HHS surmounts obstacles set by Democrat-appointed judges, gives thousands of bureaucrats the boot



The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed in late March that it was downsizing its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees as part of a broader overhaul intended to maximize efficiency, save taxpayers money, and help make America healthy again.

The agency sent notices of reduction in force to 10,000 employees. Another 10,000 workers apparently left voluntarily, accepting early retirement and buyout offers.

The threat of a proper housecleaning enraged Democrats and, of course, pink-slip recipients, who filed legal challenges. Democrat-appointed U.S. district judges proved more than willing to hold up the terminations, prompting the government to appeal and the Supreme Court to weigh in.

'Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year.'

Taking full advantage of the path cleared by the high court, HHS finalized layoffs for thousands of employees on Monday.

An HHS spokesperson told Blaze News that "all employees who were originally notified, who aren't covered under the N.Y. v. Kennedy case, and those who haven't had their notice rescinded have been terminated."

How it started

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the layoffs in late March, noting that the restructuring would:

  • save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year through the reduction in the workforce of about 10,000 full-time workers;
  • streamline the functions of the department by consolidating 28 divisions into 15 divisions, reducing regional offices from 10 to five, and centralizing core functions;
  • "implement the new HHS priority of ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins"; and
  • make Americans' experience with the HHS more responsive and efficient.

The health secretary noted on X that while the moment was difficult, "the reality is clear: what we've been doing isn't working."

"Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year. In the past four years alone, the agency’s budget has grown by 38% — yet outcomes continue to decline," wrote Kennedy. "We must shift course."

Straight out of the gate, senior officials at the National Institutes of Health including Christine Grady, the wife of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, got the boot along with Fauci allies Clifford Lane, deputy director for clinical research and special projects at NIAID, and Emily Erbelding, director of the NIAID division of microbiology and infectious diseases.

Establishmentarians clutched their pearls over these and other firings at HHS.

Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, bemoaned the layoffs, telling Nature, "This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history in my 50 years in the business.

"It's a bloodbath," one U.S. Food and Drug Administration employee told CNN.

Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf took his doomsaying onto LinkedIn, noting, "The FDA as we've known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this a huge mistake."

RELATED: How Big Pharma left its mark on woke CDC vax advisory panel — and what RFK Jr. did about it

 Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Two major legal actions were launched in recent weeks with the apparent aim of writing the terminations off as unlawful and undermining the MAGA agenda: a class-action lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia on behalf of ex-HHS employees and a lawsuit filed on May 5 by Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia, seeking to block the RIF.

Both cases were assigned Democrat-appointed judges, the class-action lawsuit to an Obama judge and the blue states' lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, a Biden appointee.

'Thank you for your service to the American people.'

As is the apparent custom of Democrat-appointed federal judges, Judge DuBose obliged the plaintiffs, blocking the Trump administration from finalizing the layoffs and requiring HHS to file a status report by July 11.

DuBose suggested that they had "sufficiently shown irreparable harm" and that the "Executive Branch does not have the authority to order, organize, or implement wholesale changes to the structure and function of the agencies created by Congress."

How it's going

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed federal agencies to continue with their mass layoffs, staying a Clinton judge's order that had blocked the administration from proceeding without congressional approval.

On Monday, the Supreme Court sent another message on theme, letting the Trump administration execute mass layoffs at the Department of Education.

RELATED: Career feds act like they’re the ones running the country

 Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images

Citing the high court's July 8 decision, HHS informed thousands of employees on Monday that their time at the agency was over as of close of business.

“You are hereby notified that you are officially separated from HHS at the close of business on July 14, 2025," said a copy of the notice obtained by the Washington Post. "Thank you for your service to the American people."

Not all of the intended 10,000 ousters are taking place this week.

Some jobs are temporarily protected owing to DuBose's ruling in New York v. Kennedy, which reportedly shields employees at the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; the National Center for Environmental Health; theDivision of Reproductive Health; the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; the Office on Smoking and Health; the National Center for Birth Defects and Development Disabilities; the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products; the Office of Head Start; and the Division of Data and Technical Analysis.

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Your health premiums are powering the left’s political machine



According to its mission statement, the American Medical Association exists “to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.” In practice, the AMA has become a well-funded political machine — one that uses its government-backed monopoly on medical billing codes to bankroll a progressive agenda.

