With autism being way up, what do we have to lose by having doctors give small dose vaccines vs. big pump doses into those tiny bodies?
— @realDonaldTrump
Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!
— @realDonaldTrump
CNN:
One in 68 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a 30% increase from 1 in 88 two years ago, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This newest estimate is based on the CDC's evaluation of health and educational records of all 8-year-old children in 11 states: Alabama, Wisconsin, Colorado, Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas, Arizona, Maryland, North Carolina, Utah and New Jersey.
The incidence of autism ranged from a low of 1 in 175 children in Alabama to a high of 1 in 45 in New Jersey, according to the CDC.
Children with autism continue to be overwhelmingly male. According to the new report, the CDC estimates 1 in 42 boys has autism, 4.5 times as many as girls (1 in 189).
No, it's not from vaccines (
it seems to start prenatally) and yes,
Donald Trump is a moron.
AP:
Political opposition in Texas to the federal health care overhaul hasn't helped enrollment numbers that lag behind expectations as next week's deadline to sign up looms, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Friday.
Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the nation. As of March 1, about 295,000 people in Texas had signed up for coverage — less than half of the target of 629,000 enrollees originally set by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Gov. Rick Perry and Republican leaders have consistently slammed the health overhaul while simultaneously refusing Medicaid expansion in a state where nearly 1 out of every 4 residents is uninsured.
Millions of uninsured nationwide have until Monday to pick a plan or face penalties. More than 6 million Americans have signed up so far.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Union Leader:
New Hampshire joined 25 other states Thursday in expanding Medicaid eligibility when Gov. Maggie Hassan signed Senate Bill 413 into law.
The bipartisan legislation will provide health insurance to 50,000 low-income adults in a two-and-a-half year pilot program using private health insurers paid for with federal Medicaid money.
"Our bipartisan health care expansion plan is a historic step forward for the health and financial well-being of Granite State families, businesses and communities," Hassan said. She called the plan a fiscally responsible, uniquely New Hampshire solution that will help the state's economy and improve the lives of 50,000 working people.
The plan uses federal Medicaid funds pay for health care for adults earning less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level — around $16,000 for an individual — have access to health insurance.
That's how it's done, Texas.
WaPo:
Maryland officials are set to replace the state’s online health-insurance exchange with technology from Connecticut’s insurance marketplace, according to two people familiar with the decision, an acknowledgment that a system that has cost at least $125.5 million is broken beyond repair.
The board of the Maryland exchange plans to vote on the change Tuesday, the day after the end of the first enrollment period for the state’s residents under the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
In CT, rumors have been flying all week about franchising the successful state ACA exchange software. The only question was which state was going to sign the deal. We'll see, for example, what OR and HI do to fix their situations.
CIDRAP:
Influenza experts were puzzled last year when the seasonal flu vaccine didn't work very well against H3N2 flu viruses, the dominant strain at the time, even though the vaccine was said to be an excellent match for the viruses going around.
Now a large team of Canadian scientists thinks it has an explanation for the problem: Mutations occurred when the H3N2 reference strain recommended for use in the vaccine was adapted to make it grow well in eggs.
Those mutations weakened the immune response to the A/H3N2 component of the vaccine, contends the team, led by Danuta Skowronski, MD, lead epidemiologist with the Influenza and Emerging Respiratory Pathogens branch of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
"These mutations acquired with egg adaptation have been recognized for decades, and have been described," Skowronski said in an interview. "But our study is the first to show the epidemiologic impact of those mutations in people." The study was published this week in PLoS One.
Sometimes things go wrong. last year (not this year, with
62% effectiveness) seems to be such a time.
Stephen Schesinger:
You know that you've failed when a Republican like Joseph Scarborough, host of the MSNBC show Morning Joe, says on his program that Randy Mastro, the so-called "independent" lawyer investigating Gov. Christie's bridge-closing scandal, sounded like Baghdad Bob at his press conference Thursday, and the political writer, Al Hunt -- also on the show -- said Mastro could have served as "Putin's lawyer."
What will Christie do for his follow-up? One thing is for clear -- the woman in the George Washington Bridge scandal, Bridget Kelly, the sender of the traffic tie-up demand, is now in the crosshairs of the Mastro-led counterattack.
How many senior Christie staffers/appointees have now been fired/resigned? In the NCAA, they call this "lack of institutional control."
— @Scout_Finch