Decades of progress in HIV treatment and prevention in the United States is being derailed by the Trump administration, public health experts say — and without reversing course, the damage will be devastating. Threats to key federal programs are unfolding just as science has significantly advanced how easily patients can treat and manage HIV — leaving experts deeply frustrated.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
COMMENTARY: By Craig McCulloch, RNZ News acting political editor
It was hardly a dream debut for Labour’s long-awaited, much-argued-over tax package for Aotearoa New Zealand.
What was meant to be a carefully choreographed reveal of a capital gains tax (CGT) later this week instead arrived early — leaked to RNZ over the long weekend and hastily confirmed by Chris Hipkins this morning.
In his media conference at Parliament, Labour’s leader downplayed the premature release, saying the details had been circulated widely and could have come from anywhere.
He delivered a stern warning to any leaker, but also said he was not interested in pursuing any sort of investigation.
That is sensible. History shows such hunts usually end badly. Just ask National about Jami-Lee Ross.
Still, the leak will be of some concern to Hipkins.
The party’s internal debate over whether to pursue a wealth tax or CGT has been long and bruising, with strong feelings on both sides.
RNZ understands the caucus vote for a CGT plan was near unanimous – but not quite. And the party’s ruling council and policy council were more divided again.
Hipkins needs those proponents of a wealth tax to now fall in behind the selected proposal.
Unity will be crucial if Labour is to sell yet another version of a policy it has repeatedly failed to convince voters to support.
Containing the risk
Labour knows the political peril of talking tax. It’s been burned before — in 2011, 2014, and 2017.
This time, the party has chosen the smallest possible target: a cautious CGT applying only to property sales, excluding the family home and farms.
The rate would be set at 28 percent, in line with company tax, and would apply to profits made after 1 July 2027.
National disputes the description of “narrow” but compared to the other options on offer, it meets the definition. This does not cover shares, KiwiSaver, inheritances, or personal assets, like classic cars or artwork.
In many respects, it’s little more than an expanded bright-line test — closely resembling the minority view of the 2019 Tax Working Group.
The strategy is clear: keep it simple and sellable.
Labour believes a modest CGT will be more palatable to the public than the more novel and ambitious wealth tax. Capital gains taxes are familiar overseas and no longer as frightening a concept as they once were.
Definition complications
But even the narrowest design can have complications. For example, look to the definition of “family home”.
Labour is using the definition used currently by the brightline test which requires a person to be currently living in that house “most of the time”.
It means that a person who owns just one house, but lives in a rental property elsewhere, would still be taxed if they sold that property.
Keeping the scope tight also limits revenue.
Labour’s own policy paper concedes the returns will be “small relative to GDP and total tax revenue” – roughly $700 million a year.
And almost all of that will go straight into Labour’s accompanying health policy.
The sweetener: A ‘Medicard’ for GP visits
In a bid to soften any political blow, Labour has paired the tax with a tangible benefit — a “Medicard” giving every New Zealander three free GP visits a year.
By tying its CGT to the health system, Labour hopes to frame it not so much as punishment for property owners, but more as a pragmatic way to fund something people actually want.
It’s no mistake that the policy touches the two issues named most important by voters in polling: the cost-of-living and healthcare.
Labour has also intentionally made the entitlement universal to ensure the widest possible appeal — even if critics argue the money would be better targeted to those most in need.
Speaking of the critics, government MPs were practically salivating today, having eagerly awaited this announcement as a potential turning point in the polls.
Labour’s rise in popularity has come despite having little in the way of a policy platform and the coalition hopes the tide will turn as voters look more sceptically at the alternative.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis branded the proposal a “terrible idea”, warning it would hit small businesses that own property.
‘Tall-poppy politics’
Act’s David Seymour called it divisive “tall-poppy politics”, while New Zealand First declared the rollout “a trainwreck”.
NZ First’s post on social media included a noteworthy kicker, describing the CGT as merely “a foot in the door” for the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.
Hipkins today tried to shut down that attack, claiming that Labour’s tax plan would be the next government’s tax plan.
But he received no assistance from his purported partners, with the Greens insisting they would not be relinquishing their advocacy for a wealth tax.
Expect more heat on that front as the election approaches.
