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Although the United States officially left the World Health Organization (WHO) in January, US scientists have continued to collaborate with international researchers to track the evolution of influenza viruses. [On Thursday,] the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) unanimously endorsed the WHO’s recommendation for viral strains to include in flu shots starting this fall. The final decision will be made by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, MPH. (Szabo, 3/12)

This season's influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) rates against outpatient visits and hospitalizations may be lower than last season's, pushed in part by a viral mismatch between the vaccine virus and circulating strains, according to an interim CDC analysis. Based on U.S. surveillance network data from September 2025 to February 2026, estimated VE rates against influenza A- and B-related outpatient visits for adults ranged from 22% to 34%, and 30% to 41% for those ages 65 and older specifically, while rates against hospitalizations reached 30% and 31%, respectively, reported Patrick Maloney, PhD, of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and colleagues. (Rudd, 3/12)

White House officials are steering the Trump administration away from vaccine reform, fearing the political consequences of emphasizing a relatively unpopular issue in a key election year. But the Make America Healthy Again movement, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — a health secretary with a history of anti-vaccine activism — isn’t going along without a fight. (Payne and Cirruzzo, 3/13)

In related news about HHS Secretary RFK Jr. —

�������ýҕ�l Health News: 'What The Health? From �������ýҕ�l Health News': RFK Jr.’s Very Bad Week 
It’s been a tough week for Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In addition to Kennedy having surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff, personnel issues continue to plague the department: The nominee to become surgeon general, an ally of Kennedy’s, may lack the votes for Senate confirmation. The controversial head of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine center will be resigning next month. And a new survey finds Americans have less trust in HHS leaders now than they did during the pandemic. (3/12)

On the spread of measles —

A large measles outbreak in South Carolina is finally showing signs of slowing down as the total number of cases in the state nears 1,000. For several weeks now, the state has experienced a downward trend in new infections, with approximately 10 cases being reported per week. At its peak in mid-January, the state was reporting around 200 new cases a week. (Mullin, 3/11)

The measles outbreak tied to two schools in Broomfield is now up to as many as 10 cases, with two new confirmed infections and one suspected infection reported Thursday. (Ingold, 3/12)

Another measles case has been confirmed—this time at a popular grocery in Gresham. The Oregon Health Authority and Multnomah County health officials are urging anyone who was at WinCo Foods at 2511 SE 1st St. in Gresham between 2 and 5 p.m. on March 7 to contact a healthcare provider, as they may have been exposed to the measles virus. (Rhoades, 3/12)

Three cases became six, then 10, then 12. Here's an inside look at what's been happening to track exposures, test residents and persuade people to quarantine. (Takahama, 3/11)

Makayla Skjerva, a North Dakota 14-year-old, contracted measles after being exposed at school in February. Makayla, who is immunocompromised, fell seriously ill. (Kekatos, 3/13)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Doctors Warn Of A Deadly Complication From Measles Outbreaks
The first sign came when Deepanwita Dasgupta was 5 and started stumbling more while playing at her home in Bangalore in southern India. The girl was always up to something, so her parents figured extra bumps and bruises were just symptoms of an active childhood. Maybe, they thought, it was ill-fitting shoes. Relatives described the unicorn-loving child as smart, affectionate, and occasionally rascally. Before she learned the alphabet, she had figured out how to find her favorite show, Blippi, on a phone. She was known to sneak butter from the fridge to enjoy a few finger licks. (Bichell, 3/13)

On whooping cough —

There've been 26 confirmed cases of whooping cough so far this year, and roughly two-thirds of those have been in Fremont County. That’s according to the Wyoming Department of Health. Wyoming logged 148 cases last year, which was the highest count in over 70 years. The department said actual case numbers are likely higher because people might not recognize the symptoms or report their illness. (Habermann, 3/12)

This year, the federal government is expected to pay 14% more to cover people in a Medicare Advantage plan than if those same people were enrolled in traditional Medicare — a $76 billion surplus for health insurance companies, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission said in its new annual report released Thursday. (Herman, 3/12)

