Kennedy’s comment came during a highly publicized news conference where he also asserted that he has “an understanding” with major food manufacturers to remove petroleum-based food colorings from their products by 2026.

No one from the food industry attended the event, and none have publicly agreed to Kennedy’s demands, although the International Dairy Foods Association has pledged to eliminate artificial colors in milk cheese and yogurt sold to schools as part of the federal lunch and breakfast programs by the start of the 2026 school year.

However, Kennedy and his advisers said that every major food manufacturer and some fast-food companies have contacted the agency looking for guidance.

“Four years from now, we are going to have most of these products off the market, or you will know about them when you go to the grocery store,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy’s push to get food manufacturers to remove dyes from their products is his first effort at sweeping reform of the food industry, which he has long blamed for creating and marketing ultra-processed foods that he says are making Americans obese and contributing to a host of diseases, including diabetes and heart disease.

Sugar Is Hurting Children: RFK

He ratcheted up his campaign with the remark about sugar, lamenting that government agencies recommend “a huge amount of sugar” for children, “and it’s hurting them, and it’s addicting them, and it’s changing their taste buds.”

The Food and Drug Administration recommends that added sugar — sugar that is not found naturally in foods, including fruit — account for no more than 10% of the diet for both children and adults.

“Sugar is poison,” Kennedy said, “and Americans need to know that it’s poison.”

Critics of Kennedy say that while his goal of making the food supply healthier is laudable, the cuts he is making to scientific research grants, coupled with significant staff reductions at agencies like the FDA and the National Institutes for Health, will hinder his efforts. The very same people who police the food industry, they pointed out, are now out of jobs.

Kennedy Deals With Staff Defections

Some have quit in frustration. The leading nutrition scientist at the NIH, Kevin Hall, recently resigned, saying he was being censored. Jim Jones, the chief of the FDA’s food division, quit last month, saying “indiscriminate” layoffs would make it “fruitless” for him to continue.

“I was looking forward to working to pursue the department’s agenda of improving the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic disease and risks from chemicals in food,” Jones wrote at the time.

Kennedy delivered his remarks in the grand hall of the Department of Health and Human Services on a stage filled with so-called MAHA Moms — women who power his “Make America Healthy Again” movement — and their children.

He was joined by Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA commissioner; Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of the National Institutes of Health, and Republican leaders of states that have signed onto his MAHA movement, including the governor of West Virginia, who recently signed legislation banning dyes in most foods.

Makary said he expected cooperation from the food manufacturers.

“You win more bees with honey than fire,” Makary said, adding “I believe in love, and let’s start in a friendly way and see if we can do this without any statutory or regulatory changes.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Kim Severson, and Al Drago

c.2025 The New York Times Company

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The federal Food and Drug Administration will take steps to eliminate the synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said at a news conference. The agency will establish a standard and timeline for industry to switch to natural alternatives, revoke authorization for dyes not in production within coming weeks and take steps to remove remaining dyes on the market.

Makary said that removing artificial dyes would boost children’s health.

“For the last 50 years we have been running one of the largest uncontrolled scientific experiments in the world on our nation’s children without their consent,” Makary said.

Health Concerns Drive Change

Health advocates have long called for the removal of artificial dyes from foods, citing mixed studies indicating they can cause neurobehavioral problems, including hyperactivity and attention issues, in some children. The FDA has maintained that the approved dyes are safe and that “the totality of scientific evidence shows that most children have no adverse effects when consuming foods containing color additives.”

The FDA currently allows 36 food color additives, including eight synthetic dyes. In January, the agency announced that the dye known as Red 3 — used in candies, cakes and some medications — would be banned in food by 2027 because it caused cancer in laboratory rats.

Artificial dyes are used widely in U.S. foods. In Canada and in Europe — where artificial colors are required to carry warning labels — manufacturers mostly use natural substitutes. Several states, including California and West Virginia, have passed laws restricting the use of artificial colors in foods.

The announcement drew praise from advocates who say the dyes carry health risks and serve no purpose beyond the cosmetic.

