Connecticut Democrats Move Bills To Force Vaccines On Unwilling Residents
The bill would ensure that religious freedom protections do not apply to certain vaccine requirements, among other provisions.The bill would ensure that religious freedom protections do not apply to certain vaccine requirements, among other provisions.RFK Jr. turns the tables on Democrats and reveals 1.5M illegal aliens unlawfully received Medicaid
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. corrected the record during his testimony before Congress on Friday morning after Democrat lawmakers spread false information about the Trump administration's health care policies.
'It is the Democratic policy to benefit billionaires.'
Kennedy appeared before the House Education and Workforce Committee to answer questions about the HHS' priorities.
Following his opening statement, Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) posed the first question to Kennedy, asking whether he was "responsible for the measles outbreak."
Kennedy acknowledged that he had been accused of that but said the accusation was "not science-based."
"The measles outbreak began in January 2025, before I took office. ... The measles outbreak is not an American phenomenon; it is global," he replied.
He explained that in 2025, the U.S. had approximately 2,200 measles cases, while Mexico had more than three times that amount, despite having one-third of the U.S. population. Canada reportedly had twice as many cases, even though its population is just one-eighth of that of the U.S. In Europe, the number of cases was nearly 10 times that in the U.S., despite having twice the U.S. population, Kennedy said.
RELATED: 'Truly a fool's errand': Top CDC adviser, RFK Jr. ally resigns from vaccine panel
"Two little girls died tragically in the Mennonite community in Texas. Mennonites have not vaccinated since 1796. So, this has nothing to do with me," Kennedy stated.
He mentioned attending the funeral of one child and spending the day with the family of the other.
"Both of them told me that when they took their children to the hospital, they were treated as pariahs. They were shamed. They were not given proper treatment. Both families believed their daughters, and their own doctors believe, their daughters could have been saved if the hospital gave them proper treatment," Kennedy continued.
"There's a lot of people in this country who, for religious reasons or other reasons, are not gonna vaccinate. And I believe that we need to treat them with compassion and understanding and empathy and get them the treatments they would get anywhere else in the world except for this country," he added.
Kennedy was later questioned by Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who pressed the secretary about "kicking 15 million Americans off of their affordable health care."
"Have you met with everyday Americans who have lost their health insurance just this last year?" Casar asked.
"I meet with everyday Americans every day," Kennedy replied. He also noted that he spoke with the advocacy community "on virtually everything that we regulate" and "more tribes and tribal leaders than any HHS secretary in history."
Casar then asked whether Kennedy had met with Americans who would be impacted this year by "cuts to Medicaid."
"There are no cuts to Medicaid. ... We are increasing Medicaid spending by 47% over the next 10 years. ... How is that a cut? That is only a cut in Washington, D.C.," Kennedy responded.
RELATED: 'Rogue' Biden judge blocks critical pieces of RFK Jr.'s vaccine reform
Casar ignored Kennedy's comments and pushed forward with his line of questioning.
"Have you met with any of the 1.4 million people who have lost their health insurance just this last year from dropping off of Obamacare?" he asked.
"They're almost all illegal immigrants. ... We found 1.5 million illegal immigrants illegally collecting Medicaid," Kennedy remarked.
Casar attempted to corner Kennedy into admitting he had dedicated time to meet with billionaires but not with everyday Americans. However, Kennedy repeatedly denied this and turned it back around on Casar by slamming Democrats for Obamacare.
"It is the Democratic policy to benefit billionaires," Kennedy said. "The insurance companies' stocks raised by 1,000% after Obamacare was passed. The money was not going to Americans; it was going to them."
"It was you who did it," Kennedy declared.
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Judge Rules Parents Have Less Say In Pediatric Vaccine Schedule
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said that the department 'looks forward to this judge’s decision being overturned.'We’re losing children to diseases we already defeated
Over the past year, the Food and Drug Administration has done important work drawing attention to how food choices affect health. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. deserves credit for shining a light on food additives and America’s dependence on processed foods.
I’m a registered nurse and a mother. I applaud that work. But I also need to ask a hard question: Why aren’t childhood vaccines getting the same attention and urgency?
We don’t force anyone to vaccinate. We shouldn’t. But we do owe families accurate information about the real risks of preventable diseases and the real protection vaccines provide.
I’ve spent years in intensive care watching people of all ages fight respiratory illness. Even with experience, it’s brutal to see a patient cling to life through ventilators, intubation, or ECMO machines.
Last year, I watched in horror as a measles outbreak took the lives of two unvaccinated children in Texas. Whooping cough killed two infants in Louisiana. Closer to home, my own child caught whooping cough. It was frightening and exhausting to see how coughing fits made it almost impossible for him to catch his breath.
