“The youngest, who was born less than two weeks before Renae’s death, has glasses just like her older sister and many of her mannerisms.
It’s hard to tell Renae’s story, but I can hear her saying, “Go on, Mom.” It’s the only thing I can do.”
“For a long time after Renae died, I couldn’t really believe she wasn’t coming back. It’s only been in these past several months that it’s started to really sink in. I have days that I don’t want to see anyone, but I try to stay strong for everyone else, including my children who are now 8, 5 and 2”
“That’s why herd immunity is so important. If there hadn’t been an outbreak when Renae was a baby, I don’t think she would have contracted it. She was eligible for the vaccine just seven months later, and I gave it to her, but it was too late.”
“Parents must realize that refusing vaccinations doesn’t just put your own child at risk. It puts other children at risk. I don’t know where Renae picked up measles. It’s one of the most contagious viruses that exists, and it could have been from anywhere.”
“That last weekend in the hospital, watching Renae die, was so traumatic. I told the doctors that I didn’t want them to continue the treatments. I could tell Renae was in distress, and I just wanted her to be at peace… On Monday morning, Sept. 25, 2023, Renae took her last breath.”
“We got the diagnosis when one of the tests of her spinal fluid had come back from London. Renae had subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, a rare complication of measles. The doctors told me it was fatal, & there was nothing else they could do.
I ran outside onto the hospital grounds &sat on a bench”
“She was transferred to the intensive care unit and given a breathing tube. Though she couldn’t speak to me, she still squeezed my hand when I talked to her. I worried she could overhear us talking about her condition, and wondered how scared and confused she must be.”
“Renae would ask me, “What could it be?” I told her once the doctors figured it out, they could make her better. Her voice got weaker and she started sleeping more and more.
Within a couple weeks, Renae had stopped talking and eating. Her last food was cotton candy and an Oreo doughnut”
“What I didn’t know was that measles can cause long-term complications. A child can seem fine while the virus slowly replicates in her brain… Because both Britain and the United States are confronting outbreaks, I am sharing my story. Parents should know just how dangerous this disease is.”
My college's little medical humanities honors program just sent one alumni off to Harvard medical school, one grauating senior just got a Fulbright, and a host of others are off to grad school & medical school. If you weren't paying attention, you might miss the wonderful work that non-Ivies can do.
“A shortage of housing that forces people to live in close quarters in Nunavik is one of the social determinants of health that creates an environment ripe for outbreaks of tuberculosis…
Another is the remoteness of the relatively small communities that have few services available”
“As it stands, getting properly diagnosed and treated for tuberculosis often requires people to travel to one of the two communities in Nunavik that has a hospital. Directly observed therapy (DOT) is compulsory in most cases, meaning patients must travel to clinics to take their medication”
“Most healthcare workers who practice in Nunavik are recruited from other parts of Quebec and are mainly Francophone, while the vast majority of people in Nunavik speak Inuktitut as their first language, with English as a second language and French as a potential third”
“We made requests from the provincial government and for most of them, we’re still waiting to hear… We’ve been told that there’s planning happening at the Ministry but thus far, nothing has come out of it.”
The Quebec health ministry did not respond to PressProgress’s questions prior to publication”
“Last summer, the mayors of Nunavik’s 14 communities penned a strongly worded joint letter to former premier François Legault and former health minister Christian Dubé to “demand the Government of Quebec declare a public health emergency due to the escalating tuberculosis crisis” in the region.”
“There are systemic and structural reasons for why Nunavik, as part of Quebec, is veering farther from the goal of eliminating tuberculosis by 2030, while its neighbouring Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut is getting closer, with fewer than five cases of active tuberculosis diagnosed there”
“Most tuberculosis cases in Canada these days are found in people who were born in other countries, but… the per capita rate of disease is highest among Inuit people by a striking margin — 186.9 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 17.4 per 100,000 among people born outside Canada as of 2024”
“Nunavik, with a population of 14,000, has seen as many cases of tuberculosis in the first three months of 2026 — around 40 — as were diagnosed in the first six months of 2025. According to a statement from the NRBHSS, eight out of the 14 communities in the region have active outbreaks currently”
This is so heartbreaking. “It’s a reality in 2026 that school districts must be prepared for active shooters — it’s just a reality,” Mr. Burton said. “Unfortunately, we’re never prepared when one of those active shooters is a family member, and it happens outside at that child’s home.”
“Pennsylvania's ban on public funding for abortion is unconstitutional, a divided Commonwealth Court ruled Monday.
In reaching that conclusion, the statewide court that oversees government-related matters recognized "a fundamental right to reproductive autonomy" in the Pennsylvania Constitution.”
'Texas A&M philosophy professor Martin Peterson is leaving the university after administrators told him in January that he couldn’t teach Plato’s Symposium in his philosophy class; they said the ancient Greek philosopher’s work violated the system’s restrictions on gender and sexuality content.' 1/3
Wow.
“Nicotine can also increase blood pressure and heart rate, which could, over time, raise the risk of heart disease; the compound may also harden the walls of arteries in the heart, which can lead to heart attacks. Nicotine can also exacerbate existing heart conditions.”
“What the Make America Healthy Again movement is saying is, ‘I am going to question what I’m told,” said Mr. Asprey, who has encouraged his followers to do their own research… Mr. Asprey has invested in the nicotine pouch company Lucy and said he had done brief consulting work for Philip Morris.”
“It’s alarming that people who appear to be very health conscious are allowing themselves to participate in a giant human biology experiment when we know that nicotine is extremely harmful,” said Jeremiah Mock, a health anthropologist at the University of California, San Francisco”
“Doctors say many influencers’ claims exaggerate the evidence around nicotine’s potential uses, and warn that it can pose a health risk, especially to young people, who are increasingly using nicotine pouches.”
“Tucker Carlson, the conservative TV host… has called the nicotine pouch brand ZYN a “lifesaving” product that can increase productivity and “male vitality.” Mr. Carlson went so far as to say that the pouches are “like the hand of God reaching down and massaging your central nervous system.”
Ugh: “They promote nicotine patches, gums& lozenges as well as pouches, which are often filled w/nicotine salt powder…
To these boosters, nicotine is another “natural” product that the medical establishment has unfairly demonized, like beef tallow, peptides or raw milk” @jackiantonovich.bsky.social
“But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief.”
“The Trump administration on Monday is set to take its first steps toward returning more than $166 billion collected from tariffs that were struck down in February. Just over a year after imposing many of the duties, the government is expected to begin accepting requests for refunds”