“Their only purpose is to make food companies money,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former FDA official. “Food dyes help make ultraprocessed foods more attractive, especially to children, often by masking the absence of a colorful ingredient, like fruit.”

Industry Reaction and Challenges

Removing artificial dyes from foods has long been a goal of so-called MAHA moms, key supporters of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” initiatives. They were among protesters who signed petitions and rallied outside the Michigan headquarters of WK Kellogg Co. last year, demanding that the company remove artificial dyes from its breakfast cereals in the U.S.

The group included Vani Hari, a popular food activist known as the Food Babe, who previously pressured the Kraft Heinz company to remove artificial dyes from its macaroni and cheese. Hari spoke at Tuesday’s event.

She said the action marks “a new era” in safe food for children.

However, food manufacturers said the action would unfairly target highly regulated color additives long confirmed to be safe.

“There are not enough alternatives available to replace these products,” the International Association of Color Manufacturers said in a statement. “Supply chains will take an estimated five to 10 years to catch up and require importing more expensive ingredients grown in China, India and Mexico.”

A spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association, a trade group for makers of candy, gum and mints, said the industry “needs time to find safe and viable alternatives.”

State Actions and Industry Adaptation

Removing dyes from the food supply will not address the chief health problems that plague Americans, said Susan Mayne, a Yale University chronic disease expert and former director of the FDA’s food center.

“With every one of their announcements, they’re focusing in on something that’s not going to accomplish what they say it is,” Mayne said of Kennedy’s initiatives. “Most of these food dyes have been in our food supply for 100 years. … So why aren’t they driving toward reductions in things that do drive chronic disease rates?”

In the past, FDA officials said the threat of legal action from the food industry required the government to have significant scientific evidence before banning additives. Red 3 was banned from cosmetics more than three decades before it was stripped from food and medicine. It took five decades for the FDA to ban brominated vegetable oil because of health concerns.

But Lurie said industry officials might not challenge the Trump administration.

“They don’t want to get on the wrong side of a vindictive president,” he said.

Hours before the announcement, the International Dairy Foods Association said its members would voluntarily eliminate artificial colors in milk, cheese and yogurt products sold to U.S. school meal programs by July 2026. Most dairy products for schools don’t contain artificial colors, as most dairy processors have chosen not to use them or have already removed or replaced them, officials at the dairy trade group noted.

Some of the state laws banning synthetic dyes in school meals have aggressive timelines. West Virginia’s ban, for example, prohibits red, yellow, blue and green artificial dyes in school meals starting Aug. 1. A broader ban will extend the restrictions to all foods sold in the state on Jan. 1, 2028.

Many U.S. food companies are already reformulating their foods, according to Sensient Colors, one of the world’s largest producers of food dyes and flavorings. In place of synthetic dyes, food makers can use natural hues made from beets, algae and crushed insects and pigments from purple sweet potatoes, radishes and red cabbage.

___

Aleccia reported from California.

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.

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One proposal shared with aides would reserve 30% of scholarships for the Fulbright program, the prestigious, government-backed international fellowship, for applicants who are married or have children.

Another would give a $5,000 cash “baby bonus” to every American mother after delivery.

A third calls on the government to fund programs that educate women on their menstrual cycles — in part so they can better understand when they are ovulating and able to conceive.

Those ideas, and others, are emerging from a movement concerned with declining birthrates that has been gaining steam for years and now finally has allies in the U.S. administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk.

Policy experts and advocates of raising the birthrate have been meeting with White House aides, sometimes handing over written proposals on ways to help or persuade women to have more babies, according to four people who have been part of the meetings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Related Story: California’s Aging Population Will Test Whether Its Demography Is Destiny

A New Cultural Agenda

Administration officials have not indicated what ideas — if any — they might ultimately embrace. But advocates expressed confidence that fertility issues will become a prominent piece of the agenda, noting that President Donald Trump has called for a “baby boom” and pointing to the symbolic power of seeing Vance and other top officials attend public events with their children.

“I just think this administration is inherently pronatalist,” said activist Simone Collins, referring to the movement to reverse declining birthrates.

