Tag Archives: Medicine and Health

This Therapist Helped Clients Feel Better. It Was A.I.

This Therapist Helped Clients Feel Better. It Was A.I.

The quest to create an A.I. therapist has not been without setbacks or, as researchers at Dartmouth thoughtfully describe them, “dramatic failures.” Their first chatbot therapist wallowed in despair and expressed its own suicidal thoughts. A second model seemed to amplify all the worst tropes of psychotherapy, invariably blaming the user’s problems on her parents. Finally, the researchers came up …

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The Many Ways Kennedy Is Already Undermining Vaccines

The Many Ways Kennedy Is Already Undermining Vaccines

During his Senate confirmation hearings to be health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. presented himself as a supporter of vaccines. But in office, he and the agencies he leads have taken far-reaching, sometimes subtle steps to undermine confidence in vaccine efficacy and safety. The National Institutes of Health halted funding for researchers who study vaccine hesitancy and hoped to find …

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RFK Jr. Accuses FDA of Drug Industry Influence That Barred Alternative Remedies

RFK Jr. Accuses FDA of Drug Industry Influence That Barred Alternative Remedies

In a speech broadcast to the Food and Drug Administration’s Maryland campus on Friday morning, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced himself as the nation’s health secretary with a meandering speech touching on everything from birds of prey to pollution in Lake Erie to the C.I.A. Mr. Kennedy told the agency staff members, in the throes of losing 20 percent of …

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Experts Doubt Kennedy’s Timetable for Finding the Cause of Autism

Experts Doubt Kennedy’s Timetable for Finding the Cause of Autism

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, pledged on Thursday to seek out experts globally to discover the reasons for the increasing rates of autism in the United States. “We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” Mr. Kennedy announced at a cabinet meeting held by President Trump. …

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‘The Pitt’ Captures the Real Overcrowding Crisis in E.R.’s

‘The Pitt’ Captures the Real Overcrowding Crisis in E.R.’s

The emergency department waiting room was jammed, as it always is, with patients sitting for hours, closely packed on hard metal chairs. Only those with conditions so dire they needed immediate care — like a heart attack — got seen immediately. One man had had enough. He pounded on the glass window in front of the receptionist before storming out. …

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Kennedy Offers Qualified Support for Measles Vaccination

Kennedy Offers Qualified Support for Measles Vaccination

In a rare sit-down interview with CBS News, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, recommended the measles vaccine and said he was “not familiar” with sweeping cuts to state and local public health programs. The conversation was taped shortly after his visit to West Texas, where he attended the funeral of an 8-year-old girl who died after contracting …

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RFK Jr. to Kick Off MAHA Tour on Fighting Chronic Disease

RFK Jr. to Kick Off MAHA Tour on Fighting Chronic Disease

A day after attending the funeral of an unvaccinated child who died of measles, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will kick off a tour through Southwestern states on Monday, spotlighting initiatives that emphasize nutrition and lifestyle choices as tools for combating disease. The Make America Healthy Again tour, which will take Mr. Kennedy through parts of Utah, Arizona and …

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Why Measles Outbreaks May Be the New Normal

Why Measles Outbreaks May Be the New Normal

As the Trump administration moves to dismantle international public health safeguards, pull funding from local health departments and legitimize health misinformation, some experts now fear that the country is setting the stage for a long-term measles resurgence. If federal health officials do not change course, large multistate outbreaks like the one that has torn through West Texas, jumping to neighboring …

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FDA Layoffs Could Raise Drug Costs and Erode Food Safety

FDA Layoffs Could Raise Drug Costs and Erode Food Safety

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced wide-ranging cutbacks at federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, that would eliminate duplicative services and paper pushers. But in interviews with more than a dozen current and former F.D.A. staff members, a different picture emerged of the far-reaching effects of the layoffs that would ultimately reduce the agency work force …

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