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President Donald Trump is all in on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s plan to scrutinize the list of vaccines American children get. Trump directed Kennedy on Friday to review the childhood vaccine schedule and potentially revise it to align with those of other developed countries, most of which recommend fewer shots. (Gardner, 12/5)

President Trump praised a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) panel’s vote to change guidance for hepatitis B vaccinations as a “very good decision” in a Friday night post on his social platform Truth Social. “Today, the CDC Vaccine Committee made a very good decision to END their Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendation for babies, the vast majority of whom are at NO RISK of Hepatitis B, a disease that is mostly transmitted sexually, or through dirty needles,” Trump wrote. (Venkat, 12/5)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: In RFK Jr.’s Upside-Down World Of Vaccines, Panel Votes To End Hepatitis B Shot At Birth
Recent weeks have brought good news about vaccines, with studies indicating that flu vaccination reduces heart disease, shingles vaccines can prevent or slow dementia, and a single human papillomavirus shot protects a girl from cervical cancer for the rest of her life. But in the upside-down world of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vaccines are on the ropes. (Allen, 12/5)

Parents will still be able to get the hepatitis B vaccine for their children at no cost even though the US Centers for Disease and Control Prevention’s vaccine advisers recommended a major change to the immunization practice. (Luhby, 12/7)

Also —

An anti-vaccine lawyer who has regularly sued federal and state health agencies spoke Friday at a meeting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel — an unheard-of departure for the committee, which for decades was a trusted source for vaccine recommendations. The lawyer, Aaron Siri, has also served as the personal attorney for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist. (Bendix, 12/5)

The newly appointed chair of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel privately expressed concerns about the committee’s independence, according to a transcript of remarks obtained by POLITICO. Kirk Milhoan, who was named the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ chair earlier this week, said Friday he felt like committee members were “puppets on a string” rather than independent advisers. (Gardner and Gardner, 12/5)

Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday that President Trump’s assertions about hepatitis B transmission are “simply not true.” Trump said earlier this week that the disease is “mostly” transmitted sexually or via dirty needles. “That’s the problem. That’s simply not true,” Gottlieb told host Margaret Brennan on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” (Rego, 12/7)

Despite today’s approval by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to drop the decades-long universal birth-dose hepatitis B vaccine recommendation, 77% of Americans favor the vaccine for newborns, but only 35% favor giving it at birth and 51% by one month, according to a poll today from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. (Wappes, 12/5)

Related news from Illinois, which can issue its own vaccine guidelines —

Illinois will conduct its own review of a federal vaccine advisory committee’s decision to no longer recommend that all babies get the hepatitis B vaccine when they’re born — a move that’s been blasted by the Chicago-based American Medical Association and other health experts. (Schencker, 12/5)

Chicago Public Schools has surpassed the recommended threshold for measles vaccinations, with about 96% of its student population now immunized, according to a Tribune analysis of newly released data. Last school year, coverage stood at roughly 94% — below the 95% benchmark that is widely accepted in public health circles, specifically for highly contagious diseases such as measles. (Moses, 12/5)

The fierce fight over health care costs hits a crucial juncture this week, with a series of major developments that could make or break the future of enhanced ObamaCare subsidies. For months, GOP leaders have been squeezed between centrist Republicans clamoring to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which expire at year’s end, and more conservative lawmakers fighting to see them lapse. Democrats, from the sidelines, have fueled the clash by demanding a “clean” extension to prevent premiums from skyrocketing for millions of Americans in January. (Lillis and Brooks, 12/7)

Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to unveil a Republican health care bill in the coming days for a vote by the end of the month, but the move is unlikely to resolve a congressional deadlock over expiring Obamacare subsidies. The GOP plan is likely to include ideas the party has floated in the past to create less comprehensive plans to compete with Obamacare and to divert premium tax credits for the insurance policies toward tax-sheltered savings accounts individuals can use to cover non-premium out-of-pocket costs. (Wasson, 12/5)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Watch: What Do Republicans Really Want On Health Care?
On What the Health? From �������ýҕ�l Health News, distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and host Julie Rovner sat down with Avik Roy, a GOP health policy adviser, to talk about how health care has evolved as a Republican issue. Roy, a co-founder and the chair of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, said health care affordability has become a more salient issue for the GOP under President Donald Trump, with more people from working-class backgrounds voting Republican. (Rovner, 12/8)