The behind-the-scenes discussions about family policy suggest Trump is quietly building an ambitious plan to promote the issue, even as he focuses much of his attention on higher-profile priorities such as federal cuts, tariffs and mass deportations. Project 2025, the policy blueprint that has forecast much of Trump’s agenda so far, discusses family issues before anything else, opening its first chapter with a promise to “restore the family as the centerpiece of American life.”

Much of the movement is built around promoting a very specific idea of what constitutes a family — one that includes marriage between a man and a woman and leaves out many families that don’t conform to traditional gender roles or family structures. In contrast to the intense emphasis on cost cutting so far during Trump’s second term, this focus on families could result in spending more money to back a new set of priorities.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump “is proudly implementing policies to uplift American families.”

“The president wants America to be a country where all children can safely grow up and achieve the American dream,” she added. “As a mother myself, I am proud to work for a president who is taking significant action to leave a better country for the next generation.”

Concerns Over Declining Birthrates

Trump, Vance and Musk have cultivated the movement by publicly highlighting issues related to family policy and “pronatalism” — both in the lead-up to the election, and since Trump took office. Speaking to a crowd in January at the March for Life, an anti-abortion rally, Vance said he wanted “more babies in the United States of America” and more “beautiful young men and women” to raise them.

Last month, Trump pledged to be “the fertilization president.”

The coalition of people who want to see more babies born is broad and diverse. They are unified in their concerns about the U.S. birthrate, which has been falling since 2007, warning of a future in which a smaller workforce cannot support an aging population and the social safety net. If the birthrate is not turned around, they fear, the country’s economy could collapse and, ultimately, human civilization could be at risk.

But many in the movement have different reasons for wanting people to have more children — and often disagree on how to get there. Many Christian conservatives see declining birth and marriage rates as a cultural crisis brought on by forces in politics and the media that they say belittle the traditional family, encouraging women to prioritize work over children. They are pushing for more committed marriages and large families, while some who identify strictly as “pronatalists” are interested in exploring a variety of methods, including new reproductive technologies, to reach their goal of more babies.

“Pronatalism strictly speaks to having more babies,” said Emma Waters, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that led Project 2025. Waters, who says she is concerned about the birthrate but does not identify as a pronatalist, added: “Our ultimate goal is not just more babies but more families formed.”

Related Story: Trump Admin Reverses Course, Allows Idaho to Enforce Strict Abortion Ban

Focus on IVF and Infertility

The next major development on these issues is widely expected to come directly from the White House. Trump aides are preparing a highly anticipated report, to be released no later than mid-May, recommending ways to make in vitro fertilization more readily available and affordable. The White House pledged to produce the document in a February executive order reaffirming the president’s commitment to reducing the costs of IVF, a promise Trump made on the campaign trail without offering specific policy details on how he would do so.

Discussions around what the report should contain have highlighted divisions within the pro-family and pronatalist movement, according to several advocates involved in the conversations. While some in the movement — including Musk, who has fathered multiple children through in vitro fertilization — are extremely supportive of IVF, many anti-abortion Christian conservatives have serious misgivings about the procedure, which fertilizes a woman’s egg outside the body, and often leads to the loss of human embryos.

The Trump administration “is listening to a lot of different ideas and soliciting input on all of this,” said Lyman Stone, director of the Pronatalism Initiative at the Institute for Family Studies, who has pitched several policy ideas to the White House. “I think they’re still having a conversation about what they want to do.”

The most ambitious plans for family formation will not materialize right away, many movement leaders said. That is partially because, while other countries have tried a variety of approaches, it’s not yet clear what kind of policies will best incentivize people to have more babies — or whether those kinds of policy incentives are effective at all. Many ideas, like an expanded child tax credit or a “baby bonus,” would require an act of Congress.

The Heritage Foundation has been researching the question for over two years and is preparing to release a report in the coming weeks on how it believes the administration and Congress should counter declining birth and marriage rates, said Jay Richards, the director of the foundation’s DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family. The “newest and boldest” idea, Richards said, is a plan that offers tax credits to married couples with children, in which families receive more money back from the government for each additional child they have.

