But Donald Trump has his own cancer cure
HPV vaccination has long been framed as a way to prevent
cervical cancer in women, but the virus causes a range of cancers that affect
men, including head and neck, anal, and penile cancers. In the study,
researchers from the Nara Prefecture General Medical Center in Nara, Japan,
looked at large-scale population data to evaluate the effectiveness of the
nine-valent HPV vaccine in preventing these cancers in men.
Climate risk research tells us how the wind blows.
By Steven M. Rothstein and Christopher S. Stark, Rhode Island Current
.webp)
Global insured losses from natural catastrophes alone reached over $100 billion for the sixth consecutive year in 2025. In 2015, these numbers were between $27 billion and $37 billion across the globe. California wildfires alone in 2025 exceeded 2015 losses.
In the coming decades, millions more homes and businesses along the East Coast will be threatened by wind damage. According to a 2023 study by the First Street Foundation, the average cost of damage in Rhode Island caused by extreme weather is projected to rise by more than 50% from $10 million to $15.6 million in 2053.
Rhode Island’s 400 miles of coastline and several rivers have risen above flood stage in the past. That means an increased risk of waterborne diseases, mold growth, bacterial contamination, psychological trauma, and long-term effects on local economies in the years ahead, state officials say.
Trump's Total War Budget
That dream is the utter destruction of the US safety net and
the unlimited expansion of the US military.
“The United States can’t take care of daycare,” Trump
blustered during a speech to faith leaders. “That has to be up to
a state. We’re fighting wars. Medicaid, Medicare — they can do it on a state
basis. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. But all these
little scams that have taken place, you have to let states take care of them.”
Democrats have said the document is dead on arrival — though
Trump hopes to
pass a big chunk of it through reconciliation without Democratic votes.
The budget does not, at least initially, include cuts to
Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. It also does not include funding for
Trump’s war against Iran, which he also hopes to pass through a reconciliation
process without Democratic support. But it points the way clearly toward a
distinctively Republican future for America — one in which the populace is
transformed into an impoverished mass of hunger and disease, emitting
occasional hoarse pleas for castoffs from oligarchs.
Patty Murray, the top democrat on the Senate appropriations
committee, said it
is a “bleak and unacceptable” vision. It’s one that is likely to be incredibly
unpopular, throwing a lead anchor to the GOP’s already rapidly sinking midterm
prospects.
Trump nominates Brown Med School graduate Erica Schwartz, former deputy surgeon general, to head CDC
 |
| Wikimedia Commons / Mike Olliver |
Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, former Coast Guard officer, is Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Trump announced late this afternoon.
“Erica graduated from Brown University for College and Medical School, and served a distinguished career as a Doctor of Medicine in the United States Military, the Greatest and Most Powerful Force in the World, and then served as my Deputy Surgeon General during my First Term,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post.
Trump
also appointed Sean Slovenski as the CDC deputy director and chief operating
officer, Jennifer Shuford, MD, MPH, as the CDC deputy director and chief
medical officer, and Sara Brenner, MD, MPH, as senior counselor for public
health to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“These Highly Respected Doctors of Medicine have the
knowledge, experience, and TOP degrees to restore the GOLD STANDARD OF SCIENCE
at the CDC,” Trump said.
Schwartz is set to inherit a chaotic and hollowed CDC, one
that has seen public firings, the resurgence of measles across the nation, and
legally disputed changes to routine vaccine recommendations. Polling also
shows that Kennedy’s anti-vaccine “Make America Healthy Again” agenda isn’t
sitting well with voters and may be a liability in the midterm elections for
Republicans.
The CDC is an agency within HHS.
Thank you, Donald Trump and Bobby Jr.
RI Health Department notice:
He went to Atmed Treatment Center on April 15, and he was
tested for measles. He is recovering at home.
The last confirmed case of measles in Rhode Island was in
January 2025. In addition, customers and staff at Panadería El Quetzal, 445
Hartford Ave., Providence, on April 15 between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. may have
been exposed.
RIDOH has worked with Panadería El Quetzal and Atmed
Treatment Center to notify staff and other people who may have been exposed.
RIDOH is working to identify and contact those people. The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Global Migration
Health (DGMH) was notified because people on the same flights as these
individuals may have been exposed.
Anyone who was believed to have had contact with this
patient during his infectious period are being contacted and provided with
instructions on steps to help prevent any spread. As is protocol, RIDOH is
taking additional measures in consultation with CDC.
Those who could have been exposed and begin to develop
symptoms of measles should call their healthcare professional before visiting
an office, clinic, or emergency department. Visiting a healthcare facility may
put others at risk and should be avoided if possible.
Anyone who has had measles in the past or has received two
doses of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine is unlikely to develop
measles even if exposed.
The best way to
protect against measles is with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
MMR is safe and effective.
EPA wants to gut recently enhanced safety requirements for hazardous facilities.
 |
| Charlestown is no stranger to chemical accidents, such as this fire at Kenyon Industries on Route 2 |
Raschelle Grandison had just walked out her front door to grab something from her car on a chilly March morning in 2019 when she stopped dead in her tracks.
Grandison stared in disbelief at what looked like a nuclear mushroom cloud approaching the Houston home she shared with her mother, who ran outside to see what was wrong. They were still watching the giant black cloud hurtling toward their neighborhood from the Houston Ship Channel when the shelter-in-place alerts started blaring.
