The Health and Human Services Department on Wednesday said it adopted a recommendation from Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine advisers to remove from all influenza shots a preservative that anti-vaccine activists have suggested is linked to autism.

The move hinged on the widely discredited belief that the mercury-containing compound, thimerosal, is harmful at the level at which it's included in vaccines.

Despite the lack of evidence of harm, most Americans who get flu vaccines already receive products without thimerosal.

The latest: Kennedy, in a statement, said the action fulfilled a promise to protect vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure.

"Injecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility," Kennedy said. "Today, we put safety first."

The Centers for Disease Control customarily acts on such recommendations. But because the CDC lacks a full-time political leader, Kennedy signed the recommendation.

HHS said that vaccine manufacturers confirmed that they have the capacity to replace multi-dose vials containing the preservative so that the federal Vaccines for Children program and adult vaccine supplies won't be interrupted.

Kennedy's handpicked vaccine advisors voted 5-1 last month to no longer recommend that that Americans get flu shots containing thimerosal, following a presentation from a retired nurse and former president of Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group with close ties to Kennedy.

The panel voted to recommend that children, pregnant women and adults only get single-dose seasonal flu vaccines that are thimerosal-free.

Kennedy has long promoted the belief that vaccines or other environmental factors have led to increased autism diagnoses in children.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has adopted a recommendation to remove thimerosal from all influenza vaccines distributed in the United States, even though there is no clear evidence of harm from the mercury-based preservative.

On July 23, the department announced that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has formally signed the recommendation, which was made last month by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Kennedy’s signature means that the recommendation is now federal health policy.

“After more than two decades of delay, this action fulfills a long-overdue promise to protect our most vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure,” Kennedy said in the HHS announcement Wednesday. “Injecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility. Today, we put safety first.”

Other recommendations from ACIP’s June meeting are currently under review, according to HHS.

Thimerosal was largely removed from most vaccines about 25 years ago. The US Food and Drug Administration asked manufacturers to remove it out of an abundance of caution, not because of evidence of harm, according to the CDC. All vaccines routinely recommended for young children are now available in doses that don’t have the preservative, which contains a form of mercury.

Flu vaccines drawn from multidose vials still contain thimerosal in order to prevent bacterial contamination. Only about 4% of flu vaccines given in the United States last year contained thimerosal as a preservative.

When ACIP voted in June to endorse thimerosal-free flu vaccines, it was among the panel’s first actions taken as a new committee that was appointed by Kennedy after he dismissed the previous panel, claiming that they had conflicts of interest.

In a series of three votes, the new ACIP panel voted 5-1, with one member abstaining, to recommend that only single-dose flu vaccines be given to children, adults and pregnant women in the United States. Single-dose shots are free of thimerosal.

Vaccines with thimerosal are still approved by the FDA, but ACIP recommendations are tremendously influential in how vaccines are used in the US, with implications for insurance coverage and state policies.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, will formally require vaccine makers to remove thimerosal from vaccines.

The ingredient has been the target of anti-vaccine campaigns and misinformation for decades. Arguments against the preservative culminated in June, when a key federal vaccine advisory panel, remade with Kennedy’s ideological allies, recommended against the preservative.

The recommendation goes into force upon Kennedy’s signature.

There is no evidence thimerosal has caused harm, despite decades of use. The ethylmercury-based preservative was used in only about 5% adult influenza vaccines in the US, helping prevent contamination in multi-dose vials.

“After more than two decades of delay, this action fulfills a long-overdue promise to protect our most vulnerable populations from unnecessary mercury exposure,” Kennedy said in a statement announcing the decision.

a man in a sweat-soaked shirt and jeans stands with his son atop a mountain, RFK Jr strides into new controversy: hiking in sweltering Arizona … in jeans

“Injecting any amount of mercury into children when safe, mercury-free alternatives exist defies common sense and public health responsibility. Today, we put safety first,” said Kennedy.