Heritage has also been prominent in efforts to shape what the White House might do on infertility and IVF. The group, which heralds its commitment to “protecting the unborn,” is skeptical of the procedure. Leaders at Heritage hope the administration will take a broader approach to combating infertility in line with the Make America Healthy Again movement largely led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary. The idea, called Restorative Reproductive Medicine, revolves around treating the “root causes” of infertility, and leaving IVF as a last resort.

“We need to channel the MAHA spirit and really dive deep into infertility,” said Waters, who recently co-wrote a Heritage report on infertility. “If the executive order’s goal is to increase access to infertility care, and keep costs down, the solution is not to push IVF for everyone.”

Waters has proposed directing the National Institutes of Health to expand its study of infertility and reproductive health conditions, including endometriosis. She has also proposed using government funds to promote programs that educate women on their menstrual cycles and their “natural fertility,” such as cycle-charting courses that many conservative Christian women use to try to prevent pregnancy without using birth control.

These kinds of programs could both help women identify the reasons for their infertility, Waters said, and also teach them when they’re able to conceive. They could be facilitated through school sex education programs, she added, or independent courses designed for adults.

Leading medical associations have been skeptical of this approach, calling it “political” and not based in science.

“These ideologies have been around for a long time, and they’re always rooted in religion,” said Eve Feinberg, a medical director of fertility and reproductive medicine at Northwestern University. “It’s not actual medicine.”

Still, there are opportunities for bipartisanship on these issues, which bring together unlikely coalitions to push for better family policies or more funding for infertility issues. While Feinberg took issue with Waters’ explanation of infertility challenges as far too simplistic, she agrees with some of her recommendations. More federal funding for infertility and reproductive health issues is a “wonderful idea,” Feinberg said, adding that women’s health “has been underfunded for so long.”

But the desire to increase funds to help mothers and babies could collide with other administration priorities. For instance, this month, the health department made large cuts to the Division of Reproductive Health, which handled issues related to in vitro fertilization and maternal health outcomes.

An official speaking on behalf of the department said its maternal and reproductive health programs would continue. “Under President Trump’s executive order to establish the MAHA Commission, Secretary Kennedy is determined to find the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic, including the toxins in our environment and food supply,” the official said.

Beyond the issue of fertility, the White House has received a wide range of policy recommendations designed to incentivize people to marry and have more children.

In an attempt to influence highly educated couples, Stone proposed that the government impose a quota for married applicants or applicants with children across all of its fellowship programs, including the Fulbright fellowship. The recipients are largely recent college graduates, many of whom are single and travel abroad alone.

“What the government is doing with these programs is conferring status,” Stone said. “That being the case, it’s bad for the government to blindly confer status on people for their singleness.”

Some within the administration and on Capitol Hill are interested in more sweeping legislative ideas for reversing declining birthrates. Several lawmakers are exploring legislation to offer new parents a “baby bonus,” a one-time payment of a few thousand dollars to the mother of the child, to be issued soon after her delivery, according to people familiar with the discussions. The “baby bonus” could also take the form of a young child or newborn supplement to the existing child tax credit.

Trump himself weighed in on the issue at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023, with a statement that has become a rallying cry for many in the movement.

“We will support baby booms and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom,” Trump said.

“I want a baby boom.”

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Caroline Kitchener/Charity Rachelle
c. 2025 The New York Times Company

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The company also paid $207,931 on behalf of certain family members of the executives to provide them with personal and home security services, it said.

The security spending disclosures, absent from UnitedHealth’s previous annual filings, underscore how the December shooting is prompting companies to reassess the risk of targeted violence against top management.

Other Drug Makers Increase Spending on Security

U.S. drug makers Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly also increased spending on security for their top executives in 2024, regulatory filings showed last month.

“We believe that these security services are appropriate and necessary given the risks associated with executive officer positions at the company,” UnitedHealth said in the filing.

Brian Thompson, the former CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance unit UnitedHealthcare, was shot dead on December 4 outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel where the company was holding an investor conference.