More Medicare news —

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Medicare Advantage ‘Dark Money’ Group Attempts To Win Higher Payments For Insurance Companies 
Judging by more than 16,400 comments recently posted on a federal government website, you’d think there was a groundswell of older Americans demanding that federal officials hike payments to their Medicare Advantage health insurance plans. Yet about 82% of the comments are identical to a letter that appeared on the website of a secretive advocacy group called Medicare Advantage Majority, a data analysis by �������ýҕ�l Health News has found. (Schulte, Rosenfeld and Hilzenrath, 3/13)

Portland stood out in a new study of how hard it is for Medicare patients to find a primary care doctor — and not in a good way. Even though the Portland area has more primary care doctors per capita than three larger cities studied, clinics in the region were far less likely to accept new Medicare patients. (de Leon, 3/11)

Other news about the high cost of health care —

Enrollment in religious, cost-share ministries is on the rise. The groups, which are typically backed by small Mennonite churches, pool their money to cover medical costs for members. Joann Volk, a research professor who studies the health care insurance market at Georgetown University, said the alternative plans tend to be popular among patients seeking a more affordable option than health insurance. (Paul, 3/13)

Surging health insurance costs are forcing executives to make tough decisions on how to blunt the impact to the bottom line, from making changes to plans that could result in reduced coverage to requiring employees to pay more out of pocket for healthcare. Mediterranean food chain Cava Group raised employees’ healthcare premiums for the first time in years in 2025 and is now considering covering healthcare costs itself rather than relying on an insurance provider, an option known as self-insurance. (Williams, 3/12)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Families Scramble To Pay Five-Figure Bills As Clock Ticks On Promised Preauthorization Reforms
Sheldon Ekirch is used to being disappointed by her health insurance company. That’s why Ekirch, 31, of Henrico, Virginia, was stunned when she learned Anthem would finally have to pay for life-changing medical treatment. For two years, she had battled the company to cover blood plasma infusions called intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG. The treatment has been shown, in some cases, to improve symptoms associated with small-fiber neuropathy, a condition that makes Ekirch’s limbs feel like they’re on fire. (Sausser, 3/13)

Medicaid is now paying for health care in jails and prisons, helping smooth inmates’ return to the community. Corrections and law enforcement officials say they’re all for it. (Alcorn, 3/13)

In related news about housing affordability —

A Senate bill aimed at making housing more affordable should be a slam-dunk for Republicans’ affordability message. Instead, it’s exposing GOP disarray on the very cost-of-living issues voters care most about in an election year. The bipartisan legislation sailed through the Senate Thursday, but its future in the House remains uncertain amid demands from GOP hard-liners for major changes. President Donald Trump could step in to break the impasse between the two chambers by expressing support for the Senate’s work — but so far has shown little interest in helping advance a centerpiece of the party’s efforts to address rising costs ahead of the midterms. (Hapgood and Carney, 3/12)

CMS is looking to improve accountability and protections for patients in the U.S. organ donation system. On Wednesday, the agency issued guidance aimed at organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and donor hospitals that reinforces existing federal regulations and strengthens federal oversight. CMS noted in a press release that there have been reports of some OPOs rushing certain aspects of organ donation and procurement, "pressuring families to make decisions during moments of grief." (Henderson, 3/12)

A woman with cancer that spread to her liver is getting a second chance at life after receiving a partial liver transplant from a living donor. Amy Piccioli told "Good Morning America" doctors have told her she currently has no evidence of the disease three months after she underwent transplant surgery at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. (Yu, 3/11)

In related news —

Ron Wood’s open-heart surgery at The University of Kansas Hospital to replace an aortic valve in 2019 couldn’t have gone better. “It went fantastic,” said his wife, Thelma. “He felt just as good as he’s felt in any day of his life ... he could really walk a long way without getting out of breath or having any kind of complications.” But in 2021, his condition began to deteriorate. (Thomas, 3/10)