Each year, the AMA collects hundreds of millions of dollars through royalties on its proprietary Current Procedural Terminology codes. These are the codes doctors use to communicate with insurers and federal agencies when they conduct checkups, order tests, or write prescriptions. Hospitals, insurance companies, and medical professionals are all required to use them — and pay for the privilege.

Instead of using its monopoly to support physicians or patients, the AMA has funneled its resources into ideological activism.

In 2023 alone, the AMA raked in nearly $285 million from CPT royalties. That isn’t a side hustle; it’s a windfall. Watchdogs now rank the AMA among the most financially powerful nonprofits in American health care.

The AMA didn’t earn that money through clinical excellence or medical innovation. It profits from what is essentially public infrastructure.

The federal government made it so. In the 1980s, Medicare and Medicaid began requiring CPT codes for billing. In 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act made CPT codes the federal standard for electronic health care transactions. That mandate gave the AMA control over an indispensable part of American medicine.

Hospitals, providers, and insurers can’t opt out. But instead of using its monopoly to support physicians or patients, the AMA has funneled its resources into ideological activism.

On gun control, the AMA has pushed bans on so-called assault weapons, supported raising the legal age of ownership to 21, and opposed allowing teachers to defend themselves in the classroom.

On climate policy, it has declared climate change a “public health crisis,” called for slashing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and demanded “carbon neutrality” by 2050. The group even promotes plant-based diets — not to improve patient health, but to cut emissions. One AMA paper noted that producing a single serving of red meat releases 200 times more carbon dioxide than growing a serving of beans.

During the 2020 George Floyd riots, the AMA declared that racism was “an urgent threat to public health,” pledged to dismantle “racist and discriminatory policies,” and released a video in which its board members solemnly recited these mantras. The group also called for sweeping police reform, claiming “a correlation between policing and adverse health outcomes.”

This is political advocacy, not public health. And it’s not limited to official statements — it’s backed by millions of dollars the AMA collects thanks to its government-protected monopoly.

In 2024, the AMA spent nearly $25 million on lobbying — more than the AARP. By contrast, the National Rifle Association spent just $2 million. The beef and dairy industries, which stand to lose if AMA-backed climate plans move forward, spent far less.

Through lobbying and political donations, the AMA is using your money — your premiums, your tax dollars — to advance its political goals.

RELATED: The climate cult is brainwashing your kids — and you’re paying for it

  Photo by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

That pipeline of influence may be in jeopardy.

According to recent reports, allies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have explored transferring CPT oversight from the AMA to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It’s a smart move that the Trump administration should take seriously.

A working model already exists. Health care providers use ICD codes — International Classification of Diseases — to document diagnoses. These codes are freely available, globally standardized, and cost nothing to use. There’s no reason procedural codes like CPT couldn’t operate the same way.

Stripping the AMA of its CPT monopoly wouldn’t just break a political racket. It would free American health care from a rent-seeking gatekeeper that has long since abandoned its original mission.

CPT codes are public infrastructure now. A private group with a political agenda shouldn’t be allowed to control access to them — especially not one that spends its royalty checks advancing the left’s culture war.

The Trump administration, with RFK Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services, has a real opportunity here: End the royalty scheme, move CPT into the public domain, and cut off the AMA’s cash flow.

It’s time to let doctors get back to medicine — and take politics out of the exam room.

MTG asks DOJ to drop charges against 'hero' doctor accused of destroying COVID vaccines, giving out fake vax records



Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Republican lawmakers expressed support this week for Dr. Michael Kirk Moore Jr., the Utah plastic surgeon presently on trial and facing more than 35 years in jail for allegedly destroying COVID-19 vaccines and handing out fraudulent fake vaccination records during the pandemic.

Moore, his neighbor Kristin Jackson Andersen, and two others were charged in 2023 with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey, and dispose of government property; and conversion, sale, conveyance, and disposal of government property as well as aiding and abetting.

According to the federal indictment, Moore — a member of a group seeking to "'liberate' the medical profession from government and industry conflicts of interest" — signed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Vaccination Program Provider Agreement in order to secure COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination record cards. He then ordered hundreds of doses of vaccines from the CDC.

Instead of administering the vaccines, Moore, 58, allegedly dumped around $28,000 worth of doses down the drain and handed out vaccination record cards in exchange for cash or donations to a charitable organization.