RNZ’s latest Reid Research poll shows the task ahead for Labour: 43 percent in support of a CGT, 36 percent opposed, and 22 percent undecided.
That’s not exactly a decisive mandate – but it’s not dismal either.
After months of indecision, Labour is finally in the policy game.
This may not be how it had hoped to roll out its flagship policy, but the real test will be how well it can sell it over the coming months.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
By Coco Lance, RNZ Pacific digital journalist
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned Aotearoa New Zealand to urgently close the “alarming” gaps in measles immunisation, particularly among Māori and Pacific communities.
A WHO review last year found measles vaccination rates were at their lowest since 2012, and said the country was at risk of another large outbreak if those gaps were not filled.
Aotearoa eliminated measles in 2017, but saw a major outbreak in 2019 that infected more than 2000 people and hospitalised 700, many of them young children.
There are now 10 confirmed cases across Manawatū, Nelson, Northland, Taranaki, Wellington and Auckland, raising fears of wider community spread.
Only 72 percent of Māori under five years old are vaccinated, compared with 82 percent across the general population. To stop outbreaks, at least 95 percent coverage is needed.
Public Health Director Dr Corina Grey said the Ministry of Health shared WHO’s concerns.
“We know Māori and Pacific children are still missing out — that’s something we have to fix,” she said.
Serious risk
Pacific health researcher Chris Puliuvea said there is serious risk, specifically for Pacific communities.
“There is a 95 percent level where we need to be [with immunisation]. I believe we may even be behind the general population. For example, in the Bay of Plenty, vaccination rates are well behind other ethnic groups in that region,” Dr Puliueva said.
Dr Puli’uvea warned that measles can be easily spread.
“There is a serious concern at the moment. One infected person could affect up to 18 other people. The virus lingers in the air for several hours, which encourages spread. It’s far more infectious than COVID-19, and that’s a concern for our Māori and Pacific communities,” Puli’uvea said.
“I think what makes it also difficult is that you can be infected with the virus at very early stages and not show symptoms until four days later, so you could be infectious and you could be spreading it.
“Obviously it will take time to report that incident. So I think there is a serious concern at the moment, and the reason why I have this concern is why the vaccination rates are not where [they’re] meant to be,” he added.
Dr Puli’uvea said the lower vaccination rates among Māori and Pacific communities was a complex issue, although there are several reasons.
Key covid lessons
“It’s a difficult question . . . key lessons from covid-19 showed us the importance of engaging with communities, particularly the faith community, and addressing misinformation and disinformation.
“That’s one of the inequalities.
“Other inequities are just excess people not being able to find time to go and get vaccinated over because they’re at work, or just lots of other things, finding the time to go and get vaccinated is one of them.
“The other thing that I’ve found is some people are not sure if they are immunised, particularly for those born in the 1990s onward,” he said.
Dr Puli’uvea encouraged families to vaccinate even if they were unsure about their vaccination status.
“With MMR, I simply encourage people to go and get vaccinated. There’s no harm in getting the full course again. It protects not only the individual but also prevents spreading the virus,” Dr Puli’uvea said.
The Ministry of Health has expanded vaccination access through pharmacies, GPs, and health centres, and offered incentives for on-time childhood immunisations.
“Every child vaccinated helps protect the whole community,” Dr Grey said.
They also explained that people can check records and get free MMR vaccinations from their GP, pharmacy, or local clinic.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
COMMENTARY: By Ian Powell
On October 17, I received a brief email from a former Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) vice-president: “Can’t wait for your blog covering the reception of Simeon Brown at conference yesterday!!”
The context was the aggressive address of Minister of Health Simeon Brown to the ASMS annual conference.
As reported by Radio New Zealand’s Ruth Hill (October 16), Brown accused senior doctors of crossing an “ethical line” by taking strike action involving non-acute care.
His accusation was made in the lead up to the “mega strike” of around 100,000 senior doctors, nurses, teachers and public servants on October 23.
It included misleadingly Brown claiming that patients were paying the price for the strike action and that ASMS had walked “away from negotiations”.
Further, he added, “Patients should never be collateral damage in disputes between management and unions.” He urged ASMS to call off the strike action and return to negotiations (conveniently ignoring that it never left them).
Clicking my heels – but how?
