From 窪蹋勛圖厙 News - Latest Stories:
In a Dusty Corner of California, Trump's Threatened Cuts to Asthma Care Raise Fears
The Trump administration wants to shutter the CDCs National Asthma Control Program, which provides millions in funding to state-administered initiatives aimed at fighting the disease. The programs closure, combined with massive cuts to environmental programs, could put the 28 million Americans with asthma at increased risk. (Miranda Green, 6/6)
窪蹋勛圖厙 News' 'What the Health?': Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Lands in Senate. Our 400th Episode!
The Houses gigantic tax-and-spending budget reconciliation bill has landed with a thud in the Senate, where lawmakers are divided in their criticism over whether it increases the deficit too much or cuts Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act too deeply. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Offices estimate that the bill, if enacted, could increase the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 11 million people over a decade wont make it an easy sell. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join 窪蹋勛圖厙 News Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews 窪蹋勛圖厙 News Arielle Zionts, who reported and wrote the latest Bill of the Month feature, about a Medicaid patient who had an out-of-state emergency. (6/5)
Here's today's health policy haiku:
INCARCERATED, DYING, AND ALL ALONE
Dying all alone,
inmates can't see family
despite the guidelines.
- Anonymous
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to an original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions of 窪蹋勛圖厙 News or KFF.
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Summaries Of The News:
Once Off Limits, Medicare Cuts Now In The Mix As Senate Works On Tax Bill
Desperate to find savings in President Donald Trump's budget bill, Senate Republicans are opening the door to changes to Medicare which they previously indicated would not be a part of the legislation. Changes to target "waste and fraud" in private Medicare Advantage plans are high on the list. Meanwhile, news outlets also report cuts to Medicaid and the ACA are under consideration.
Senate Republicans are eyeing possible Medicare provisions to help offset the cost of their megabill as they try to appease budget hawks who want more spending cuts embedded in the legislation. Making changes to Medicare, the federal health insurance program primarily serving seniors, would be a political long shot: It would face fierce backlash from some corners of the Senate GOP, not to mention across the Capitol, where Medicare proposals were previously floated but didnt gain traction. (Carney, Lee Hill and King, 6/5)
Humana, the second-biggest Medicare insurer, has told congressional staffers that it will support moves that would curtail billing practices worth billions in extra payments to the industry, according to staffers and a document viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The stance by a leader in the Medicare Advantage businessin which insurers offer privately run Medicare plansrepresents an important development in a growing debate over how the companies are paid in the $460 billion program. (Mathews and Weaver, 6/5)
Regarding Medicaid and the tax bill
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz defended President Trumps big, beautiful bill over criticism that millions of people could lose health coverage, saying those who would face new work requirements should prove that you matter. Oz made the comments during an interview Wednesday on Fox Business, arguing that when Medicaid was created in the 1960s lawmakers did not include work requirements because it never dawned on anybody that able-bodied people who work would be on Medicaid. (OConnell-Domenech, 6/5)
With millions of people at risk of losing health insurance under President Trumps tax bill, lawmakers have begun lobbying the lobbyists: asking health care interests to keep quiet or speak up about potential cuts to Medicaid. Democrats and Republicans on key congressional committees and in leadership perches have been holding regular meetings in recent weeks with groups representing doctors, five people involved in or with knowledge of the talks told STAT. (Payne, 6/5)
And on Obamacare
Millions of Obamacare enrollees would lose health coverage under the Republicans major policy bill, which would make coverage more expensive and harder to obtain. Most of the proposals in the bill, which passed the House last month, are technical changes reductions to enrollment periods, adjustments to formulas, and additional paperwork requirements. But together, they would leave about four million people uninsured in the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 6/5)
Low-income patients are less likely to see their insurance claim denials reversed, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Toronto found. The new report in Health Affairs analyzed Affordable Care Act marketplace and employer-sponsored insurance claims to find disparities between income, race, education and other demographical features. Researchers concluded low-income patients bear a larger burden for claims denials than higher-income enrollees. (Tong, 6/5)
窪蹋勛圖厙 News What The Health? Podcast:
Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Lands In Senate. Our 400th Episode!
The Houses gigantic tax-and-spending budget reconciliation bill has landed with a thud in the Senate, where lawmakers are divided in their criticism over whether it increases the deficit too much or cuts Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act too deeply. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Offices estimate that the bill, if enacted, could increase the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 11 million people over a decade wont make it an easy sell. (Rovner, 6/5)
From FDA To USAID, Trump Team Races To Bring Back Fired Workers
A Washington Post review found recent messy re-hirings at agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, the State Department, and others. "It feels like it was all just a game to them, one rehired FDA staffer said. Separately, questions are swirling about the CDC's leadership.
Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGEs staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process. (Natanson, Taylor, Kornfield, Siegel and Dance, 6/6)
There was a notable absence last week when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in a 58-second video that the government would no longer endorse the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children or pregnant women. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the person who typically signs off on federal vaccine recommendations was nowhere to be seen. The CDC, a $9.2 billion-a-year agency tasked with reviewing life-saving vaccines, monitoring diseases and watching for budding threats to Americans health, is without a clear leader. (Seitz and Stobbe, 6/5)
Almost six months into Trump's administration, the agency has no public health official or designated point person at the helm. (Goldman, 6/6)
The latestreport from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) makes four recommendations and details nearly 100 ways the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could improve federal diagnostic testing during a public health crisis such as a pandemic. It follows a May 2023report that noted a lack of progress toward HHS emergency-preparedness goals. (Van Beusekom, 6/5)
Health and Human Services, and RFK Jr.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly claimed in public statements that most vaccines recommended for children in the US have not been tested against placebos, and particularly inert placebos such as saline solution or water. The only vaccine that has been tested in a full-blown placebo trial against an inert placebo was the Covid vaccine, Kennedy said May 14 in testimony before the US Senates Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee. (Goodman, 6/5)
An antivaccine activist recently hired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has started hunting for proof that federal officials hid evidence that inoculations cause autism, according to people familiar with the matter. David Geier, a longtime vaccine opponent hired this spring as a contractor in the health departments financial office, is seeking Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that antivaccine activists, including Kennedy, have alleged was buried because it showed a link between vaccines and autism, the people said. (Essley Whyte and Mosbergen, 6/5)
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently declared that he wanted to expand access to experimental therapies but conceded that they could be risky or fraudulent. In a podcast with Gary Brecka, who describes himself as a longevity expert, Mr. Kennedy vowed to end what he called the Food and Drug Administrations war with alternative medicine. He said that would include stem cells, vitamins, peptides and chelation therapy, which involves removing heavy metals from the blood. (Jewett, 6/5)
More physicians and researchers are calling for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign. In April, Georges Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, called on Kennedy to "resign or be fired." Since early May, vaccine expert Paul Offit, MD, of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has called for Kennedy to step down at the end of nearly each of his weekly Substack posts. And now, after news broke last week that Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) report cited studies that don't appear to exist, more experts are calling for Kennedy's ouster. (Fiore, 6/5)
Elsewhere in the administration
The FTCs three commissioners, all conservatives, want to use the agencys enforcement authority to hold social media companies accountable for how their platforms affect kids mental and physical health. ... said Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson at an agency-led policy workshop Wednesday in Washington, devoted to companies that monetize attention. But when there are tradeoffs to be made, the Trump administration has made it clear that the health and flourishing of our children is not a bargaining chip, he said. (Reader, 6/5)
When the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a wide-ranging rollback of environmental regulations, he said it would put a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and introduce a Golden Age for the American economy. What Lee Zeldin didnt mention: how ending the rules could have devastating consequences to human health. The EPA-targeted rules could prevent an estimated 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to an Associated Press examination that included the agencys own prior assessments as well as a wide range of other research. (Borenstein, Wildeman, Walling, Bickel and Daly, 6/6)
President Donald Trumps pick to be the next U.S. surgeon general has repeatedly said the nations medical, health and food systems are corrupted by special interests and people out to make a profit at the expense of Americans health. Yet as Dr. Casey Means has criticized scientists, medical schools and regulators for taking money from the food and pharmaceutical industries, she has promoted dozens of health and wellness products including specialty basil seed supplements, a blood testing service and a prepared meal delivery service in ways that put money in her own pocket. (Smith and Swenson, 6/5)
The Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee is demanding that former President Joe Biden's White House physician testify before the panel ramping up a congressional investigation into Biden's age and health. Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, sent a letter to Dr. Kevin O'Connor on Thursday subpoenaing him to testify at a June 27 deposition. He said the committee wants details about "your assessment of and relationship with former President Biden." (Walsh and Kaplan, 6/5)
On federal funding and program cuts