More news about the health care industry —

Microsoft is betting on healthcare as a path to become more competitive in artificial intelligence. The company’s biggest push yet: a new tool it describes as an AI concierge doctor—one that can access your medical records and health data, with your consent. The company on Thursday unveiled Copilot Health, a feature within the Copilot app that lets the chatbot dispense personalized healthcare advice informed by the user’s disease history, test results, medications, doctors’ visit notes and biometric data as recorded by wearable devices. (Herrera, 3/12)

Ease of health data exchange is a top priority for the nation’s health IT regulator, and the agency is taking steps to sanction companies that block the free flow of information, according to Dr. Thomas Keane, assistant secretary for technology policy and the national coordinator for health information technology. The ASTP/ONC is in the process of issuing notices of nonconformity to IT developers accused of information blocking who participate in the agency’s health IT certification program, the first potential enforcement action in nearly a decade since Congress banned information blocking. (Olsen, 3/12)

Lurie Children’s Hospital is planning to build its new pediatric hospital on now-vacant land in Downers Grove near the intersection of I-88 and I-355, hospital leaders revealed at a community meeting Thursday evening. (Schencker, 3/12)

Canada health officials are investigating the deaths of two people who donated plasma at for-profit clinics in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The deaths occurred just over three months apart. One person was a 22-year-old international student studying to become a social worker, while the other’s identity was not known. Health Canada, the federal department that regulates plasma clinics, said it had received reports from the clinics where the donations took place about deadly adverse reactions after procedures in October 2025 and January 2026. The clinics are required to report such events. (Isai and Rabin, 3/11)

On health care personnel —

Two prominent doctors from Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital stepped down on Tuesday after a report found that staff members were discouraged from reporting abuse committed by Robert Hadden, who sexually assaulted hundreds of patients while employed at both institutions. One of the executives, Dr. Mary D’Alton, a leader of the obstetrics and gynecology programs at Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia, was Mr. Hadden’s supervisor and vouched for his character even after he was accused of assaulting a patient in 2012 and detained by the police. (Meko and Otterman, 3/10)

A Springfield neurologist was slapped with a five-year probation after fellow employees at Baystate Health saw him masturbating inside his office, according to recently unredacted records from the state’s medical board. (Patkin, 3/12)

When Martin Seligman, bestselling author, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the most influential figures in the field, became a psychologist in the mid-1960s, the ratio of men to women in the field was 80 to 20. Today, that ratio has flipped. “The main consequence of the feminization of psychology is the topics that are worked on,” says Seligman. “From the 1960s through the 1980s, it was aggression, conflict and trauma, but not love, meaning, friendship or cooperation.” Then, in the ‘90s, the prevailing areas of research flipped, becoming less violent and more humane. (Paul, 3/12)

And Dr. Oz. lends a hand to emergency responders —

Assistant Fire Chief Chris Black was among those who helped when a woman fainted just behind the president. "After we removed the first patient out to the ambulance, we got about four back-to-back medical calls," he said. Dr. Mehmet Oz went along with them. "Dr. Oz said, 'Take me with you to the next one.' So, we bounced around different calls, and he was extremely helpful," Black said. After the event, as responders were getting ready to leave, another surprise, Dr. Oz brought them with him to meet the president. (Kershaw, 3/12)

Florida looks to be the latest state to license naturopathic doctors (NDs), albeit not without serious concerns from medical organizations. Legislation to license and regulate NDs has moved through the Florida Legislature, passing its Senate floor vote (33 to 3) last week and its House floor vote (85 to 22) on Wednesday. (Henderson, 3/12)

Updates from California —

After about a month of hearing from addiction experts, therapists, platform engineers and executives, including Mark Zuckerberg, 12 jurors heard closing arguments before deciding whether social media companies should be liable for harms caused to children using their platforms. Closing statements in the trial began Thursday at the Spring Street Courthouse in Los Angeles. Lawyers representing the plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman, and those representing the two defendants, Meta and Google-owned YouTube, made their respective cases to the jurors. TikTok and Snap were also named defendants in the lawsuit, but they each settled before the trial began. (Huamani and Ortutay, 3/12)

