the first CDC director in 50 years to not hold a medical degree. O’Neill would be the second.The staff and supporters of the CDC gathered across the street from the campus in Atlanta, and Houry, Daskalakis and Jernigan were met with applause and handshakes, a marked difference from this morning when they were escorted off campus.View image in fullscreen“They are essentially trying to undo a lot of the science that has been settled for vaccine policies,” Jernigan said. The dismissal “was a tipping point for us that we had to say we’ve got to do something. We need to get the politics out of public health. We need to make sure that we’re using objective science in the making of vaccine and other treatment decisions. Until we can do that and get back to that, ideology will be just driving the policies rather than the science driving the policies.”The turmoil at the CDC comes as the agency is still recovering from the attack of a gunman who fired more than 500 rounds into the Atlanta offices before killing the DeKalb police officer David Rose. More than two weeks later, the White House had said nothing about the shooting, Houry said. Staffers were “concerned about speaking about vaccines in our science because they’re worried they’ll be targeted”, she said. “That’s unacceptable … This was an act of domestic terrorism. They need to address this.”The shooting has done more than shaken up the staff. The community is questioning whether their lives are valued by the federal government, said Dr Jasmine Clark, an Emory University professor of microbiology and state representative in the suburbs north of Atlanta, who is running for Congress. The speed with which the event was organized – not a walkout, more like a long lunch – spoke to the sentiment in the building, she said.“So many people in my community said they feel like no one values their life, and what am I doing when I go to work every day? It’s a privilege that people have no idea what happens in that building, and the fact that they don’t know means they’re doing a good job. But unfortunately we have an administration that does not value that work and in fact actively devalues the work and spreads misinformation that cost the life of Officer David Rose.” More

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      Democrats seek ‘immediate answers’ after reported arrests of firefighters by US border agents

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      Patty Murray, the Washington senator, has called for the Trump administration to provide “immediate answers” about reports that two firefighters were detained by border agents as they were responding to a wildfire in the state.Federal immigration authorities on Wednesday staged an operation on the scene of the Bear Gulch fire, a nearly 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) blaze in the Olympic national forest, where they arrested two people who were part of a contract firefighting crew, the Seattle Times first reported. The fire is the largest currently burning in the state.Authorities made the firefighters line up to show ID, the Seattle Times reported. One firefighter told the newspaper that they were not permitted to say goodbye to their detained colleagues.“I asked them if his [co-workers] can say goodbye to him because they’re family, and they’re just ripping them away,” the firefighter said to the Seattle Times, adding that the federal agent swore and told the firefighter to leave.The operation sparked widespread condemnation in the state. Murray in her statement released on Thursday morning demanded information about the whereabouts of the firefighters and the administration’s policy around immigration enforcement during wildfires.The Trump administration’s immigration policy is “fundamentally sick”, Murray said. She continued: “Trump has wrongfully detained everyone from lawful green-card holders to American citizens – no one should assume this was necessary or appropriate.”The US border patrol later on Thursday released some information on the operation, saying that it had assisted the Bureau of Land Management after that agency requested help after terminating contracts with two companies following a criminal investigation.While verifying the identities of contract personnel, federal agents identified two people “present in the United States illegally”, border patrol said in a statement, including one person who had a previous order of removal.The agency did not provide more details about the nature of the criminal investigation and the identities of the firefighters have not been made public.Authorities arrested the men on charges of illegal entry, and escorted 42 others off federal lands, according to the border patrol statement.The US Forest Service said in a statement that it was aware of the border patrol operation and that the activities did not interfere with firefighting efforts.Murray in her statement said the president had been undercutting firefighting abilities in other ways, including by “decimating” the US Forest Service. The administration significantly cut budgets and staffing at the agencies that manage much of the country’s federal lands, leaving the US unprepared for this year’s fire season, the Guardian previously reported.“Here in the Pacific north-west, wildfires can [burn] and have burned entire towns to the ground. We count on our brave firefighters, who put their lives on the line, to keep our communities safe – this new Republican policy to detain firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous,” said Murray, who has represented Washington in the US Senate since 1993.“What’s next? Will Trump start detaining immigrant service members? Or will he just maintain his current policy of deporting Purple Heart veterans?”Nearly 430 personnel are responding to the Bear Gulch fire on the state’s Olympic peninsula. Firefighters told the Seattle Times that two contract crews had been sent to cut wood and were waiting for a supervisor when federal law enforcement arrived in the area. More