For close to two decades, the U.S. Agency for International Development has partnered with countries around the world to combat neglected tropical diseases, or NTDs. The term refers to a group of diseases that affect more than a billion people, causing severe pain, disfigurement, disability and in some cases death. They're referred to as "neglected" because they disproportionately affect populations living in extreme poverty and thus don't attract investment from the pharmaceutical industry. (Adams, 6/5)
窪蹋勛圖厙 News:
In A Dusty Corner Of California, Trumps Threatened Cuts To Asthma Care Raise Fears
Pesticides are a known contributor to asthma and are commonly used where Bejarano lives in Californias Imperial Valley, a landlocked region that straddles two counties on the U.S.-Mexico border and is one of the main producers of the nations winter crops. It also has some of the worst air pollution in the nation and one of the highest rates of childhood asthma emergency room visits in the state, according to data collected by the California Department of Public Health. (Green, 6/6)
When the promises politicians made went unkept, when they were left without any reasonable alternatives, American veterans took to the streets by the thousands, forced to become their own advocates. The year was 1932. ... Calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, or the Bonus Army, veterans hitchhiked and rode freight train boxcars from all over the country to get to Washington, D.C. They protested for months, and the entire nation took notice. In 2025, a new Bonus Army has assembled and plans to rally in Washington on June 6 to protest the administrations cuts to Veterans Affairs and federal employment, where veterans and their families comprise 30% of the workforce. (Daly, 6/5)
Four States Petition FDA To Remove Mifepristone Restrictions
The petition, filed by Massachusetts, New York, California, and New Jersey, aims to compel the FDA to recognize that mifepristone is safe and effective. More reproductive health news includes GLP-1 drugs and birth control; IVF; antibiotics during pregnancy; gut microbiota; menopause; and more.
In a strategy aimed at countering efforts to further restrict the abortion pill mifepristone, attorneys general of four states that support abortion rights on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration to do the opposite and lift the most stringent remaining restrictions on the pill. The petition filed by Massachusetts, New York, California and New Jersey might seem surprising given the opposition to abortion expressed by Trump administration officials. (Belluck, 6/5)
Anecdotes abound about Ozempic babieswhen women wound up with unplanned pregnancies while taking both birth-control and the popular GLP-1 drugs for diabetes or weight loss. But today marks the first official agency warning about the possibility of these drugsspecifically Mounjarodecreasing the effectiveness of oral contraceptives. (Greenfield, 6/5)
Regarding IVF
U.S.-based biotech company has unveiled a new in vitro fertilization (IVF) option that allows parents to select embryos based on genetic markers tied to health and longevity. DNA testing and analysis company Nucleus Genomics has announced the world's first genetic optimization software that "helps parents pursuing IVF see and understand the complete genetic profile of each of their embryos." (van Brugen, 6/5)
As soon as they arrived home, Tyler, seven, and Jayden, three, rushed to a small green tent perched on the living room table and pressed their faces against its mesh windows. Inside, several gray cocoons hung immobile as the boys eyes eagerly scanned them for the slightest sign of movement. Were waiting for butterflies to emerge, explained their mother, Alana Lisano. Its our little biology experiment. Within seconds, the boys were off to play with their cars, having no patience for such waiting. But Tyler and Jayden, Alana told me, were like those butterflies not so long ago, suspended in a different kind of stasis for two decades. Technically, they existed long before Alana met her husband, Steven Lisano, in veterinary school. Before they got married, tried to get pregnant and learned that Alanas eggs were of such poor quality that even in vitro fertilization probably wouldnt help. (Oosterhoff, 6/5)
Antibiotics during pregnancy, gut microbiota, and menopause
A randomized controlled trial involving nearly 1,000 women in Zimbabwe found that a daily dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic during pregnancy did not significantly increase infant birth weight, an international group of researchers reported yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. But women who received prophylactic (preventive) trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole had fewer preterm births than those who received a placebo, a finding the study authors say needs to be further explored. (Dall, 6/5)
An optimal mix of gut bacteria (microbiome) found ininfantsborn vaginally could help children fight off severe viral lower respiratory-tract infections (vLRTIs) for the first 2 years of life, UK researchers wrote yesterday inThe Lancet Microbe. (Van Beusekom, 6/5)
Former middle school teacher Lorraine Carter Salazar isnt easily embarrassed. But when she began having hot flashes at school, she worried about how she came off to coworkers, students and parents. It doesn't convey competence, said Carter Salazar, 62. She recounted how parents could tell she was uncomfortable in meetings. One time, a student even fanned her and remarked that she was used to seeing her grandma feeling the same way. (Myscofski, 6/4)
Gilead Pins Its Hopes On Breakthrough Twice-Yearly HIV Prevention Shot
The Wall Street Journal reports on the expected FDA approval of lenacapavir and what it might mean for Gilead's future in the market. Other coverage of science and research-related news is on a mini-heart breakthrough at Stanford; a potential link between semaglutides and age-related macular degeneration; the prevalence of aggressive fatty liver disease; and more.
