Tag: Medical

Largest US Children’s Hospital Will No Longer Offer Transgender Medical Procedures: CEO

Texas Children’s Hospital, the nation’s largest children’s hospital, will no longer offer transgender medical procedures for children, according to the hospital’s CEO Mark Wallace.

The decision will place the hospital in compliance with legislation, Senate Bill 14, which passed in a vote mainly along party lines on May 11.

The legislation will take effect on Sept. 1 once it is signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, who has signaled he will do so.

Under the legislation (pdf), procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender reassignment, or gender dysphoria that are intended to transition a child’s biological sex, will be banned.

Such procedures include those that sterilize children, such as castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, and vaginoplasty, as well as drugs that induce temporary or permanent infertility, or block or delay normal puberty.

Impact of Prenatal Cannabis Use Disorder on Perinatal Outcomes

J Addict Med, 2023 May-Jun;17(3):e192-e198.

Abstract

Objectives: With legislative changes to cannabis legalization and increasing prevalence of use, cannabis is the most commonly used federally illicit drug in pregnancy. Our study aims to assess the perinatal outcomes associated with prenatal cannabis use disorder.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using California linked hospital discharge-vital statistics data and included singleton, nonanomalous births occurring between 23 and 42 weeks of gestational age. χ 2 Test and multivariable logistic regression were used for statistical analyses.

Results: A total of 2,380,446 patients were included, and 9144 (0.38%) were identified as using cannabis during pregnancy. There was a significantly increased risk for adverse birthing person outcomes, including gestational hypertension (…P = 0.004), preeclampsia (…P < 0.001), and severe maternal morbidity (…P = 0.033). Prenatal cannabis use disorder was also associated with an increased risk of neonatal outcomes including respiratory distress syndrome (…0.001), small for gestational age (…P < 0.001), neonatal intensive care unit admission (…P < 0.001), and infant death (…P < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in stillbirth (…P = 0.80) and hypoglycemia (…P = 0.045).

Conclusions: Our study suggests that prenatal cannabis use disorder is associated with increased maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.

Bottom line: There was a significantly increased risk for adverse event outcomes, including gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and severe maternal morbidity. Prenatal cannabis use disorder was also associated with an increased risk of neonatal outcomes including respiratory distress syndrome, small for gestational age, neonatal intensive care unit admission, and infant death.

A 2023 study documents that almost five percent of women in their first trimester use marijuana. This is an unacceptably high number and efforts to educate the public on the health risks of this drug should be undertaken.

Women who are pregnant should not smoke or vape. THC has also been found in breast milk. Women should not breast feed and use marijuana. End of message.

FDA Revokes Emergency Use Authorization for J&J’s COVID Vaccine

June 2, 2023, FDA

This letter is in response to the request from Janssen Biotech, Inc. received on May 22, 2023, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdraw the EUA for the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine issued on February 27, 2021, as subsequently amended. Janssen Biotech, Inc has informed the FDA that the last lots of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine purchased by the United States Government have expired, that there is no demand for new lots of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine in the United States, and that Janssen Biotech, Inc does not intend to update the strain composition of this vaccine to address emerging variants…

Because FDA understands that Janssen Biotech, Inc. no longer intends to offer the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine in the United States under the EUA and because Janssen Biotech, Inc. has requested that FDA withdraw the EUA for the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine, FDA has determined that it is appropriate to protect the public health or safety to revoke this authorization.

Conclusion: J&J asked for the withdrawal of the EUA from their product, as it is no longer commercially viable – so they no longer wish to be required to manufacture it. The FDA granted the approval.

Suspected Suicide Attempts by Self-Poisoning Among Persons Aged 10-19 Years During the COVID-19 Pandemic – United States, 2020-2022

MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep, 2023 Apr 21;72(16):426-430.

The National Poison Data System (NPDS) database was used to examine trends in suspected suicide attempts by self-poisoning among persons aged 10-19 years before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared with 2019 (prepandemic), during 2021, the overall rate of suspected suicide attempts by self-poisoning increased by 30.0% (95% CI = 28.6%-30.9%), rates among children aged 10-12 years, adolescents aged 13-15 years, and females increased 73.0% (67.4%-80.0%), 48.8% (46.7%-50.9%), and 36.8% (35.4%-38.2%), respectively, and these trends continued into the third quarter of 2022.