The Trump administration announced Thursday the departments of Transportation and Justice have filed a suit against the state of California that argues the state’s zero-emission vehicle and tailpipe greenhouse gas emission rules are superseded by federal law. (Spears, 3/12)

Gavin Newsom is trouncing Kamala Harris in their home state in a new presidential primary poll by POLITICO and its partners. The California governor leads Harris, the former vice president, 28 percent to 14 percent among voters leaning toward voting in California’s Democratic presidential primary, the UC Berkeley Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research-POLITICO poll found. (Jones, 3/12)

More health news from across the U.S. —

The Iowa Senate Ways and Means Committee advanced a measure Wednesday that would impose a one-time tax increase of $173 million on health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in order to address budget shortfalls in Iowa Medicaid. (Opsahl, 3/11)

Nevada regulators have fined three people who played a role in offering peptide injections last year at a Las Vegas anti-aging conference where two women became critically ill following treatment. Last month, the Nevada Pharmacy Board levied $10,000 fines against a doctor and a pharmacist who are licensed in California but who don’t have permission to practice in Nevada. It imposed a $5,000 fine against a third man who describes himself as an “integrative health coach” but who doesn’t appear to be a licensed health care practitioner. (Damon, 3/13)

Erica Carter’s job is her passion. For more than a decade, she has worked as a finance manager for the Omaha Nation School District in Nebraska. It’s in one of the lowest income counties in the state. (Krebs, 3/12)

Henry Herzog struggles with ADHD, anxiety and hypersensitivity to crowds and noise. The 7-year-old has a physician’s note to prove it. The medical diagnosis will give Henry priority when Texas decides which students may receive private school vouchers for the 2026-27 school year. (Edison, 3/12)

Indiana continues to be a hotbed of avian flu activity, according to this week’s reports from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The state had eight outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian flu in the past week in three counties, Elkhart, Lagrange, and Jay. Jay County had the largest outbreak, involving 20,600 birds on a commercial turkey meat farm. Elkhart County had four separate outbreaks, three of which involved duck meat facilities. (Soucheray, 3/12)

On the gun violence epidemic —

A man who once tried to assist the Islamic State opened fire Thursday in a classroom at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, killing one person and injuring two others before students subdued him, according to the FBI, which said the shooting was being investigated as an act of terrorism. The university’s police chief said officers found the suspect dead when they arrived minutes after reports that people were being shot inside Constant Hall, where business classes are held. Officials did not describe how the man, identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, died. (Hermann and Daniels, 3/12)

Ashley Fairleigh sat on her couch in the Sunday morning light, scrolling through the headlines on her phone. National news. State news. Story after story slid past her thumb. Suddenly, she froze. Her stomach lurched. It was March 1. Around 2 a.m. that morning, Fairleigh read, a shooter drove to Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden and fired into the crowds. Two people died at the scene. More than a dozen were injured. Police killed the suspected shooter. (Ball, 3/12)

On an overcast day in Central Texas, drones buzzed through the halls of an otherwise quiet Champion High School. In place of students, who were still on winter break, the school was filled with law enforcement officials — police officers, sheriffs, state troopers, first responders and even federal officials who gathered to take part in emergency response training with a new technology aimed at preventing mass shootings. (Hartman, 3/12)

A New Mexico-based company is recalling one of its supplements after a lab found it to contain the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil, according to a Wednesday news release from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sildenafil is the active ingredient in Viagra, which is FDA approved and used by millions of patients – but was not listed on the label of Primal Supplements Group LLC’s product “Volume,” the FDA says. (Tanner, 3/12)

On weight loss drugs —

Eli Lilly warned it has “uncovered significant levels of an impurity” in certain compounded tirzepatide products that include vitamin B12. (Kansteiner, 3/12)

Drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound have been hailed as miracle treatments. But one in 10 people are what scientists call “non-responders.” (Bajaj and Blum, 3/12)

More health and wellness news —

Jim Wells, a biologist at the University of California San Francisco, was studying proteins on the surface of cancer cells when he noticed one that wasn’t supposed to be there. This protein, called Src, should only be tucked inside cells. (Chen, 3/12)

A lawsuit alleging that David protein bars misrepresent their calorie and fat content is drawing comparisons to the movie “Mean Girls.” A class action lawsuit filed in January alleges that the popular bars have more than 400% more fat and 80% more calories than advertised. It has prompted a flurry of recent social media posts referring to the film’s queen-bee character Regina George, who finds out that the “healthy” diet bars she was given are actually making her gain weight, not lose it. Others likened the situation to the “Seinfeld” episode in which the “nonfat” yogurt that everyone’s obsessed with is — spoiler alert — full of fat. (Bennett, 3/12)

The early 1990s were a watershed moment for female health. In 1990, the Office of Research on Women’s Health was founded within the National Institutes of Health to ensure women were included in medical research. A year later, an Office on Women’s Health was established within the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate research, education, and resources. (Merelli, 3/12)

Scientists are still decoding the mysteries of covid and long covid:

The Covid pandemic was an extraordinary moment in history. Starting at the end of 2019, a virus new to science swept across the planet, killed more than 25 million people and caused trillions of dollars in economic damage. But as outbreaks go, Covid was pretty ordinary, a new study finds. Scientists compared seven viral outbreaks that occurred in recent decades, including epidemics of Covid, Ebola and influenza. For the most part, the researchers found, the outbreaks were not preceded by any unusual genetic changes in the viruses. (Zimmer, 3/9)

'Zombie' coronavirus fragments not only help drive inflammation in long-COVID, but also destroy our immune cells. A recent study by an international team of more than 30 authors reveals how the destruction of the virus within our body leaves dangerous protein fragments that target specific immune cells, which may explain some of the debilitating consequences millions of people with long-COVID now face. (Koumoundouros, 2/4)

Researchers keep discovering more about the long-term neurological effects of SARS-CoV-2. (Gale, 2/25)

Researchers from Sweden and the U.S. have uncovered molecular and structural changes in some taste buds of patients with taste abnormalities after a COVID-19 infection, offering the first plausible explanation for why a small group of people lost their taste for an unusually long time. (Lehmann, 3/3)

The first known meta-analysis of how SARS-CoV-2 variant type and time since infection influence long-COVID symptoms ties Omicron to brain fog and paresthesia (numbness and tingling), while earlier variants were more likely to cause shortness of breath and loss of smell. The study also puts the prevalence of the condition at 29%, though it dropped to 23% once the Omicron strain started to dominate. (Van Beusekom, 3/12)

Severe COVID-19 and influenza infections prime the lungs for cancer and can accelerate the disease's development, but vaccination heads off those harmful effects, new research from UVA Health's Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research and UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center indicates. (Harley, 3/11)

Flashback: Here's what we knew about covid six years ago in the Morning Briefing.

Mental and physical effects of the lockdowns have lingered:

A national study from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing found more than 138,000 nurses have left the workforce since 2022, with many pointing to stress and exhaustion from the pandemic. (Cooper, 3/11)

A royal commission into New Zealand’s Covid response has found it was one of the best in the world but acknowledged the period had left “scars.” New Zealand has recorded 5,641 Covid deaths since 2020. The country’s strict response, which included lockdowns, vaccine mandates and border quarantine helped to save tens of thousands of lives. But as the pandemic wore on, some anger over the restrictions set in and a small but vocal fringe of anti-vaccine and anti-mandate groups emerged, leading to a violent protest on parliament’s lawns. (Corlett, 3/9)