As the ASMS executive director until 31 December 2019, what could I do but click my heels and obey the former vice-president. But this left me with a problem of what to focus on in a short blog.
The Health Minister had raised several options.
One was the fact that his address, reinforced by Public Services Minister Judith Collins’ stridently inaccurate “attack dog open letter” attack on the health and education unions (October 19) is the most aggressive and hardline government approach towards health unions, at least, since I first became involved with the newly formed ASMS in 1989.
Another was the deliberate use of misleading claims such as Brown accusing ASMS of not being prepared to negotiate while, at the same time, Health New Zealand was refusing to meet ASMS to discuss negotiations. Also deliberately misleading was his false claim about senior doctors’ average salaries.
Eventually I landed on the accusation that triggered much of the media interest and most of the criticisms from ASMS conference delegates — Brown’s claim that senior doctors were crossing an ethical line.
Understanding medical ethics
As Ruth Hill reported there were “audible cries of disbelief” from the delegates. Also see Stuff journalist Bridie Witton’s coverage (October 16).
Let’s get back to basics. Ethics is the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity.
Following on, medical ethics is the disciplined study of morality in medicine and concerns the obligations of doctors and healthcare organisations to patients as well as the obligations of patients.
Medical ethics starts with the Hippocratic Oath beginning with its first principle of ‘first do no harm’.
As part of an earlier post on the ancient Oath and this principle (5 February 2022) I argued that not only were they still relevant today, but that they should be applied to the whole of our health system, including its leadership.
Who really crossed the ethical line?
Dr Elizabeth Fenton is a lecturer in bioethics at Otago University. On October 22 she had an article published in The Conversation that shone a penetrating analytical light on Simeon Brown’s ethical line crossing claim.
Her observations included:
“Striking is an option of last resort. In healthcare, it causes disruption and inconvenience for patients, whānau and the health system – but it is ethically justified.
“Arguably, it is ethically required when poor working conditions associated with staff shortages, inadequate infrastructure and underfunding threaten the wellbeing of patients and the long-term sustainability of public health services.
” . . . The real ethical issue is successive governments’ failure to address these conditions and their impact on patient care.”
In response to the health minister’s implication that striking doctors are failing to meet their ethical obligations to provide healthcare, she noted that:
“These are the same doctors who, alongside nurses, carers and allied health professionals, kept New Zealand’s health system functioning during the COVID pandemic in the face of heightened personal risk, often inadequate protections and substantial additional burdens.
“While the duty of care is of primary ethical importance, codes of ethics also recognise doctors’ duties to all patients, and responsibilities to advocate for adequate resourcing in the health system. These duties may justify compromising care to individual patients under the circumstances in which industrial action is considered.”
Further, doctors:
“. . . are striking because their ability to meet these obligations [to provide high quality care] is routinely compromised by working conditions that contribute to burnout and moral injury – the impact of having to work under circumstances that violate core moral values.
“A key goal of the industrial action is to demand better conditions for clinical care, such as safe staffing levels, that will benefit patients and staff and improve the health system for everyone.”
The penultimate final word
In the context of Dr Fenton’s incisive analysis, as reported by Ruth Hill in her above-mentioned RNZ item it is appropriate to leave the penultimate final word to the response of senior doctors at the ASMS annual conference to Simeon Brown’s ethical line crossing accusation. These comments were made in among their boos and groans.
ASMS president and Nelson Hospital anaesthetist Dr Katie Ben said:
“We have now taken to putting the number of times the patient has been cancelled on the operating list to ensure the patient doesn’t get cancelled for the fourth, fifth or sixth time. Non-clinical managers were cancelling planned care because they could not fill rosters.”
Waikato Hospital rheumatologist Dr Alan Doube said many people (with crippling chronic conditions) did not even get a first specialist appointment (FSA).
“In Waikato, we decline regularly 50 percent of our FSA so we can provide some kind of sensible ongoing care.”
Emergency medicine specialist Dr Tom Morton at Nelson Hospital added:
“Our ED waiting time have blown out with more than doubling of patients leaving without being seen, which I think is a significant marker of unmet need that’s not being recorded or reported on officially.”
The ultimate final word: nailing who crossed an ethical line
In a subsequent RNZ item (October 17), the Health Minister threatened a law change to remove senior doctors’ right to strike: Right to strike threatened.