“It was just terrifying because when you shelter in place, you’ve got a cloud over you, you can’t leave, you can’t go anywhere and nobody can come in,” Grandison said. “It’s just you and God at that point.”
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| Bradford Dyeing explosion. Charlestown-Westerly town line |
The flames spread to 14 surrounding tanks, and the apocalyptic cloud menaced the Houston skyline for three days before emergency crews put the fire out. By then, a containment wall had failed and released hundreds of thousands of barrels of toxic compounds into nearby waterways, harming birds and their habitat.
Close to 180 million Americans live near one of the country’s 12,000 facilities capable of producing a “worst-case scenario” chemical disaster. A third of these facilities operate in areas where natural hazards like wildfires, hurricanes and sea level rise could disrupt power supplies or damage infrastructure to trigger a catastrophic accident. These risks grow as the planet warms, the Government Accountability Office reported in 2022, when it advised the Environmental Protection Agency to require plants to plan for climate-supercharged natural hazards.
But Donald Trump, whose 2024 campaign received more than $25 million in donations from the oil and gas industry, is trying to keep fenceline communities in the dark about these risks.
Bureaucracy versus medicine
By Dr. Steven Fera for Save Our Health Care
Primary care in this country is at a critical juncture. The
causes are multiple, but government reforms, demands of private payers and
corporate employers, the burden of pre-authorization, and the introduction of
electronic medical record (EMR) systems are all important contributing factors.
To the rescue?
In the 1990s, managed-care plans emerged which greatly increased insurance company profits at the expense of the physician. Hospital executives and entrepreneurs have capitalized by organizing physicians into groups called Accountable Care Organizations, collecting a substantial percentage of collected income. Nowadays, physicians are required to use electronic medical records, which has transformed daily workflow.
In many
cases, patient visits are dominated by time spent engaged in data entry, which
requires searching for the correct medical diagnostic code (currently there are
over 69,000) and billing code, along with including sufficient medical
“information” to qualify for payment. The companies that developed them are
reaping significant profits from hospitals and physician practices. Whether
this enhances quality or simply undermines the doctor-patient relationship
depends on who you ask.
Over the past decade or so, the costs of practice have outpaced increases in reimbursement. Moreover, administrative demands have steered a majority of physicians into employment models, where they have often found that “protocols” and “productivity” were more important metrics than “quality,” leading to both physician and patient dissatisfaction. A rewarding and successful doctor-patient interaction requires time, a luxury many practitioners can no longer afford within the constraints of shorter patient visits.
More than open space
“We are very pleased to work with our partners at USFWS and
TNC to preserve this beautiful property. In completing this acquisition,
we are conserving ecologically important habitat while at the same time,
expanding public access to an exceptional site for outdoor recreation,” said
DEM Director Terry Gray. “This is one of the most beautiful parts of Rhode
Island and we hope that people come out and enjoy a hike or just visit and
connect with nature. Working with our partners enables us to leverage state
open space funds from the Green Bonds overwhelmingly approved by Rhode Island
voters to secure open space resources for the good of our environment and the
people of the state.”
Stronger Flu Shot Linked to Nearly 55% Lower Alzheimer’s Risk, Study Finds
By University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
.webp)
A new study from UTHealth Houston reports that older adults
who receive a higher dose of the influenza vaccine may have a significantly
lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared to those who receive the
standard dose.
The results were published in Neurology.
Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of dementia,
affecting more than 7 million Americans age 65 and older as of 2025. That
represents about 1 in 9 people in this age group, and the number is projected
to more than double by 2050.
Earlier
research from 2022, led by Paul Schulz, MD, a professor of neurology at
McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and director of the Neurocognitive
Disorders Center, found that people age 65 and older had a lower risk of
Alzheimer’s disease if they received a flu vaccine.
Now, three years later, Schulz and his team report that the reduction in risk is even greater among those who receive a higher dose of the vaccine.
Unions help prevention worker turnover
By University
of California, Los Angeles
Edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed
by Robert Egan
The findings on the role of DCW unionization, published in the peer-reviewed JAMA Network Open, apply to both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, suggesting that unionization can play a significant role in keeping DCWs in the workforce—and save the health care system $1.5 billion a year in turnover costs. It can also lead to improvements in care quality due to increased job satisfaction and lower stress.
Why direct care worker turnover matters
"Direct care workers provide essential daily care for
millions of older adults and people with disabilities, but very high levels of
worker turnover make it increasingly difficult for people to receive the
consistent care they need," said study lead Dr. Geoffrey Gusoff, assistant
professor of family medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
"Reducing turnover and retaining workers in the direct care workforce is
essential for meeting the need for high-quality direct care services."
ECRI pushes green agenda
Here’s the video:
This year, ECRI announced four legislative priorities for
the 2026 legislative session. As described by ECRI Vice President Tina
Munter, “[T]hese priorities, in no particular order, include urging our
legislators to oppose the rollback of state clean energy and energy efficiency
programs that have been proposed in the governor’s FY2027 budget, the Green
Bond plus crucial additional funding for conservation and open space measures,
the Save RIPTA legislative package as put together by the Save RIPTA Coalition,
and building decarbonization legislation, both building benchmarking and
reporting and building performance standards.”
