Rhode Island man contracts rare tick-borne illness

RIDOH Confirms a Case of Rare Tick-Borne Viral Infection (Powassan)

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is reporting a confirmed case of the tick-borne Powassan virus disease (Powassan) detected in a Rhode Island resident. This resident is a male in his 60s who lives in Providence County. He began experiencing symptoms of Powassan in May. He was hospitalized but is now recovering at home.  

“With summer now here, we all need to be thinking about tick prevention measures when outdoors,” said Director of Health Jerry Larkin, MD. “Repel and reduce your exposure to ticks, check your body for ticks, and be sure to remove ticks if you find one on yourself, a family member, or a pet. Ticks are tiny. You may not be able to feel them or spot them right away. The sooner you find and remove them, the better your chances are at preventing the serious health issues caused by illnesses like Powassan and Lyme Disease.” 

This is Rhode Island’s first case of Powassan since 2024 and the ninth case overall since it was first reported in Rhode Island in 2016. Powassan is a tick-borne disease that is found mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region of the U.S. and in eastern Canada. Over 397 cases of Powassan have been reported in the United States in the past 10 years (2016-2025). 

Trump is fighting the green energy revolution. He'll lose.

Market forces are stronger than MAGA.

Paul Waldman

Something historic happened in May: For the first time in American history, more electricity was generated in the United States with solar power than with coal.

While natural gas remains our largest electricity source, the crossing of the lines between solar and coal — one representing the future and one the past — is something we may look back on as one of the key moments in the planet’s transition to green energy.

We don’t know whether someone told Donald Trump about this milestone, but if they did, he wouldn’t have been happy. Since taking office, he has waged an all-out war against renewable energy, not just making it more difficult to create and use clean power, but pouring taxpayer money into fossil fuels.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that though Trump has done significant damage to America’s green energy industry — and given us more pollution, higher costs, and more insecurity in the bargain — that industry continues to grow.

There is a global energy revolution underway, and Trump’s efforts to slow it down are destined to fall short.

What’s the likely next move after the executive order on childhood vaccines?

Trump and Bobby's continued war on vaccines

Jess Steier, DrPh

If you follow vaccine policy closely, you've probably learned to brace yourself on Friday afternoons. Just as the weekend rolls in, my team has a standing bet on the night's bombshell: guessing what gets pulled, which committee gets gutted, and which stack of evidence gets quietly waved away while the reporters log off. It started as a dark joke but stopped being funny a while ago. 

The pediatric childhood schedule fight has largely gone quiet since March, when a court froze the administration's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) overhaul, even as the Friday personnel churn rolled on. Now all the chips seem to be back on the table. 

That habit of bracing—of trying to guess what’s coming next—is one my father would have understood. He was a gambler who also taught me chess, and two of his lessons have stuck with me. From the card table: Play the player, not the cards. What someone is holding matters less than who they are and what they want you to believe. From the chessboard: Think a few moves ahead, because the move that decides a game is rarely the one that looks like it’s doing something.

Lipstick on a weak argument

Both have been on my mind since the White House published an executive order on Friday, May 29, titled “Realigning United States Core Childhood Vaccine Recommendations with Best Practices from Peer, Developed Countries.”

“Executive order" has come to signal something swift and unilateral, already in force before you can respond. This one plays on fear without earning it. Read only the cards, and there's not much here. The order tells the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its ACIP to review a federal “scientific assessment” (a December-ordered report comparing the US childhood schedule with those of peer nations) and consider updates to the childhood schedule. 

On its own, the order does not change any recommendations, not to mention there’s no functioning ACIP to act on it right now. It also makes a point of stating that vaccines across all categories should remain covered without cost-sharing by private insurance, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Vaccines for Children Program. For now, the schedule recommended by the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics as of 2025 remains in effect. 

Whodunnit?

How to "deal" with Iran

 

Journal of the American Medical Association published COVID vaccine study Bobby Jr. tried to kill

Study suggests 2025-26 COVID vaccine cuts emergency, urgent care visits by half

Laine Bergeson

A new study suggests that the 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine helps protect against serious illness by reducing the risk of hospitalization and emergency department/urgent care (ED/UC) visits, adding protection for a population with significant existing immunity from previous infections and vaccinations. 

The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, found that adults who received the updated vaccine were about 50% less likely to require ED/UC treatment for COVID and 55% less likely to be hospitalized than those who did not receive the vaccine.