He was old enough to have received his vaccines. I believe that reduced the severity of his illness and likely kept him out of the hospital. That experience leaves me with one request to RFK: Give childhood vaccines the same serious focus you’ve given food safety.
Kennedy says he cares about children. I believe him. That’s why I’m urging him to speak clearly about routine childhood immunizations — because I’ve seen what happens when preventable diseases return.
Hospitals are treating illnesses that routine vaccines usually prevent or blunt. Last year, the CDC reported an increase in meningococcal disease, a dangerous illness that immunization can prevent. South Carolina is dealing with a record-breaking measles outbreak. These diseases can bring devastating outcomes: brain swelling from measles; brain damage, limb loss, or deafness from meningococcal infection.
Gaps in routine immunization also open the door to pathogens we once had under control. A paralytic polio case in an unvaccinated person in New York in 2022 underscored what’s at stake: Irreversible paralysis still remains possible when vaccination rates fall.
Childhood vaccines rank among public health’s most effective tools. They prevent outbreaks and protect children from serious infections and lifelong complications. They also fit comfortably inside a conservative framework. They’re voluntary. They’re widely available. They’ve been used for decades. Parents make informed choices for their families.
RELATED: MAHA is sick: RFK’s FDA is drifting the wrong way
High vaccination rates also protect the most vulnerable. They reduce transmission, which helps safeguard infants too young to be vaccinated and children with medical conditions that keep them from receiving certain shots. That means fewer hospitalizations, less strain on health care systems, and healthier schools and communities.
That’s why recent messaging from Washington worries me. Telling Americans to “talk to your doctor” sounds reasonable, until you face the reality on the ground. Roughly one-third of Americans lack access to primary care, and many children don’t have a regular provider. For millions of families, “talk to your doctor” translates to “you’re on your own.”
Parents in small towns and working-class neighborhoods don’t always have easy access to specialists who can walk them through immunization questions. They want to do the right thing. They need clear, trustworthy guidance from national health leaders — not signals that create doubt about vaccines that protect kids.
Vaccine conversations can get sensitive fast. Parents have questions, and they deserve honest answers. But they also deserve clear, consistent leadership that says what decades of evidence has shown: Routine childhood immunization works, and it protects children.
We don’t force anyone to vaccinate. We shouldn’t. But we do owe families accurate information about the real risks of preventable diseases and the real protection vaccines provide.
As a nurse, I work to prevent harm. As a mother, I refuse to accept a return to diseases we already know how to stop. As a conservative, I don’t want to break systems that save lives.
We can make America healthy again by tackling chronic disease and by protecting kids from preventable infections. These goals don’t compete. They reinforce each other.
HHS official sounds alarm on America’s chronic disease crisis: ‘The most drugged country in the world’
White House senior adviser Calley Means is on a mission — and he’s been leading this mission alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the MAHA movement.
“So you and RFK Jr. came in with this singular mission to make America healthy again, which — I don’t think, you know, it’s like it’s not a crazy mission. Overhauling the food system is the key tenet of this, and I think — you correct me if I’m wrong — kind of your key focus,” Gonzales says.
“We’re at HHS right now. This is the largest budget of any government department in human history. We have a $2 trillion budget, and you look at that — 90% of that is chronic diseases tied to food. We in America have the highest rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's," Means tells Gonzales.
“This is what’s costing lives. It’s what’s shortening lives. It’s what’s causing issues for day-to-day Americans. And it’s bankrupting our budget. And it’s a multitude of factors, but these are external factors that are causing this increasing rate of chronic disease, which is devastating the country, particularly our kids,” he continues.
And he points out that this chronic disease epidemic has nothing to do with a lack of pharmaceuticals, as we are “the most drugged country in the world.”
Means also explains that this is why it’s so important that RFK Jr. has such an important role in the Trump administration.
“He’s the most important person. He’ll go down as the most important person in the history of modern public health, because he’s brought light to these simple things,” Means tells Gonzales.
“I don’t disagree with you. I mean, he is one of my own personal heroes,” Gonzales agrees.
However, while Gonzales and Means both see the importance of shining a light on the chronic disease epidemic in America and how it relates to our environment and food supply, others appear to be blinded by politics.
“Why do you think that we can’t be bipartisan about something as simple as keeping America healthy?” Gonzales asks Means.
“Trump derangement syndrome, I think, is the most pernicious and incurable condition impacting much of the American populace. It’s defining American politics,” Means answers.
“And the simple reality is Trump derangement syndrome has led Democrats to passionately defend artificial food dyes. It’s led Democrats to now be the party of ultra-processed food. It’s led Democrats to — I couldn’t believe this — passionately argue that we should maintain government funding for soda on food stamps,” he continues.