The reported response of leading patient advocate Malcolm Mulholland nailed who was crossing the ethical line. Describing Simeon Brown’s threat as “pathetic”, he added:
“I think the reason why our doctors and our nurses are striking is because there’s just simply not enough staff. I don’t know how many times they have to tell him until they are blue in the face.
“You know, all this talk about crossing an ethical line, I would say, ‘take a look in the mirror, minister’.”
Indeed Health Minister — look in the mirror! It is the striking doctors who are acting in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath and adhering to the principle of “first do no harm”. It is the Health Minister who is not.
Ian Powell is a progressive health, labour market and political “no-frills” forensic commentator in New Zealand. A former senior doctors union leader for more than 30 years, he blogs at Second Opinion and Political Bytes, where this article was first published. Republished with the author’s permission.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
Atlanta, Georgia – The scientists gathering inside a cavernous convention hall here this week weren’t chanting or carrying protest signs or wearing frog costumes. But over the course of four days, they engaged in what felt like their own brand of political resistance.
They were there for IDWeek, the annual gathering of professional societies that work on infectious diseases. And in many ways the meeting was like any other medical conference. Participants attended mostly narrow, technical lectures on topics like tuberculosis, HIV, and tropical diseases—one session had the title of “Big Beasts of Clinical Mycology”—with occasional breaks for networking at receptions and strolling among the vendors in the exhibit hall.
The post The CDC Diaspora Fights Back appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here. Employees at the National Institutes of Health learned in an email on Friday, in the midst of a hiring freeze, that their prestigious environmental health sciences research center has a new director.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
As the government shutdown has dragged on for 20 days, President Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought have fine-tuned a regimen of pain designed to break the parts of the federal government they see as aligned with Democratic priorities. In particular, they have attempted to implement draconian public health cuts, some of which have been stayed by the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
For more than three years, I’ve lived with long COVID. The dizziness never leaves. I can’t drive more than half an hour without starting to get nauseous. Any strenuous activity — mental or physical — leaves me with post-exertional malaise that feels like a hangover the next day. I’ve learned to adapt and find gratitude for many things, but life remains an exhausting calculus of rationing…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The Trump administration has carried out mass layoffs of federal public health officials that experts warn will leave the US dangerously unprepared to handle disease outbreaks. As reported by The New York Times, the layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried out on Friday night were deep and wide-ranging, and included employees and leaders “in offices addressing…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Trump and RFK’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) commission has come for us, and public health in the U.S. is already suffering. A closer look at the recent debacle in which the Trump administration baselessly claimed that autism is caused by taking acetaminophen during pregnancy offers a microcosm through which to understand the Trump administration’s larger public health agenda — a…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This spring, scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency completed a report on the toxicity of a “forever chemical” called PFNA, which is in the drinking water systems serving some 26 million people. The assessment found that PFNA interferes with human development by causing lower birth weights and, based on animal evidence, likely causes damage to the liver and to male reproductive systems…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The Trump administration continues its grim dismantling of U.S. public health. Among an avalanche of public health reversals these past couple months, the administration limited COVID-19 vaccine access to 65-and-over and patients with a short list of preconditions, chopped the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network down from eight to…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Six former U.S. surgeons general have published an op-ed in The Washington Post, warning Americans that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is using his role as head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to endanger the health of the nation. The authors of the op-ed, which was published on Monday, represent “former U.S. surgeons general appointed by every Republican and Democratic president…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Demonstrations swept through 11 cities in Morocco over the weekend, with thousands protesting the government’s corruption and expenditure policies. The government has been slammed for prioritizing international sporting events over basic public services, including health care, education, and employment. Although anti-government protests calling for reform have been on the rise in the Maghreb nation during the past few months, the current rallies are marked by participation of groups representing a wide spectrum of social and political backgrounds, and from different ages.
The voices of students blended together with those of trade unionists, and families, forming a holistic protest scene, and reflecting a unifying spirit. This in turn confirms that daily social justice concerns are not confined to a single group, but is rather a popular demand. However, young “leaderless” organizers calling themselves the Gen Z 212, are believed to have organized the nationwide protests via social media networks.