Thimerosal is an ethylmercury-based preservative – different from the kind of mercury found in seafood, called methylmercury. Ethylmercury has a shorter half-life in the body. The amount of ethylmercury contained in a flu vaccine (25 micrograms) is about half of that contained in a 3oz serving of canned tuna fish (40 micrograms).

The preservative has been used in vaccines since before the second world war. It was controversially phased out of most childhood vaccines in 1999, physicians associations said as a precautionary measure, and was contained in only a very small number of adult vaccines.

Phasing out the preservative in the early 2000s was criticized by experts who argued scientific evidence did not support its removal, that it sent mixed messages and that it provided a talking point for anti-vaccine campaigners. Indeed, the preservative was targeted for years to come.

That criticism came to a head in June, after Kennedy fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory committee on immunization practices, a federal panel that was a critical link in the vaccine distribution pipeline.

Kennedy replaced the experts with eight hand-picked allies, including one directly from the anti-vaccine movement. Eventually, one appointee dropped out after a conflict of interest review.

The vaccine advisory panel voted in favor of removing thimerosal on a 5-1 vote (with one abstention) after a controversial presentation from Lyn Redwood, a former leader of World Mercury Project, the predecessor to Kennedy’s group Children’s Health Defense, itself a prolific anti-vaccine campaign group.

Twelve-year-old Jaysen Carr was full of life until a summer day at Lake Murray, South Carolina, changed everything. Days after enjoying the water with his family, he developed symptoms that quickly escalated. Within a week, he was dead.

Doctors confirmed the reason as Naegleria fowleri, a rare and aggressive organism infamously dubbed the “brain-eating amoeba.” The South Carolina Department of Public Health and Prisma Health Richland Hospital in Columbia reported the pediatric death publicly on July 22. It's the first such case in the state since 2016.

The microscopic killer that claimed Jaysen’s life is a naturally occurring amoeba found in warm freshwater. It causes a deadly brain infection called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), which destroys brain tissue and is almost always fatal.

The Carr family, devastated by their sudden loss, is now seeking answers. Their attorney, Tyler Bailey, stated that while the family appreciates the outpouring of support from their community and the care provided by Prisma Health, they are committed to ensuring such a tragedy doesn't happen to another family.

"They have many questions about how and why Jaysen died," Bailey said in a public statement. “And they want to do everything in their power to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

What Is a Brain-Eating Amoeba?

Naegleria fowleri is not actually “eating” your brain the way a parasite might devour tissue. But what it does is arguably worse. Once it enters the body—usually through the nose—it migrates to the brain, where it rapidly causes inflammation, swelling, and destruction of brain tissue.

This isn’t something you can catch from drinking water or shaking someone’s hand. It’s not contagious. You have to get water up your nose—typically during activities like swimming or diving in warm, untreated freshwater.

How Common Is Brain-Eating Amoeba?

That’s the strange part, for all its horror, Naegleria fowleri is incredibly rare.According to the CDC, only 167 cases have been reported in the U.S. over the last six decades. And of those, only four people have survived.

Despite this rarity, every summer it resurfaces in headlines because it tends to thrive in the very water bodies people flock to when temperatures rise—lakes, rivers, ponds, and hot springs, especially in Southern and Southwestern states like Texas and Florida.

In Jaysen’s case, the suspected exposure was Lake Murray, although health officials clarified that since the amoeba occurs naturally in many bodies of freshwater, pinpointing the exact source isn’t always possible.

What Causes Brain-Eating Amoeba?

Naegleria fowleri typically infects people when contaminated water enters the nose. Once inside, the amoeba travels along the olfactory nerve into the brain. That’s when things go downhill.

Initial symptoms appear within one to twelve days and may resemble meningitis or flu: headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, stiff neck. But very quickly, the infection escalates to confusion, seizures, hallucinations, coma—and then death. Death usually occurs within 5 to 10 days after symptoms begin.

Where Does Brain Eating Amoeba Come From?