Between May 2021 and September 2022, the defendants also allegedly administered harmless "saline shots to minor children to trick them into thinking they had received a vaccine" at the request of their parents.

The Biden Department of Justice was evidently keen to throw Moore in jail; however, he has since become something of a folk hero for giving Americans a way to avoid experimental medicine at a time when vaccines were being foisted on the population.

'This man is a hero, not a criminal.'

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. noted in April that Moore "deserves a medal for his courage and his commitment to healing."

"He's one of the few surgeons who stood against the worst COVID-era mandates," said Texas surgeon Dr. Eithan Haim. "Which is why they're trying to send him to prison."

RELATED: What happened to RFK Jr.’s red line on risky vaccines?

 Photo illustration by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

As jury selection began for his 15-day trial on Monday, supporters rallied in support of Moore outside the Orrin G. Hatch U.S. Courthouse in Salt Lake City.

Among those who showed up were Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz (R) and Republican state Reps. Karianne Lisonbee and Trevor Lee, reported the Utah News Dispatch.

"The way those of us [who] stood up and pushed back were treated was wrong. We were treated like second-class citizens if we didn't get the shot, we didn’t get the vaccine," Schultz told the crowd. "Think about it for just a minute. You had to have a vaccine passport to walk down the streets and go into a shop, to go to a Jazz game, to go to a restaurant. That was unbelievable."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Tuesday that she was writing a letter to the Department of Justice asking that all charges be dropped against Moore — a move celebrated by Dr. Robert Malone, one of Robert F. Kennedy's new appointments to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

"This man is a hero, not a criminal," wrote Greene. "The Covid vaccine kills and injures people, but this brave doctor, who is a veteran by the way, is being prosecuted for helping people avoid tyrannical vaccine mandates under Democrats."

"Big Pharma was given billions of taxpayer's [sic] dollars for experimental covid vaccines and then the MrNA covid vaccines were forced on Americans, our military, and our children against their will," continued Greene. "Covid vaccines do not stop the spread of covid and are proven to cause life threatening myocarditis, miscarriages, strokes, blood clots, and many other issues that many Americans are angrily still dealing with today."

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie (R) echoed Greene, noting that Moore "should NOT be prosecuted for helping people avoid the tyrannical vax mandates, which were based on a corrupted FDA approval process."

RELATED: FDA slaps damning warnings on COVID-19 vaccines; highlights Biden administration's safety-risk gloss

 Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images

Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R), who has repeatedly suggested that Kirk be let off the hook, said on Thursday, "I'm both surprised and disappointed that Dr. Kirk Moore is still being prosecuted — potentially facing three decades in prison — considering all that we've learned about COVID, the vaccines, and the unjust mandates imposed by the Biden administration."

"I just did what was right," Dr. Moore said outside the courthouse, clearly overwhelmed by the support.

Blaze News has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

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Redistribution comes for Harvard — and it’s glorious



If you’ve endured a university humanities class in the past decade, you’ve probably encountered something closer to a revival for secular dogma than a center of learning. The professors preach cultural Marxism in cap and gown. Saints include Che Guevara. Sinners: white, heteronormative males. Sacred rites: pronoun rituals and land acknowledgments.

At the heart of this faith lies one central mantra: “The rich must pay their fair share.” The chant rings through classrooms and protests alike, uttered with all the subtlety of a Gregorian monk — though with far less harmony and far more self-righteousness.

Let the endowment taxes roll. Let the lawsuits fly. And may the gates of our so-called higher learning institutions be broken open to the higher truths they’ve long tried to suppress.

Let’s be fair. If everyone pays the same tax rate, the rich still pay more in absolute dollars. But that kind of equality doesn’t satisfy the high priests of redistribution. They demand “equity,” which in this context means punishing the successful with steeper percentages. Anything less is deemed injustice. Anything less is oppression. Anything less confirms you didn’t graduate with a gender studies degree and an enduring grudge.

I don’t bring this up just to trigger memories of a feminist philosophy professor scolding you for your privilege. I mention it because, at long last, I agree with them. Yes, the rich should pay a higher rate. And I know exactly where to start: with the universities themselves.

