Six years on from Covid crisis, Republicans still politicizing science – and Fauci remains a political punching bag

A US Senate committee hearing featuring Dr Anthony Fauci revealed at least one certainty: six years after the pandemic, politicizing science remains a vital political tactic.

The high-profile hearing was pitched by its Republican chair, Rand Paul of Kentucky, as an investigation into the origins of the Covid pandemic. It quickly became a forum for recrimination of a once-leading US government scientist by Republican senators.

Adviser to Trump and Biden for pandemic says Republican senator has ‘unhinged obsession’ with him

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Dr Anthony Fauci refused to answer questions at a high-profile Senate committee hearing on the origins of Covid-19 and accused the Republican senator leading questioning of having an “unhinged obsession” with him.

Fauci, the veteran former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), served as a key adviser to Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the Covid-19 pandemic. The hearing was called by Kentucky senator Rand Paul, who has investigated Fauci for years.

US states and federal government tracking cases as outbreak comes amid cuts to public health funding

An outbreak of cyclosporiasis highlights how US states and the federal government work together to track foodborne illnesses – and where they diverge.

Experts said the enormous number of cases, potentially more than 11,000 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) count, is symptomatic of “vulnerabilities” in food safety systems in the US.

Experts say evidence for cognitive screening desired by health secretary ‘not great’ as taskforce idle since last year

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has called for better Alzheimer’s screening – but a critical federal panel that might have helped researchers find practical ways to do that has been prevented from meeting for more than a year.

The panel, formally called the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), had planned to issue a recommendation on screening for cognitive decline this year, alongside 13 other topics as varied as autism screening and food allergy prevention.

Over 11,500 people this summer are suspected to have been sickened by disease that can cause explosive diarrhea, CDC says

Investigations into the largest cyclosporiasis outbreak on record expanded to nine states this week, as more than 11,500 people are suspected to have been sickened this summer, according to reports and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Data released by the CDC this week said the agency is looking into 4,173 laboratory-confirmed domestic cases of the disease and investigating an additional 7,400.

Health secretary says source has been identified despite experts warning infections are likely to keep rising

The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has said the ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis – the illness caused by the cyclospora parasite that causes watery and explosive diarrhea – is “under control”.

Kennedy made the remarks one day after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did an about-face on a 27-state recall of shredded iceberg lettuce, calling the reported product a “false positive”.

OMB proposal would upend entire grant-making system – and put vast sums into hands of political appointees

It was a late Friday afternoon in Boston when Harvard School of Public Health professor Nancy Krieger, a social epidemiologist, received an email that would reshape the next year of her life.

It was from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – her nearly $1m grant to study how discrimination affects population health was canceled.

From manufactured election insecurity to an outbreak of ‘explosive’ diarrhea, Americans are bearing the brunt of harmful policies

Between widespread cuts to vital government agencies, various disease and illness outbreaks, and new environmental disaster vulnerabilities, the United States is facing a convergence of crises with widespread repercussions.

Yet the Trump administration has hamstrung the federal government from addressing these crises – and in some cases is actively fanning them. Over the past year, the administration has moved to shrink the federal workforce, roll back environmental protections and policies intended to fight the climate crisis, reduced funding for scientific research and is seeking to advance legislation that would impose new voting restrictions.