Naegleria fowleri loves heat. It survives in water up to 115°F (46°C), which means late summer is prime time for activity. It’s found in:

• Warm lakes, ponds, and reservoirs
• Hot springs and geothermal waters
• Slow-flowing warm rivers
• Mud puddles and untreated wells
• Poorly maintained swimming pools or water parks
• Untreated municipal water supplies in rare cases

It cannot survive in saltwater, nor in properly chlorinated pools. And again, you can’t get infected by drinking contaminated water—only if it goes up your nose.

How To Avoid Brain-Eating Amoeba?

There is no vaccine or guaranteed treatment for Naegleria fowleri. So prevention is the best—and only—defense. Here’s what health experts suggest:

• Avoid freshwater activities, especially in warm, still water during the summer.
• Hold your nose or use nose clips when swimming or diving in lakes and rivers.
• Avoid stirring up sediment where the amoeba may live.
• Stay away from untreated splash pads and recreational water parks with unclear sanitation practices.
• Never use tap water to rinse your sinuses or fill neti pots unless it’s been properly boiled, distilled, or filtered with a 1-micron filter.
• Even if risk is low, it’s not zero—especially when the result of infection is nearly always fatal.

Why Is Brain-Eating Amoeba So Hard to Treat?

Once symptoms begin, treatment options are limited. The infection progresses too rapidly for most medications to have an effect. Some experimental treatments using antifungal drugs and hypothermia (lowering body temperature to reduce inflammation) have been used in a few survivors. But survival still depends heavily on early diagnosis, which is challenging because early symptoms mimic other common illnesses.

Has There Been Any Survivor Of Brain Eating Amoeba?

In 2024, 14-year-old Afnan Jasim from Kerala, India, stunned doctors by surviving PAM. His case was one of the very few globally where the infection was caught early enough, and an aggressive combination of treatments including antifungal and antibacterial medications, supportive care, and cooling therapies—was able to halt the amoeba’s advance.

Health officials urge calm and reiterate that the risk to the general public is extremely low but for parents, educators, and communities especially those in warmer regions—it’s a time to pay attention.

Are you in awe of weight loss injections? Well, here is some news. They might be doing more than just helping you lose fat. According to a new study, the same drugs that are helping people drop kilos might also be calming their lungs, specifically in people who are both obese and asthmatic.

If you have heard of Ozempic or Mounjaro, you probably know they are part of a growing class of drugs originally designed for people with type 2 diabetes. These are called GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP1-RAs), and they work by mimicking a gut hormone that controls blood sugar and, conveniently, appetite. What is new, though, is their potential to help with another major issue, breathing.

The Link Between Asthma and Obesity

According to the American Lung Association, people with a BMI of 30 or higher are much more likely to have asthma. It is not just because the extra weight makes it harder to breathe. Fat tissue itself releases inflammatory chemicals that can mess with lung function.

Meanwhile, asthma can make physical activity feel like a battle, and long-term steroid use can ramp up hunger, meaning it is all too easy to get stuck in a cycle where obesity and asthma fuel each other.

The Study: What They Found

Published in the journal Advances in Therapy, the study looked at health records from over 60,000 people. One group of 10,111 were prescribed GLP1-RAs, while the rest were not.

After a follow-up, the group on the jabs had lost more weight, but they also had better control over their asthma. And the average weight loss was just 0.9 kg over the year. So it was not just about shedding pounds. Something else was clearly at play.

Reportedly, GLP1s work on inflammatory responses in the airways in a different way to traditionally used steroids. In other words, the drug may be doing a direct job on the lungs, not just helping from the sidelines by shrinking waistlines.

Experts Weigh In

Prof Alan Kaplan, chairperson of the Family Physician Airways Group of Canada and the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, told The Sun: "Our findings suggest that GLP1-RAs have benefits on asthma control in people with obesity, and this information should contribute to the discussions around the decision to use these drugs."

