MOTHER JONES DAILY: Welcome to the New Era of Covid Vaccine Tourism, Right-wing fanatics are weaponizing America's anti-discrimination agency, Elon Musk urges Brits to "fight back" against their political enemies, Stephen Miller pours fuel on the fire, again, The data center building boom is running into local resistance, Can we feed 10 billion people without destroying the planet in the process? 15SEP25

 

September 15, 2025 Since the very worst of the pandemic, getting a Covid booster has been a relatively straightforward process. You head to your local pharmacy, stick out your arm, and jab! Protection received. But because this is 2025, the very worst timeline, securing a vaccine today means navigating a confusing patchwork of state rules and federal guidance. As my colleague Julia Métraux writes in her latest: Now, in an increasingly anti-vaccine public health regime, Americans are subject to a patchwork of state rules on who qualifies for the Covid vaccine and under what circumstances, as right-wing legislators and governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis race to outdo one another in reducing access not only to Covid shots but vaccination in general. For a growing share of people in the US, that leaves crossing state lines as the best option to get the updated vaccine: a new era of interstate vaccine tourism. There’s yet another layer. On Friday, CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), now filled with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointees, will meet to discuss new potential Covid vaccine guidance. In states that still require prescriptions for the Covid vaccine or did until recently, many people have already reported issues in actually getting the shot. I endured some of this personally last week upon calling my primary care doctor for a prescription. They, in turn, listed off a sampling of preexisting conditions I needed to have to qualify for a booster. By the end, we both knew where the conversation was headed: Me, without a script. But exactly one day later, my state became the latest to officially break with federal guidance and expand booster access. Soon enough, my doc called to let me know that I could go straight to my local Walgreens and get boosted after all.  So here I am, newly jabbed and relieved, but experiencing a strange deja vu from the early days of the Covid vaccine. It's a memory I don't wish to recall, and yet here we are: federal officials choosing a sicker America. —Inae Oh

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Welcome to the New Era of Covid Vaccine Tourism Trump and RFK Jr.'s anti-vax crackdown is driving Americans across state lines—and making some pay out of pocket. BY JULIA MÉTRAUX

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Right-wing fanatics are weaponizing America's anti-discrimination agency BY ABBY VESOULIS Elon Musk urges Brits to "fight back" against their political enemies BY JULIANNE MCSHANE Stephen Miller pours fuel on the fire, again BY IAN GORDON The data center building boom is running into local resistance BY ANNIE ROSENTHAL

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8 Vaccines You Need After 50 — and 1 to Consider 11JUN25

 SINCE we can't count on that lunatic Sec of Health and Human Services fascist fotze robert f kennedy jr for honest, safe and reliable science based healthcare advise I am sharing this from AARP. What you do with it is your choice of course.....

8 Vaccines You Need After 50 — and 1 to Consider

By 

Michelle Crouch,

 

 

 

Updated June 11, 2025

AARP

Published August 11, 2018

/ Updated June 11, 2025

It’s not just babies and youngsters who need a poke to protect against serious and potentially lethal diseases. Adults need shots too, especially as our immune systems weaken with age.

In fact, there are several vaccines needed after the age of 50, including some that are relatively new, like the RSV vaccine, says Morgan Katz, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Below are the vaccinations every adult needs, followed by two, for hepatitis A and B, that you need only if you have certain risk factors.

What won’t you see on the list? The chicken pox vaccine, since most adults already have immunity from childhood exposure to the disease, Katz says.

“Almost all adults over 40 have been exposed to chicken pox,” she says, noting that it would be “an extremely rare case” for an adult not to have been. That said, if you think you could be in that tiny minority, ask your doctor about getting the chicken pox vaccine as an adult.

For the rest of the list, you can get your necessary shots at doctors’ offices, pharmacies, workplaces, community health clinics and other locations. And most health insurance plans will pick up the tab, so stop in and let ‘em stick it to you. 

1. Influenza vaccine 

Who needs it: All adults, no matter the age.

How often: Once a year, usually in the fall. “The virus itself changes every year,” Katz says. “Researchers try to predict what will be the most common strain that season, then reformulate the vaccine accordingly.” Flu season typically begins in October and ends in March, so the CDC recommends rolling up your sleeve by the end of October, since it takes about two weeks after a vaccination for flu-fighting antibodies to develop in the body. 

