by 2029 to create a pathway to employment.

In another irregularity, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s largest network of pediatricians, has not been tapped to work with the CDC on the outbreak, according to the organization’s officials. Historically, the CDC and AAP have convened for monthly or biweekly briefings during outbreaks to share updates, which include details about what doctors are seeing and questions they’re fielding from parents in exam rooms. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the health department’s response.The only updates provided widely to pediatricians by the CDC have come from a health alert network update sent on March 7, a week after the first U.S. measles death in a decade, and the letter sent to providers last week, which, according to the pediatric academy officials, was late in the outbreak.

Kennedy praised the CDC on Tuesday during an event in Indianapolis, saying it “had done a very good job controlling the measles outbreak.”Kennedy’s inconsistent and unclear message on the measles vaccines has also made the outbreaks difficult to contain, experts say.He has occasionally endorsed the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine as “effective,” but also continues to raise safety concerns about the shots in other statements. In a CBS interview last week, he claimed the vaccines were “not safety tested.”

That approach has been the biggest flaw of the government’s response, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, past president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.“Imagine if the captain of the Titanic had told you that you need to be careful about lifeboats and think about other opportunities,” del Rio said.

Trials were conducted on thousands of children before the vaccine was approved for use in the 1960s. The federal government has since used medical records to continue to monitor for side effects from use in millions of people since.

Health secretaries have typically delivered a clear message urging the public to get vaccinated during outbreaks, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former deputy director at the CDC who retired after 33 years at the agency in 2021.She also said consumers can determine what’s in the products and their relative safety by looking at online databases, like the Breast Cancer Prevention Partners’ Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.LONDON (AP) — If your pet alligator escapes, don’t call for an ambulance — unless it has sunk its teeth into someone.

That’s the message from the Welsh Ambulance Service in a plea to get people to stop phoning with non-emergencies.With public health services stretched thin in the U.K., there is no shortage of anecdotes about people suffering from true health emergencies who wait hours for medical care — whether from paramedics or a hospital doctor. But the ambulance service said 15% of its 426,000 calls last year — 175 a day — were not urgent. Some weren’t even health-related and were far from being matters of life and death.