�������ýҕ�l

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named Susie Wiles, the Florida strategist who has run his political operation for nearly four years, as his White House chief of staff for his incoming administration. It is the first job announcement Mr. Trump has made since winning the election on Tuesday. His decision to choose someone in his inner circle is a sharp contrast to his choice after first winning the presidency in 2016. Her appointment will help move along the transition process. In the coming days, Mr. Trump is set to begin reviewing names for the most important jobs in government, including cabinet posts. (Haberman and Swan, 11/7)

Trump's team didn't mention in its announcement that Wiles worked as a lobbyist for the tobacco company Swisher International while running the former president's 2024 bid. Citing disclosure forms filed earlier this year, the investigative outlet Sludge reported Thursday that Wiles "worked to influence Congress on 'FDA regulations.' ""Wiles has not filed a termination report for her work with Swisher, but she has not reported lobbying for the company since the first quarter of the year, when the company paid her firm Mercury Public Affairs $30,000 in fees," Sludge noted. The outlet pointed out that Mercury—which lists Wiles as a co-chair on its website—has "large lobbying contracts with several junk food companies that will be working to oppose" Trump's stated objective to "Make America Healthy Again" by, among other changes, working to remove processed foods from school meals. (Jake Johnson, 11/8)

One of the Trump campaign’s consistent messages to voters was that a Trump administration would “Make America Healthy Again,” with campaign figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledging to get ultra-processed foods removed from school lunches. Mercury has large lobbying contracts with several junk food companies that will be working to oppose that objective. It lobbies for sugar cereal company Kellogg’s, high fructose corn syrup sauce maker Kraft-Heinz, and Nestlé SA, the Swiss company whose brands include KitKat, Hot Pockets, and Nestea. Some of Mercury’s other clients, highlighted on its website, include Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Tesla, Uber, Kaiser Permanente, AT&T, NBC Universal, Gavi: The Vaccine Alliance, and the nation of Qatar. (Shaw, 11/7)

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to involve anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his next administration in some capacity, but whoever else he picks to run the major health agencies will have a major impact on the GOP health agenda of the next four years. Top posts require Senate confirmation, meaning Trump will need Senate buy-in too. Positions include Health and Human Services secretary, which requires Senate confirmation; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, which will require Senate confirmation beginning in January 2025; Food and Drug Administration commissioner and National Institutes of Health director, which also require Senate confirmation. (Cohen, 11/7)

There are doubts that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could survive a Senate confirmation vote for any Cabinet-level position. A former environmental lawyer, he has in recent decades become a prominent vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist, and lawmakers might be reluctant to place him in charge of the country's public health infrastructure. (Garver, 11/7)

Also —

President-elect Donald J. Trump has already sealed a comfortable majority in the Electoral College. But he is also on course to do something he didn’t do in his first successful campaign for the White House: win the popular vote. The latest count, as of Thursday morning, suggests Mr. Trump will win more votes nationally in the presidential election than his defeated rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, making him the first Republican to prevail in the popular vote in 20 years. (Bigg, 11/7)

Donald Trump’s victory means the nation’s first convicted-criminal-turned-president-elect is headed for the White House instead of a prison cell. That’s because Trump’s Nov. 26 sentencing hearing in the hush money case almost certainly won’t happen. (Orden, 11/6)

Millions of Americans risk losing subsidies next year that help them pay for health insurance following President-elect Donald Trump’s election win and Republicans’ victory in the Senate. The subsidies — which expire at the end of 2025 — came out of the 2021 American Rescue Plan, and increased the amount of assistance available to people who want to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. ... If the subsidies aren’t extended, the Congressional Budget Office — a nonpartisan agency that provides budget and economic information to Congress — estimates that nearly 4 million people will lose their coverage in 2026 because they won’t be able to afford it. Enrollment will continue to fall each year, with coverage reaching as low as 15.4 million people in 2030. (Lovelace Jr., 11/7)