Here’s the irony — a brand of justice so rich even a tenured literature professor could see it. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act delivers on the universities’ own demands. The new graduated endowment tax will slap elite schools like Harvard and Yale with a levy of up to 8% on their investment income.

That’s not chump change. That’s enough to make a development officer cry into his ethically sourced, carbon-neutral latte.

These institutions — which idolize Alfred Kinsey, stack 95% of their faculties with leftists, and teach students to hate America — are finally getting a taste of the redistributionist medicine they’ve long prescribed to others. After decades of turning our culture into a grievance-riddled mess, they’re now paying the price. Literally.

RELATED: Trump and Linda McMahon are crushing DEI in law and medical schools with a brilliant approach

  The Washington Post/Getty Images

Call it poetic justice. Better yet, call it providential irony. Let these institutions finance the repair of the very foundations they’ve spent years undermining.

But don’t stop there.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon should give students a clear legal path to demand refunds for failed educations. If a business promises a product and fails to deliver, customers deserve their money back. Why not apply the same principle to overpriced degrees in grievance studies?

And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should open the floodgates to lawsuits against professors who, without any medical training, diagnosed gender dysphoria and pushed irreversible surgeries as cures for teenage angst. These people couldn’t diagnose a flat tire, but they felt confident calling your daughter a boy and your son a pansexual moon sprite.

Only when faced with real consequences — financial and legal — might these institutions begin to take their responsibilities seriously again. Only then might they stop operating as what John Calvin once called “idol factories” — churning out false gods and vain imaginations at record speed.

Let the endowment taxes roll. Let the lawsuits fly. And may the gates of our so-called higher learning institutions be broken open to the higher truths they’ve long tried to suppress.

America First in action: Trump’s HHS slams the brakes on illegal aliens draining taxpayer funds



President Donald Trump's Department of Health and Human Services made a significant step on Thursday toward preventing illegal aliens from draining taxpayer funds.

The HHS announced that it has rescinded the Clinton administration's interpretation of an act that allowed immigrants unlawfully in the U.S. to receive federal benefits.

'For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration.'

A press release explained that, for over two decades, the HHS used the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to "improperly extend[] certain federal public benefits to illegal aliens."

The Clinton administration's 1998 interpretation "improperly narrowed the scope of PRWORA, undercutting the law by allowing illegal aliens to access programs Congress intended only for the American people," Trump's HHS wrote.

The department called Thursday's announcement "a significant policy shift" to comply with federal law.

"The new policy applies PRWORA's plain-language definition of 'Federal public benefit,' reverses outdated exclusions, affirms that programs serving individuals, households, or families are subject to eligibility restrictions, and clarifies that no HHS programs have been formally exempted under PRWORA's limited exceptions," the HHS said.

The HHS estimated that the changes would result in American citizens having up to $374 million annually in additional funds for Head Start services. According to the Office of the Administration for Children & Families, Head Start supports "children's growth from birth to age 5 through services centered around early learning and development, health, and family well-being."

RELATED: Trump admin targets federal funding to Planned Parenthood over 'possible violations' of law, executive orders

  Photo by GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images

ACF's acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison stated that the department "is committed to providing and protecting resources that serve America's most vulnerable."

"Head Start’s classification under the new PRWORA interpretation puts American families first by ensuring taxpayer-funded benefits are reserved for eligible individuals," Gradison said.

The administration's new policy will impact several other programs, including Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant, the Community Services Block Grant, the Health Center Program, the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness Grant Program, the Title X Family Planning Program, and the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant.

The list is "not exhaustive," the agency added.

RELATED: Trump admin making sure illegal aliens don't get food stamps

  Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated, "For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans' tax dollars to incentivize illegal immigration."

"Today's action changes that — it restores integrity to federal social programs, enforces the rule of law, and protects vital resources for the American people," he said.

The HHS stated that the policy change aligns with Trump's February executive order, "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders."

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LEAKED alleged Big Pharma plot to destroy RFK Jr.



Jeffrey Tucker, president of the Brownstone Institute, received an alleged leaked document detailing a plot to sabotage Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — and while he admits he doesn’t “know how you authenticate something like this” — he does believe the contents are cause for concern.

The membership of the organization the memo is attributed to includes vaccine manufacturers, drug manufacturers, and hundreds of other biotech firms.

Among those are Pfizer and Merck.