States are taking matters into their own hands as health insurance exchange customers confront huge rate hikes and shrinking federal aid. Congress continues to debate whether to extend the enhanced health insurance exchange subsidies that expire at the end of the year. But with enrollees facing net premiums that more than doubled on average for 2026, some states are devoting what resources they have to help. (Early, 12/5)

More news about the high cost of health care —

When Steve Hardman of Charlotte checked in to see a Novant Health sleep doctor earlier this year, the receptionist handed him a survey to fill out. Hardman, 66, had seen the questions before — Do you feel safe in your house? Can you afford food? He spent a few minutes checking off the answers and handed the form back to the front desk. A few weeks later, the bill arrived, and it included an extra $8 fee he hadn’t seen before. (Crouch, 12/8)

Health insurance companies have lamented fast-rising medical expenses for more than two years. This year is no different as Americans continue to get more care than insurers expected. One of the main culprits of that higher spending: prescription drugs, and GLP-1s in particular. (Herman, 12/8)

Several prominent activists in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement are urging President Trump to fire Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, over his decisions to loosen restrictions on harmful chemicals. In a petition circulated on social media, the activists wrote that Mr. Zeldin “has prioritized the interests of chemical corporations over the well-being of American families and children.” (Joselow, 12/5)

Chemical industry lobbyists have long pushed the government to adopt a less stringent approach to gauging the cancer risk from chemicals, one that would help ease regulations on companies that make or use them. (Lerner, 12/8)

More MAHA updates —

The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans will not arrive until early 2026, a representative for the Department of Health and Human Services told The New York Times on Thursday, marking a delay of the release of the government’s official advice on what to eat and drink for good health. For months, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, has promised to overhaul the guidelines. Federal law requires that they are updated every five years; the current edition was supposed to be replaced by the end of 2025. (Callahan, 12/4)

MAHA Action, a political advocacy group dedicated to advancing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s agenda, made its first state-level election endorsement last week by wading into a key farm state's gubernatorial race. (Goldman, 12/8)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has the crowd in thrall when he declares, “Chiropractors are my kind of people.” It’s September 2023, and Kennedy is a long-shot presidential contender at the moment, not yet the most powerful health official in the United States. And here at the Mile High conference in Denver, an annual gathering for chiropractors across the world, he is speaking to a receptive audience. (Kim, 12/6)

Other Trump administration news —

The MOSAIC program is the type of early-career research grant that checks many of the boxes of the Trump administration. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya listed “training future biomedical scientists” as one of his top priorities, and has spoken often about the need to support researchers at the start of their careers, when they tend to do their most original work. (Oza and Parker, 12/8)

The president has granted clemency to about 100 people accused of drug-related crimes during his two terms in office, a Post analysis shows. (Kornfield and Davies, 12/8)

Hundreds of people gathered at a Queens playground on Sunday to protest the federal government’s forced separation of a 6-year-old migrant boy from his father after the two were arrested last month amid President Trump’s deportation crackdown. The boy, Yuanxin Zheng, is among the youngest migrants to be stripped from a parent by federal immigration authorities in New York City since the crackdown began. He and his father, Fei Zheng, were detained at what they believed was a routine check-in on Nov. 26. (Shanahan and Chu, 12/7)

The Trump administration offered states a deal: pledge to enact White House-favored policies for a chance to win a bigger share of the $50 billion aimed at transforming the nation’s struggling rural health care systems. The battle for those funds is now underway. (Ollstein, Reader and Crampton, 12/7)

The overworked kidney doctors in this small town were supposed to get reinforcement this fall with the arrival of a new colleague from India. Patients already had appointments scheduled with the incoming nephrologist. Then the Trump administration demanded that companies pay a $100,000 visa fee to bring highly skilled workers from abroad, including doctors and medical professionals urgently needed in health care deserts. Nephrology Associates of the Carolinas could no longer afford to sponsor the Indian kidney specialist, and it has not found an American well suited for the job. (Ovalle, 12/8)

