Look at the data between vaccinated and unvaccinated populations in the same area on individual outcome. What is really alarming, although predictable, is that the Covid-19 vaccine misinformation-based anti-vaxxerism has impacted childhood vaccination for illnesses such as mumps, measles, rubella, diptheria, or polio. Here are the facts. What happens next should be obvious.
Credit: Medpage Today
Routine childhood vaccinations among kindergartners declined in the 2021-2022 school year, contributing to a 2-percentage point decrease in vaccine coverage in this age group since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC researchers found.
Among all U.S. kindergartners last year, approximately 93% received their measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) shot, the vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP), and the poliovirus and varicella vaccines, reported Ranee Seither, MPH, of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in Atlanta, and colleagues.
Overall coverage for these immunizations has dropped 1 percentage point per year since 2019, with vaccination against all four illnesses declining in most states, Seither and colleagues wrote in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reportopens in a new tab or window.
“While this might not sound significant, it means nearly 250,000 kindergartners are potentially not protected against measles alone,” Georgina Peacock, MD, MPH, acting director of the CDC’s immunization services division, said at a press conference. “We know that measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination coverage is the lowest it has […]
Stephan: For two hundred years the general sense of the Supreme Court amongst voters was that it was an impartial institution that placed the law above partisanship. Well, that has changed. The christofascist cabal that, thanks to Trump and the Republicans, now dominates the Court has destroyed its reputation for fairness. This is all part of the Republican strategy to destroy American democracy and replace it with an authoritarian christofascist anocracy.
Never in recent history, perhaps, have so many Americans viewed the Supreme Court as fundamentally partisan.
Public approval of the nine-justice panel stands near historic lows. Declining faith in the institution seems rooted in a growing concern that the high court is deciding cases on politics, rather than law. In one recent poll, a majority of Americans opined that Supreme Court justices let partisan views influence major rulings.
Three quarters of Republicans approve of the high court’s recent job performance. But Democrats’ support has plummeted to 13 percent, and more than half the nation overall disapproves of how the court is doing its job.
Public support for the high court sank swiftly last summer in response to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a landmark ruling that revoked a constitutional right to abortion. The decision delighted many conservatives but defied a large majority of Americans who believe abortion should be legal.
Yet, partisan anger runs deeper than Dobbs. Liberals are fuming about a confluence of lucky timing and political maneuvering that enabled a Republican-controlled Senate to approve three conservative justices in four years, knocking the panel out […]
Stephan: This is what the Republicans are doing to the assessment Americans make about their Congress. All of this is working to destroy the integrity of our democracy. It makes me very angry. How do you feel about what is going on?
Joint session of Congress
Americans do not have tremendous respect for the honesty and ethical standards of car salesmen or journalists, but they still give people in these professions a higher rating for these characteristics than they give to members of Congress.
This week, as first reported Tuesday by the New York Post, Gallup released the results of a survey it conducted on how Americans perceive the honesty and ethical standards of people in different professions. (Gallup first did this survey in 1976 and has done it annually since 1990.)
From Nov. 9 to Dec. 2, 2022, according to a release put out by the polling company, Gallup asked 1,020 American adults this question: “Please tell me how you would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in these different fields — very high, high, average, low or very low?”
The survey then listed 18 different professions — ranging from bankers to lawyers to members of Congress.
Only 2% of the respondents gave members of Congress a “very high” rating for honesty and ethical standards, while another 7% gave […]
Stephan: Well if you want a heads up on what is coming with the new Congress that is sworn in tomorrow, here it is. As this article describes the House Republicans in a secret meeting tonight voted to throw out independent Congressional ethics oversight. Now they can do what they want and you will probably never know. Freed from independent oversight I think we can anticipate unparalleled levels of corruption in the new House.
Fraudster MAGAt Republican Representative George Santos and MAGAt Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy
WASHINGTON — House Republicans voted 119-74 Monday night in favor of a proposal that would gut Congress’ outside ethics watchdog and remove its independence. (emphasis added)
Republican Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s proposal would place the independent Office of Congressional Ethics — an initial watchdog for House members but without power to punish members — under oversight of those very lawmakers.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and other top GOP leaders opposed the change to ethics rules, but rank-and-file members disregarded their views and voted to approve the new structure for ethics reviews going forward, according to a senior House GOP leadership source familiar with the closed door discussion.
The proposal would bar the panel from reviewing any violation of criminal law by members of Congress, requiring that it turn over any complaint to the House Ethics Committee or refer the matter to an appropriate federal law enforcement agency. The House Ethics Committee would also have […]
Stephan: Given the clear sentiment of Americans about the overturning of Roe what I find interesting is that Republicans in the House have made a political assessment, and have gone forward with a further attempt to limit a woman's right to control her own body. Clearly they believe that the people who voted them into office still support what they are doing. The answer to this? A sufficient number of voters need to join together to vote these people out of office, out of power. As a country, we need to get clear that the government does not have the power to control what women do concerning their own bodies.
Kevin McCarthy, the new Republican speaker of the House. Credit: Sarah Silbiger / Reuters
The Republican-led House on Wednesday pressed ahead with a pair of anti-abortion measures, despite warning signs that the issue had galvanized the opposition in the wake of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last year.
Voting mostly along party lines, Republicans first approved a bill that would compel doctors to provide care for an infant who survives an attempted abortion – an occurrence that is exceedingly rare.
After its passage, Republicans broke into applause on the House floor as the bill’s sponsor, congresswoman Ann Wagner, a Republican of Missouri, waved the text of the legislation in celebration.
Democrats, several of them wearing white in protest, remained silent. However, on the measure, two Texas Democrats broke with the party: the congressman Henry Cuellar, who opposes abortion, supported it while his colleague Vicente González voted present.
The House also passed a non-binding resolution condemning attacks on pregnancy crisis centers, with the support of all Republicans and three Democrats.
The proposals, among the first moves made by Republicans’ […]