Dr Erika Kennington from Asthma and Lung UK told the publication that this could be promising for people who feel stuck. "Although exercise can help people lose weight, for some people it can cause anxiety about becoming breathless or having an asthma attack, so people are stuck in a vicious cycle of not being able to lose weight and their asthma worsening."

However, she also sounded a note of caution. "Therefore, where exercise hasn't worked for someone these drugs that support weight loss could offer a promising alternative.

"It's too early to say whether these drugs would be effective for people with asthma more widely.

"More research is needed to understand how these drugs actually improve asthma control. Funding for lung health research is on life support, and urgent action is needed to increase investment."

A Possible Turning Point for Millions

Millions of people in the UK are living with asthma. At the same time, nearly two-thirds of adults in England are overweight or obese. For people stuck between breathlessness and weight gain, these jabs could be a literal breath of fresh air. Still, while the findings are exciting, no one is saying these jabs are a magic fix for everyone with asthma.

Hulk Hogan, the wrestling legend has passed away at the age of 71, according to a report by TMZ Sports. Emergency services were reportedly dispatched to his Florida residence following a 911 call for a suspected cardiac arrest.

TMZ also reported that a video outside Hogan's residence show that the responders had tried to desperately save him while he was being transported to an ambulance. The clip shows that several paramedics were, what it seems like, conducting compression as Hogan was being wheeled to the emergency vehicle.

Hogan's death comes just weeks after his wife publicly denied rumors that the WWE Hall of Famer was in a coma, reassuring fans that his heart was “strong” and that he was recovering well after multiple surgeries.

Widely credited with transforming professional wrestling into a mainstream global phenomenon, Hogan—born Terry Bollea—was more than just a wrestler. With his signature bandana, handlebar mustache, and larger-than-life personality, he became a household name in the 1980s and 1990s, helping to usher in an era when wrestling became part of pop culture.

What Happens During Cardiac Arrest?

Jonathan Chrispin, MD, from John Hopkins Medicine, writes, that a cardiac arrest, also known as a sudden cardiac arrest, in when the heart stops beating suddenly. The lack of blood flow to the brain and other organ can cause a person to lose consciousness, become disabled or die if not treated immediately.

Is cardiac arrest the same as a heart attack? The answer is no, as per the Heart Organization, a heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart is blocked, whereas in a cardiac arrest, heart suddenly stops beating.

What Are The Symptoms Of A Cardiac Arrest?

In some cases of cardiac arrest, there may be no symptoms at all. You may experience these symptoms prior to cardiac arrest:

• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Shortness of breath
• Nausea
• Chest pain
• Heart palpitations (fast or pounding heart beat)
• Loss of consciousness

What Causes A Cardiac Arrest?

Common Causes of Cardiac Arrest:

Arrhythmia and Ventricular Fibrillation

Arrhythmia refers to an irregular heartbeat caused by disrupted electrical signals in the heart. One of the most dangerous types is ventricular fibrillation—a rapid, chaotic heartbeat in the ventricles. Instead of pumping blood effectively, the heart quivers, leading to sudden cardiac arrest.

Enlarged Heart (Cardiomyopathy)

Cardiomyopathy occurs when the heart muscle becomes enlarged—either dilated or thickened—resulting in weak or abnormal heart contractions. This condition increases the risk of heart failure and cardiac arrest.

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)

CAD is caused by plaque buildup that narrows and hardens the coronary arteries, restricting blood flow to the heart. If untreated, it can lead to arrhythmias or heart failure—both of which can trigger cardiac arrest.

Other Potential Causes of Cardiac Arrest

• Severe blood loss
• Valvular heart disease (damage or defects in the heart valves)
• Lack of oxygen (such as from drowning or choking)
• Electrolyte imbalances, particularly high levels of potassium or magnesium, which can disrupt heart rhythm and lead to arrhythmia

Early diagnosis and timely medical intervention are critical in preventing these conditions from progressing to cardiac arrest.