Later this month, the Food and Drug Administration is widely expected to approve a groundbreaking twice-yearly injection to prevent HIVa milestone in the decadeslong fight against a once-devastating disease. For Gilead Sciences, the dominant player in HIV treatment, the breakthrough is doing what years of splashy but underwhelming acquisitions failed to achieve: It has Wall Street paying attention again. Since reporting last June that just two annual shots of lenacapavir prevented all HIV infections in a study of women and girls, shares have surged 73%. (Wainer, 6/5)
Stanford scientists have solved a key conundrum in keeping organoids lab-grown clusters of cells that resemble human organs alive. These mini-brains and mini-hearts mimic human organs and enable scientists to investigate developmental processes, human diseases and drug therapies. But the assemblages have typically lacked blood vessels, which limits their growth. But no longer: In a study published on Thursday in Science, Stanford researchers were able to create heart organoids with branching blood vessels. The breakthrough opens up possibilities for future medical developments. (Lee, 6/5)
Regarding aging
Older adults taking GLP-1 receptor agonists, primarily semaglutide (Rybelsus, Ozempic, Wegovy), had a small uptick in their risk of developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), according to a retrospective, population-based cohort study from Canada. Patients taking GLP-1 agonists for type 2 diabetes for at least 6 months had an excess risk of nAMD compared with matched non-users over 3 years of follow-up (adjusted HR 2.21, 95% CI 1.65-2.96), reported Reut Shor, MD, of the University of Toronto, and colleagues in JAMA Ophthalmology. (Dotinga, 6/5)
A study presented at the American Society for Nutrition Monday suggests that an eye-opening cup of java may also have long-term health benefits for women. Our study has several key strengths, said Sara Mahdavi, lead researcher and an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto, in a press release. In addition to the large sample size and 30 years of follow-up, we assessed several different aspects of longevity and healthy aging as well as very comprehensive information on nutritional and lifestyle habits that were collected every four years after the initiation of the study. (Tanner, 6/5)
Vijay Yadav warned people not to start downing taurine an amino acid abundant in plants, animals and some energy drinks just because his mice and monkey study suggested it might be an elixir for long life. But that doesnt mean they listened. The other day, I was talking to I think the scientific director of one of the largest pharma in the U.S., he was taking 14 grams of taurine per day, said Yadav, or roughly 14 Red Bulls worth. He asked me, is it appropriate? I said, I cannot recommend. (Mast, 6/5)
Fatty liver disease, exercise, cancer, and Ozempic side effects
More than 15 million people in the US, UK, Germany and France do not know they have the most aggressive form of fatty liver disease, according to research. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) the formal name for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease occurs in people who drink no or minimal amounts of alcohol whose liver contains more than 5% fat. (Bawden, 6/5)
Male athletes who exercised more than 3,000 metabolic equivalents of task-minutes per week had a higher likelihood of experiencing subclinical coronary atherosclerosis, according to a study published June 4 in JACC: Advances. One of the studys authors, Leandro Slipczuk, MD, PhD, section head of clinical cardiology, director of advanced cardiac imaging and director of the Cardiovascular Atherosclerosis and Lipid Disorder Center at New York City-based Montefiore Einstein Health System, shared with Beckers what cardiologists need to know about the studys findings. (Gregerson, 6/5)
Airmen who watched over America's nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cold War-era facilities faced marginally higher risk of cancer due to contaminants found there and more workplace oversight is needed, according to the latest findings of an Air Force health study. Air Force Global Strike Command, during a town hall event Wednesday, released the latest data showing the slightly elevated cancer risk as part of its ongoing probe into health concerns for America's missileers, maintainers and other support roles at several bases in the Midwest and Western U.S. (Novelly, 6/5)
While Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs have been shown to have myriad benefits, they can also present some unwelcome effects, primarily nausea, vomiting and other gastrointestinal symptoms. Some are also reporting changes in their sense of smell sometimes referred to as "Ozempic smell" as one of the lesser-known side effects of GLP-1 medications. (Quill, 6/5)
Also
Robert Holton, a chemist who helped develop an easier, cost-efficient way to produce the blockbuster cancer drug Taxol, paving the way for large-scale production of a medication that has been used to treat hundreds of thousands of patients, died May 21 at his home in Tallahassee. He was 81. The cause was emphysema, said his son Robert L. Holton. (Smith, 6/5)
AMA To Allow AI Startup Access To Medical Journals' Content In New Deal
The AI search tool allows clinicians to input patients' clinical presentations and receive relevant academic articles from medical journals. This is the second deal the AI startup, OpenEvidence, has brokered this year with medical publications. Plus: "ghost networks;" the No Surprises Act; and more.