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      ‘Nightmare’: family in shock after Ice moves LA teen out of state without their knowledge

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      The family of 18-year-old Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz was shocked when they found out that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had discreetly moved him out of California, according to California congresswoman Luz Rivas, who spoke with his relatives and reviewed federal detention records.Guerrero-Cruz, who was first detained in Van Nuys neighborhood while walking his dog, was transferred late Monday from the Adelanto detention facility in San Bernardino county to a remote holding site in Arizona without any notification given to his family.The next day, Ice prepared to send him to Louisiana, a key hub for deportation flights. At the last moment, however, Guerrero-Cruz was removed from the plane and returned to Adelanto, where he remains in custody, according to Rivas’s office.“The nightmare for him, his family, and thousands in similar situations is not over yet,” Rivas said in a statement. “I will not accept the current reality that ICE shuffles and transfers detainees without notifying their family to inflict psychological pain for all of those involved.“Benjamin and his family deserve answers behind Ice’s inconsistent and chaotic decision-making process, including why Benjamin was initially transferred to Arizona, why he was slated to be transferred to Louisiana afterward, and why his family wasn’t notified of his whereabouts by Ice throughout this process,” the statement continued.Rivas introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require Ice to contact a detainee’s immediate family within 24 hours of a transfer. Current rules only mandate notification in the event of a detainee’s death.According to the Department of Homeland Security, Guerrero-Cruz faces deportation to Chile after overstaying his visa, which obliged him to leave the US by 15 March 2023.The teen was initially arrested on 8 August and held in downtown LA for a week. One of his former teachers, Liz Becerra, visited Guerrero-Cruz at an Ice processing center in Adelanto, an hour and a half north of LA.She said that Guerrero-Cruz spoke about being surrounded by masked men while walking his dog, handed over to federal agents, and then brought to the metropolitan detention center in downtown LA. He was not allowed to shower or brush his teeth for a week, Becerra said.Once he was moved to Adelanto, he said he was being kept in a small cell with about two dozen other men with little access to food and water.This pattern of detainees being shifted between multiple sites reflects a broader practice under what the Trump administration is touting as the largest deportation initiative in US history.An analysis of Ice data by the Guardian found that in June this year, average daily arrests were up 268% compared with June 2024. It also found that, despite Trump’s claims that his administration is seeking out the “worst of the worst”, the majority of people being arrested by Ice now have no criminal convictions.As a result, detention facilities have been increasingly overcrowded, and the US system was over capacity by more than 13,500 people as of July. More

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      RFK Jr faces calls to quit as CDC chief fired and senior staff resign: ‘an embarrassment’

