If Greg Abbott signs, state would become first to try to crack down on the most common abortion method
A measure that would allow Texas residents to sue out-of-state abortion pill providers advanced to the desk of the governor, Greg Abbott, on Wednesday, setting up the state to be the first to try to crack down on the most common abortion method.
Supporters say it’s a key tool to enforce the state’s abortion ban, protecting women and fetuses.
Continue reading...The Guardian examined two private-equity backed companies that have been accused of failing to protect inmates from risk of harm, and even preventable death
Early one morning this spring, staff at a Santa Barbara county jail heard screams coming from one of the cells. A 57-year-old inmate was moaning and hyperventilating. She said her “guts are all twisted up”.
Rather than sending her to the ER, medical staff chalked her pain up to opioid withdrawal, since they had taken a prescription opioid away upon her arrival days before, a grand jury investigation later found. They placed the inmate – referred to as CF in the grand jury’s report – on mental health observation and gave her Tylenol. Even as the cell floor became covered in vomit, staff ignored her requests to go to the hospital. The documentation that should have been filled out to explain why her request was not honored was never completed.
Continue reading...Georgia man who blamed Covid vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal shot and killed a police officer
The man who attacked the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on Friday fired more than 180 shots into the campus and broke about 150 windows, with bullets piercing “blast-resistant” windows and spattering glass shards into numerous rooms, according to information circulated internally at the agency.
It may take weeks or even months to replace windows and clean up the damage, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel said.
Continue reading...Deadly violence not random as staff have endured ‘months of mistreatment, neglect and vilification’, says union
A union representing US Centers for Disease Control employees has demanded that the federal government condemn vaccine misinformation after a man who evidently blamed the Covid-19 vaccination for making him depressed and suicidal aimed gunfire Friday at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta.
The 30-year-old shooting suspect, who killed a police officer and died during the attack, had also tried to get into the CDC’s headquarters – but he was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press on Saturday.
Continue reading...American Medical Association writes to health secretary after reports he aims to overhaul taskforce for being ‘woke’
A top US medical body has expressed “deep concern” to Robert F Kennedy Jr over news reports that the health secretary plans to overhaul a panel that determines which preventive health measures including cancer screenings should be covered by insurance companies.
The letter from the the American Medical Association comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Kennedy plans to overhaul the 40-year old US Preventive Services Task Force because he regards them as too “woke”, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Continue reading...Prosecutors allege more than a million Medicare recipients had their information stolen and used by the defendants for fraudulent claims
US federal prosecutors charged 11 people on Friday in a Russia-based scheme to bilk Medicare – the American health insurance program for the elderly and disabled – out of $10.6bn through fraudulent billing for expensive medical equipment.
The “transnational criminal organization” orchestrated a “multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme” that included purchasing dozens of medical equipment companies from prior legitimate owners to perpetrate the fraud, according to the indictment dated 18 June.
Continue reading...Decision could embolden red states in US to block clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid funds
The US supreme court has paved the way for South Carolina to kick Planned Parenthood out of its Medicaid program over its status as an abortion provider, a decision that could embolden red states across the country to effectively “defund” the reproductive healthcare organization.
The case, Medina v Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, centers around a 2018 executive order from South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, that blocked clinics that provide abortions from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. “Payment of taxpayer funds to abortion clinics, for any purpose, results in the subsidy of abortion and the denial of the right to life,” McMaster said at the time, even though the reimbursements could not be used for abortions. Abortions are also now banned in South Carolina after six weeks of pregnancy.
More details soon…
Continue reading...Health secretary and chief of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid hail voluntary agreement as a ‘good start’
The US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and Dr Mehmet Oz announced a voluntary agreement with insurance companies to change prior authorization practices – where private health insurers require patients to ask for permission before they can receive medical treatment.
The majority of Americans receive health insurance through a private company, whether through an employer, or a privatization of public health insurance programs, such as Medicare Advantage.
Continue reading...Kat Cammack blames left’s fearmongering after medical staff hesitated to give her drugs needed to end pregnancy
A Florida Republican congresswoman is blaming fearmongering on the left for the reluctance of hospital staff to give her the drugs she needed to end an ectopic pregnancy that threatened her life.
Kat Cammack went to the emergency room in May 2024 where it was estimated she was five weeks into an ectopic pregnancy, there was no heartbeat and her life was at risk. Doctors determined she needed a shot of methotrexate to help expel her pregnancy but since Florida’s six week abortion ban had just taken effect medical staff were worried about losing their licenses or going to jail if they did.