More health industry developments —

Prime Healthcare Foundation has declined to buy two Prospect Medical Holdings hospitals in Rhode Island. Ontario, California-headquartered Prime Healthcare operates 51 hospitals in 14 states. Of those, 18 are owned by the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization, according to its website. Prime Healthcare Foundation would have owned the two Prospect hospitals. (DeSilva, 12/5)

A group of banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley improved terms of a debt offering for Sevita Whole Health LLC after an initial struggle to sell a loan for the healthcare services firm, according to people familiar with the matter. (Gurumurthy, Farr and Amodeo, 12/5)

Montana state Sen. Vince Ricci, a Republican whose district stretches from west Billings to the nearby town of Laurel, has spent months trying to keep track of the state’s evolving plans to develop a new psychiatric facility somewhere in his neck of the woods. For a lawmaker used to being well-informed on state policy, it hasn’t been easy. The day after Thanksgiving, the administration of Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte officially announced it had picked the Laurel area as the site for the 32-bed facility intended to treat mentally ill people in the criminal legal system. (Silvers, 12/5)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: A North Carolina Hospital Was Slated To Open In 2025. Mired In Bureaucracy, It’s Still A Dirt Field
Madison County, tucked in the mountains of western North Carolina, has no hospital and just three ambulances serving its roughly 22,000 people. The ambulances frequently travel back and forth to Mission Hospital in Asheville, the largest and most central hospital in the region. Trips can take more than two hours, according to Mark Snelson, director of Madison Medics EMS, the local emergency medical service. “When we get busy and all three of them are gone, we have no ambulances in our county,” he said. (Jones, 12/8)

The story of Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital — the dominant political and economic institution of Albany, Georgia — is the story of American health care. (Thompson and Burke, 12/7)

On artificial intelligence —

Health systems aren’t just excited about using artificial intelligence as a tool to improve back-office operations. They’re also keen to use it for clinical diagnosis. A report published this week by J.P. Morgan Chase examined major health tech trends including venture capital investment into AI. It also looked at how health systems plan to deploy the technology and who is using digital health technology most frequently. (Perna and Broderick, 12/5)

In front of a room of radiologists, Warren Gefter pulled up a chest X-ray on a large screen. It looked like a standard, uncomplicated read. Heart: normal. Lungs: clear. But Gefter, a professor of radiology at Penn Medicine, wasn’t looking to his peers to interpret the scan. Instead, he highlighted what a generative artificial intelligence model had put in its written findings, along with those normal results: “Left hip prosthesis in situ.” (Palmer, 12/8)

California officials are warning foragers after an outbreak of poisoning linked to wild mushrooms that has killed one adult and caused severe liver damage in several patients, including children. The state poison control system has identified 21 cases of amatoxin poisoning, likely caused by death cap mushrooms, the health department said Friday. The toxic wild mushrooms are often mistaken for edible ones because of their appearance and taste. (12/6)

Massachusetts’ highest court heard oral arguments Friday in the state’s lawsuit arguing that Meta designed features on Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to young users. The lawsuit, filed in 2024 by Attorney General Andrea Campbell, alleges that Meta did this to make a profit and that its actions affected hundreds of thousands of teenagers in Massachusetts who use the social media platforms. (Casey, 12/5)

Carbondale, Ill., a liberal enclave within driving distance of 10 states with abortion bans, has become a hub for the procedure. Last year there were nearly 11,000 abortions in this city of 21,000. (Williamson, 12/7)

When Clarice Jackson raised concerns in 2000 about her adopted daughter’s inability to read two or three letter words by the fourth grade, she was told by Nebraska school officials it was because of the child’s early home life and her misbehavior in class. (Harkay, 12/5)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: �������ýҕ�l Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Dig Into Maine HIV Outbreak And Ever-Closer End To Enhanced ACA Subsidies
�������ýҕ�l Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed Maine’s largest HIV outbreak to date, including the challenges in tracking transmission and treating people with the virus, on The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Public Health On Call on Dec. 1. (12/6)

Aging taps us on the shoulder in many ways: wrinkles, thinning hair, loss of flexibility, slowing of the brain. But the process also unfolds at a more fundamental, microscopic level, as the energy source inside most cells deteriorates. Scientists at Texas A&M University have discovered a way to recharge aging and damaged cells, an innovation that could lead to better treatment for a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, muscular dystrophy and fatty liver disease. (Johnson, 12/8)

