Trump administration stifles data showing COVID vaccine works

Don't like the numbers? Bury the report.

Chris Dall, MA

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has canceled publication of a scientific report showing the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to media reports.

The Washington Post, which first reported the news, says the report, initially scheduled to be published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 19, showed the COVID-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations in half this past winter. 

The report had cleared the agency’s scientific review process before being delayed by acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, over concerns about the methodology. But the same methodology has long been used by the CDC to evaluate vaccine effectiveness for respiratory viruses and was used in a study on the flu vaccine published last month in MMWR.

In response to a query from CIDRAP News, a CDC official did not address the blocked report specifically but said the agency has to apply the “highest standards of scientific rigor” to the information it publishes.

“Responsible science requires careful review. Taking time to ensure analyses are methodologically sound and clearly communicated is always preferable to risking error,” the official said.

To be absolutely clear...

Legacy of lying

May 12 presentation on wind power development

Results of wind development discussions at New London presentation

Dawn Bergantino

URI Photo / D. Bidwell

David Bidwell, professor of marine affairs at the University of Rhode Island, will share research results on offshore wind community discussions at a free public presentation on Tuesday, May 12, at 6 p.m., at the New London Community Recreation Center, 1 Recreation Way, New London.

Bidwell will lead a presentation hosted by the New London NAACP to provide area residents with information related to prior research and community discussions in the area, as well as discuss community priorities and concerns over offshore wind energy development activities. 

At URI, Bidwell’s work focuses on how people interact with renewable energy technologies, including offshore wind in southern New England. He began conducting research in New London in 2024. 

Right-wing media linked to vaccine refusal

Media habits tied to MMR vaccine hesitancy in US adults

Laine Bergeson

Where Americans get their news may play a significant role in shaping their attitudes toward the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to a national study published in Vaccine. 

In the cross-sectional survey of nearly 3,000 US adults led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, 17% of respondents said they believe the risks of the MMR vaccine outweigh its benefits, indicating vaccine hesitancy. 

The survey, conducted in August 2025, comes as measles cases have resurged across the country, with more than 2,000 infections reported by the end of 2025. 

That’s the highest number of annual cases since measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000.

Unfounded Health Concerns Are Powering a Solar Backlash

Does Trump think they cause cancer too?
by Anna Clark for ProPublica

Kevin Heath had hoped there would be solar panels by now on his family farm in southeastern Michigan, roughly 50 miles outside Detroit.

About six years ago, he agreed to lease part of his land for a solar project. It would help him pay off debt and keep the farm in the family, he said. But the opportunity was thwarted when, in 2023, following pushback from some local residents, his township passed an ordinance that banned large solar projects from land zoned for agriculture.

In the fight over solar development, Heath said he was bombarded by just about every argument from critics — including claims that solar fields are a health hazard. “I’ve heard them say that, but I’ve never heard anybody prove that,” Heath said.

“The health and safety issue,” he added, “that is just a joke.”

Michigan has big prospects in solar farming — measured by the expected growth in the capacity of its farms to add electricity directly to the grid. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, most of the nation’s new capacity from this type of solar farm is planned this year for four states, including Michigan. The others, with their hot deserts and big-sky plains, seem more obvious: Texas, Arizona and California.

To some, in Michigan and beyond, this growth feels dangerous. They pressure public officials to stop, stall or otherwise complicate new solar projects with an array of arguments that now go beyond just land use to include public health.

There is little reputable evidence to back their claims. But health concerns have helped power a solar backlash that undercuts efforts to broaden energy sources even as customer costs are rising.

Restrictions on solar development are proliferating nationwide, “often rooted in misinformation or unfounded fears,” including ones that involve “potential environmental and human safety risks,” according to an article published late last year in the Brigham Young University Law Review.

To generate electricity, solar projects harvest energy from the sun. “And that’s really not that different from what a field of corn or alfalfa does,” said Troy Rule, the Arizona State University law professor who authored the article. “In fact, arguably, it’s even more environmentally friendly.”

Thanks to Trump and Bobby Jr., US is about to lose its status as a country that has eliminated measles

US may lose measles elimination status after outbreaks spread to 45 states

By Vanessa McMains, Children's Hospital Boston

The Onion

After public health experts declared measles eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established seven indicators of measles elimination status to ensure that the country remained on track. 

Now, analyzing these same indicators, Boston Children's Hospital researchers find that the U.S. has missed four of the seven criteria, with the others at risk. These findings are published in The Lancet.

The researchers who performed the analysis included Maimuna Majumder, Ph.D., MPH, the Inaugural Peter Szolovits Distinguished Scholar in the Computational Health Informatics Program at Boston Children's, and their postdoctoral research fellow Anne Bischops, MD, a pediatrician and German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Fellow. The team evaluated the number of U.S. measles cases, outbreaks, their origination, and the levels of transmission. Their results suggest that measles is making a comeback in the U.S., spreading continuously for more than a year.

The latest string of U.S. outbreaks began in Texas in January 2025. Since then, outbreaks have spread to 45 states. When the U.S. was last recertified for measles elimination status in 2011, the country achieved all the measles elimination indicators established by the CDC's National Immunization Program. But this year, according to this new research, most of the indicators are in the red.

Who's responsible?

Why is this not surprising?

Making this even more stupid, the CDC health inspectors were funded by the cruise ship lines, not taxpayers. 