UnitedHealth CEO Made $26.3 Million

The filing also showed UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty’s total compensation for 2024 was $26.3 million, compared with $23.5 million a year ago.

The conglomerate spent $150,951 towards Witty’s security, while $926,989 was paid for Heather Cianfrocco, the CEO of the company’s health services unit Optum.

Following Thompson’s murder, health insurers removed pictures of their executives from corporate websites. In January, organizers at a major San Francisco healthcare meeting increased security for attendees inside and outside the venue.

In past years, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies have typically covered the use of private jets and provided limited security-related compensation, according to earlier filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

—

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

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Conservative justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, along with the court’s three liberals, appeared skeptical of arguments that Obamacare’s process for deciding which services must be fully covered by private insurance is unconstitutional.

The case could have big ramifications for the law’s preventive care coverage requirements for an estimated 150 million Americans. Medications and services that could be affected include statins to prevent heart disease, lung cancer screenings, HIV-prevention drugs and medication to lower the chance of breast cancer for high-risk women.

The plaintiffs argued that requirements to cover those medications and services are unconstitutional because a volunteer board of medical experts that recommended them should have been Senate- approved. The challengers have also raised religious and procedural objections to some requirements.

Trump Administration Defends Mandate in Court

The Trump administration defended the mandate before the court, though President Donald Trump has been a critic of the law. The Justice Department said board members don’t need Senate approval because they can be removed by the health and human services secretary.

A majority of the justices seemed inclined to side with the government. Kavanaugh said he didn’t see indications in the law that the board was designed to have the kind of independent power that would require Senate approval, and Barrett questioned the plaintiff’s apparently “maximalist” interpretation of the board’s role.

“We don’t just go around creating independent agencies. More often, we destroy independent agencies,” said Justice Elena Kagan said about the court’s prior opinions.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas seemed likely to side with the plaintiffs. And some suggested they could send the case back to the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. That would likely leave unanswered questions about which medications and services remain covered.

Ruling Expected by End of June

A ruling is expected by the end of June.

The case came before the Supreme Court after the appeals court struck down some preventive care coverage requirements. It sided with Christian employers and Texas residents who argued they can’t be forced to provide full insurance coverage for things like medication to prevent HIV and some cancer screenings.

They were represented by well-known conservative attorney Jonathan Mitchell, who represented Trump before the high court in a dispute about whether he could appear on the 2024 ballot.

Not all preventive care was threatened by the ruling. A 2023 analysis prepared by the nonprofit KFF found that some screenings, including mammography and cervical cancer screening, would still be covered without out-of-pocket costs.

The appeals court found that coverage requirements were unconstitutional because they came from a body — the United States Preventive Services Task Force — whose members were not nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

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Any Californian can purchase naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication, directly from the state at a discounted price, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Monday.

The medication is available online for $24 for a two-pack of the nasal spray, roughly half the market price of the drug. Previously, the discount was available only to government organizations and businesses.

“Life-saving medications shouldn’t come with a life-altering price tag. CalRx is about making essential drugs like naloxone affordable and accessible for all — not the privileged few,” Newsom said in a statement. CalRx is a Newsom initiative to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.

Opioids Killed 8,900 Californians Last Year

California has spent more than $1 billion fighting the opioid epidemic, which killed more than 8,900 people last year, according to preliminary data from the state health department. That represents a 13% increase in deaths from 2023.

The Naloxone Distribution Project and Access Initiative is part of the strategy to stop overdoses, which began spiking in 2019 as fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid, infused the market. The rate of fentanyl-related overdose deaths began declining last year, according to state data.

More than 6 million naloxone kits have been distributed to local governments and organizations since 2018, according to state data. About 355,000 overdoses have been reversed.

In 2024, Newsom’s office announced a new supplier for the state initiative, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, which agreed to sell the steeply discounted drug to California. Days prior, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a $273-million multistate settlement with the New Jersey-based company over its alleged failure to report suspicious opioid orders that contributed to the country’s epidemic.