Continue reading...ACIP panel to discuss influenza vaccines that contain thimerosal, which Kennedy called ‘dangerous’ in 2014 book
A key vaccine advisory panel reconstituted by health secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr is slated to discuss thimerosal-containing influenza vaccines in its first meeting – an ingredient which has been a fixation of anti-vaccine activists for decades.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will hold two separate votes later this month: one on “influenza vaccines” and one on influenza vaccines that contain thimerosal.
Continue reading...Fiona Havers says she does not have confidence data will be use to make ‘evidence-based vaccine policy decisions’
The scientist responsible for overseeing the CDC team that collects data on Covid and RSV hospitalizations resigned on Monday.
Dr Fiona Havers told colleagues in an email that she no longer had confidence the data would be used “objectively or evaluated with appropriate scientific rigor to make evidence-based vaccine policy decisions”, according to Reuters.
Continue reading...Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has raised the alarm over how patients in the agency’s clinical trials are facing setbacks in treatment
A 43-year-old woman and mother of two with advanced cancer says she is experiencing life-or-death delays in treatment because of the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Natalie Phelps, who has stage 4 colorectal cancer, has spoken publicly, raising the alarm about a setback in care for herself and others who are part of clinical trials run by the agency. Her story has made it into congressional hearings and spurred a spat between a Democratic senator and the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr. Behind the scenes, she and others are advocating to get her treatment started sooner.
Continue reading...Cases in New Mexico and Kansas give experts reason to be ‘concerned’ in second-worst US measles year since 2000
The measles outbreak in Texas is showing signs of slowing, though other states are seeing more cases and health officials are warning against complacency as the US continues to experience high rates of measles amid falling vaccination rates.
It has been a handful of days since anyone in Lubbock, Texas, has tested positive, and there are no known measles hospitalizations at the children’s hospital in the city, which has also cared for children from nearby Gaines county.
Continue reading...Cases in New Mexico and Kansas give experts reason to be ‘concerned’ in second-worst US measles year since 2000
The measles outbreak in Texas is showing signs of slowing, though other states are seeing more cases and health officials are warning against complacency as the US continues to experience high rates of measles amid falling vaccination rates.
It has been a handful of days since anyone in Lubbock, Texas, has tested positive, and there are no known measles hospitalizations at the children’s hospital in the city, which has also cared for children from nearby Gaines county.
Continue reading...But older children, who had no access to the shots, had higher rates this winter compared with last
New vaccines and treatments are linked to a dramatic decline in RSV hospitalizations for babies, according to a new study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This past winter was the first RSV season with widespread availability of a vaccine given during pregnancy and a monoclonal antibody treatment given in the first eight months of life to prevent RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
Continue reading...Health secretary demurs on questions about vaccine stance and defends Republican plans to cut healthcare
The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, refused to say whether he would vaccinate his children if he had to choose today, and defended Republicans’ proposal to cut healthcare to fund tax cut extensions.
Kennedy’s back-to-back testimonies before House and Senate committees were his first appearances before lawmakers since his confirmation in February. The secretary was called to discuss Donald Trump’s proposed budget, which would impose disproportionately large cuts to scientific enterprises at the health department.
Continue reading...Vinay Prasad, outspoken critic of pharmaceutical industry and of his peers in public health, to take over CBER
Vinay Prasad, an oncologist and hematologist who has called for more regulatory scrutiny of pharmaceuticals, including Covid vaccines, was named the top US vaccines official earlier this month.
Marty Makary, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), announced in a 6 May email obtained by the Guardian that Prasad would now lead the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), which oversees biological products like blood, vaccines, and cellular and gene therapies. Biotech stocks plunged at the news.
Continue reading...Andrew Witty exits for personal reasons as largest US health insurer responds to higher-than-expected medical costs
The UnitedHealth CEO, Andrew Witty, is stepping down for personal reasons and the nation’s largest health insurer suspended its full-year financial outlook due to higher-than-expected medical costs.
Stephen Hemsley, the company’s chairman, will become CEO effective immediately, the Minnesota company said.
Continue reading...Trump and Musk have gut National Institutes of Health and experts are wary of private efforts’ ability to replicate public service
The federal government has slashed research since Donald Trump took office – hacking away at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its grants, staff and long-held partnerships with academia.
Now, some private companies said they want to pick up strands of research that might have otherwise been funded by the federal government. The effort has stoked little optimism among experts, who caution that private efforts cannot remotely replicate the breadth, depth or public service provided by federal funding.
Continue reading...Health secretary is planning wide-ranging monitoring of autistic people’s health record and cuts to disability services
Autism experts and autistic people are pushing back on Robert F Kennedy’s “terrible” approach to autism as the health secretary plans more expansive monitoring of autistic people’s health records and proposes cuts to disability services.
A huge study on autism proposed by Kennedy will draw upon private medical records from federal and commercial databases, and a new health registry will track autistic Americans, CBS News reported on Monday.
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