HEALTH AND SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

August 14, 2025 (San Diego's East County) -- Our Health and Science Highlights provide cutting edge news that could impact your health and our future.

HEALTH 

• RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development (AP)
• Rabbits with horns in Colorado are being called “Frankenstein bunnies.” Here’s why.
• What to know about chikungunya virus amid new outbreak in China (Good Morning America)

SCIENCE & TECH

• Scientists slam Trump administration climate report as a ‘farce’ full of misinformation  (MSN)
• The iPhone Update That Could Wreck Political Fundraising (Free Press)
• In reversal, Defense Department will continue providing crucial satellite weather data( NPR)
• Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose (NPR)
• A New List Reveals Top Websites Meta Is Scraping of Copyrighted Content to Train Its AI (DropSite)
• Amazon Agrees to a $1 Billion Discount as Tech Titans Rush to Cut Deals With Trump (NOTUS)

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

HEALTH 

RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development (AP)

The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.  / Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a statement Tuesday that 22 projects, totaling $500 million, to develop vaccines using mRNA technology will be halted. 

Rabbits with horns in Colorado are being called “Frankenstein bunnies.” Here’s why. (NBC)

A group of rabbits in Colorado with grotesque, hornlike growths may seem straight out of a low-budget horror film, but scientists say there’s no reason to be spooked — the furry creatures merely have a relatively common virus.

What to know about chikungunya virus amid new outbreak in China (Good Morning America)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel warning following an outbreak of a mosquito-borne illness called chikungunya in China. The CDC's warning centers on Guangdong Province, where the outbreak has exceeded 7,000 confirmed cases since June 2025, according to Chinese health officials. The outbreak in Guangdong Province has been linked to monsoon flooding, which created ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes, which spread the virus that causes chikungunya.

SCIENCE & TECH

Scientists slam Trump administration climate report as a ‘farce’ full of misinformation  (MSN)

A new Trump administration report which attempts to justify a mass rollback of environmental regulations is chock-full of climate misinformation, experts say... The esteemed climate scientist Michael Mann said the report was akin to the result he would expect “if you took a chatbot and you trained it on the top 10 fossil fuel industry-funded climate denier websites”.

The iPhone Update That Could Wreck Political Fundraising (Free Press)

In early June, Apple announced a new feature through its forthcoming iOS 26 software that will allow iPhone users to screen messages from “unknown senders.” That will automatically place texts from such senders, starting in mid-September, in a separate folder without notifying the recipients…. At the heart of the issue are questions that D.C. insiders on both sides of the aisle are grappling with ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. How big an impact will the “unknown senders” change by Apple really have on fundraising and other campaign outreach, like get-out-the-vote advocacy?

In reversal, Defense Department will continue providing crucial satellite weather data( NPR)

The Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, which processes and shares the data, "planned to phase out the data as part of a Defense Department modernization effort," a Navy spokesperson wrote in an email to NPR. "But after feedback from government partners, officials found a way to meet modernization goals while keeping the data flowing until the sensor fails or the program formally ends in September 2026."

Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose (NPR)

If the plans are carried out, one of the missions would be permanently terminated, because the satellite would burn up in the atmosphere.  The data the two missions collect is widely used, including by scientists, oil and gas companies and farmers who need detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. They are the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.  It is unclear why the Trump administration seeks to end the missions.

A New List Reveals Top Websites Meta Is Scraping of Copyrighted Content to Train Its AI (DropSite)

The tech giant is sidestepping guardrails that websites use to prevent being scraped, data show, in a move whistleblowers say is unethical and potentially illegal.

Amazon Agrees to a $1 Billion Discount as Tech Titans Rush to Cut Deals With Trump (NOTUS)

Google, Oracle, OpenAI and other tech firms are all slashing their prices for the Trump administration.