Happy New Year 2025

Tag: vaccine

  • Trump executive order to block funds for schools with COVID vaccine mandates

    Trump executive order to block funds for schools with COVID vaccine mandates

    President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Friday barring schools who still have coronavirus vaccine mandates from receiving federal funds. 

    The order, according to a report from Breitbart confirmed by the White House, prohibits “federal funds from being used to support or subsidize an educational service agency, state education agency, local education agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs.” 

    It also tasks Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the Secretary of Education to establish guidelines for compliance and to “provide a plan to end coercive COVID-19 vaccine mandates.” 

    That includes coming up with a system to block federal funding to “educational entities” that have coronavirus vaccine mandates.

    NO LONGER TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF: TRUMP SIGNS ORDER PRIORITIZING ‘UNIFIED’ US FOREIGN POLICY FRONT

    President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, where he signed an executive order, on Thursday, Feb. 13. (AP/Ben Curtis)

    TRUMP ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON RECIPROCAL TARIFFS

    An executive order Trump signed in late January called a vaccine mandate for U.S. service members “unfair, overbroad, and [a] completely unnecessary burden.” 

    That order called to “make reinstatement available to all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and who request to be reinstated.” 

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    The order said in August 2021, the Secretary of Defense “mandated that all service members receive the COVID-19 vaccine.” That mandate was rescinded in January 2023. 

    Trump also signed an executive order in January that removes federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory. 

    This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

    Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

  • Uganda starts vaccine trial for Sudan Ebola strain

    Uganda starts vaccine trial for Sudan Ebola strain

    • Ugandan officials confirmed an Ebola outbreak in the east African country’s capital, Kampala, last week.
    • One nurse died on Jan. 29, and Ugandan authorities have confirmed two other Ebola cases as of the announcement of the outbreak.
    • The World Health Organization director for Africa said Uganda has started a clinical trial of a vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola, for which there is currently no approved vaccine.

    Uganda has begun a trial vaccination program for the strain of Ebola viral infection that is behind the country’s latest outbreak, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), while the number of confirmed cases has risen to three.

    Last week, the east African country announced an outbreak of Ebola in the capital, Kampala, with a single case, a nurse who died on Jan. 29.

    CDC ORDERED TO IMMEDIATELY STOP COLLABORATING WITH WHO AFTER TRUMP BEGINS PROCESS FOR US WITHDRAWAL

    The total number of cases has now risen to three, with the two additional cases from the family of the deceased man, Ministry of Health spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona told Reuters late on Monday.

    In a post on the X platform late on Monday, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO director for Africa, said Uganda had also started a clinical trial of a vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola.

    A Ugandan doctor attends to a patient who had tested positive during the launch of the vaccination for the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus at the Mulago Guest House isolation center in Kampala, Uganda, on February 3, 2025. (Reuters/Abubaker Lubowa)

    Currently, there is no approved vaccine for that strain. The existing vaccination is for the Zaire strain, which is behind a recent outbreak in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

    “This marks a major milestone in public health emergency response and demonstrates the power of collaboration for global health security,” Moeti said. “If proven effective, the vaccine will further strengthen measures to protect communities from future outbreaks.”

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    Bruce Kirenga, who heads Makerere Lung Institute, a research organization that is doing the trial, told local media during the launch of the vaccination that it had been developed by the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and that the institute had received about 2,460 doses.

    The health ministry last week said that the trial would target contacts of confirmed cases.

    A high-fatality disease, Ebola infection symptoms include hemorrhage, headache and muscle pains. The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue.

  • RFK Jr rips Dem senator for pushing ‘dishonest’ narrative on past vaccine comments: ‘Corrected it many times’

    RFK Jr rips Dem senator for pushing ‘dishonest’ narrative on past vaccine comments: ‘Corrected it many times’

    HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden were involved in a tense exchange on Capitol Hill where Kennedy accused the senator of intentionally misrepresenting his past comments.

    Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee which held a confirmation hearing for Kennedy on Wednesday, pressed the nominee on comments made on podcasts in recent years. 

    “During a podcast interview in July of 2023, you said, quote, no vaccine is safe and effective, in your testimony today in order to prove you’re not anti-vax, you note that all your kids are vaccinated, but in a podcast in 2020, you said, and I quote, you would do anything pay anything to go back in time and not vaccinate your kids,” Wyden said to Kennedy. 

    “Mr. Kennedy, all of these things cannot be true. So are you lying to Congress today when you say you are pro-vaccine or did you lie on all those podcasts? We have all of this on tape, by the way.”

    MULTIPLE OUTBURSTS ERUPT AT RFK JR. HEARING: ‘YOU ARE!’

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Sen Ron Wyden (Getty/AP)

    Kennedy took issue with Wyden’s comments and pointed out that the comment about “no vaccine” being safe and effective was said before he was cut off in the interview, with podcaster Lex Fridman, before he could finish. 

    “Yeah, Senator, as you know, because it’s been repeatedly debunked, that the statements that I made on the Lex Fridman podcast was a fragment of the statement,” Kennedy responded. 

    “He asked me, and anybody who actually goes and looks at that podcast and will see that he asked me, are there vaccines that are safe and effective? And I said to him, some of the live virus vaccines. And I said, there are no vaccines that are safe and effective and I was going to continue for, every person. Every medicine has people who are sensitive to them, including vaccines.”

    RFK JR. LIKELY TO BE CONFIRMED AS HEALTH SECRETARY, DR. SIEGEL SAYS

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr., sits in a meeting with Sen. John Cornyn on Capitol Hill on Jan. 9, 2025. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

    Kennedy continued, “He interrupted me at that point. I’ve corrected it many times, including on national TV. You know about this, Sen. Wyden, so bringing this up right now is dishonest.”

    A transcript from the interview with Fridman shows Kennedy saying, “I think some of the live virus vaccines are probably averting more problems than they’re causing. There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective. In fact.” 

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    Ron Wyden

    Sen. Ron Wyden (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    Kennedy is then cut off and the conversation goes elsewhere. 

    Kennedy has corrected the record on subsequent shows, including in an interview with HBO’s Bill Maher, where he explained he was interrupted and assured the public, “I would never say that.”

    Fox News Digital reached out to Wyden’s office but did not immediately receive a response. 

    Opposition to Kennedy’s nomination has been fierce, with advocacy groups running ad campaigns urging senators to vote against his confirmation.

    “I want to make sure the Committee is clear about a few things. News reports have claimed that I am anti-vaccine or anti-industry. Well, I am neither; I am pro-safety,” Kennedy said in his opening statement in front of the Senate Finance Committee.

    Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

    Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

  • Trump to reinstate service members discharged for not getting COVID-19 vaccine

    Trump to reinstate service members discharged for not getting COVID-19 vaccine

    President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to reinstate service members booted from the military for declining to get COVID-19 vaccine jabs, according to the White House.

    Those reinstated will be returned to their prior rank, and be provided back pay and benefits.

    The White House fact sheet indicates that just 43 of the over 8,000 service members discharged over their COVID-19 vaccination status opted to return to the military.

    This is a breaking news story and will be updated

    Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.