The fact that Republicans have gained control of the Senate — and possibly the House — could give Mr. Trump an opening to try and transform the 2010 health law and remake the nation’s health care system. Key to that strategy, health policy experts said, is simple inaction. Major subsidies that lawmakers approved during President Biden’s term that have lowered the cost of plans are set to expire next year. Republicans could allow them to sunset, a move that could deprive roughly 20 million Americans of extra financial help for coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces. (Weiland, 11/7)

STAT asked experts in heart disease, health equity, epidemiology, and more about their thoughts on how the new administration may affect the future of health and scientific research. (Cooney, Cueto, McFarling, Oza and Wosen, 11/8)

Major trade associations for the hospital industry congratulated Trump on his win this week, while reiterating their priorities for lawmakers in Washington. Insurer groups were quieter. AHIP, the largest lobby representing payers, told Healthcare Dive it had no statement to share. Other associations, including the Alliance of Community Health Plans, which represents nonprofit insurers, didn’t issue official statements on the election but posted blogs outlining their priorities for the incoming administration. (Pifer, 11/7)

On vaccine policy, fluoride, and artificial intelligence —

After Donald Trump’s victory on Tuesday, longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is poised to have tremendous influence over the way the United States regulates and distributes its vaccines. (Lawrence and Broderick, 11/8)

Africa's main public health body said it is seeking assurances that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's administration will provide the funding and mpox vaccines promised by his predecessor. In September, U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $500 million and 1 million vaccine doses to an mpox response plan led by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which is battling an mpox outbreak on the continent. Africa CDC Director John Kaseya said he would push the new administration to honour existing promises. "If they don't do that, the mistrust that we have today in Africa will lead to a major issue between the U.S. and the continent." (11/7)

Fluoride — long heralded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century — could be removed from public water systems under the influence of one of President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy — who has no training in either medicine or dentistry — called fluoride “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss” and other problems on the social media platform X. “I think fluoride is on the way out,” Kennedy said Wednesday on MSNBC. “The faster that it goes out, the better.” (Edwards, 11/7)

Opponents of adding fluoride to drinking water, where it can protect teeth but may also pose a threat to the mental health of newborn children, scored a recent victory in a San Francisco federal court. Now they may have gained a pair of unlikely allies — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President-elect Donald Trump. (Egelko, 11/7)

A lot has happened with artificial intelligence since President-elect Donald Trump was last in the White House. Nudged into action by the advent of generative AI, the Biden administration has spent the past year rushing to set up guardrails for the technology’s use in health care. It reorganized its health agencies, launched a task force to consider regulatory changes, and promised to set up mechanisms to monitor safety risks and potential bias. (Ross and Aguilar, 11/8)

Republicans took control of the Senate with Tuesday’s elections, but a handful of new Democrats will also be going to the Senate in January. The tight races between Republican Kari Lake and Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in Arizona and between Democrat Jacky Rosen and Republican Sam Brown in Nevada had not yet been called by Thursday evening. Here’s a look at the health care portfolios of incoming Democratic senators so far. (Hellmann, 11/7)

A newly-elected member of Congress — whose bipartisan bill-turned-law reformed the Texas Medical Board in 2023 in direct response to a KXAN investigation — previously said she wants to look into expanding patient protections on a national level. “I’m sure that you and I can partner together just like we did with the [Texas] Medical Board,” Congresswoman-elect Julie Johnson told KXAN investigative reporter Matt Grant after announcing her bid for Congress. “Let’s see what we can get done.” (Grant, 11/6)

The party that will control the US House of Representatives for the next two years is not yet decided - but the Republicans look to be inching towards a majority that would hand them full control of the US government. On Friday morning, the party was a handful of seats short of the 218 needed to take control of the lower chamber of Congress. (Looker, 11/8)

The tumultuous two years of the 118th Congress are likely to be capped by one more standoff over government spending. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., signaled to Fox News Digital that it was unlikely Republicans will move to kick fiscal 2025 federal funding discussions into the new year. But he reiterated vows that House Republicans would fight against rolling all 12 annual appropriations bills into one large "omnibus" package, setting up a possible showdown with Senate Democrats. (Elkind, 11/8)