Booster augments previous immunity

For the study, researchers led by a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from more than 111,000 adults across 253 EU/UCs and 179 hospitals in seven states from September through December 2025. They compared patients who tested positive for COVID with those who tested negative and identified whether they had received the 2025-26 vaccine.

Overall, vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-related ED/UC visits was estimated at 50%. Protection against hospitalization was 55%.

Watchaug Pond declared OK after harmful algae bloom

Low algae levels and no toxins detected

Missed opportunity: We could have sold
"Watchaug Green" samples as souvenirs

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) have lifted the recommendation to avoid recreational activities at Watchaug Pond in Charlestown. 

The harmful algae bloom (HAB) caused by blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) has cleared. Recent water testing laboratory results show algae levels are low and no toxins were detected at multiple locations, meeting safety guidelines. 

RIDOH and DEM are advising people to avoid contact with Cunliff Lake at Roger Williams Park in Providence due to harmful algae blooms (HABs). Water samples were collected by DEM and tested by RIDOH’s State Health Laboratories. 

All recreation, including swimming, fishing, boating and kayaking, is high risk to health and recommended to be avoided at this location. This HAB is caused by blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, which are naturally present in bodies of water. HABs can produce toxins which can be harmful to humans and animals. 

Americans' ability to afford health care falls to 5-year low

Losing ground

By West Health Institute

Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan

Share of U.S. adults who are "Cost Secure"
dips below half. Credit: West Health-Gallup
Center on Healthcare in America

New research released from the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare in America finds that fewer than half of Americans (49%) are considered "Cost Secure," meaning they can consistently afford health care and prescription medications when and where they need them, the lowest level recorded since West Health and Gallup launched its Healthcare Affordability Index in 2021.

In the past year alone, 2.8 million Americans dropped out of the Cost Secure category, unable to keep up with rising health care costs. The new data largely extend last year's downward trends, with continued declines in affordability evident among traditionally vulnerable populations, including Black and Hispanic adults and lower-income households.

"The fact that fewer than half of Americans can reliably afford health care should alarm every person, policymaker and health care leader in the country," said Tim Lash, president of the West Health Policy Center.

"Millions of Americans are being priced out of health care because costs are rising faster than their ability to pay. Without meaningful reforms that better address health care delivery, high prescription drug prices and rising insurance premiums, Americans will continue to struggle and affordability will only continue to deteriorate."

Health care spending is on the rise in the U.S., reaching $5.3 trillion in 2024, a 7.2% increase from the prior year and growing more than twice the rate of overall inflation (2.9%). Hospital prices climbed 3.4% in 2024, the fastest increase since 2007, while prescription drug spending rose 7.9%.

More reasons why Bobby Kennedy Jr. must go

‘Unsettling’ Accounts of HHS Leadership Fuel Calls for RFK Jr. to Resign

Jessica Corbett for Common Dreams

While public health advocates have sounded the alarm about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. since senators confirmed President Donald Trump’s “profoundly unqualified” nominee to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services over a year ago, The New York Times’ reporting on his job performance at HHS sparked fresh calls for his resignation.

HHS “affects the health of 340 million Americans and provides healthcare to 40% of the population through Medicare and Medicaid,” explained the Times, which interviewed a dozen people who have had contact with Kennedy as secretary and other department employees. His nearly 16-month tenure has already featured a measles outbreak that killed two children in Texas last year, the recent hantavirus cases among cruise passengers, and the ongoing Ebola crisis in Africa.

As the newspaper detailed:

Mr. Kennedy has shown little interest in managing the details of work in his department, according to multiple colleagues. Instead, they say, he is single-mindedly focused on his top priorities, including food recommendations and pesticide exposures, and hunting for evidence to support his long-held beliefs that vaccines are harmful.

That'll teach him!

Priorities, a continuing series

NO, I am NOT running for state Rep. for House District 36

I checked the wrong box

By Will Collette

This is where I stand

Today, I learned that when I filed my declaration as a candidate for the Democratic House District 36 Committee, where I have served for years, I checked the WRONG BOX and am now listed as a competitor to incumbent Rep. Tina Spears in the September 9 Democratic Primary.

I heard about it from our Town Clerk Amy Weinreich (thank you, Amy). Then saw my name on the Secretary of State’s listing of declared candidates. I will take every step required to correct that mistake and make sure my name is NOT on the ballot.

