HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

April 24, 2025 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH

• Virus that causes polio-like illness found in Bay Area as influenza cases spike (SF Gate)
• Tuberculosis cases in the US rose to their highest levels in more than a dozen years (AP)
• States sue Trump administration for rescinding billions in health funding (AP)
• CDC division responsible for asthma control and lead poisoning prevention effectively eliminated (Stat)
• CDC’s top laboratory on sexually transmitted diseases is shut by Trump administration (STAT)
• RFK Jr. says MMR vaccine ‘most effective’ way to stop spread of measles after Texas child’s death (Fox 5)
• Vaccine critic’s apparent selection to head HHS autism study shocks experts (Stat)
• The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations(ProPublica)
• Utah becomes the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water (ABC)
• CDC’s top laboratory on sexually transmitted diseases is shut by Trump administration  (STAT)
• CDC advisory committees not mandated by law at risk of being terminated (Politico)

SCIENCE AND TECH

• NASA weighs doing away with headquarters (Politico)
• Dire wolf revived after 10,000 years due to biotech company's de-extinction process (MSN)
• Exclusive: Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers, research shows (Reuters)
• Trump shifts cyberattack readiness to state and local governments in wake of info-sharing cuts (CSO)
• Dire wolf revived after 10,000 years due to biotech company's de-extinction process (MSN)
• Encrypted messaging apps promise privacy. Government transparency is often the price (AP)
•  Humming along in an old church, the Internet Archive is more relevant than ever (NPR)
• Turned Into a Ghibli Character? So Did Your Private Info (CySecurity News)

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

HEALTH

Virus that causes polio-like illness found in Bay Area as influenza cases spike (SF Gate)

First identified in California in 1962, EV-D68 can severely impact small children

Tuberculosis cases in the US rose to their highest levels in more than a dozen years (AP)

 More than 10,300 cases were reported last year, an 8% increase from 2023 and the highest since 2011, according to preliminary data posted this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  / Both the number of cases and the rate of infections rose. Rates were up among all age groups, and 34 states had reported an increase.

States sue Trump administration for rescinding billions in health funding (AP)

A coalition of states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its decision to cut $11 billion in federal funds that go toward COVID-19 initiatives and various public health projects across the country.

CDC division responsible for asthma control and lead poisoning prevention effectively eliminated (Stat)

Workers say no other HHS unit has capacity to respond to such public health crises

CDC’s top laboratory on sexually transmitted diseases is shut by Trump administration (STAT)

‘We are blind,’ researcher says, noting the lab is crucial to tracking drug-resistant gonorrhea and other diseases

RFK Jr. says MMR vaccine ‘most effective’ way to stop spread of measles after Texas child’s death (Fox 5)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as the “most effective” way to prevent the spread of measles during a visit to Texas with the family of an 8-year-old girl who died from the disease.

Vaccine critic’s apparent selection to head HHS autism study shocks experts (Stat)

The apparent choice of David Geier — who does not have a medical degree and who was disciplined by the State of Maryland’s Board of Physicians for practicing medicine without a license — to conduct a study looking for the link that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long asserted exists, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, struck many as a surreal choice.  Geier and his father, a physician who lost his medical license in multiple states, have promoted claims that use of the preservative thimerosal in vaccines led to an increase in autism diagnoses. A raft of studies has refuted the allegation, and autism rates have not declined in the more than 20 years since thimerosal was phased out of most vaccines in the United States.

The CDC Buried a Measles Forecast That Stressed the Need for Vaccinations(ProPublica)

 Control and Prevention ordered staff this week not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles is high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates are lagging.

Utah becomes the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water (ABC)

 Lawmakers in other states, including Ohio, South Carolina and Florida have also made proposals to restrict fluoride in public water.

CDC’s top laboratory on sexually transmitted diseases is shut by Trump administration  (STAT)

At a time when the world is down to a single drug that can reliably cure gonorrhea, the U.S. government has shuttered the country’s premier sexually transmitted diseases laboratory, leaving experts aghast and fearful about what lies ahead. / The STD lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a leading player in global efforts to monitor for drug resistance in the bacteria that cause these diseases — was among the targets of major staff slashing at the CDC this past week. All 28 full-time employees of the lab were fired.

CDC advisory committees not mandated by law at risk of being terminated (Politico)

HHS tells CDC leaders it is “recommending termination” of the discretionary advisory committees.

SCIENCE AND TECH

NASA weighs doing away with headquarters (Politico)

 NASA is weighing closing its headquarters and scattering responsibilities among the states, a move that has the potential to dilute its coordination and influence in Washington.

Dire wolf revived after 10,000 years due to biotech company's de-extinction process (MSN)

In a scientific breakthrough that could forever change how humans interact with our planet, Colossal Biosciences said it has brought back an extinct animal that last walked the Earth roughly 10,000 years ago: the dire wolf. The U.S.-based biotechnology company is also known for its ambitious goal of bringing back the extinct woolly mammoth by 2028.

Exclusive: Secretive Chinese network tries to lure fired federal workers, research shows (Reuters)

A network of companies operated by a secretive Chinese tech firm has been trying to recruit recently laid-off U.S. government workers, according to job ads and a researcher who uncovered the campaign.

Trump shifts cyberattack readiness to state and local governments in wake of info-sharing cuts (CSO)

 Shifting the burden of managing cyber emergencies to state and local governments while scaling back federal information-sharing groups could leave local, underfunded CISOs and CIOs less prepared for critical infrastructure attacks.

Dire wolf revived after 10,000 years due to biotech company's de-extinction process (MSN)

In a scientific breakthrough that could forever change how humans interact with our planet, Colossal Biosciences said it has brought back an extinct animal that last walked the Earth roughly 10,000 years ago: the dire wolf... Shapiro’s team had to extract more dire wolf DNA from two existing fossils to better sequence the animal's genome. From there, Colossal elected to use a close relative of the dire wolf as the base.

Encrypted messaging apps promise privacy. Government transparency is often the price (AP)

While such apps promise increased security and privacy, they often skirt open records laws meant to increase transparency around and public awareness of government decision-making. Without special archiving software, the messages frequently aren’t returned under public information requests. / An Associated Press review in all 50 states found accounts on encrypted platforms registered to cellphone numbers for over 1,100 government workers and elected officials. 

 Humming along in an old church, the Internet Archive is more relevant than ever (NPR )

If you've ever clicked on a hyperlink that's taken you to something called the Wayback Machine to view an old web page, you've been introduced to the Internet Archive…..A Pew Research Center study published last year found that roughly 38% of web pages on the internet that existed in 2013 were no longer accessible as of 2023. According to a Harvard Law Review study published in 2014, about half of all links cited in U.S. Supreme Court opinions no longer led to the original source material.

Turned Into a Ghibli Character? So Did Your Private Info (CySecurity News)

 Before sharing an AI-edited selfie, take a moment to think— is hopping on a trend worth risking your privacy?