Most older adults don’t read for pleasure these days, but the simple and affordable hobby can have lots of health benefits, including some surprising ones, say experts in aging and brain health. Reading is associated with reductions in stress and improved mood. And though the actual science is limited, scientists generally agree that reading can boost brain health by essentially working it like a muscle, keeping it strong and flexible. (Allday, 12/7)

Once upon a time, a drink or two at a holiday party went down the hatch with no problems. Now, it's a recipe for misery the next morning. Sound familiar? Dr. Monica Christmas of the University of Chicago Medicine says it's a common lament as people enter middle age. "You are not alone," Christmas says. "I am in that age range too and absolutely, [drinks] need to be spread out or it's all going to go straight to my head and I will need to sleep half the day away the next day." (Godoy, 12/8)

In other health and wellness news —

A man died of rabies after getting a kidney transplant from another man who died of the virus, only the fourth instance in nearly 50 years in which an organ donor passed the virus to a recipient, federal officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday that an Idaho man was on his rural property in October 2024 when a skunk approached him and scratched him on the shin. (Kirk, 12/6)

People with diabetes have a heightened risk for sudden cardiac death, a nationwide Danish study affirmed. In an analysis of every single death in the country in 2010, the incidence rates of sudden cardiac death were 3.7 times higher (95% CI 3.4-4.1) for people with type 1 diabetes and 6.5 times higher (95% CI 6.0-7.0) for those with type 2 diabetes compared with the general population without diabetes. (Monaco, 12/5)

Each year, more than 5 million cosmetic filler procedures are performed in the U.S. — but these injectables can potentially block key blood vessels, putting patients at risk for serious harm. In a study presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago, doctors found that ultrasound technology can spot these dangerous blockages early enough to guide treatment and help prevent lasting injury. (Rudy, 12/7)

A New Jersey drugmaker has voluntarily recalled thousands of bottles of a combination high blood pressure medication over concerns the product could be cross-contaminated with another drug, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) said. The recall covers more than 11,100 bottles of bisoprolol fumarate and hydrochlorothiazide tablets under the brand name Ziac. Testing of reserve samples showed presence of ezetimibe, a drug used for high cholesterol, FDA officials said in a report published online. (Ramsey, 12/6)

The genealogy site’s clarification of its terms and conditions has barred those working on unsolved crimes from access to the company’s vast trove of records. (Kilgannon, 12/7)

President Donald Trump has a fresh chance this week to act on a priority voters continually say they want fixed — but over which he’s in denial. The high and rising prices of health care, groceries and housing are a leading impediment to the lives of millions of Americans. But Trump, not unusually for presidents, seems more interested in his own political goals and obsessions. (Stephen Collinson, 12/8)

There is no evidence that the birth dose is unsafe, and no evidence that waiting until two months offers any advantage to safety or efficacy. (Leana S. Wen, 12/5)

With the longest U.S. government shutdown now over, the One Big Beautiful Bill (BBB) Medicaid work requirements are moving forward, with plans to take effect in January 2027. While policymakers assure work requirements will promote responsibility among able-bodied adults, one thing remains clear: many politicians do not know what disability actually looks like. (Elizabeth Caldwell, 12/5)

The Department of Health and Human Services recently published its final version of “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices.” The review confirmed what several European health authorities recognized as early as 2019: the assumed benefits of pediatric medical transition are profoundly uncertain, while the risks are significant. As the authors of the HHS review, we understand that some may be skeptical of our conclusions. After all, the report was commissioned by an administration whose policies are unpopular with many in the medical community. (Evgenia Abbruzzese, Alex Byrne, Farr Curlin, Moti Gorin, Kristopher Kaliebe, Michael K. Laidlaw, Kathleen McDeavitt, Leor Sapir and Yuan Zhang, 12/8)

A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) can tell you when my glucose spikes, but not that I delayed correcting it because I was in a high-stakes meeting. It can record the number after I under-bolused for lunch, but not that I did it because I was running on three nights of broken sleep from overnight CGM alarms. It can show a perfect flatline, but not the pre-emptive vigilance, the mental load, the constant micro-calculations it took to get there. (Mark E. Paull, 12/8)