The American Medical Association signed a multi-year agreement with an artificial intelligence clinical decision support company, allowing the startup touse content from AMAs publications. The Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA Network Open and11 JAMA specialty journals,will inform answers delivered on AI startup OpenEvidence's platform, the companies said on Tuesday.OpenEvidencehas developed an AI search tool that allows clinicians to input details about a patients clinical presentation into its search bar. (Turner, 6/5)
By prolonging the search for a provider, ghost networks can delay patients ability to get diagnosed and treated, or cause them to forgo care altogether. But regulatory efforts to force insurance companies to update their directories or penalize them for inaccurate provider information have fallen short, prompting some patients to turn to the courts. (Bendix, Herzberg and Nguyen, 6/5)
The No Surprises Act may be reducing the amount of "surprise billing" patients face when they encounter an out-of-network provider in an in-network facility, but there's one area where the law's effects don't reach: ground ambulances. The law, signed in December 2020 by President Trump, exempts patients from having to pay out-of-network charges under certain circumstances, such as when they are transported to an out-of-network hospital during an emergency, or when they unexpectedly get a service such as anesthesia from an out-of-network provider at their in-network hospital. (Frieden, 6/5)
Two federal agencies cannot punish Catholic employers and health care providers if they refuse for religious reasons to provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients or wont provide health insurance coverage for such care to their workers, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Peter Welte, the chief federal judge in North Dakota, bars the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing a health care rule it imposed in 2024 under Democratic President Joe Biden. (Dura and Hanna, 6/6)
High manufacturing costs could limit the federal government's efforts to increase pharmaceutical production across the U.S. An aging population with increasingly complex medical conditions is driving pharmaceutical growth. Health systems aim to capitalize on that expanding sector through in-house pharmacies, which executives say will help increase medication adherence, reduce hospital admissions, improve access to care and diversify revenue if they can overcome cost barriers. (Kacik, 6/5)
More than a month after the Crozer Health system collapsed, some laid-off employees are struggling to get the unemployment benefits they're entitled to. ... A total of 2,651 employees were laid off when Taylor Hospital shut down on April 26 and Crozer Chester Medical Center permanently closed on May 2. Julia Simon-Mishel, supervising attorney at Philadelphia Legal Assistance, said many people face challenges when trying to access unemployment benefits. (Wright, 6/5)
Denver ER Visits, Overdoses Drop Thanks To Mental Health Program
Denver's THRIVE program, which aims to help those experiencing homelessness and addiction, has also helped to decrease jail bookings. Other news from around the nation comes from North Carolina, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Florida, and Illinois.
A Denver mental health program for the community's most vulnerable members is sharing its success. That program is called Transforming Health by Reducing Inequities for the Vulnerable (THRIVE). The program helped nearly twice as many people in the first year as it had anticipated. In year two, the program has expanded to have an even greater impact on communities that battle with addiction, homelessness or dealing with the justice system.(Susel, 6/5)
The health plan that covers some 750,000 current and former state employees and their families has hit a stone wall in negotiations with its pharmacy benefit manager, CVS Caremark, and is pondering legal action against the company, the Office of the State Treasurer announced on June 5. The company owes the state tens of millions of dollars and is trying to rewrite their contract to get out of having to pay it back, State Treasurer Brad Briner claimed in an exclusive interview with NC Health News. (Vitaglione, 6/6)
Thousands of Maryland residents who buy health insurance from the state could see an 18% spike in their premiums in 2026. The Maryland Insurance Administration announced the proposed increases from healthcare providers on Tuesday, June 4.(Eber, 6/5)
Michigan health officials are reporting a dramatic increase in emergency medical incidents relating to the recreational use of nitrous oxide, also known as "laughing gas."The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services related the circumstances in a press release issued Wednesday. Specifically, calls to the Michigan Poison and Drug Information Center involving recreational nitrous oxide use and its adverse health effects increased by 533% from 2019 to 2024. (Wethington, 6/5)
Nineteen critical access hospitals in Nebraska have formed a clinically integrated network, the third coalition of its kind created over the past three months. The Nebraska High Value Network aims to give rural hospitals the scale to lower costs, invest in new technology, improve treatment and expand value-based contracts while remaining independent. The network, announced Thursday, follows similar alliances in Montana, Ohio, Minnesota and North Dakota. (Kacik, 6/5)
The ads were deceptive, but they werent trying to con people out of their moneyat least not directly. The goal was to sign them up for actual government-subsidized health-insurance plans, whether they wanted them or not. People responding to the ads were routed through a network of middlemen to call centers, many of them in South Florida. Telemarketers there would wave off questions about cash giveaways and sign up customers for health insurance instead, sometimes without their knowledge. (Faux and Mider, 6/5)
The DuPage County and McHenry County health departments confirmed that mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile virus for the first time this year.The mosquitoes tested in McHenry County for the virus were found in Lake in the Hills. DuPage County health officials tested mosquitoes from Roselle, Medinah, Clarendon Hills, and Burr Ridge in May.While the mosquitoes tested positive in both counties, no human cases of West Nile virus have been reported in either county.(Kaufman, 6/5)
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
窪蹋勛圖厙 News finds longer stories for you to spend some time with over the long weekend. Today's selections are on infant testing, cancer, ultra-processed foods, and consumer health.
