Former CDC Directors Denounce RFK Jr.

In The Politics of Autism, I analyze the myth that vaccines cause autism. This bogus idea can hurt people by allowing diseases to spread.    Examples include measles, COVID, flu, and polio.  A top antivaxxer is HHS Secretary RFK Jr. He is part of the "Disinformation Dozen." He helped cause a deadly 2019 measles outbreak in Samoa.

Several former CDC directors under presidents of both parties at NYT:

By William Foege, William Roper. David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky, and Mandy K. Cohen

C.D.C. is an agency under Health and Human Services. During our respective C.D.C. tenures, we did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection, or that they would support public health workers. We need only look to Operation Warp Speed during the first Trump administration — which produced highly effective and safe vaccines that saved millions of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic — as a shining example of what H.H.S. can accomplish when health and science are at the forefront of its mission.

The current H.H.S. leadership, however, operates under a very different set of rules. When Secretary Kennedy administered the oath of office to Dr. Monarez on July 31, he called her “a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials.” But when she refused weeks later to rubber-stamp his dangerous and unfounded vaccine recommendations or heed his demand to fire senior C.D.C. staff members, he decided she was expendable.

These are not typical requests from a health secretary to a C.D.C. director. Not even close. None of us would have agreed to the secretary’s demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities.

We have a message for the rest of the nation as well: This is a time to rally to protect the health of every American. Congress must exercise its oversight authority over H.H.S. State and local governments must fill funding gaps where they can. Philanthropy and the private sector must step up their community investments. Medical groups must continue to stand up for science and truth. Physicians must continue to support their patients with sound guidance and empathy.

And each of us must do what public health does best, to look out for one another.

The men and women who have joined C.D.C. across generations have done so not for prestige or power, but because they believe deeply in the call to service. They deserve an H.H.S. secretary who stands up for health, supports science and has their back. So, too, does our country.

Trump, Labor, and Disability

 In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the employment of people on the autism spectrum.  It also discusses the workforce serving people with disabilities.

 From the Pacific ADA Network:

The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing to change its regulations for Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Section 503 regulations require that businesses with federal contractors use voluntary surveys to track their progress in hiring and employing people with disabilities. The regulations also include a goal for contractors — businesses with federal contracts should try to have a workforce that includes 7% people with disabilities. A new proposal from the Administration would delete these requirements.

To learn more and submit a comment, see the Federal Register notice: Modifications to the Regulations Implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as Amended. Comments must be received by September 2, 2025.

CAP:

The Trump administration has proposed a rule that would get rid of minimum wage protections for upward of 3.7 million domestic workers that work in peoples’ homes to provide care and assistance for children and to allow aging Americans and disabled people to live independently in their local communities.

Home care workers already struggle with low wages: In 2024, the median wage for a home health aide was only $34,900 per year. By exempting these employees from the federal minimum wage law, employers will be free to cut wages for millions of domestic workers to less than $7.25 per hour and avoid paying them time-and-a-half pay on hours worked beyond a 40-hour workweek.

More than a decade ago, the Obama administration closed a long-standing loophole in the Fair Labor Standards Act rules to ensure that more domestic workers had access to minimum wage and overtime protections. These workers were excluded from the federal minimum wage law passed in 1938 in order to win support from southern Democrats, who opposed extending the protections to an occupation that was a major source of employment for Black workers. Now, the Trump administration is opening that loophole again.

The Trump administration will take the next step in rolling back these protections just after Labor Day, when the period for public comments on the proposal closes. However, it has already ordered regional enforcement offices to ignore the existing standard and stop enforcing the federal minimum wage law for domestic workers who gained minimum wage rights under the 2013 rule. The administration claims that the 2013 rule—which has been factored into the cost of domestic services for more than a decade—might discourage use of home care services, but in reality, similar minimum wage policies have had little to no impact on employment.