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Anthony S. Fauci, the National Institutes of Health scientist who helped lead the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic before stepping down in late 2022, privately complained about President Donald Trump’s “rambling” and reveled in media coverage of his role, according to personal diary entries released this weekend by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). Paul, who is investigating the origins of covid-19, has called Fauci to testify on the pandemic before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday. (Westfall and Diamond, 7/27)

Democratic attorneys general and the Justice Department are facing off for the first time in court Tuesday over the fine line between being sick and being “medically frail,” a distinction that could cost Medicaid recipients their health benefits. At stake is a key part of a new Trump administration rule imposing work requirements on Medicaid, the state-federal health insurer for low-income people, starting in January. How a Boston judge comes down will determine who in Medicaid’s expansion population — typically low-income people without young children — must work, volunteer or go to school for 80 hours a month to keep their benefits. (Ollstein and King, 7/28)

Funding for the global HIV response plunged in 2025, entirely due to a steep decline in U.S. support, according to reports from KFF and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Taken together, the reports, released at the International AIDS Conference, show decades of progress to combat HIV is at risk. The current HIV response is fragile, and the world is not on track to achieve the 2030 goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat. (Weixel, 7/27)

For decades, physicists wrestled with a fundamental mystery of the universe. They wanted to know why certain particles — like the protons in atoms — have mass, while particles of light do not. Whatever the reason was, it was crucial to understanding the origins of planets, galaxies and life itself. ... Doing so would require one of the most ambitious international collaborations in scientific history. Starting decades ago, thousands of scientists from dozens of countries worked side by side, even though some of their nations considered one another adversaries. The United States contributed a quarter of the workforce and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. (Song, 7/27)

It was a skit worthy of an Agatha Christie whodunit reveal: Against the perhaps-too-joyous strains of a jazzy “When The Saints Go Marching In,” a gaggle of health IT professionals and Medicare staffers accompanied a Spirit Halloween-style coffin prop onstage at Health and Human Services headquarters on Monday. Some wore black veils, some held white roses. The coffin read, “RIP CLIPBOARD,” referring to the decades-old information-gathering staple of health care provider waiting rooms. (Trang, 7/28)

A plan to toughen the Medicare provider enrollment process is fomenting frustration and anxiety among providers who worry the purported anti-fraud measure would capture law-abiding practitioners and tangle all of them in red tape. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a proposed rule this month that would broaden its authority to bar new and existing providers suspected of fraud from Medicare reimbursement starting next year. The policy is tucked inside a draft regulation to set home health payments for 2027, but would apply to all providers and suppliers. (Early, 7/27)

The back-to-school banana shortage has been averted … at least for now. School cafeterias will still be able to buy as many bananas and other foreign products as they need this year, despite new “Buy American” restrictions. (Wallack, 7/28)