“It’s time to go to the Hill and lobby that it is time for RFK Jr. to go,” reads a document that seems to contain notes from an April 3, 2025, meeting of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s Vaccine Policy Steering Committee.

“This document is essentially a summary, or the minutes readout, of this April 3, 2025, meeting, allegedly, in which they are trying to figure out how to get Bobby Kennedy out of office,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler explains.


“Now, that in and of itself is not terribly scandalous, except for the fact that they are not interested in the science that Bobby Kennedy is trying to reclaim in public health in our government,” she continues.

While the document’s stated agenda is “to go to the Hill and lobby that it is time for RFK Jr. to go,” that’s not the issue Tucker and Wheeler have with it — but rather how they plan to do it.

“So there are conspiracy theories, and there are conspiracies. This is a conspiracy,” Tucker says, explaining that the group allegedly plans to remove RFK Jr. via creating a divide between MAHA and MAGA.

“So you just assert that RFK is operating at odds with the MAGA agenda. So you want to drive a wedge between those two things and find ways to do that to turn the executive office of the White House against what RFK is doing,” he says, explaining the plan to Wheeler.

Another alleged piece of their plan, Tucker says, is to “divide the MAHA alliance itself by making more diffuse and chaotic the coalition that supports RFK and is looking into the safety of these products.”

“And one of the ways they’re planning to do that is what I think we could call triangulation,” he explains. “You reach out to conservative influencers, they may name several institutions here where they think are vaccine friendly, along with several administration employees that they think are probably weak and sort of corruptible in some way.”

“This memo is very clever,” he continues, adding, “They’re trying to sort of drive a wedge between RFK and the agency’s appointees that he’s named based on their past positions.”

While Tucker and his colleagues remain unsure of the veracity of the document, a spokesman from BIO claims the organization's vaccine task force had nothing to do with it.

“The purported memo was not produced by BIO. We have never seen or heard of this document, and it certainly does not accurately represent the spirit, strategy, or mission of BIO’s work," he said. Though, in an interview with the Daily Signal, "He declined to confirm or deny the veracity of the quote about lobbying for Kennedy’s ouster."

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What happened to RFK Jr.’s red line on risky vaccines?



For nearly half a century after the catastrophic 1967 trial, the U.S. government failed to approve a safe and effective RSV vaccine. Then came the COVID-19 debacle — and suddenly, we’re supposed to believe the science caught up. As if by magic, after the mRNA disaster and its lingering questions, federal agencies now bless an endless stream of RSV shots for children and adults alike.

Never mind that just two years ago, Anthony Fauci co-authored a paper admitting that safe RSV vaccine development faced “many and complex” challenges. He cited risks like antigenic drift and called for “outside-the-box” thinking to make next-generation vaccines possible.

If Kennedy truly doubts the safety of older vaccines, why would his handpicked advisers endorse new injections for a virus that rarely warrants immunization?

Apparently, that box got checked quickly — at least according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted last month to approve Merck’s new RSV monoclonal antibody shot, Enflonsia, for prophylactic use in infants. The treatment mimics a vaccine in function and application.

The approval came despite glaring trial results.

Yes, the Phase 2b/3 CLEVER trial included a legitimate placebo group — finally. But the vaccinated group suffered more deaths and injuries than the placebo group. All-cause mortality ran slightly higher among those who received Enflonsia.

How can any vaccine win approval without reducing the risk of death?

Trial data showed three deaths linked to the vaccinated group, compared to just one among the placebo group. Statistically underpowered or not, that outcome suggests a 50% higher risk of death. That alone should have triggered demands for further study.

Instead, the CDC approved it.

The vaccinated group also faced a 350% higher incidence of upper respiratory tract infections, a 63% higher rate of lower respiratory infections, and a 41% higher risk of febrile seizures. The sample size wasn’t large enough to detect rarer events — yet regulators waved it through anyway. And all this for a virus that most infants overcome with basic care and a nebulizer.

ACIP passed the recommendation 5-2 on June 26. Dissenters Retsef Levi and Vicky Pebsworth cited the higher death rate and adverse reactions. Levi raised additional concerns about immune enhancement — where vaccination worsens the disease in later exposure — and called for longer trials focused on high-risk groups.