The post Moroccans Take To The Streets In Largest Protests In Years appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a rollback of certain Biden-era regulations that determine how the agency evaluates chemicals — a move it says will speed innovation. Critics argue the plan weakens safeguards to protect people from toxic exposures. The EPA on Monday released proposed changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that would remove amendments…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
For the first time since COVID vaccines were made widely available in 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has severely restricted who can access them. After years of allowing everyone to access this life-saving vaccine, the FDA has said that it is limiting COVID vaccines to people who are 65 years or older and at high risk. Some states, including Illinois and Colorado…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
On Monday, President Donald Trump advised against the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy, baselessly suggesting that there is a link between the over-the-counter painkiller (also known by its brand name, Tylenol) and rising rates of autism. His comments were condemned by international health experts, who have warned that untreated fever during pregnancy can lead to dangerous complications…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
More than 200 million people are at risk of drinking tap water contaminated with chemicals that cause cancer, liver damage, birth defects and other reproductive harms, according to research released Wednesday that includes an interactive map of high-risk hot spots. The map, developed by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), focuses on arsenic, chromium-6 and nitrate — all scientifically…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
You may live many miles away from a wildfire, but it could still kill you. That’s because all that smoke wafting in from afar poses a mortal risk. The threat is so great, in fact, that any official tally of people killed in a fire most likely is wildly low, given that it counts obvious victims, not those who later died after inhaling its far-flung haze. Los Angeles’ catastrophic blazes in January…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
At least 17 states have taken steps to ensure broader access to the COVID-19 vaccine since last month, when the federal government significantly restricted eligibility for the shot. Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin have issued orders…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
When the Food and Drug Administration approved updated COVID-19 vaccines on August 27, 2025, it also imposed new restrictions on who is eligible to get them. The new restrictions have created widespread confusion and concern, as well as a series of shakeups in government and public health institutions. “The [FDA’s] new recommendations are acting as a bureaucratic deterrent against people…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
In 2022, Oregonians narrowly passed Measure 111, amending their constitution and guaranteeing affordable health care as a fundamental right to every resident of the state. Through years of organizing, coalition building and planning, Oregon may enact its Universal Health Plan as early as fall 2027. In the face of extreme Medicaid cuts from the Trump administration, which will leave roughly…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The anti-vaccine policies of Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert Kennedy have rightfully caused great distress among many parents, public health professionals and primary care physicians, given the efficacy of vaccines in preventing measles, mumps, polio, influenza, and COVID-19, among many debilitating infectious diseases. In contrast to these policies, Kennedy’s apparent aim of…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. remained combative during an extraordinary Senate Finance Committee hearing on September 4 as Democrats grilled him about creating “chaos” at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said Kennedy fired career scientists at the CDC and replaced them with “cranks” and “conspiracy…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The Trump administration has given notice that political appointees, rather than scientists, will ultimately decide who gets grant money from the world’s largest biomedical research funder — the federal government’s National Institutes of Health. In an Aug. 7 executive order, President Donald Trump announced that political officers would have the power to summarily cancel any federal grant…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
ROSELAND, Louisiana — Tyreik Taylor had barely wiped the oil from his hands when the sky behind him lit up. Fifteen minutes after the 26-year-old drove home, a roar thundered from the plant where he helped mix chemicals for motor oil and had just punched out. Fire consumed the air, the collapsing metal groaning and liquids hissing as they escaped into the surrounding water, soil, and air.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
As measles surged in Texas early this year, the Trump administration’s actions sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists that kept them from performing the agency’s most critical function — emergency response — when it mattered most, an investigation from KFF Health News shows. The outbreak soon became the worst the United States has endured in over three decades. In the month after…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Above photo: U.S. Space Force photo by Senior Airman Kadielle Shaw, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. When the Trump administration announced massive cuts to federal health agencies earlier this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he was getting rid of excess administrators who were larding the government with bureaucratic bloat. But […]
The post How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Wednesday that he is formally rescinding the use of thimerosal in vaccines distributed throughout the United States — despite the fact that there is no evidence of harm from the ingredient. The move was recommended by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) committee last month.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision Friday to eliminate its scientific research arm drew horrified responses from public health experts and climate advocates, who warned that the Trump administration is targeting the foundation of the department’s work to shield Americans from hazardous chemicals, toxic pollution, and drinking water contaminants. “This is grim news…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.