What you need: Adults 65 and older should make sure they receive a high-dose version of the shot. The options include:

Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent is an injectable vaccine that contains four times the antigen (the flu proteins that our immune system recognizes and attacks) of a standard-dose inactivated flu vaccine, to help create a stronger immune response.

Fluad Quadrivalent is an adjuvanted flu vaccine, made with an MF59 adjuvant, an additive that creates a more robust immune response.

Flublok Quadrivalent. This is a recombinant vaccine, which means it does not require an egg-grown virus and does not use chicken eggs in the manufacturing process. This may be a good option if you are allergic to eggs (the Fluzone and Fluad offerings are grown in eggs). Flublok Quadrivalent contains three times the antigen of other standard-dose inactivated flu vaccines.

Why you need it: Each year, the flu is to blame for hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths, and older adults are at higher risk for these serious outcomes. Fifty to 70 percent of flu-related hospitalizations occur among people 65 and older, according to the CDC, and 70 to 85 percent of flu-related deaths occur among this age group.

Talk to your doctor if: You’ve had a severe reaction to the flu shot in the past, are allergic to eggs, have (or have had) Guillain-Barré syndrome or have a fever. (In that case, you’ll likely be asked to wait until your temp is back to normal before you get the vaccine.)

Do you need a measles vaccine?

Measles outbreaks throughout the U.S. are causing many older adults to wonder whether they need a measles shot. The answer: You may.

Who doesn’t need one? The CDC says you don’t need a measles vaccine if you were born before 1957 or if you have had two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine.

Who may need one? Health experts say people vaccinated before 1968 and those vaccinated between 1968 and 1989 may need an additional dose of MMR since they may have been given a less effective measles vaccine or may have only received one dose of MMR.

Talk to your doctor if you are unsure of your vaccination status. The CDC says there is no harm in getting another dose of the vaccine, even if you have prior immunity. 

Parting shot: Even if you’re vaccinated, there’s a possibility you could get the flu. How well the inoculation protects depends on different factors, including your age and health status. That said, a flu vaccination may lessen the severity of illness if you do get sick. Research, including a study published in 2024, finds that flu vaccination ​reduces flu-related hospitalizations and deaths, including among older adults.

2. COVID-19 vaccine  

Who needs it: It’s recommended for most adults 18 and older (parents of children ages 6 months to 17 years can get the vaccine in discussion with their doctor), and especially for people 65 and older, who are at increased risk for complications from a coronavirus infection.

How often: Health officials haven’t set a schedule for COVID-19 vaccines, but it’s likely the shot will become an annual one for some people at least, much like the flu vaccine. Adults 65 and older, however, may need the vaccine more frequently. In 2024, health officials recommended that adults 65-plus get a second dose of the 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine six months after the first dose of that vaccine, making it a fall and spring vaccine for many older adults. 

What you need: An updated COVID-19 vaccine from either Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or Novavax.

Why you need it: COVID-19 has killed more than 1.2 million Americans since it started circulating in the U.S. and has hospitalized millions of others. It’s especially risky for older adults, who are more likely to suffer complications from an infection.

Talk to your doctor if: You’ve had a severe allergic reaction to a medication or vaccine in the past.

Parting shot: Make it easy on yourself and get your fall COVID-19 vaccine when you go in for your flu shot. Experts say there’s no need to schedule a separate appointment.

3. RSV vaccine

Who needs it: In recently updated guidance, the CDC says adults ages 75 and older should get the vaccine to protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), as should people ages 60 to 74 who live in nursing homes or who have certain medical conditions that put them at increased risk for severe illness, like heart and lung disease.

How often: For now, you need to get it only once. However, the RSV vaccine is still pretty new, so recommendations could change.

What you need: Three vaccines have been approved for older adults: Arexvy, from manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, Abrysvo, from drugmaker Pfizer, and mRESVIA, from Moderna.

Why you need it: RSV is often associated with children, but it can be especially dangerous for older adults too. Each year, it causes 60,000 to 160,000 hospitalizations and 6,000 to 10,000 deaths among adults 65 and older, according to the CDC. In clinical trials, the vaccines were found to significantly reduce the risk of serious symptoms from an infection.  

