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A new executive order from the Trump Administration commands the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to terminate the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID.

The Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID includes 14 members, composed of patient advocates, physicians, researchers, and others, some with lived experience of the disease. Despite being classified as special government employees, the committee members are unpaid volunteers.

The executive order follows removal of important Long COVID information and data from federal websites since the Trump Administration took office this year. These include government resources about Long COVID as a disability, the Pulse Household Survey, as well as important COVID-19 data.

Alors que le point d'orgue du CPAC de Washington ou « Conservative political action conference » aura lieu, ce samedi 22 février, avec un discours du président américain Donald Trump, des conservateurs du monde entier sont sur place et notamment un certain Jordan Bardella. Le patron du Rassemblement national (RN), qui devait donner une conférence dans la journée de vendredi, l'a cependant annulée en raison du « geste nazi » d'un intervenant. Mais, même si cela fait débat au sein du parti, Jordan Bardella tourne de plus en plus le RN vers le trumpisme.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/485330

Europe and Ukraine are learning how little the U.S. cares, as the new president aligns himself with their greatest enemy.

The thing about a war is it forces people to pick a side. And Donald Trump, it seems to many in Europe, is siding with Vladimir Putin. 

Seven days of presidential interventions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have made real the nightmares of Ukrainians and many of their allies, upending the transatlantic relationship that has underpinned European security since 1945.

If there were any lingering doubts about the extent of Trump’s willingness to make enemies in Europe, he ended it Tuesday night when he blamed Ukraine for having “started” the war with Russia. Such blatant defiance of the fact of Putin’s unprovoked invasion three years ago shocked even America’s most loyal friends in the region. 

“Jesus,” one British government official said privately in response to the president’s outburst. 

“We now have an alliance between a Russian president who wants to destroy Europe and an American president who also wants to destroy Europe,” another European diplomat observed in recent days, declining to be identified discussing sensitive matters. “The transatlantic alliance is over.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25743370

One day

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25739115

problem rule

The worst flu season in 15 years has left hundreds of thousands of Americans hospitalized while straining physicians' offices and emergency departments.

Why it matters: The virus is causing more severe complications and hitting young children especially hard.

"The two predominant strains that are circulating right now are known to be more severe and have more severe outcomes, especially in high-risk patients," said Carol McLay, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

Turns out having multiple infections run around wild does not “strengthen” our immune system. Who would have thought /s

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to end the federal procurement of paper straws. 

The order, which claims that paper straws are “nonfunctional” and says it wants to end the “forced use” of them, immediately undoes part of a Biden-era initiative to eliminate single-use plastics, including straws, in all government operations by 2035. More broadly, Trump instructed White House staff and “relevant agencies” to issue a “national strategy to end the use of paper straws” within 45 days. The strategy would aim to eliminate all executive branch policies “designed to disfavor plastic straws” and address the federal government’s contracts with states and and other entities “that ban or penalize plastic straw purchase or use.”

Recent content policy announcements by Meta pose a grave threat to vulnerable communities globally and drastically increase the risk that the company will yet again contribute to mass violence and gross human rights abuses – just like it did in Myanmar in 2017. The company’s significant contribution to the atrocities suffered by the Rohingya people is the subject of a new whistleblower complaint that has just been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

On January 7, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a raft of changes to Meta’s content policies, seemingly aimed at currying favor with the new Trump administration. These include the lifting of prohibitions on previously banned speech, such as the denigration and harassment of racialized minorities. Zuckerberg also announced a drastic shift in content moderation practices – with automated content moderation being significantly rolled back. While these changes have been initially implemented in the US, Meta has signaled that they may be rolled out internationally. This shift marks a clear retreat from the company’s previously stated commitments to responsible content governance.

Context:

"He who saves his Country does not violate any Law," Trump, a Republican, proclaimed on his Truth Social network. The White House did not respond to a request for more details.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-if-it-saves-country-its-not-illegal-2025-02-16/