“By getting this lower price, we are making the financial savings and able to use our dollars to buy more product, which of course is ultimately very much about saving lives,” said Elizabeth Landsberg, director of the Department of Health Care Access and Information, last year.

Related Story: Fresno County’s First Fentanyl Murder Trial Ends in Guilty Verdict

Naloxone is one of two current efforts by the state to make generic drugs more affordable under Newsom’s effort to lower the costs of pharmaceuticals. California has a $50-million contract to manufacture generic insulins for CalRx. That project is more than a year behind schedule.

Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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A supportive mom kept her eye on the clock while the Makos Swim Team athletes tucked their natural curls, braids, and locs into yellow swimming caps. In the bleachers, spectators whispered about the team’s presence at the pool in Centralia, Illinois — as they do at almost every competition.

“They don’t know that we’re listening,” Randella Randell, a swimmer’s mom, later said. “But we’re here to stay. We’re here to represent. We’re going to show you that Black kids know how to swim. We swim, too.”

Randell’s son, Elijah Gilliam, 14, is a member of the Makos’ competitive YMCA and USA Swimming program based in North St. Louis. Almost 40 athletes, ages 4 to 19, swim on the squad, which encourages Black and multiracial kids to participate in the sport. Coached by Terea Goodwin and Torrie Preciado, the team also spreads the word about water safety in their community.

“If we can get everybody to learn how to swim, just that little bit, it would save so many lives,” said Goodwin, a kitchen and bathroom designer by day who is known as Coach T at the pool. “Swimming is life.”

But just like mako sharks, such teams of Black swimmers are rare. Detroit has the Razor Aquatics, Howard University in Washington, D.C., has a team that’s made headlines for winning championships, and some alums from North Carolina A&T’s former swim team created a group to offer water safety classes.

Historical Barriers and Lingering Impact

In the past, Black Americans were barred from many public swimming pools. When racial segregation was officially banned, white Americans established private swim clubs that required members to pay a fee that wasn’t always affordable. As a result, swimming remained effectively segregated, and many Black Americans stayed away from pools.

The impact is still felt. More than a third of Black adults report they do not know how to swim, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics, more than twice the rate for adults overall.

Seeing a need in their community, the parents of the Makos swimmers formed the Black Swimmers Alliance at the end of 2023 with a goal of “bridging the gap in aquatic skills,” according to its website. But the group, which offers swim lessons to families of color, is concerned about the flow of grant money dwindling because of the recent federal backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Even so, they are fundraising directly on their own, because lives are being lost.

In late January, a 6-year-old died at a hotel pool in St. Louis. A boy the same age drowned while taking swim lessons at a St. Louis County pool in 2022. And across the river in Hamel, Illinois, a 3-year-old boy drowned in a backyard pool last summer.

Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 through 4, according to the CDC. Black children and Black adults drown far more often than their white peers.

Addressing Fear and History

Members of the Black Swimmers Alliance discussed those statistics before their advocacy work began. They also had to address another issue — many of the adult volunteers and parents with children on the Makos team didn’t know how to swim. Even though their children were swimming competitively, the fear of drowning and the repercussions of history had kept the parents out of the pool.

The Makos athletes also noticed that their parents were timid around water. That’s when their roles reversed. The children started to look out for the grown-ups.

Joseph Johnson, now 14, called out his mom, Connie Johnson, when she tried to give him a few tips about how to improve his performance.

“He was like, ‘Mom, you have no idea,’” the now-55-year-old recalled. “At first, I was offended, but he was absolutely right. I didn’t know how to swim.”

She signed up for lessons with Coach T.

Najma Nasiruddin-Crump and her husband, Joshua Crump, signed up, too. His daughter Kaia Collins-Crump, now 14, had told them she wanted to join the Makos team the first time she saw it. But among the three of them, no one knew how to swim.

Joshua Crump, 38, said he initially felt silly at the lessons, then started to get the hang of it.

“I don’t swim well enough to beat any of the children in a race,” he said with a chuckle.