Talk to your doctor if: You’re in the 60-74 age range and are unsure whether your underlying health issues put you at greater risk for complications from an RSV infection.

Parting shot: The vaccine could be especially helpful when it comes to avoiding a fall/winter “tripledemic” — a name used to describe the convergence of flu, COVID-19 and RSV.

4. Pneumococcal vaccine

Who needs it: Healthy adults 50 and older, or adults 19-49 with certain risk factors (smoking or health problems such as chronic lung or heart disease, leukemia, lymphoma or alcoholism).

How often: Adults who haven’t received a pneumococcal vaccine should opt for either the PCV15, PCV20 or PCV21. If PCV15 is used, it should be followed by a dose of PPSV23 a year later. (If you’re immunocompromised, you may get it sooner.) 

Why you need it: Before COVID-19 came along, pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, killed more people in the U.S. each year than all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined. Young children and those over 65 have the highest incidence of serious illness, and older adults are more likely to die from it. Experts estimate PCV13 (one of the pneumococcal vaccines available) prevented more than 30,000 cases of invasive pneumococcal disease and 3,000 deaths in its first three years of use.

Parting shot: If you work around chronically ill people — say, in a hospital or nursing home — talk to your doctor about getting the vaccine, even if you’re healthy.

Find COVID-19 Vaccines in Your State

AARP's 53 state and territory COVID-19 vaccine guides can help you find vaccines near you and provide the latest answers to common questions about costs, eligibility and availability.

5. Tdap vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) and/or the Td booster (tetanus, diphtheria)

Who needs it: The Tdap vaccine came out in 2005, and along with protecting against tetanus and diphtheria, like the vaccine it replaced, it includes additional protection against whooping cough, also known as pertussis.

If you can’t remember ever getting this shot, you probably need it. Doing so, Katz says, can count for one of the Td boosters you’re supposed to get every 10 years. (You know the one … it’s the shot you wonder if you’re current on after you step on a rusty nail during your vacation.)

How often: Adults should receive a booster dose of either Tdap or Td (a different vaccine that protects against tetanus and diphtheria but not pertussis) every 10 years, the CDC says, or after five years if you get a severe wound or burn.

Why you need it: Due to a rise in whooping cough cases in the U.S., you really do need to be vaccinated against it, even if you’re over 65. In the first year after getting vaccinated, Tdap prevents the illness in about 7 out of 10 people who received the vaccine. 

Talk to your doctor if: You have epilepsy or other nervous system problems, had severe swelling or pain after a previous dose of either vaccine, or have (or have had) Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Parting shot: This vaccine is especially crucial for people — including parents, grandparents and childcare providers — who have close contact with children younger than 12 months.

6. Shingles (herpes zoster) vaccine

Who needs it: The CDC recommends that everyone 50 and older get the Shingrix shingles vaccine, even if they had the earlier recommended vaccine, Zostavax — which was much less effective — and even if they’ve already had shingles. 

How often: Shingrix comes in two doses, spaced two to six months apart. 

Why you need it: One in 3 people will get shingles, usually after age 50. The risk rises with age. By 85, half of adults will have had at least one outbreak. Chicken pox and shingles are caused by the same virus, varicella zoster. After a person recovers from chicken pox, this virus stays dormant for decades in the body, ready to appear when the immune system is weakened by stress, medication or disease.

This infection causes a red rash and painful blisters. About 15 percent of sufferers are left with extreme nerve pain — a condition called postherpetic neuralgia, which can last for months or years. Shingrix can protect 97 percent of people in their 50s and 60s, and 91 percent of those in their 70s and 80s. 

Talk to your doctor if: You are not feeling well or currently have shingles. There are few other reasons not to get the vaccine. 

Parting shot: Older adults should get this vaccine whether or not they remember having chicken pox as a child. Why? More than 99 percent of Americans over 40 have been exposed to the varicella zoster virus, even if they don’t recall getting chicken pox. 

7. Hepatitis A vaccine 

Who needs it: People 50 and older who are at high risk for hepatitis A, a disease of the liver. Infections result primarily from travel to another country where hepatitis A virus transmission is common, through close contact with a hepatitis A–infected individual, or recreational drug use.

How often: Once, but given in two doses over six months.