History supports his skepticism. In the 1960s, trial participants who received the RSV vaccine developed worse outcomes in subsequent years. We’ve seen similar patterns with some newer RSV formulations. None of today’s trials followed participants long enough to rule out antibody-dependent enhancement.

Even Moderna’s RSV/hMPV combo trial in infants aged 5 to 8 months had to be halted last year due to signs of enhanced respiratory disease. Yet, in May 2024, the Food and Drug Administration approved a similar mRNA shot for adults 60 and older. On June 12, Trump's Health and Human Services expanded that approval to adults over 18 deemed “at risk” — despite all we’ve learned about the dangers of mRNA and respiratory virus vaccines.

RELATED: RFK Jr. torches vaccine panel to make consequences count again

  Hailshadow via iStock/Getty Images

The FDA under Joe Biden approved Abrysvo, Pfizer’s RSV vaccine for seniors and pregnant women, despite serious warning signs. Post-licensure data linked the shot to elevated risks of Guillain-Barré syndrome within 42 days of injection. And in trials involving pregnant women, 5.7% of infants were born prematurely in the vaccinated group — compared to 4.7% in the placebo group.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. deserves credit for demanding more rigorous placebo-controlled trials. But what’s the point if agencies approve vaccines even when trials raise red flags?

RFK Jr. has publicly questioned links between childhood vaccines and autism — especially the hepatitis B shot. If he truly doubts the safety of older vaccines, why would his handpicked advisers endorse new injections for a virus that rarely warrants immunization?

Merck’s Enflonsia includes genomic material derived from an ovarian cancer cell line. Why on earth would we inject even a minimal amount of tumorigenic cells for a bad cold that we’ve been treating successfully with a nebulizer for years?

No one expects RFK Jr. to overhaul the CDC overnight, especially given internal resistance and pro-mRNA holdouts within the White House. But at the very least, many hoped the reckless approval of unnecessary vaccines would stop under his watch.

Instead, the CDC pressed forward with the same reckless momentum.

What happened to “first, do no harm”?

Sex-changing frogs and infertile humans: Will MAHA target infamous herbicide contaminating America's water?



Atrazine is one of the most extensively used herbicides in the United States. On average, well over 70 million pounds of atrazine is sprayed every year on agricultural crops like corn and sugarcane.

This chlorotriazine herbicide — reportedly the most commonly detected herbicide in American tap water — is a potent endocrine and metabolic disruptor linked to numerous adverse health effects including birth defects, cancer, reduced sperm counts, and infertility.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized atrazine as "a surface water and groundwater contaminant that can enter waterways in agricultural runoff from row crops" and "cause human health problems if present in public or private water supplies in amounts greater than the drinking water standard set by EPA."

Atrazine, first registered for use in 1958 and banned by the European Union in 2004, enjoys continued support stateside by the agricultural industry despite having contaminated thousands of American communities' water supplies.

Despite years of pushback from concerned citizen and activist groups — including a class action lawsuit against agrichemical giant Syngenta, for instance, which resulted in a $105 million settlement with a number of impacted communities — the chemical compound continues to be sprayed, continues to adversely impact wildlife, and continues to leak into water systems.

That could soon change.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly raised alarm about the herbicide, its ubiquity, and its adverse impacts on various forms of life. While campaigning for president last year, he promised he would ban the chemical outright if given the chance.

'It's a gay bomb, baby.'

Now that Kennedy is running both the Department of Health and Human Services and President Donald Trump's Make America Healthy Again Commission, he can press the issue of atrazine's ruinous health effects and perhaps even change some minds over at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates herbicides.

The meme

Various activists and advocacy groups have campaigned for decades against atrazine — the use of which farmers claim helps increase production revenue. However, one of the most effective critics in terms of drawing the public's attention to the herbicide's undesirable effects appears to have been Infowars founder Alex Jones.

RELATED: Who is bankrolling the anti-MAHA movement?

 OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

In an October 2015 Infowars segment, Jones discussed the Pentagon's consideration in the early 2000s of a so-called "gay bomb" — a non-lethal chemical weapon that could hypothetically disperse unrelated sex pheromones among enemy forces and trigger homosexual engagements.

Jones segued to atrazine, saying, "What do you think tap water is? It's a gay bomb, baby."

What followed has since been memorialized in a myriad of memes.