Nasiruddin-Crump, 33, said she was terrified the first time she jumped in the deep end. “It is the only moment in my life outside of birthing my children that I’ve been afraid of something,” she said. “But once you do it, it’s freedom. It’s pure freedom.”

Mahoganny Richardson, whose daughter Ava is on the team, volunteered to teach more Makos parents how to swim.

She said the work starts outside the pool with a conversation about a person’s experiences with water. She has heard stories about adults who were pushed into pools, then told to sink or swim. Black women were often told to stay out of the water to maintain hairstyles that would swell if their hair got wet.

Bradlin Jacob-Simms, 47, decided to learn how to swim almost 20 years after her family survived Hurricane Katrina. She evacuated the day before the storm hit but said one of her friends survived only because that woman’s brother was able to swim to find help.

“If it wasn’t for him, they would have died,” she said, noting that hundreds did drown.

“That’s the reason why swimming is important to me,” she said. “A lot of times, us as African Americans, we shy away from it. It’s not really in our schools. It’s not really pushed.”

Makos swimmer Rocket McDonald, 13, encouraged his mom, Jamie McDonald, to get back into the water and stick with it. When she was a child, her parents had signed her up for swim lessons, but she never got the hang of it. Her dad was always leery of the water. McDonald didn’t understand why until she read about a race riot at a pool not far from where her dad grew up that happened after St. Louis desegregated public pools in 1949.

“It was a full-circle moment,” McDonald said. “It all makes sense now.”

Now, at 42, McDonald is learning to swim again.

Overcoming Challenges and Funding Concerns

Safety is always a priority for the Makos team. Coach T makes the athletes practice swimming in full clothing as a survival skill.

Years ago, as a lifeguard in Kansas City, Missouri, Coach T pulled dozens of children out of recreational swimming pools who were drowning. Most of them, she said, were Black children who came to cool off but didn’t know how to swim.

“I was literally jumping in daily, probably hourly, getting kids out of every section,” Goodwin said. After repeated rescues, too many to count, she decided to offer lessons.

Swim lessons can be costly. The Black Swimmers Alliance aimed to fund 1,000 free swim lessons by the end of 2025. It had already funded 150 lessons in St. Louis. But when the group looked for grants, the alliance scaled back its goal to 500 lessons, out of caution about what funding would be available.

It’s still committed to helping Black athletes swim competitively throughout their school years and in college.

Most of the time, the Makos swimmers practice in a YMCA pool that doesn’t have starting blocks. Backstroke flags are held in place with fishing wire, and the assistant coach’s husband, José Preciado, used his 3-D printer to make red, regulation 15-meter markers for the team. Once a week, parents drive the team to a different YMCA pool that has starting blocks. That pool is about 5 degrees warmer for its senior patrons’ comfort. Sometimes the young swimmers fuss about the heat, but practicing there helps them prepare for meets.

Parents said white officials have frequently disqualified Makos swimmers. So some of the team parents studied the rules of the sport, and eventually four became officials to diversify the ranks and ensure all swimmers are treated fairly. Still, parents said, that hasn’t stopped occasional racist comments from bystanders and other swimmers at meets.

“Some didn’t think we’d make it this far, not because of who we are but where we’re from,” Goodwin has taught the Makos swimmers to recite. “So we have to show them.”

And this spring, Richardson is offering lessons for Makos parents while their children practice.

“It’s not just about swimming,” Richardson said. “It’s about overcoming something that once felt impossible.”

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Where you live, what you’re allergic to and your lifestyle can make a big difference when it comes to the severity of your allergies. Experts say climate change is leading to longer and more intense allergy seasons, but also point out that treatments for seasonal allergies have become more effective over the last decade.

Here are some tips from experts to keep allergy symptoms at bay — maybe even enough to allow you to enjoy the outdoors.

Where Are Pollen Levels the Worst This Year?

The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America issues an annual ranking of the most challenging cities to live in if you have allergies, based on over-the-counter medicine use, pollen counts and the number of available allergy specialists.

This year, the top five cities are: Wichita, Kansas; New Orleans; Oklahoma City; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Memphis.

Which Pollens Cause Allergies?