In every postpartum hospital unit across the country, 1-day-old babies undergo the same ritual: A nurse pricks the newborns heel and stamps tiny drops of blood onto a paper filter, which is then sent off for a standard screening panel. Today, that panel checks for unusual bio-markers that may indicate a rare but treatable disease like sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. But what if that same dried blood spot could tell you about the babys risk of developing certain conditions later in life some with no method of prevention or cure? (Baumgaertner Nunn, 6/5)
Dinosaurs might be more than just fascinating relics of the pastthey could help pave the way towards new and better treatments for cancer. This is the conclusion of a new study by researchers from the Anglia Ruskin University and Imperial College London, both in England, that reveals that dinosaur fossils still carry biological cluesspecifically, preserved proteinsthat can teach us how ancient species dealt with diseases like cancer. (Patrick, 6/2)
New research is helping to answer an important question about ultra-processed foods: Which ones might be healthier?One reason many ultraprocessed foods often lead us to eat big meals and heavy snacks is because of their texture, which makes them go down easily and quickly, according to a new study presented this week at a conference in Orlando, Fla., of the American Society for Nutrition. (Petersen, 6/3)
Months ago, when Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chair Lois Kolkhorst first held a hearing on Senate Bill 25 requiring among other things, warning labels on foods containing certain additives the first person to speak was Calley Means, a top adviser to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. Texas can really lead here吋hese bills represent a Texas way that prioritizes transparency, prioritizes good education and prioritizes incentive change, said Means, a former food and pharmaceutical consultant, who spearheaded the federal Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission. Hes also the brother of Casey Means, President Donald Trumps nominee for U.S. Surgeon General. (Langford and Huff, 6/2)
Opinion writers discuss these public health issues.
Psychiatric diagnosis has taken on a new role in public life. Turbocharged by social media, therapy speak has permeated every corner of todays culture. More and more people are diagnosing themselves with mental health and behavioral disorders, whether or not theyve seen a licensed mental health care provider. In fact, many people are embracing a psychiatric diagnosis as more than a clinical tool. They are using it to explain who they are, define their identities, and find community online. (Victor G. Petreca, 6/6)
Were on the verge of what will probably be one of the hottest Northern Hemisphere summers in human history. In early May, the water in the English Channel was already so hot that octopuses invaded it, inspiring Bloomberg News Joe Wertz to dub this hot octopus summer, and not in a fun, Megan Thee Stallion way. (Mark Gongloff, 6/6)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already tarnished his legacy as Health and Human Services secretary with numerous false statements and questionable decisions about vaccines. Last week, he added yet another serious blunder: The federal government, his department announced, will pull more than $760 million committed to developing shots for bird flu. (Leana S. Wen, 6/5)
Behind nearly every prescription filled in America lies a powerful engine of innovation, fueled by the research conducted within the nations universities. Picking up a new prescription at the pharmacy represents the culmination of a decades-long choreography between the private, public, and academic sectors that drives this countrys medical innovation and ensures the most cutting-edge care and technology are available here.(Kevin Gardner and Michael Kinch, 6/6)
Recently, in a significant shift toward accessible, patient-driven health care, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first at-home cervical cancer screening test. This decision supports a growing trend toward decentralizing health services and empowering people to have more control over their health screenings and tests. (Rachell A. Ekroos, 6/6)