“My hope and our prayer here at HHS is this does become bipartisan,” he adds.
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'White supremacy dog-whistling': Democrat goes on unhinged rant — about milk
Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter (D), a woke physician who downplayed the risks associated with COVID vaccines and has since championed so-called "gender-affirming care," recently raised eyebrows by characterizing an innocent Make America Healthy Again initiative as racist.
After repeatedly calling for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be "dismantled" during a town hall on Saturday, Dexter launched into an unhinged attack on the Department of Health and Human Services and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"RFK Jr. is one of the biggest threats to our community and to the health of this country," said Dexter.
"When you don't follow the science, and you just follow your vibes or your whatever it is that he's doing, it is absolutely the truth that you lose trust," continued the congresswoman. "I have every reason to believe that we'll be able to get that man at least delegitimized, hopefully fired."
'Drinking whole white milk has played a big role in racist and far-right thinking.'
Dexter characterized the government as a "fascist regime," advised doctors not to "do what they are telling us to do," and suggested that patients should "ask for the science-based regimens, not whatever RFK Jr. is getting kickbacks on or whatever whole milk, white supremacy dog-whistling that's happening."
The Republican National Committee's RNC Research account noted in response to Dexter's assertion, "Democrats' unhinged hatred for President Trump has broken their brains."
The Make America Healthy Again Commission released the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy in September, identifying hundreds of initiatives that could help reverse "the failed policies that fueled America's childhood chronic disease epidemic."
RELATED: 'Hold Big Pharma accountable': Vaxx giants are sure to be nervous about Rand Paul's new bill
The strategy noted that the HHS and other agencies would "remove restrictions on whole milk sales in schools, allowing districts to offer full-fat dairy options alongside reduced-fat alternatives."
The National School Lunch Program of the Department of Agriculture long required participating schools to provide milk that was consistent with the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which meant the milk offerings either had to be fat-free or low-fat.
Trump, helping the MAHA strategy along, ratified the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act last month, thereby modifying the NSLP requirements such that whole and reduced-fat milk would be added to the offerings at schools across the country.
The USDA and Kennedy have since shared a number of videos and pictures promoting whole milk, touting it as a "protein, strength, and a class choice that never goes out of style."
While whole milk and the government's campaign promoting it appear to be innocuous, Dexter presumed the worst — but she's apparently not alone.
For instance, Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, recently suggested that the consumption of the universally appreciated liquid food "is political. Drinking whole white milk has played a big role in racist and far-right thinking."
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Trump has delivered on rural health care
Rural health care in America faces a host of chronic challenges: high costs, limited access, and aging infrastructure. For millions of families across the heartland, these problems aren’t abstract — they determine whether patients can see a doctor, reach a hospital, or receive timely care close to home.
By expanding flexibility, encouraging innovation, and meeting rural communities where they are, policymakers have begun to confront the unique realities of rural health care.
More than 60 million Americans — nearly one in five — live in rural areas where patients routinely travel long distances only to find fewer doctors, hospitals, and clinics available to serve them.
Under-resourced communities face over-sized health challenges. Nowhere is this more evident than in rural America, where higher rates of chronic disease, premature mortality, and addiction persist compared to the rest of the country.
In recent months, the Trump administration and Congress have advanced a set of reforms — largely overlooked in the national debate — that directly address long-standing disparities and structural weaknesses in rural health care, and they could meaningfully strengthen care delivery in these communities, improve health, and save lives.
The most significant of these efforts is the Rural Health Transformation Program, established last year in President Trump and the Republican Congress’ signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This $50 billion program represents the largest investment ever dedicated specifically to rural health, far exceeding the scale of prior grant programs. States that receive awards can use these resources to modernize and stabilize their rural health systems.
The program allows states to invest in innovative care models tailored to rural realities — whether expanding outpatient capacity, strengthening the health care workforce, or upgrading aging facilities. Instead of imposing a one-size-fits-all approach, the program gives states the flexibility to design reforms that reflect local needs and constraints.
Although media attention has shifted elsewhere, the White House and congressional leaders should continue to emphasize the long-term importance of this investment. The program addresses a foundational weakness in America’s health system and delivers tangible support to rural communities that have too often been left behind.
As part of the recently enacted FY 2026 appropriations legislation, Congress also extended Medicare telehealth flexibilities through December 31, 2027, delaying a return to statutory barriers that once limited access to telehealth services. Telehealth allows patients to connect with specialists, receive mental health services, and manage chronic diseases without traveling hours for an appointment.
In communities facing persistent provider shortages, telehealth has become not a convenience but a lifeline — a bridge over miles of empty road, connecting rural patients to care that would otherwise remain out of reach.
