Following an executive order from the Trump administration that promotes production of glyphosate, some Democrats have claimed that the herbicide causes cancer. The science, however, is nuanced. While there is some evidence linking glyphosate to cancers in lab animals or to the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma in agricultural workers, the findings have been inconsistent.
The Food and Drug Administration on March 10 changed the approval for a version of the prescription drug leucovorin to include people with a very rare genetic condition. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary had previously implied that the drug’s new label would cover a much broader group of people with autism, saying that “hundreds of thousands of kids” would benefit.
In unveiling new dietary guidelines, federal health officials have claimed they are correcting past guidance that created a “generation of kids low in protein” and that Americans should get “dramatically” more of the nutrient. While some individuals may benefit from more protein, Americans are not generally protein-deficient.
In sweeping changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer recommends universal vaccination against six diseases. In justifying the move, health officials made misleading claims about vaccine safety while downplaying or omitting benefits.
Many doctors agree with the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to remove the black box warnings on at least some forms of hormone therapy used to treat the symptoms of menopause. But in making the announcement, health officials misleadingly suggested that women could take the drugs for long-term benefits to the heart and brain. Menopausal hormone therapy is not currently recommended for those uses.
Our annual recap of the worst falsehoods of the year.
The head of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division claimed in a leaked email that “at least 10 children” died from COVID-19 vaccination, using that to justify major vaccine regulatory changes. Experts, however, say too little information was provided to verify the claim.
The vaccine advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scheduled to meet Dec. 4 and 5. On the agenda: the hepatitis B vaccine, the overall childhood vaccine schedule and specific vaccine ingredients. We’ll summarize what we’ve written about these topics and what the committee has said about them in recent meetings.
Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine advocate who is now Health and Human Services secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its website to say that its previous statement that “vaccines do not cause autism” is “not an evidence-based claim.” But it’s the revised website that misleads about vaccines.
A presentation by scientists on a work group for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel highlighted various alleged “safety uncertainties” of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, including those about cancer and changes to the immune system. Scientists, however, told us that many of the cited studies are either misconstrued or of poor quality.