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Read more →Cargill Kitchen Solutions recalled more than 210,000 pounds of products under its Egg Beaters and Bob Evans labels.Thousands of pounds of liquid egg substitutes sold under two popular brand names have been recalled because of the potential risk of contamination with a cleaning solution, federal safety regulators said.Cargill Kitchen Solutions in Lake Odessa, Mich., recalled about 212,268 pounds of products under its Egg Beaters and Bob Evans labels because they may contain a cleaning solution with sodium hypochlorite, also known as bleach, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said on March 28.The products were shipped for distribution in Ohio and Texas and for food service use in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois and Iowa.“There is a possibility that the products were distributed nationwide,” the agency said.Cargill Kitchen Solutions did not immediately respond to inquiries on Sunday but in a telephone recording about the recall, the company said it was voluntary.“We have issued this recall out of an abundance of caution because some of the product may contain undeclared sodium hypochlorite,” the company said.The Food Safety and Inspection Service said it had received a tip about the products’ potential contamination with bleach, sometimes labeled sodium hypochlorite.“After conducting an investigation and thorough assessment of the contents of the cleaning solution, FSIS scientists concluded that use of this product should not cause adverse health consequences, or the risk is negligible, resulting in a Class III recall,” the agency said.The agency also noted that the health risks for consumers were relatively low and that there had been no reports of adverse reactions. “Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a health care provider,” the agency said.It did warn customers not to consume the potentially contaminated products and to throw them away or return them to the store where they purchased them.The liquid egg products were produced on March 12 and 13, 2025, and carry the label G1804 on their cartons, the agency said.The recall came as consumers are looking to egg alternatives because of rising prices and shortages at supermarkets nationwide. The recall also comes as other products may have been contaminated with the bird flu amid outbreaks in poultry and cows across the United States.Although egg prices have dropped recently, the anxiety about their cost continues, and many consumers have gotten creative at finding substitutes, such as liquid egg products.
Read more →It is the second confirmed measles death in the U.S. in a decade. If the outbreak continues at the current pace, the nation may lose its “elimination” status. The measles crisis in West Texas has claimed the life of another child, the second death in an outbreak that has burned through the region and infected dozens of residents in bordering states. The eight-year-old girl died of “measles pulmonary failure” at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas, according to records obtained by The New York Times. It is the second confirmed measles death in a decade in the United States. The first was an unvaccinated child who died in West Texas in February. Another unvaccinated person died in New Mexico after testing positive for measles, though officials have not yet confirmed that measles was the cause of death.A Trump administration official said on Saturday night that the girl’s cause of death is “still being looked at.” Since late January, when the outbreak began, West Texas has reported 480 cases of measles and 56 hospitalizations. The outbreak has also spread to bordering states, sickening 54 people in New Mexico and 10 in Oklahoma.If the virus continues to spread at this pace, the country risks losing its measles elimination status, a hard fought victory earned in 2000. Public health officials in West Texas have predicted the outbreak will continue for a year.Robert F. Kennedy, the nation’s health secretary, has faced intense criticism for his handling of the outbreak. A prominent vaccine skeptic, he has offered muted support for vaccination and has emphasized untested treatments for measles, like cod liver oil. According to doctors in Texas, his endorsement of alternative treatments has contributed to patients delaying critical care and ingesting toxic levels of vitamin A.Experts also fear that Trump administration’s recent decisions to dismantle international public health safeguards and pull funding from local health departments have made large, multistate outbreaks more likely. Measles is one of the most contiguous pathogens. The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left the room and spreads when a sick person breathes, coughs or sneezes. Within a week or two of being exposed, those who are infected may develop a high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes. Within a few days, a telltale rash breaks out as flat, red spots on the face and then spreads down the neck and torso to the rest of the body.In most cases, these symptoms resolve in a few weeks. But in rare cases, the virus causes pneumonia, making it difficult for patients, but especially children, to get oxygen into their lungs. It may also cause brain swelling, which can leave lasting problems, like blindness, deafness and intellectual disabilities.For every 1,000 children who get measles, one or two will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus also harms the body’s immune defenses, leaving it vulnerable to other pathogens.Christina Jewett
Read more →States that were once reluctant to expand Medicaid now have their state budgets tied to the fate of the program by constitutional amendments.If congressional Republicans go through with some of the deep Medicaid cuts they are considering, three states would be left in an especially tight bind.South Dakota, Missouri and Oklahoma have state constitutions requiring that they participate in Medicaid expansion, the part of Obamacare that expanded the health program for the poor to millions of adults.If Republicans choose to make the projected budget reductions by cutting into Medicaid expansion, the other 37 states (and D.C.) that participate in the expansion could stop covering working-class adults. Nine states have laws explicitly requiring them to stop Medicaid expansion or make significant changes if the federal share of spending drops.But South Dakota, Missouri and Oklahoma can’t do that. They either need to amend their constitutions, a lengthy process that can take years, or figure out how to fill the budget hole, most likely by cutting other services or raising taxes.How States Adopted Medicaid ExpansionIn recent years, voters in seven states led by Republican governors expanded Medicaid through referendums, with voters in three of them amending the constitution.
Source: KFFBy The New York TimesThe constitutional amendments were put on state ballots by progressive activists, who wanted to entrench the Medicaid program in places that had been hostile to that part of the Affordable Care Act. The idea was twofold: to get health coverage to more people, and to tether more states and their Republican lawmakers to Medicaid.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
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Read more →For a child who is not vaccinated against measles — one of the world’s most infectious viruses — no classroom, […]
Read more →Recent Trump administration actions are setting the stage for a measles resurgence, experts fear.As the Trump administration moves to dismantle international public health safeguards, pull funding from local health departments and legitimize health misinformation, some experts now fear that the country is setting the stage for a long-term measles resurgence.If federal health officials do not change course, large multistate outbreaks like the one that has torn through West Texas, jumping to neighboring states and killing two people, may become the norm.“We have really opened the door for this virus to come back,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In order for an outbreak to occur in the United States, the virus must first be imported into the country, and it must reach a large, unvaccinated population.Recent events have made both conditions seem increasingly likely, said Dr. William Moss, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.Efforts to control the spread of measles internationally have been disrupted by the Trump administration’s recent decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization, which runs a network of more than 700 laboratories that track measles cases in 164 countries.
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Read more →The United States can no longer keep tabs on drug-resistant gonorrhea, among other infections, scientists said.Drug-resistant gonorrhea, a form of the widespread sexually transmitted infection, is considered an urgent health threat worldwide. The United States has just lost its ability to detect it.Among the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees fired on Tuesday were 77 scientists who, among other work, gathered samples of gonorrhea and other S.T.I.s from labs nationwide, analyzed the genetic information for signs of drug resistance, and readied the samples for storage at a secure facility.No other researchers at the agency have the expertise, or the software, to continue this work. The abrupt halt has stranded about 1,000 samples of gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted pathogens that had not yet been processed, and perhaps dozens more headed to the agency.There are as many as 30 freezers full of samples that now have no custodians, said one senior C.D.C. official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.“We were just really shut down midair, like there was no warning,” the official said. “It was just completely unplanned and chaotic.”The C.D.C.’s work on S.T.I.s had taken on greater urgency in the past few years as rates of new infections soared. More than 2.4 million new S.T.I.s were diagnosed in 2023, about one million more than 20 years ago.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
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