The FY 2026 appropriations legislation also reauthorized the Acute Hospital Care at Home initiative, which allows eligible patients to receive hospital-level care in their own homes. This approach reduces costs, eases pressure on rural hospitals with limited capacity, and improves patient satisfaction. For small hospitals struggling to keep beds staffed and doors open, Acute Hospital Care at Home offers a practical way to deliver high-quality care while preserving local access.
RELATED: Trump’s economic numbers look good so far, but you wouldn’t know from reading the news
Finally, although Congress has not yet enacted it into law, lawmakers are working to reauthorize the Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program. This program supports community-based efforts to expand access to care, strengthen coordination among providers, and address persistent service gaps. Its grants help rural health systems collaborate across institutions and tailor solutions for populations that too often fall through the cracks.
Taken together, these reforms do not promise a quick cure — but they do offer a realistic treatment plan. They don’t strengthen rural health care because it’s easy; they make it easier because rural health care must be strong. While these efforts will not eliminate every challenge rural communities face, they are designed to deliver tangible improvements that deserve recognition.
By expanding flexibility, encouraging innovation, and meeting rural communities where they are, policymakers have begun to confront the unique realities of rural health care. Yet as the news cycle moves on, these achievements risk being overlooked. Policymakers in both Congress and the executive branch should resist the urge to rush to the next challenge and instead highlight the significance of these steps in the right direction.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearHealth and made available via RealClearWire.
Leftist Medical Orgs Try To Shut Down Debate On Vaccines
The American Academy of Pediatrics is wasting time fighting small-scale discussions while large-scale accountability looms.US formally ditches World Health Organization
President Donald Trump announced America's withdrawal from the scandal-plagued World Health Organization late in his first term, citing the organization's abysmal response to COVID-19, its willingness to help the communist Chinese regime cover up the spread of the virus, and its refusal to adopt urgently needed reforms.
Former President Joe Biden swooped in, however, to prevent the withdrawal, which was scheduled for July 6, 2021.
'The United States will not be making any payments to the WHO before our withdrawal.'
On his first day back in office, Trump put the country back on track for withdrawal, giving the WHO a one-year notice period as required by U.S. law. In the months since, the Trump administration has cut off funding, withdrawn all personnel from the organization, and pivoted initiatives previously executed with the WHO to bilateral engagements with other countries and outfits.
Pursuant to the president's order, the United States has — as of Thursday — officially finished its exit from the WHO.
In a joint release confirming the completion of the withdrawal, the U.S. State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services stated, "Going forward, the U.S. government will continue its global health leadership through existing and new engagements directly with other countries, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based entities."
"U.S.-led efforts will prioritize emergency response, biosecurity coordination, and health innovation, including for noncommunicable diseases, to protect America first while delivering benefits to partners around the world," added the departments.
In a corresponding fact sheet, the departments indicated that in addition to terminating all funding to the WHO and recalling all U.S. personnel and contractors previously assigned to or embedded with the agency, the U.S. has "ceased official participation in WHO-sponsored committees, leadership, bodies, governance structures, and technical working groups."
"Withdrawing from WHO restores long-overdue accountability and transparency for U.S. taxpayers," says the fact sheet.
The WHO, a specialized agency of the United Nations that was founded in 1948, has long depended on the U.S. for financial and technical support. The U.S., a founding member, has historically been the organization's single largest contributor, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the WHO yearly and regularly accounting for over 20% of all member-state assessed contributions.
While the Trump administration satisfied its statutory obligation to give a one-year notice, critics of the withdrawal and officials at the globalist organization claim the U.S. has not met its financial obligations under the provisions of the congressional resolution that first enabled the country to join the WHO.
The amount supposedly owing for the 2024-2025 period is reportedly $278 million.
"The United States will not be making any payments to the WHO before our withdrawal," a State Department official told NPR earlier this week. "The cost borne by the U.S. taxpayer and U.S. economy after the WHO's failure during the COVID pandemic — and since — has been too high as it is."
Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO's Center of National and Global Health Law, told NPR, "This is a very, very public and messy divorce."
"The man says, 'No, I'm not going to pay you any money, and we're no longer married.' And the woman says, 'No, you can't not be married unless you pay me,'" said Gostin.
Unlike in Gostin's analogy, the man in this scenario is the world's pre-eminent nuclear superpower.
Despite the apparent futility of the effort, the WHO's principal legal officer, Steven Solomon, indicated earlier this month that the organization's member states will discuss whether the U.S. has met the requirements for leaving, reported Stat News.
"It’s a lose for the U.S., and it’s also a lose for the rest of the world," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said last week of America's imminent departure. "I hope they will reconsider."
Bill Gates, a funder of some of the WHO's work, told Reuters, "I don’t think the U.S. will be coming back to WHO in the near future."
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