Why you need it: Hepatitis A rates in the U.S. have declined by more than 95 percent since the hepatitis A vaccine first became available in 1995. In 2016, there were an estimated 4,000 hepatitis A cases in the U.S.

Parting shot: This is a sneaky disease. You may not have any telltale signs — and the likelihood of symptoms decreases as you age.

8. Hepatitis B vaccine

Who needs it: Adults 50 and older who are at risk for contracting hepatitis B, a liver infection. Hepatitis B is transmitted when a body fluid (blood, semen, saliva) from a person infected with the hepatitis B virus enters the body of someone who is not infected. This can happen through sexual contact or contact with blood or open sores (say, from a job that exposes you to human bodily fluids) or sharing anything from a needle to a razor to a toothbrush with an infected person. Other risk factors for infection include being on kidney dialysis, traveling to countries where hepatitis B is common, or having HIV.

How often: Adults getting the vaccine need three doses — the second dose given four weeks after the first; the third dose five months after the second. There is also a combination vaccine for both hepatitis A and B called Twinrix, which is given in three doses over six months.

Why you need it: The CDC estimates that the number of new hepatitis B infections in 2021 was 13,300.

Talk to your doctor if: You have a life-threatening allergy to yeast or to any other component of the vaccine, or you are moderately or severely ill when a dose of vaccine is scheduled.

Editor’s note: This story, published March 15, 2021, has been updated to reflect new recommendations for COVID-19, flu, RSV and pneumococcal vaccinations. Barbara Stepko contributed reporting to this story.

Michelle Crouch is a contributing writer who has covered health and personal finance for some of the nation’s top consumer publications. Her work has appeared in  Reader’s Digest,  Real Simple,  Prevention,  The Washington Post and  The New York Times.

Oklahoma parents fight new curriculum on 2020 election ‘discrepancies’ 29MAI25

 

The best way to "teach" others Christianity is to live it, not mandate it through lies, deception and manipulation. The gop / greed over people-republican "christianity" with it's alt-jesus and gospel of selfishness and self-righteousness promoted by ryan walters is the kind of witness that drives people from the Church, not to it. And ryan, watch your prayer video again and reflect on the New Testament lesson on grandstanding public prayer. From the Washington Post....

Oklahoma parents fight new curriculum on 2020 election ‘discrepancies’

A lawsuit alleges that state superintendent Ryan Walters added a provision on election questions without notifying some board members before they voted.

May 29, 2025 at 4:51 p.m. EDTYesterday at 4:51 p.m. EDT

By Justine McDaniel

 and 

Anumita Kaur

A battle is roiling Oklahoma over new social studies standards that include teaching high-schoolers that there were “discrepancies” in the 2020 presidential election, as a legal fight unfolds over allegations that the state superintendent added the provision to the standards without notifying some education board members before they voted to pass them.

An Oklahoma County judge is considering a request to block the standards from being enacted and heard arguments Wednesday in the lawsuit, which was filed against state education officials by a group of teachers and parents. Meanwhile, other parents opposed to the standards’ content are circulating opt-out forms to remove their children from the future lessons.

Under the curriculum, high-schoolers would be asked to analyze debunked theories related to the 2020 vote and election security, such as “security risks” of voting by mail and “batch dumps” of ballots — references to the disproven theory circulated by President Donald Trump that he did not lose that election.

High-schoolers will also be instructed to “identify the source of the COVID-19 pandemic from a Chinese lab,” a theory that Trump has pushed but on which intelligence analysts and scientists remain divided. The standards also mandate teaching about the Bible in history lessons, escalating an ongoing debate over the use of the Bible in public schools in Oklahoma and elsewhere.

Oklahoma’s public schools have been launched into the national news repeatedly by state superintendent Ryan Walters (R), who made a push to put Bibles matching those endorsed by Trump in classrooms, asked school districts to show students a video of himself praying for Trump and backed the effort to create a publicly funded religious charter school in Oklahoma that went to the Supreme Court last week.

Walters has argued that the state’s new standards will remove alleged “liberal indoctrination” from classrooms. Opponents say Walters is the one trying to push false information on their children. (Walters has denied allegations of impropriety in the standards’ passage.)