I voted to endorse Tina Spears as a member of the District Committee and am wholeheartedly supporting her through the Primary and the General Election.

And I will not be replacing her yard sign (photo, above) with one of my own…although I might put one up that reads “DON’T VOTE FOR ME!”

Soaring US beef prices likely to rise further thanks to trade tensions and disease outbreaks

Trump blunders lead to more expensive burgers

Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee and Charles Martinez

It’s summer grilling season, but for many Americans, surging prices mean beef is no longer what’s for dinner.

The cost of beef, having spiked since early 2025, is coming under even more pressure. The most recent is the screwworm outbreak that hit cattle in Mexico and has now spread to the United States, where the cattle herd has already fallen to levels not seen since the 1950s, due in part to drought.

Meanwhile, potential trade disruptions loom. Just before U.S. and Mexican trade negotiators began meeting on June 16-17, 2026, to discuss the long-standing deal binding North America, Donald Trump warned that Washington may not renew the agreement, which was negotiated during his first term, and instead potentially withdraw from it altogether.

As international trade and livestock economists, we have studied how North American trade has deeply integrated cattle and beef markets, influencing production, prices and the movement of animals and meat products across Canada, Mexico and the United States. 

And because beef is both a top agricultural import and export for the U.S., the industry is especially vulnerable to any disruptions to the existing trade deal. As one example, the cost of ground beef is up by more than 20% just since January 2025.

Current trade uncertainty, reflecting Trump’s more fragmented, bilateral approach to negotiations, couldn’t come at a worse moment for inflation-weary consumers. The growing turmoil in the North American beef market risks further tightening supplies and raising prices.

RI Dems convention split leaves no endorsements for governor, LG and AG

Bad news for McKee and Matos

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

Neither Gov. Dan McKee nor challenger Helena Foulkes will get the top spot and asterisk signaling the party endorsement on the September primary ballot after the Rhode Island Democratic Party declined to endorse either at its state committee convention Saturday.

The outcome marks yet another setback for McKee, who will be the first sitting governor in at least recent history not to win the backing of his party, said Joe Fleming, a WPRI 12 political analyst.

“I don’t recall an incumbent governor ever not winning the endorsement, and I’ve been around a long time,” Fleming said in an interview Monday. “This is not a good sign for the governor.”

McKee received 81 votes to Foulkes’ 75, while 11 voting committee members opted not to endorse, according to vote totals shared by the Rhode Island Democratic Party. To secure party backing, candidates need to get 50% of all votes cast plus one — or 84 of the 167 committee members who cast ballots at the Teamsters Local 251 union hall in East Providence Saturday.

They don't want you to know the REAL reason Social Security is in trouble

But I'm going to tell you anyway

Robert Reich

The trustees of the Social Security fund said Tuesday that the fund will be depleted by late 2032, a year earlier than the trustees’ projection last year of 2033. If nothing is done, benefits will automatically be cut six years from now.

The common understanding is that Social Security’s shortfall is due to the huge postwar baby boom, now retiring, and to America’s increasing life expectancy. The usual recommended fix is to reduce Social Security benefits or raise the age of eligibility. As Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, warned Monday, “entitlement programs” like Social Security “have to be adjusted and fixed.” He said Republicans will introduce a plan to do that. Brace yourselves.

I used to be a Social Security trustee, and I call bullsh*t.

The baby boom can’t be blamed for Social Security’s shortfall. The Greenspan Commission, which in 1983 recommended the reforms that Congress then made — raising Social Security payroll taxes and also raising the eligibility age for collecting Social Security benefits — knew all about the baby boom and figured it into its calculations. (Early boomers like me can now start collecting full benefits at age 66; late boomers born after 1960 have to wait until they’re 67 to collect full benefits.)

Americans’ increasing life expectancy isn’t at fault, either. While wealthier Americans are living longer, that’s not the case for lower-income Americans. The Urban Institute estimates that life expectancy in the top 20 percent of income-earners is 91 years for people born in the 1990s, four years more than people born in the 1950s. Yet the life expectancy in the lowest 20 percent of income-earners is fewer than 80 years.

So what’s the real cause of the Social Security shortfall? What did Greenspan’s commission fail to predict? Widening inequality.

Remember, the Social Security payroll tax applies only to earnings up to a certain cap. This year, that cap is $184,500. Earnings at or below this amount are taxed at 12.4 percent. The cap rises every year according to a formula roughly matching inflation.