The academic effects of the pandemic weren’t just limited to school-age children. Kids who were babies and toddlers in the early years of COVID, currently in 1st and 2nd grades, are now struggling too, a new analysis finds. The report, from researchers at the assessment company NWEA, analyzes the organization’s math and reading test results for students who were in grades K-2 in the spring of 2025. (Schwartz, 3/10)

Covid funds are still being spent (and misspent):

State Auditor Dave Boliek has a New Year’s resolution for state agencies: spend the remaining $1.2 billion in federal COVID funds before they expire at the end of 2026. In spring 2021, amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress passed a massive stimulus package that sent $5.4 billion to North Carolina’s state government. That money sits in an account called the State Fiscal Recovery Fund and has been allocated to individual agencies by the state legislature. (Thomae, 12/1)

Former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison Monday after pleading guilty last year to misusing federal loans meant to help businesses withstand the COVID-19 pandemic. (Hancock, 3/9)

Prosecutors say a Greenville company knowingly processed hundreds of thousands of faulty COVID-19 tests and raked in millions in fraudulent reimbursements from the federal government. A federal grand jury indicted Premier Medical Laboratory Services CEO Kevin Murdock, as well as two high-level employees, Thomas Lee and Vidhya Narayanan on March 11. (Taylor, 3/11)

Neighbors are still looking out for neighbors:

Kayden Petersen-Craig may now only have months to live, but he said he is amazed at the kindness that people are showing through his fight with cancer. It's similar to the kindness he tried to show as a restaurant owner during the pandemic. (Anderson, 3/10)

It’s been just about six years since COVID-19 first hit Monterey County, California, infecting over 120,000 people in the county, taking the lives of over 900. The garden, unveiled Tuesday at the County Government Center in Salinas, honors the Monterey County residents who lost their lives to COVID-19 and acknowledges the dedication of first responders, frontline workers, educators, health care and public health professionals throughout the pandemic. At the ceremony, those who lost family members to the virus were given the opportunity to share stories about their loved ones. (Hamilton, 3/11)

“Heartbreaking.” “Devastating.” “Difficult and challenging.” Such are the words used by health care workers, government officials and former U.S. Agency for International Development employees to describe the impact of the agency’s dissolution last year. (Baram, 3/11)

As "political depression" enters public discourse, therapists are encouraging people to engage with their communities. (Sanders, 3/8)

Eccentric though it might seem for a clinician to send someone out fishing, this kind of social prescribing, as it’s known, has become an important trend in health care around the world. (Dickson, 3/12)

With longevity comes the opportunity for an extended sex life, which some seniors find by staying active and open-minded. (Pearson, 3/6)

“Keep the family healthy.” Those were some of the last words Clifford Thomas’ mother said to him. But in Albany, a town with a health care monopoly and no Medicaid expansion, staying healthy is a luxury that many are priced out of. (Campbell, Toral and Rodríguez Pons, 3/9)

A new survey from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center has a finding that should stop every public health official in this country: When asked which vaccine recommendation they would follow if the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics disagreed, only 11% of Americans said the CDC. (Robert B. Shpiner, 3/13)

When the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, declaring there is no constitutional right to abortion, many supporters of that decision insisted that its purpose wasn’t to ultimately banish reproductive rights throughout America, but merely to leave the question to the individual states. Since then, we have seen effort after effort to quash abortion access even in states where it remains legal — and even in states where, as in Missouri, the voters have assertively demanded that it remain legal. (3/12)

As the Covid-19 outbreak eased, demand for vaccines inevitably fell. Yet White House officials also changed their tune. (3/12)

Nancy’s blue eyes scanned the page I held before her. “What do you see?” I asked. Her concentration was the intense gaze of a student before a painting in a museum. Her lips parted. She was thinking. “I see … S’s.” She traced these images with her right index finger. “S’s,” she repeated. “Many S’s.” (Jason Karlawish, 3/13)

A dietitian explains why it’s best to limit ultra-processed food. (Leana S. Wen, 3/12)