There are three main types of pollen. Earlier in the spring, tree pollen is the main culprit. After that grasses pollinate, followed by weeds in the late summer and early fall.

Some of the most common tree pollens that cause allergies include birch, cedar, cottonwood, maple, elm, oak and walnut, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Grasses that cause symptoms include Bermuda, Johnson, rye and Kentucky bluegrass.

How Do I Track Pollen Levels?

Pollen trackers can help you decide when to go outside. The American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology tracks levels through a network of counting stations across the U.S. Counts are available at its website and via email.

Limit Your Exposure to Pollens

The best and first step to controlling allergies is avoiding exposure. Keep the windows in your car and your home closed, even when it’s nice outside.

If you go outside, wearing long sleeves can keep pollen off your skin to help ward off allergic reactions, said Dr. James Baker, an allergist at the University of Michigan. It also provides some sun protection, he added.

When you get home, change your clothes and shower daily to ensure all the pollen is off of you — including your hair. If you can’t wash your hair every day, try covering it when you go outside with a hat or scarf. Don’t get in the bed with your outside clothes on, because the pollen will follow.

It’s also useful to rinse your eyes and nose with saline to remove any pollen, experts said. And the same masks that got us through the pandemic can protect you from allergies — though they won’t help with eye symptoms.

How to Relieve Allergy Symptoms

Over-the-counter nasal sprays are among the most effective treatments for seasonal allergies, experts said.

But the vast majority of patients use them incorrectly, irritating parts of the nose, said Dr. Kathleen Mays, an allergist at Augusta University in Georgia. She suggested angling the nozzle outward toward your ear rather than sticking it straight up your nose.

Over-the-counter allergy pills like Claritin, Allegra and Zyrtec are helpful, but may not be as effective as quickly since they’re taken by mouth, experts said.

Experts also said that if your allergy symptoms are impacting your quality of life, like causing you to lose sleep or a lack focus at work or school, it might be time to consider an allergist appointment for immunotherapies.

Some remedies for allergy relief that have been circulating on social media or suggested by celebrities — like incorporating local honey into your diet to expose yourself to pollen — have been debunked.

Dr. Shayam Joshi, an allergist at Oregon Health and Science University, said that’s because the flowers that bees pollinate typically don’t contain the airborne pollen that causes allergy symptoms.

Is Allergy Season Changing?

With climate change, winters are milder and growing seasons are longer, meaning there’s more opportunity for pollen to stay in the air, resulting in longer and more severe allergy seasons.

In many areas across the country, pollen counts have broken decades of records. In late March, the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma Center measured a pollen count of over 14,000 grains per cubic meter, which is considered extremely high.

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.

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The website was also critical of steps like social distancing, mask mandates and lockdowns.

Trump began a 12-month process of withdrawing the U.S. – by far the WHO’s largest financial backer – from the agency when he took office in January.

Fauci, Biden and WHO had no immediate comment.

Soon after taking office, Trump also said that Fauci, who has faced threats since leading the country’s COVID-19 response, should hire his own security and ended U.S. security for him.

A CIA spokesperson said in January that the CIA has assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely to have emerged from a lab than from nature. The CIA had said it had “low confidence” in its assessment and that both scenarios – lab origin and natural origin – remain plausible.

China’s government says it supports and has taken part in research to determine COVID-19’s origin, and has accused Washington of politicizing the matter, especially because of efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate.

Beijing has said there was no credibility to claims that a laboratory leak likely caused the pandemic.

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(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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The department said the outbreak is primarily in West Texas and added that 4% or fewer than 30 of the confirmed cases are estimated to be actively infectious since their rash onset date was less than a week ago.

Earlier this week, the department reported 561 cases in the state, as the U.S. government said it was sending seven people to the state to help battle the outbreak of the childhood disease.

The total number of patients hospitalized since the outbreak rose by four to 62 and the total deaths remained at two, which were school-aged children living in the outbreak area.

The Texas department also added that additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities, due to the highly contagious nature of this disease.

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(Reporting by Tanay Dhumal in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Franklin Paul)

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