Health

This morning President Trump hosted a brief media appearance in the oval office, along with a group of conservative lawmakers, to, among other things, declare his "100% support" for the GOP's Obamacare replacement plan.  During the discussion, Trump indicated that concessions had been made to the GOP's legislation to attract the support of several conservative lawmakers and guarantee the bill's passage when it come up for a vote in the House.  And, in a not so surprising twist, Trump also took a couple of shots at the media.

A science teacher from Canada has come under fire after urging students to learn about the potential dangers of vaccines.  A disciplinary committee with the Ontario College of Teachers found Timothy C. Sullivan guilty of “abusing students psychologically or emotionally,” after he dared to speak out against vaccinations. Sullivan was accused of professional misconduct in March, 2015, after he shouted at a public health nurse administering vaccines at his high school, accusing her of withholding information about their dangers from his students.

Big Pharma Merck and Co. are being sued over their shingles vaccine Zostavax. The vaccine pulled in $749 million in sales last year for Merck. Several patients filed lawsuits claiming that Merck’s shingles vaccine caused serious injury and death. Attorneys have said that many more cases are on the way. Vaxxter reports: The plaintiffs have sued in Pennslyvania federal courts. “I think Merck has failed terribly … to warn about the very serious side effects and the failure of the vaccine to do what they claim it does,” attorney Marc Bern told FiercePharma. Bern, founding partner at Marc J.

Australia has announced plans to ban all unvaccinated children from attending school, in harsh new rules introduced by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnball.  Turnball says that parents need to vaccinate their children or suffer the humiliation of being excluded from the education system. Under the new law, unvaccinated children from nursery preschool and childcare centers will be excluded from attending.

The much anticipated CBO scoring of the American Health Care Act, aka "Trumpcare" is out, and among the key highlights are that while the US federal budget would be reduced by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period, it would also mean that 14 million more would be uninsured by 2018 under the Republican ObamaCare replacement bill, with the number rising to 24 million by 2026. Furthermore, it adds that "average premiums for single policyholders in the nongroup market would be 15% to 20% higher than under current law", i.e. prices would go up.