Who is responsible?

Sen. Victoria Gu sponsors bill to regulate the use of AI to make workplace decisions

Who's the boss? 

Legislation from Sen. Victoria Gu and Rep. Thomas E. Noret aims to ensure artificial technology is used responsibly in the workplace by installing common-sense guardrails governing its use.

“Businesses in Rhode Island are already using AI and electronic monitoring tools to surveil and discipline workers in a way no human supervisor could. If you’re making these consequential decisions overs workers’ lives, there needs to be disclosure, meaningful human oversight and an opportunity to make corrections, because we have seen real examples where workers are disciplined because of an algorithm error,” said Senator Gu (D-Dist. 38, Westerly, Charlestown, South Kingstown), who chairs the Senate Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies.

The bill (2026-S 2499, 2026-H 7767) would create a regulatory framework to ensure fair and transparent use of AI tools that affect workers, including disclosure to employees about what electronic monitoring is happening and how it might be used to measure worker performance; meaningful human oversight on algorithmic decisions like employee hiring, discipline, pay and termination; requiring companies to use the least invasive means of electronic monitoring possible; and prohibiting electronic monitoring in break rooms, bathrooms and during off-duty hours.

A probe into ‘forever chemicals’ in activewear lays bare fashion’s greenwashing problem

Pay attention to what you wear

Caroline Swee Lin Tan, RMIT University and Saniyat Islam, RMIT University

Have you ever paid more for a product because a brand told you it was good for you and the planet? Many activewear shoppers do exactly this, trusting that the “healthy” image on the label matches what is actually in the fabric. That trust is now being questioned.

The Texas Attorney General’s office has launched a formal investigation into the activewear brand Lululemon. The question: does its activewear contain PFAS, a group of toxic “forever chemicals”?

This sits uncomfortably with a brand built on wellness. Lululemon has denied the claims. It says it phased out PFAS in 2023 and that these chemicals had only ever been used in a small number of water-repellent items. No wrongdoing has been found.

But the case highlights a wider problem: a gap between what fashion brands promise and what is actually in their products.

An industry-wide habit

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are synthetic chemicals used to make fabrics resistant to water, stains and sweat. They have also been used in nonstick cookware and some food packaging.

They earned the name “forever chemicals” because they do not break down easily in the environment or our bodies. Instead, they accumulate over time.

This is not a single-brand issue; it is a widespread one. Their use runs across much of the fashion industry.

The issue first came to wide attention in 2011, when Greenpeace’s “Dirty Laundry” investigation named several global giants for links to dumping perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), now broadly classified as PFAS, into Chinese waterways.

The 2026 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook: Childhood poverty has increased in Rhode Island

Not surprising to see life got tougher for children in Rhode Island

Steve Ahlquist

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT released its 2026 Factbook on Monday, “the thirty-second annual profile of the well-being of children in Rhode Island.” The Factbook was presented at Rhode Island KIDS COUNT’s annual breakfast, attended by all four members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation and members of the Rhode Island General Assembly. 

The breakfast was emceed by Paige Parks, Ed.M., Executive Director of Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, and the data was presented by Stephanie Geller, Ed.M., Deputy Director.

The following is taken from the Executive Summary provided by RI KIDS COUNT:

Trump Wants to Put His War “in Perspective” by Recalling Vietnam and Iraq. Comforted?

If Trump cannot admit error, how can America be extracted from his war?

Mitchell Zimmerman

As Trump’s War shambles on with no end in sight, President Trump asks us to put his “little excursion” “in perspective.” Compared to Vietnam and Iraq, Trump says, the Iran conflict has lasted “not very long at all.”

Does anyone find comfort in comparing the Iran disaster with two of America’s previous catastrophic wars?

Once, U.S. forces had been in Vietnam for only two months. Then our involvement became unlimited and the war did not end until millions were dead, over ten years later.

The Iraq war was just a few days shy of two months old when Bush proclaimed: “Mission Accomplished!” Years of chaos, mass death and wasted trillions of dollars followed.

But neither the Vietnam war nor the Iraq war revealed its calamitous stupidity as swiftly as Trump’s war. Two months in, the American people and our standard of living, along with the entire world economy, have taken body blows.

Gasoline costs half again as much. Diesel has risen even more. Aviation gas has doubled. Food prices will soon follow because of shortages of key fertilizer ingredients – on top of Trump’s tariffs and the shortage of farm workers because of deportations.

Trump insists, however, that all will soon be well. Gas prices will “drop like a rock” after the war ends, says the president.

Can there be anyone left in America who believes Donald Trump’s promises on prices? This is the man who vowed in 2024 that if he were elected, “prices will come down and they’ll come down fast, with everything.” “When I win, I will immediately bring prices down.”

The same man who last year kept saying prices were down when everyone knew from their own experience that prices were up.

Two problems with his latest promise: First, Trump has no plan to end the war other than demanding Iran “cry uncle” and “give up.” But the Iranians are not convinced they lost, and few owners of $100 million dollar oil tankers, carrying up to $200 million worth of petroleum, are prepared to rely on Trump’s assurances of safety.

Second, the previous level of oil exports from the Persian Gulf will not resume when hostilities do end, and prices will not promptly drop. As economists say, oil prices “go up like a rocket and fall like a feather.”

Lessons learned