Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Public health

Questions Mount Over NIH Oversight After Alleged Virus Smuggling Incident
Just The News, Approved, National

Questions Mount Over NIH Oversight After Alleged Virus Smuggling Incident

By Greg Piper | Just the News "We don’t want Montana to be the next Wuhan," Big Sky Country senator says, asking inspector general to probe federal lab after RFK Jr. confirms whistleblower allegations. NIH has dribbled out details on pathogen accidents. The ABC political thriller Scandal ran for six seasons. If it were a reality show, The Real Scandals of Rocky Mountain Laboratories might be getting renewed for a ninth season. Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, urged Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General March Bell to immediately investigate "safety, security, and personnel practices at RML," a BSL-4 facility on the west side of Montana near the Idaho border that conducts federal research on the most dangerous path...
Colorado Supreme Court Orders Hospital To Resume Transgender Treatments For Minors
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Supreme Court Orders Hospital To Resume Transgender Treatments For Minors

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics The Colorado Supreme Court, by a 5-2 vote, ordered Children’s Hospital Colorado on Monday to resume providing certain medical services to a group of transgender plaintiffs, which it had ceased in the face of funding threats from the federal government last year. The unusual appeal before the Supreme Court stemmed from a trial judge’s rejection of a preliminary injunction to four trans plaintiffs who are minors seeking treatment from Children’s Colorado. The plaintiffs filed a class action alleging that the cessation of services based on their status violates the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. While multiple considerations inform whether a judge should grant an injunction, the Supreme Court’s majority concluded the plaintiffs wer...
Health Officials Confirm Hantavirus Death In Douglas County
DENVER7, Approved, Local

Health Officials Confirm Hantavirus Death In Douglas County

By Robert Garrison | Denver7 DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — A Douglas County adult resident has died from hantavirus, state and county health officials reported on Saturday. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said it’s investigating the incident and said the Douglas County case is not linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship outbreak. Early findings suggest the person was exposed to the virus locally through contact with rodents, which is the most common source of hantavirus in Colorado, according to CDPHE. The agency did not identify the Douglas County resident nor provide a date as to when the person died. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT DENVER7
RFK Jr Launches Major Push To Reduce Antidepressant Overprescribing
The Christian Post, Approved, National

RFK Jr Launches Major Push To Reduce Antidepressant Overprescribing

By Jon Brown | The Christian Post Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a sweeping new initiative earlier this week to reduce what he characterized as the overprescription of antidepressant selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other psychotropic medications, especially for children. "Psychiatric medications have a role in care, but we will no longer treat them as the default," Kennedy said at a Monday summit on mental health and overmedicalization hosted by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Institute in Washington, D.C. "We will treat them as one option, to be used when appropriate, with full transparency and with a clear path off when they are no longer needed." The plan being rolled out by HHS emphasiz...
From insider to critic: Ex-White House official questions public health orthodoxy
All Better, Approved, Commentary, National

From insider to critic: Ex-White House official questions public health orthodoxy

By Katy Talento | AllBetter Substack I kept Robert F. Kennedy Jr. out of the West Wing. Now I owe him an apology. It was 2017. We had hauled the CEOs of a bunch of pharmaceutical companies into the Oval Office so that President Trump could berate them about their drug prices. (Always a good time.) Somehow, the word “vaccine” came up in the conversation. When that happens in the president’s presence, then, now, last month, and probably next week, like clockwork, he always starts telling the same story. A woman who worked for him at the Trump Organization back in the day. Her two-year-old son, who was “perfect, beautiful, magnificent, flawless.” Then he got a shot and he was “just gone. Gone. Never the same. Beautiful boy. Then, just gone.” The CEOs all shrank back and tu...
Colorado Medicaid Cuts Force Aurora Mental Health Provider To Lay Off Over 100 Workers
Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Colorado Medicaid Cuts Force Aurora Mental Health Provider To Lay Off Over 100 Workers

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics A nonprofit that provides services through 11 mental health centers in Aurora announced Thursday that it is eliminating 111 jobs effective June 30, the result of federal and state budget reductions. Aurora Mental Health & Recovery said the positions being eliminated are mostly administrative and support service jobs. That includes 91 jobs currently held by AMHR employees. Four are clinical positions. The nonprofit also announced it is eliminating programs that no longer have sustainable funding, including behavioral health services at its Mrachek House; the youth leadership academy, adult education and victim assistance at the Cultural Development & Wellness Center; and the Aurora Sustained program within its fore...
Federal Indictment Fuels New Questions Over Federal Handling Of COVID Origins And Vaccine Risks
Just The News, Approved, National

Federal Indictment Fuels New Questions Over Federal Handling Of COVID Origins And Vaccine Risks

By Greg Piper | Just the News Indictment alleges quid pro quo between EcoHealth Alliance, Fauci senior advisor started with an "upper-mid tier" wine delivery. Sen. Johnson says FDA knew government database "masked" vaccine injuries, rejected transparency update. David Morens, senior advisor to former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci for 16 years, spent much of his career studying the threat of viral outbreaks posed by birds, especially when infections jump from wild fowl to poultry. Now he's facing the possibility of prison. The chickens have come home to roost for Morens, two years after congressional subpoenas exposed his avowed practice of circumventing the Freedom of Information Act to hide conversations ...
Colorado Regulators Approve Aurora Area Wells Despite Fierce Community Opposition
CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Colorado Regulators Approve Aurora Area Wells Despite Fierce Community Opposition

By Kelly Werthmann | CBS Colorado Colorado regulators on Tuesday cleared the way for a controversial oil and gas project near the Aurora Reservoir, following a yearslong battle by community members to block the plan. In a narrow 3-2 vote, the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission approved the permit for SM Energy's Sunlight-Long well development plan. The decision follows more than six hours of presentations and deliberations on Tuesday, marking the culmination of at least seven public hearings regarding the site's potential impact on the surrounding area. CBS The approval allows for fracking operations to move forward approximately 3,000 feet from the nearest homes. Members of the community group Save the Aurora Reservoir (STAR) have fought th...
The measles story you haven’t gotten — from either side
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

The measles story you haven’t gotten — from either side

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice An unvaccinated traveler touched down at Denver International Airport after eleven hours in the air — measles already working through the bloodstream, picked up in the U.S. before the trip out. One night in a Denver hotel. Back to the airport the next morning and onto a domestic flight home. By the time Colorado public health officials finished tracing what followed, ten state residents had confirmed measles. Nine exposed during that single pass through DIA — on the flight, in the terminal, at a gate. One more from a household contact downstream. Four of the nine secondary cases — including three passengers on the international flight — had received both recommended doses of the MMR vaccine. Measles lingers airborne fo...
Medicaid Cuts Raise Alarm for Colorado Hospitals Already on Thin Margins
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Medicaid Cuts Raise Alarm for Colorado Hospitals Already on Thin Margins

By Nico Brambila | Colorado Politics The $900 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade could threaten the viability of more than 400 hospitals nationally and at least nine in Colorado, a new report has found. The hospitals span the Front Range and rural communities, from Denver Health — the region’s primary safety-net provider — to smaller hospitals in places like Leadville, Lamar and Fort Morgan, reflecting the mounting pressure across both urban and rural health systems. “The cuts will be devastating to many low-income and disabled individuals who rely on Medicaid,” the report said. “Moreover, they will have knock-on effects on hospitals that disproportionately serve these communities, deepening the financial strain already plaguing rural and sa...