So, here’s what you missed in the news last week…
Antibiotics Are a Killer?
Last Saturday, the New York Times reported on a deadly fungal disease, Candida auris. Over the years, the disease has spread through Venezuela, Spain, Britain, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and now recently New York, New Jersey, and Illinois. While we hear about new diseases developing every so often, this one is a cause of concern, because the overuse of antibiotics has made antibiotics become ineffective at combating diseases, including Candida auris. This has lead the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to add it to a list of germs deemed “urgent threats.” “‘It’s an enormous problem,’ said Mathew Fisher, a professor of fungal epidemiology at Imperial College London, who was a co-author of a recent scientific review on the rise of resistant fungi.’ We depend on being able to treat those patients with antifungals.’” Bacteria have evolved their defense mechanisms to survive modern medicines.
An elderly man admitted to a Brooklyn hospital for abdominal surgery was found to have been infected with C. auris. He was taken into intensive care but died 90 days later. Further tests showed that the bacteria was everywhere in his hospital room. It had infected every square inch of the room, leading to pieces of the ceiling and floor tiles to be ripped out.
What is disconcerting is that antibiotics are added to animal food and their manure is used in crops. The organic food industry rides on animal manure, stating that it’s all fresh and homegrown. That is what is so misleading, organic food should be safe to consume but it is no better. Those same germs are still present in the food served.
House Sues Trump Administration
The House sued members of President Trump’s administration on Friday over declaring national emergency. The President was not named as a defendant but others of his administration were named: acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and the departments overseen by them. The President had proclaimed national emergency to force funding for his border plan between the Mexico-U.S. border. The lawsuit asserts that the President’s actions have been in complete disregard of the Congress’s will and usurpation of the House’s spending powers, according to Politico.
Congress had attempted to pass legislation that would deter the President’s efforts from tapping into the military funding and using it as expenditure for the wall. Law says, even though outraged Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the exploiting military funds, the President issued his first veto which destroyed efforts made by the conjoined parties. The complaint had stated, “…the Administration flouted fundamental separation-of-powers principles and usurped for itself legislative power specifically vested by the Constitution in Congress….Even the monarchs of England long ago lost the power to raise and spend money without the approval of Parliament.”
Images courtesy of biocidium.org, tunisiersoir.com, kgw.com, and outsidethebeltway.com