Potential Impacts Of A U.S. Education Department Shutdown On California: Federal dollars support K-12 education in California, particularly aiding disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. Read more from the Desert Sun.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Sworn In as U.S. Health Secretary – Los Angeles Times
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and he was then sworn in as President Trump’s health secretary, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country. (Seitz, 2/13)
Trump Announces RFK Jr.-Led Panel On Children's Health
President Donald Trump announced he is moving to establish a “Make America Healthy Again Commission” chaired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. that will seek to address what the Cabinet member has cast as an epidemic of chronic disease among the nation’s children. “This groundbreaking commission will be charged with investigating what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic illness, reporting its findings, and delivering an action plan to the American people,” Trump said Thursday at the Oval Office. (Woodhouse and Gardner, 2/13)
RFK Jr. Outlines His Health Secretary Priorities in Post-Confirmation Interview With Fox News
In an interview just hours after his confirmation as Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. outlined his priorities in response to specific prompts by Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “It’s MAHA time” read a chyron as Kennedy joined the program, later changing to “MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!”—a variation on Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan. Kennedy asserted that the U.S. is “the sickest country in the world,” a talking point he has repeated many times in reference to its low ranking on various metrics among developed nations. He said that Americans face not only a health crisis but also a “spiritual crisis.” (De Guzman, 2/14)
Trump's Proposed Cuts To Medical Research Funding Spark Nationwide Concern
A proposal by the Trump administration to reduce the size of grants for institutions conducting medical research would have far-reaching effects, and not just for elite universities and the coastal states where many are located. Also at risk could be grants from the National Institutes of Health to numerous hospitals that conduct clinical research on major diseases, and to state universities across the country. North Carolina, Missouri and Pennsylvania could face disproportionate losses, because of the concentration of medical research in those states. (Badger, Bhatia, Cabreros, Murray, Paris, Sanger-Katz and Singer, 2/13)
Federal Judge Pauses Trump Order Restricting Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Youth
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people under age 19. The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their healthcare has already been compromised by the president’s order. A national group for family of LGBTQ+ people and a doctors organization are also plaintiffs in the court challenge, one of many lawsuits opposing a slew of executive orders Trump has issued as he seeks to reverse the policies of former President Biden. (Skene, 2/13)
Federal Websites Remove LGBTQ+ Content Amid New Policies
If a teacher wanted to find guidance in early January on how to support LGBTQ students, they could have accessed a government website for resources. That web page no longer exists. It’s one of more than 350 government web pages related to the LGBTQ community that have been deleted from federal government websites, according to a report published Thursday by the Center for American Progress, a liberal research and advocacy group. (Butler, 2/13)
Los Angeles Blade: Education Department Moves To End Support For Trans Students
An email sent to employees at the U.S. Department of Education on Friday explains that “programs, contracts, policies, outward-facing media, regulations, and internal practices” will be reviewed and cut in cases where they “fail to affirm the reality of biological sex.” The move, which is of a piece with President Donald Trump’s executive orders restricting transgender rights, jeopardizes the future of initiatives at the agency like mental health services and support for students experiencing homelessness. (Kane, 2/10)
Modern Healthcare: Tensions Rise in House Budget Talks Over Potential Medicaid Cuts
Medicaid cuts emerged as an especially sensitive flash point Thursday during the first public debate over a House Republican plan to extend tax cuts and slash federal spending. Republicans at a House Budget Committee markup insisted they only want to target waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, and defended themselves against Democratic assertions that GOP policies would hurt people and medical providers. Democrats said harm is inevitable if Republicans want the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid, to find $880 billion in budget cuts over the next decade. (McAuliff, 2/13)
MedPage Today: Neurologic Complications from Flu in Children May Increase This Year
Public health officials are looking into reports of a small potential uptick in neurologic complications of influenza in children -- particularly a rapidly progressing and dangerous condition called acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE). Adrienne Randolph, MD, MSc, of Boston Children's Hospital, said she reported about 12 potential cases of flu-associated ANE to CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) in the past few weeks. (Fiore, 2/13)
CBS News: Infectious Disease Expert Calls Texas Measles Outbreak 'Completely Preventable
"It is troubling, because this was completely preventable," Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins, told CBS News on Wednesday. "What we're seeing is, one of the places in Texas — it has the lowest vaccination rates, the highest school exemption rates from measles vaccination — having a measles outbreak, including hospitalizations of individuals who've been infected with measles." (Moniuszko and Higgins, 2/12)
CBS News: U.S. Sees Highest Number of Whooping Cough Deaths Since 2017
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. (Tin, 2/11)
Flu Deaths In California Exceed Covid Deaths: More people are dying from flu than from covid this winter for the first time since the novel coronavirus started flooding emergency rooms in 2020. At least 561 people have died from flu in California since July 1. Read more from Bay Area News Group.