"I don't like 'em putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin' frogs gay," said Jones.

'Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution.'

Elements of the mainstream media appeared desperate to characterize Jones' viral suggestion about the effects of the widely used herbicide atrazine as ludicrous.

CNBC, for instance, mentioned the chemical-induced changes in frogs second in a top-5 list of Jones' "most disturbing and ridiculous conspiracy theories." Jones' claims about government-executed weather modification, which are well-documented, also made CNBC's list.

An article in Forbes titled "Alex Jones' Top 10 Health Claims And Why They Are Wrong" similarly suggested that Jones was off his rocker on the matter of atrazine and sexually impacted amphibians. Forbes not only attacked Jones over his frog remarks but insinuated his claims about weather modification and fluoride's adverse impact on IQ — which the National Toxicology Program acknowledged as an unfortunate fact in a report last year — were "ridiculous."

As with weather modification and fluoride's retarding effect, Jones was sensational in his delivery but right over target.

The studies

In his famous rant, Jones was referencing a study by University of California, Berkeley endocrinologist and amphibian biologist Tyrone Hayes, which detailed how atrazine messed up the reproductive functions of adult male frogs — emasculating three-quarters of them and prompting one in 10 to develop female sexual organs.

RELATED: General Mills to remove artificial colors from cereals. Is chemical linked to infertility next on chopping block?

 Debra Ferguson/Design Pics Editorial/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Hayes told UC Berkeley News in 2010, "We have animals that are females, in the sense that they behave like females: They have estrogen, lay eggs, they mate with other males. Atrazine has caused a hormonal imbalance that has made them develop into the wrong sex, in terms of their genetic constitution."

"These kinds of problems, like sex-reversing animals skewing sex ratios, are much more dangerous than any chemical that would kill off a population of frogs," continued Hayes. "In exposed populations, it looks like there are frogs breeding but, in fact, the population is being very slowly degraded by the introduction of these altered animals."

Long before the media tried spinning Jones' claims as ridiculous, Syngenta, a major manufacturer of atrazine, tried downplaying Hayes' findings.

According to the New Yorker, Syngenta's public relations team identified over 100 "supportive third party stakeholders," including 25 professors, who would defend atrazine or serve as "spokespeople on Hayes."

'It's in 63% of our drinking water.'

While some of the apparent defenders of atrazine have suggested frogs are a poor stand-in for human beings, it's abundantly clear that the herbicide can also wreak havoc on human health.

For starters:

  • A 2001 paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives linked atrazine exposure to miscarriages.
  • A 2006 paper in Environmental Health Perspectives linked atrazine exposure to reduced semen quality.
  • A 2011 paper in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research noted that atrazine was "associated with menstrual cycle irregularity and altered hormones."
  • A 2011 paper in Environmental Health Perspectives noted that "the presence versus absence of quantifiable levels of atrazine or a specific atrazine metabolite was associated with fetal growth restriction ... and small head circumference for sex and gestational age."
  • A 2018 paper in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health noted "an association between atrazine concentrations in drinking water and the odds of term [low birth weight] births within communities served by water systems enrolled in [the EPA's] Atrazine Monitoring Program in Ohio."
  • A 2020 paper in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Endocrinology indicated atrazine might contribute to the development of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
  • A 2024 paper in Environmental Health Perspectives highlighted associated cancer risks among applicators of atrazine.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Scientific Advisory Panel concluded in a 2011 review of the human health impacts of atrazine that "the cancers for which there is suggestive evidence of carcinogenic potential include: ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, hairy-cell leukemia and thyroid cancer."

The panel suggested further that the jury was out at the time regarding associations between atrazine and prostate cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, esophageal cancers, and childhood cancers.

Despite atrazine's apparent linkages to various medical issues, the EPA concluded in a 2018 human health risk assessment that "there are no dietary (food), residential handler, non-occupational spray drift, or occupational post-application risk estimates of concern for the registered uses of atrazine."

Two years later, the same agency stated, "Atrazine is likely to adversely affect 54 percent of all species and 40 percent of critical habitats."

The MAHA momentum

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the use of atrazine on multiple occasions.

In September 2024, Kennedy tweeted, "We need to ban atrazine now."

"It's banned in Europe, banned all over the world, but we use it here. It's in 63% of our drinking water," Kennedy told Jordan Peterson in a September 2024 interview.