“People are asking, ‘How do I make sure my kids don’t get taught this?’” said Erica Watkins, who leads We’re Oklahoma Education, a parent group that has circulated the opt-out letters.

As the Trump administration seeks to influence public school curriculums and right-leaning states move to incorporate Christianity into public schools, the Oklahoma standards present a possible test case. The inclusion of lessons rooted in a conspiracy theory has also raised questions among some Oklahoma parents about Walters’s leadership.

The new standards were passed by the state education board in February — but at least three board members said afterward they did not know Walters had added the election-related item to the standards before the 5-1 vote, the Oklahoma Voice reported in April.

“We were unaware that the version we received (almost 400 pages of documents) at 4 p.m. the day before the meeting had changes to what the public reviewed,” Christopher Van Denhende, one of the three board members, told The Washington Post.

Walters did not announce the changes to the publicly reviewed version at the meeting where the board voted, the suit alleges.

On Wednesday, Oklahoma County Judge C. Brent Dishman declined to rule on the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary block of the standards. A permanent ruling is expected within the next two weeks, said Michael J. Hunter, an attorney for the group that brought the lawsuit.

The draft shown to the public only mandated that high-schoolers “examine issues related to the election of 2020,” according to the lawsuit.

The version that was approved says students will “identify discrepancies in 2020 elections results” and will be instructed to analyze information including “the sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, the security risks of mail-in balloting, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters, and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

The board members received a copy at 4 p.m. the day before the morning meeting, and some raised concerns that they hadn’t had enough time to review the standards before Walters urged a vote, according to the lawsuit.

That prompted protest among some parents, who lobbied the legislature to send the standards back to the board — but a Republican-led attempt failed to get enough support in the GOP-controlled legislature, allowing the standards to move forward.

Through a spokesperson via email, Walters said the process was “fully transparent and above board for many months.”

“School board members were never denied access to the process at any point from the moment the standards were written to the moment they were voted on,” he told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Van Denhende, the board member, said there should be transparency in the state’s development of the standards. He also said he believed the election language was “unnecessary” to include.

“The bigger issue is Oklahoma is 49th in the national for educational outcomes, and we need to be talking about how to improve reading and math scores, not the 2020 election,” Van Denhende said.

Hunter, the attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said they are “confident that we’re going to be able to show the court the calamity which was the board’s review of the rules.”

He told The Post, “The process was completely mishandled and inconsistent with the responsibilities of the superintendent and the board.”

Valery Drazek, 31, an Oklahoma City mother of a 6-year-old who is not involved in the lawsuit, said she found We’re Oklahoma Education’s opt-out forms on social media and has been passing them out to fellow parents.

“I’m trying to raise a kid, and as she gets older, she will be going to these social studies classes. I don’t want her to think the 2020 election was rigged or that covid was man-made, things of that nature,” Drazek told The Post.

“I don’t want there to be a sentiment of distrust in our voting system,” she added. “I would like her to grow up to be an active member of society and know that her voice and her vote matters.”

There is no evidence that widespread corruption tainted the 2020 election results, and judges repeatedly said that Trump and his supporters did not provide evidence to back up their assertions, which included false accusations such as impropriety in Michigan’s ballot counts and illegal voting in Nevada.

In the email to The Post, Walters argued the curriculum on the 2020 election doesn’t “pressure or persuade students to have one opinion or another.”

“These academic standards will be based on facts as students are given graphs, charts and data points of the 2020 election and they can come to their own conclusion on what they believe the outcome was,” he said.

“Any critical thinking individual will look at the 2020 election and would understand there were discrepancies,” Walters added.

Melanie Larson, 42, a substitute teacher in Edmond, Oklahoma, said she feels Walters is “overstepping the will” of teachers and parents. She has opposed efforts to incorporate the Bible into public schools.

She said her two children, who will be in middle and high school in the fall, asked questions about how the state could put “untrue things” in the standards, referring to the item on the 2020 election results.

“I understand, because I feel that way, too,” Larson said. “I had to talk to my kids about how the things you’re learning in class may or may not be true. This is wild.”

By Justine McDaniel

Justine McDaniel covers national news. She joined The Washington Post in 2022 after reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer

By Anumita Kaur

Anumita Kaur is a national breaking news reporter for The Washington Post. She was previously a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Guam Pacific Daily News.