
Vance flexes political power in new role
CBSN
The vice presidency may have taken JD Vance out of the Senate, but his brief service there has turned out to be instrumental in the early weeks of the Trump administration.
Vance has proven to be essential in getting President Trump's most controversial cabinet nominees cleared through committees to a full Senate confirmation vote. Multiple Republican senators who were on the fence about supporting some of the president's picks have said it was Vance, their former Senate colleague, who helped them get them to yes on some of President Trump's most controversial Cabinet nominees.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana and a key swing vote, was uncommitted about voting for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department until he had "intense" conversations with the White House over the weekend.

The U.S. confirmed at least a dozen deaths from whooping cough last year, according to preliminary figures released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That marks the most fatalities from the bacterial infection since a 2017 surge of the illness, which is also known as pertussis.

As vaccination rates decline, widespread outbreaks of diseases like measles and polio could reemerge
Health officials in western Texas are trying to contain a measles outbreak among mostly school-aged children, with at least 15 confirmed cases. It's the latest outbreak of a disease that had been virtually eliminated in the U.S., and it comes as vaccination rates are declining — jeopardizing the country's herd immunity from widespread outbreaks.