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      It’s been a tumultuous week for US health agencies, with the departure of several top officials, uncertainty around new Covid vaccine restrictions, and even more experts calling for the removal of top health official Robert F Kennedy Jr.The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, was fired by the Trump White House after some controversy, and four other top officials also resigned.“[The] CDC basically imploded yesterday and now it’s truly in shambles,” said Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and former senior adviser for the CDC. “This is a national security risk to Americans. Without steady-headed, evidence-informed leadership, everything from outbreaks to data to chronic diseases to injury is in jeopardy.”Kennedy also released controversial and confusing restrictions on Covid vaccines on Wednesday.“I’m worried that these confusing changes will cause chaos in the vaccine distribution system that will make it harder for people–even those at high risk of severe illness–to get the Covid vaccines they may want,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University school of public health.The chaos on Wednesday intensified scrutiny of Kennedy after controversial moves on vaccines and the shooting at the CDC reportedly motivated by anti-vaccine briefs.Kennedy “has to go”, said Colin Carlson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University’s school of public health, who has joined other health professionals to call for his resignation or termination.Monarez, who was confirmed as the CDC head only weeks ago on July 31, was released from her post on Wednesday evening per a post on X by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).But lawyers representing Monarez, Mark S. Zaid and Abbe Lowell, responded in a statement posted to Bluesky that she had neither resigned nor been fired.“She will not resign,” Zaid wrote.Monarez had refused to “rubber-stamp reckless, unscientific directives,” the statement said. An hour and a half later, the White House doubled down and said Monarez had officially been fired.Four other top officials at the CDC also resigned on Wednesday including Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer; Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; Daniel Jernigan, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases; and Jennifer Layden, director of the office of public health data, surveillance and technology.Daskalakis wrote in his resignation letter that he had “never experienced such radical non-transparency, nor have I seen such unskilled manipulation of data to achieve a political end”.Daskalakis, a key figure in the Covid, mpox, and bird flu responses, added that “no CDC subject matter expert from my Center has ever briefed the Secretary” – during the worst measles outbreak in the US in decades that left two children and one adult dead.Earlier on Wednesday, Kennedy announced on X that updated mRNA Covid boosters were being approved for people “at higher risk”. There was no press release from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).The Pfizer vaccine is approved for anyone who is 5 years old or older with health conditions. The emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine was rescinded, as the Guardian previously reported might happen – which means it is no longer available to children under 5.The Moderna vaccine is approved for anyone over the age of 6 months with health conditions. That appears to mean there are no Covid vaccines available for children or adults without health conditions, as the summer Covid wave intensifies.Yet Kennedy also appeared to contradict himself in the post, writing: “These vaccines are available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors.”Kennedy “very much contradicted himself yesterday, making a confusing situation even more confusing”, Jetelina said.FDA head Marty Makary said on X that any adult may choose to get the Covid vaccine. The officials seem to be referring to a practice known as off-label use, where a physician prescribes a medication for a use other than what it was approved for, Nuzzo said.“It’s possible for people who are not eligible to get them off label. But whether they will practically be able to do that is another question,” she said.In some states, pharmacists and other vaccinators are unable to administer vaccines to people who are not explicitly eligible.“It’s also dubious whether doctors will be willing to vaccinate off label, possibly worrying about legal risks. We’re already hearing about pregnant women being unable to get Covid vaccines after the secretary tweeted,” Nuzzo said.It’s not yet clear which higher-risk conditions may qualify. The CDC has a list for previous vaccines, but in May top FDA officials proposed a more stringent list of conditions. The proposed list included pregnancy, the recommendation for which Kennedy removed in May.There is confusion about whether patients may self-attest to a condition or if they need to provide proof – which may make it difficult for pharmacists and other vaccinators to interpret and implement the new rules. These restrictions may also make it harder for people to access the vaccines even when they’re eligible.“This is another way to reduce access to vaccines: Mass confusion,” Jetelina said.Usually the CDC’s independent advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) meets to issue recommendations for the updated shots. Right now, the ACIP website lists the August/September meeting as “TBD”. These recommendations affect insurance coverage of the vaccines.This week’s moves are only part of the bedlam currently within US health agencies.On Tuesday, Kennedy said in a cabinet meeting that a fast-paced research project on autism was to identify “certain interventions” that are “almost certainly causing autism”. He said these results would be announced in September.This project, which included the creation of a national research registry of autistic people, has been panned by researchers and advocates as an unscientific attempt to link vaccines to autism.Last week, the CDC appointed Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the MIT Sloan school of management, to lead an ACIP task force on Covid vaccines. Levi has said mRNA vaccines “cause serious harm including death, especially among young people”, adding: “We have to stop giving them immediately!”Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, called on Wednesday for Kennedy to be fired, writing: “we cannot let RFK Jr. burn what’s left of CDC.”Kennedy is “an embarrassment to both sides of the aisle”, said Carlson. “Seeing Patty Murray and the American Public Health Association (APHA) come to the same conclusion – that RFK has to go – gives me a lot of hope. Let’s fight. I think we can win.” More