Tennessee Joins Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Case Against FDA

TN AG Jonathan Skrmetti

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined in filing an amicus brief with 21 other state attorneys general in a case being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court that could decide the fate of a popular abortion pill.

“This case is about protecting the authority of the people of Tennessee to govern themselves,” Skrmetti stated, according to the attorney general’s website. “In our system, major policy decisions are made by the people through their elected representatives and decisions about abortion law are made by state governments. The U.S. Constitution prevents federal bureaucrats from undermining Tennessee’s Human Life Protection Act no matter how much they disagree with it.”

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Commentary: CDC’s Latest Abortion Numbers Is a Sobering Reminder of Monumental Task Ahead

The most recent report on abortion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out and, as usual, it’s grim.

The number of abortions rose from 620,327 in 2020 to 625,978 in 2021. The key drivers in this depressing increase are a greater use of dangerous chemical abortion pills and weakened safety protocols governing the use of such pills.

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Federal Audit Finds Florida Didn’t Document Prescriptions for Foster Care Kids

A report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General says Florida failed to comply with state requirements for its foster care system regarding prescription drugs.

According to the report, Florida failed to comply with requirements for documenting psychotropic and opioid medications prescribed to children living in the Florida Safe Families Network (FSFN), which is also a federal requirement in order to receive funding.

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Federal Appeals Court Allows Abortion Pill Approval to Stand, with Restrictions

A federal appeals court has allowed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill to temporarily stand with some limitations.

The Biden administration appealed and filed an emergency motion with the Fifth Circuit shortly after Northern District of Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction against the FDA’s approval of the drug on Friday, a decision the administration called “extraordinary and unprecedented.” In a 2-1 ruling issued late Wednesday night, the Fifth Circuit granted in part the motion for a stay pending appeal, narrowing the judge’s ruling to apply only to rules issued by the FDA prior to 2016.

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Florida Orange Production Up, Cost of Orange Juice Below Other Food Prices Despite Inflation

There’s a silver lining to some of the hardship Florida citrus producers have faced over the past several years. Their projected crop production is an estimated 2 million box increase from the previous month, the cost for consumers to purchase Florida orange juice is lower than other food despite inflation, and their congressional delegation is advancing a bill to reform FDA standards to help growers.

Florida’s orange production is expected to surpass more than 40 million boxes in the 2021-2022 season, according to a USDA May production forecast, an increase of 2 million boxes from its April forecast.

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Vaccination Mandate Prohibition Passes Ohio House

Business organizations and health care groups criticized the Ohio House after the passage of a bill that prohibits schools and public and private businesses from requiring students, employees or customers to receive any vaccination, including COVID-19, that has not been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The House’s action Thursday came little more than two weeks after House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, twice pulled a similar bill from the House floor and shutdown a committee hearing planned for another bill that would prohibit vaccination mandates. Cupp said at the time the House was moving on to other legislative matters.

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Commentary: Six Ways the CDC Failed During the Coronavirus Pandemic

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the national public health agency of the United States, so it made sense that during a once-in-a-century pandemic the agency would be given a leading role. With that leadership, however, came limelight. And in so many ways during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC, under the spotlight, undeniably flopped.

In his recently published book, Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb critiqued numerous aspects of the worldwide response to COVID-19. Many CDC actions garnered forceful rebukes. While Gottlieb recognizes that a lot of talented, smart, and dedicated individuals work within the CDC, he says it’s hard to deny that the respected governmental agency failed in a lot of vital respects. Here are six of them:

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FDA Alert: Pet Food Recalled After 28 Dogs Reportedly Die from Toxin

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) put out an alert to pet owners and veterinarians on Wednesday that certain lots of Sportmix pet food have been recalled after the deaths of 28 dogs that ate the products was reported. 

Multiple samples of Sportmix products were tested by the Missouri Department of Agriculture and found to contain high, potentially fatal levels of aflatoxin, a toxin that is produced by the mold Aspergillus flavus and can cause both illness and death in pets, according to the FDA alert. 

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Pfizer Chooses Tennessee as One of Four States for COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Pilot Program

Tennessee is one of four states chosen by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to help refine plans for the delivery and deployment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine if it receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer announced Tuesday.

The pilot program will help support states’ planning, deployment and administration of the COVID-19 vaccine and adapt findings for use in other states to support vaccine distribution. Tennessee released its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan last month.

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