The New York Times: Research Shows Increase in Infant Mortality and Births After Abortion Bans
Infant mortality increased along with births in most states with abortion bans in the first 18 months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to new research. The findings, in two studies published Thursday in the journal JAMA, also suggest that abortion bans can have the most significant effects on people who are struggling economically or who are in other types of challenging circumstances, health policy experts said. (Belluck, 2/13)
Becker's Hospital Review: Cedars-Sinai Launches Pilot for 'Virtual Assistant' to Support Nurses
Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai is piloting the use of an artificial intelligence-powered mobile app designed to reduce nurses' documentation burdens. The health system partnered with its enterprise information services team and Aiva Health to develop the Aiva Nurse Assistant app, which is being tested on a 48-bed surgical unit. The app allows nurses to dictate patient notes via voice commands. It then transcribes the information and maps it into the appropriate fields in Epic, which clinicians validate the data before submission. (Bean, 2/12)
Rady Children’s Hospital Announces It Will Continue Providing Gender-Affirming Care: Rady Children’s Hospital has confirmed that its Center for Gender-Affirming Care “is operating without changes” despite President Donald Trump's executive order. Read more from The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Becker's Hospital Review: MemorialCare Unveils New Pediatric Care Network
Long Beach, Calif.-based Miller Children's & Women's Hospital, part of MemorialCare Health System of Fountain Valley, Calif., is launching a network to provide primary and specialty pediatric care. The Miller Children's Care Network integrates pediatricians and specialists to improve quality, access and value of healthcare to patients in South Los Angeles and North Orange County. The network looks to foster strong partnerships between primary care and specialist pediatricians to create a unified approach to healthcare. (Taylor, 2/12)
CNN: Study Finds Marijuana Ads Are Encouraging Kids to Try Weed
A legal loophole is allowing children who access social media to see enticing advertisements for marijuana with potentially dangerous consequences, according to experts. (LaMotte, 2/12)
NBC News: Study Suggests Children With Mild Peanut Sensitivity Can Use Store-Bought Peanut Butter To Build Tolerance
Children with milder forms of peanut sensitivity may be able to overcome their allergy by consuming increasing amounts of store-bought peanut butter, a new study suggests. All of the 32 children in the study, who received 18 months of this immunotherapy, were able to consume the equivalent of three tablespoons of peanut butter without experiencing reactions, according to the report published Monday in NEJM Evidence. (Carroll, 2/10)
Stat: Early Adhd Treatment May Help Reduce Smoking, Study Finds
Researchers have long known that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are more likely to use nicotine and tobacco — putting them at higher risk for a host of diseases and increasing the likelihood that they may become addicted to drugs and alcohol. But early diagnosis and treatment of ADHD could help prevent young people from picking up the habit in the first place, according to a new study. (Todd, 2/11)
KFF Health News: Kaiser Permanente Faces Scrutiny Over Mental Health Care, But It's Part Of A Broader Issue
For more than a decade, Kaiser Permanente has been under the microscope for shortcomings in mental health care, even as it is held in high esteem on the medical side. In 2013, California regulators fined the insurer $4 million for failing to reduce wait times, giving patients inaccurate information, and improperly tracking appointment data. And in 2023, KP agreed to pay $50 million, the largest penalty ever levied by the state’s Department of Managed Health Care, for failing to provide timely care, maintain a sufficient number of mental health providers, and oversee its providers effectively. (Wolfson, 2/11)