"We don't know what impact it's having on our children."

RELATED: BPA is no longer the stuff of baby bottles, but it still might be a big problem

 Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Kennedy noted on his own podcast in 2022, "The capacity for these chemicals that we are just raining down on our children right now to induce these very profound sexual changes in them is something we need to be thinking about as a society."

Kennedy's concerns appear to have followed him onto the MAHA Commission.

The 68-page MAHA Commission report, which came out in May, recognized that "children's unique behaviors and developmental physiology make them particularly vulnerable to potential adverse health effects" from cumulative exposures to various chemicals. In addition to microplastics, fluoride, phthalates, and bisphenols, the report mentioned crop protection tools, including atrazine, as chemicals requiring further study.

"In experimental animal and wildlife studies, exposure to another herbicide (atrazine) can cause endocrine disruption and birth defects," said the report.

'The second policy report will be a prescription for America.'

Despite the commission signaling a desire to ensure "not just the survival, but the prosperity, of American Farmers," and indicating farmers' crop protection tools won't be targeted with further restrictions or regulations without "thoughtful consideration," the Triazine Network, a coalition of groups involved in the regulation of atrazine, complained that "the assertion in the MAHA Commission's report that pesticides such as atrazine are responsible for childhood illness is irresponsible, inaccurate, and is not backed by credible scientific data."

The MAHA Report also struck a nerve with Alexandra Dunn, president and CEO of CropLife America — a trade association of agrochemical companies.

"Pesticides are thoroughly studied and highly regulated for safety," Dunn said in a statement. "This report will stir unjustified fear and confusion among American consumers who live in the country with the safest and most abundant food supply."

While it might upset manufacturers of pesticides, recent polling suggests Americans are dissatisfied with the status quo and want a closer look at what goes into their food and drink.

The latest Axios/Ipsos American Health Index poll revealed that 87% of Americans say "the government should do more to make sure food is safe, such as updating nutritional guidelines, adding labels to foods with artificial dyes, or reducing exposure to pesticides."

When pressed for comment about future plans concerning atrazine, an HHS spokesperson told Blaze News that "after the MAHA Report, the next step is to develop policy recommendations, grounded in gold-standard science and common sense. This report is a diagnosis."

"The second policy report will be a prescription for America," continued the spokesperson. "As the report outlines, Secretary Kennedy is committed to thoughtful consideration of what is necessary for adequate protection, alternatives, and cost of production."

Blaze News reached out for comment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — which is working on its Updated Mitigation Proposal for atrazine — but did not receive a response by deadline.

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RFK’s Latest Idea Has Some In MAHA Scratching Their Heads
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RFK’s Latest Idea Has Some In MAHA Scratching Their Heads

'Biometric data is irreplaceable, making it a highly sought-after asset in the digital age'

Dark politics changed her mind about Christianity



After covering a little too much darkness in the world, journalist Jessica Reed Kraus of House Inhabit has opened her Bible and started on a spiritual journey.

And BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey is not only thrilled to hear it but well-aware that encountering darkness can often lead someone to the light.

“I hear from a lot of people who previously, they didn’t believe, or maybe they were just agnostic, and they didn’t know that it was actually seeing evil, in whatever context, some people it’s Hollywood, for some people it’s politics, for some people it’s in their own life, that kind of turns the light on,” Stuckey tells Kraus on “Relatable.”

“And they’re like, ‘Oh, if there’s objective evil and darkness, then there must be objective goodness and light too,’” she adds.


“Absolutely,” Kraus agrees. “That’s sort of an underlying theme now, is good and evil and darkness and light and what you’re giving your energy to.”

Some of the darkness she had seen prior to beginning her spiritual journey is attributed to covering celebrities like Britney Spears, whose fall from grace has served as entertainment for the masses — and one she could no longer cover after a certain point.

“When it weighs me in a negative and sort of a dark way, I will usually kind of back away,” she says.

However, Kraus didn’t always feel drawn to the Bible, as growing up around liberals, the topic of God was “shunned.”

“You just kind of instinctively know not to bring up God and religion,” she explains, noting that when she was working on the campaign trail with the Trump team and the Kennedy team, it couldn’t have been more different, and people were very open with prayer and faith.

“It felt like it was a really cool thing to witness,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.