And in news from the Supreme Court —

President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, combined with the Republican takeover of the Senate, may extend conservative control of the Supreme Court for two more decades. For much of the last four years, progressives focused on proposals to expand the court to more than nine justices or to impose limited terms on the current justices. These ideas depended on Democrats winning sweeping power in the White House and the Senate. Instead, Republicans will be in charge and positioned to preserve the conservative grip on the high court long after Trump leaves Washington. (Savage, 11/7)

A former medical worker who was convicted of illegally accessing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s hospital records as she underwent cancer treatment in 2019 was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison after a judge excoriated his “truly despicable conduct” and “stunning lack of empathy.” Trent J. Russell admitted he was active on 4chan, an online message board known for trafficking in dark conspiracy theories. A screenshot showing the dates and types of cancer treatments Ginsburg received at George Washington University Hospital in the final years of her life appeared on the message board shortly after Russell accessed the same data. (Rizzo, 11/7)

Seven percent of tested workers on dairy farms where cows were infected with bird flu caught the virus themselves, according to a new study. The study proved that more workers were catching bird flu after contact with infected animals than the numbers reflected in official counts, something veterinarians working these farms had warned about since the outbreak began in March. The research was led by disease detectives at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in partnership with state health departments in Colorado and Michigan. It was published Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Goodman, 11/7)

Federal health officials on Thursday called for more testing of employees on farms with bird flu after a new study showed that some dairy workers had signs of infection, even when they didn’t report feeling sick. Farmworkers in close contact with infected animals should be tested and offered treatment even if they show no symptoms, said Dr. Nirav Shah, principal director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Aleccia, 11/7)

In covid updates —

A federal judge approved a class-action settlement between Ascension and a group of employees to resolve claims that workers were allegedly denied religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination requirements. Employees filed suit against Ascension Michigan — part of St. Louis-based Ascension — and several affiliates in July 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, claiming some workers were allegedly put on an unpaid leave of absence the previous year. (DeSilva, 11/7)

Involving a new research tool named FlowBEAT, a study in Science Translational Medicine links self-targeting antibodies in the airways and nose to milder cases of COVID-19 and more efficient recovery in patients, which means a nasal swab could help predict disease severity. (Soucheray, 11/7)

Also —

Dr. Diane E. Griffin, a noted virologist and former chairwoman of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, died Monday of heart failure at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. The Cockeysville resident was 84. (11/8)

The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it would seek to pull a widely used ingredient in cough and cold medicines from the market, after the agency's scientists concluded that the oral version of the drug is ineffective as a nasal decongestant. The FDA's proposal comes more than a year after the agency's outside advisers voted against continued use of the ingredient, called oral phenylephrine, citing concerns with the initial data used to support its approval and new data questioning its effectiveness. (Tin, 11/7)

Police in South Carolina are on the hunt for 43 rhesus monkeys that escaped from a research facility on Wednesday. The “skittish” animals, belonging to local primate research company Alpha Genesis, have been wandering the Yemassee area for about a day, according to a Thursday press release from the Yemassee Police Department. ... The escaped rhesus monkeys are all young and female, weighing about six or seven pounds each. Because of their age and size, the monkeys have not yet been tested on and carry no disease, according to police. The Alpha Genesis facility breeds cynomolgus, rhesus and capuchin monkeys for government, university and private industry research projects. It has worked on vaccine development for decades, including projects related to the coronavirus vaccine. (Lee, 11/7)

In other health industry developments —

Plymouth, N.C.-based Washington Regional Medical Center sought Chapter 11 protection Oct. 29 to help the hospital restructure its finances while ensuring care to patients. The 25-bed critical access hospital will remain open following the filing with daily operations remaining uninterrupted and no effect on employees and patients, according to a news release shared with Becker's.  (Ashley, 11/7)