This may be self-evident to most, but lockdowns and school closures had a significant impact on children and adolescents, as well as families. This included economic hardships and social isolation. The fact that suicide attempts rose by over 30% in adolescents should be enough to disuade any public health official from considering this policy again.

This is apparently not the case with the new director of the CDC, Dr. Mandy Cohen, who led lock-down efforts and school closures in North Carolina during the pandemic. NC had some of the longest school closures in the nation.

NIH-funded study suggests acetaminophen exposure in pregnancy linked to higher risk of ADHD, autism

NIH Media Advisory, 2019

Although the study cited in this 2019 media advisory is not recent news, the fact is that many, if not most people do not know that Tylenol during pregnancy is associated with a significantly increased risk of autism and ADHD.

As the first trimester of pregnancy is when it is easiest to cause fetal damage and many women are not aware that they are pregnant yet – this advisory should be known to any woman of child bearing age.

Researchers analyzed data from the Boston Birth Cohort, a long-term study of factors influencing pregnancy and child development. They collected umbilical cord blood from 996 births and measured the amount of acetaminophen and two of its byproducts in each sample. By the time the children were an average of 8.9 years, 25.8% had been diagnosed with ADHD only, 6.6% with ASD only and 4.2% with ADHD and ASD. The researchers classified the amount of acetaminophen and its byproducts in the samples into thirds, from lowest to highest. Compared to the lowest third, the middle third of exposure was associated with about 2.26 times the risk for ADHD. The highest third of exposure was associated with 2.86 times the risk. Similarly, ASD risk was higher for those in the middle third (2.14 times) and highest third (3.62 times).

What is important also is that infant Acetaminophen is still on the market, recommended for both preterm and term infants. It is also recommended for pain relief after vaccination (which could compound neurological damage). Because of the known and unknown risks of Acetaminophen for infants, I would advise parents to be very careful using Acetaminophen. There are alternatives – please explore them with your physician.

For more reading on this subject, please visit the Children’s Health Defense.

NIH Spends $1 Billion Studying Long COVID–Produces Nothing

June 2023, The Epoch Times

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

• In February 2021, NIH announced that Congress would provide the agency $1.15 billion in funding over four years to study long COVID.
• An investigation by STAT and MuckRock, a nonprofit news outlet, revealed the NIH’s efforts to study long COVID have done little to benefit those struggling with the disorder and haven’t contributed meaningful information about the condition, either.
• As of April 2023, NIH has “basically nothing to show for” its research to date.
• Instead of conducting trials to pin down how to prevent and cure long COVID, NIH has spent most of its money simply watching, tracking, and recording long COVID symptoms.
• Gathering information about NIH’s long COVID data—and where the $1.15 billion in funding has gone—hasn’t proven easy; there is no single NIH official in charge of the efforts and the agency isn’t sharing even basic information about its research.

Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination Weakens Immune System: Study

June 1, 2023 The Epoch Times (Zachary Stieber)

“In sum, COVID-19 epidemiological studies cited in our work plus the failure of HIV, Malaria, and Pertussis vaccines constitute irrefutable evidence demonstrating that an increase in IgG4 levels impairs immune responses,” Alberto Rubio Casillas, a researcher with the biology laboratory at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico and one of the authors of the new paper, told The Epoch Times via email.

The paper was published by the journal Vaccines in May.

Pfizer and Moderna officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Both companies utilize messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in their vaccines.

Dr. Robert Malone, who helped invent the technology, said the paper illustrates why he’s been warning about the negative effects of repeated vaccination.

“I warned that more jabs can result in what’s called high zone tolerance, of which the switch to IgG4 is one of the mechanisms. And now we have data that clearly demonstrate that’s occurring in the case of this as well as some other vaccines,” Malone, who wasn’t involved with the study, told The Epoch Times.

The original paper:

IgG4 Antibodies Induced by Repeated Vaccination May Generate Immune Tolerance to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein

Vaccines, May 17, 2023

… emerging evidence suggests that the reported increase in IgG4 levels detected after repeated vaccination with the mRNA vaccines may not be a protective mechanism; rather, it constitutes an immune tolerance mechanism to the spike protein that could promote unopposed SARS-CoV2 infection and replication by suppressing natural antiviral responses. Increased IgG4 synthesis due to repeated mRNA vaccination with high antigen concentrations may also cause autoimmune diseases, and promote cancer growth and autoimmune myocarditis in susceptible individuals.