Belfast-based MaineHealth Waldo Hospital has shared plans to restructure its obstetrics and end its labor and delivery services, effective April 1, 2025, according to a Nov. 7 news release shared with Becker's. The hospital, which is part of Portland-based MaineHealth, will still offer and expand comprehensive pre- and post-natal care and partner with MaineHealth Pen Bay Hospital and other local hospitals for labor and delivery services.  (Ashley, 11/7)

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has successfully performed a historic fetal surgery to remove a heart tumor, saving the life of a baby from Tennessee. When Brailey Valenzuela was 24 weeks pregnant, an ultrasound showed her baby had a deadly heart tumor. ... Brailey Valenzuela became the fourth patient at CHOP to successfully undergo this type of fetal heart surgery. (Stahl and Nau, 11/7)

Private equity firms are shifting their focus from providers to healthcare information technology and pharmaceutical services. State and federal regulatory scrutiny has deterred private equity investment in healthcare providers, PitchBook analysts said in the company’s latest healthcare services report. But regulatory oversight of healthcare-related private equity deals has slightly cooled as certain state bills stalled in the 2024 legislative session, and the report says analysts expect more private equity activity through the rest of the year. (Kacik, 11/7)

Aetna and OptumHealth have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging they used a “dummy code” to inflate workers' medical expenses. A settlement would put to rest a nine-year-long dispute between the companies and plaintiff Sandra Peters, who alleges Aetna and OptumHealth failed to uphold their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which governs large-group health plans such as employee benefits. (Tepper, 11/7)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Watchdog Calls For Tighter Scrutiny Of Medicare Advantage Home Visits
A new federal watchdog audit is ratcheting up pressure on government officials to crack down on billions of dollars in overcharges linked to Medicare Advantage home visits. But so far, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has rejected a recommendation from the Health and Human Services Inspector General to limit payments stemming from house visits that don’t result in any medical treatment — a potential red flag that may signal overcharges. (Schulte, 11/8)

Also —

A progress report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) at US hospitals fell in 2023. The declines, primarily seen in acute-care hospitals, reflect a continuing downward trend in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with some HAIs falling below pre-pandemic levels. (Dall, 11/7)

Massachusetts’ child protection agency failed to properly manage the care of children in its custody with serious mental health conditions, the state auditor found, a systemic oversight that included missed or delayed therapy sessions for 35 percent of children whose cases were reviewed, and several others who received antipsychotic medications without proper authorization. Virtually all the Department of Children and Families cases examined in the audit released Thursday had information missing from their files, making it more difficult for doctors and nurses to safely and effectively treat those children. (Laughlin, 11/7)

A jury found a primary care doctor at the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur, Georgia, guilty of sexually assaulting a patient during a routine medical exam, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. Dr. Rajesh Motibhai Patel, 69, of Lilburn, Georgia, had been charged with sexually assaulting four female patients during appointments that took place between 2019 and 2020. (Kime, 11/7)

The husband and wife owners of a funeral home accused of piling 190 bodies inside a room-temperature building in Colorado while giving grieving families fake ashes were expected to plead guilty Friday, charged with hundreds of counts of corpse abuse. The discovery last year shattered families’ grieving processes. The milestones of mourning — the “goodbye” as the ashes were picked up by the wind, the relief that they had fulfilled their loved ones’ wishes, the moments cradling the urn and musing on memories — now felt hollow. (Bedayn, 11/8)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Education announced an agreement aimed at addressing food insecurity among college students in a press release issued Thursday. The partnership between the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and the Education Department’s office of Federal Student Aid attempts to increase awareness among college students of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides assistance to low-income individuals and families to purchase food. (Ventura, 11/7)

Daniel Lurie has been elected mayor of San Francisco, denying London Breed another term after arguing that her flawed leadership caused the city to struggle since the pandemic devastated its downtown and exacerbated the drug crisis, homelessness and public concerns about crime. (Morris, 11/7)

At the California Poison Control System in San Francisco, a call has just come in from a mother whose toddler accidentally drank a stain remover called “Grandma’s Secret.” ... It’s all in a day’s work for the poison center’s operators, the specially trained physicians, pharmacists and nurses at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Somebody comes into contact with something they shouldn’t, and a cry for help comes into the center’s 24/7 hotline (1-800-222-1222). (Metcalfe, 11/7)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: California Expanded Medi-Cal To Unauthorized Residents. The Results Are Mixed
California this year took the final step in opening Medi-Cal, its Medicaid program, to every eligible resident regardless of immigration status. It’s a significant expansion for an already massive safety net program. Medi-Cal’s annual spending now stands at $157 billion, serving about 15 million low-income residents, more than a third of Californians. Of those, about 1.5 million are immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization, costing an estimated $6.4 billion, according to the Department of Health Care Services. (Sánchez, 11/8)

On drug use and overdoses —

Homelessness, street crime and vandalism are nothing new along the Broadway corridor south of downtown Denver. But Chris Specht, who owns a condominium at the Broadway Flats building at 2nd and Broadway, contends Denver Health is aggravating the problems by operating a community site in Specht's building that pays people who inject drugs to come into the building for HIV testing and to take a survey about their lifestyles. (Maass, 11/7)

There’s a small line forming outside a plain white box truck in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. A half-dozen folks are waiting on a gusty October morning for their turn to go inside and receive red liquid in a cup, medication that will help them get through the next 24 hours without opioids. Or if they do use, to keep them alive. It’s life-changing for some, this treatment program on wheels, and it has faced obstacles in the past, but fentanyl’s grip on Washington has given methadone distribution more urgency. (Patrick, 11/7)

A study into Narcan could shape how first responders treat overdose patients. First responders across America, and in Northern California, continue to deal with a deluge of opioid overdose cases. How to treat some of them is still evolving. "Opiate overdose usually leads to a problem with your breathing, so you don't breathe as well," Dr. David Dillon with UC Davis Health said. "And if you can catch it where your heart is still beating but you're not breathing, Narcan is the antidote." (11/7)

There are now artificial intelligence programs that scan M.R.I.s for signs of cancer, Apple AirPods that work as hearing aids and devices that decode the electrical blips of the brain to restore speech to those who have lost it. Medical device technology is now deeply entrenched in many patients’ health care and can have a stunning impact on their lives. As advancements become more tangible to millions of Americans, regulation of the devices has commanded increasing attention at the Food and Drug Administration. (Jewett, 11/1)

Even today, one of the most controversial immigration measures in modern history is not fully understood. Children were spread across the country, sent to shelters and foster homes, and challenged with navigating a daunting immigration system without their parents. In some cases, attorneys even carried infants into court to appear before a judge, who would read out the charges against them. (Ward, 11/3)

The 4B movement, from South Korea, calls for women to not date, marry, sleep with, or have children with men. Women are calling for the movement to take off in the US after Donald Trump won the election. (Elliott and Watercutter, 11/7)

Certain foods are more likely than others to wreak havoc on your stomach. Cucumbers have carried Salmonella, peaches have been contaminated with Listeria, and eating a salad feels a bit like Russian roulette. Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, and sprouts are all considered high risk for foodborne illnesses. (Scott Faber, a food-safety expert at the Environmental Working Group, put it to me bluntly: “Don’t eat sprouts.”) By comparison, onions have an almost-divine air. They are blessed with natural properties that are thought to prevent foodborne illnesses, and on top of that, they undergo a curing process that acts as a fail-safe. According to one analysis by the CDC, onions sickened 161 people from 1998 to 2013, whereas leafy greens sickened more than 7,000. (Florko, 11/7)

More than 41,000 schools employ at least one sworn law enforcement officer or school resource officer, according to federal data collected by the Department of Education in the 2021-2022 school year and published this year. Some districts have increased their numbers. And other cities, such as Denver, are reinstating school resource officers several years after they were removed, according to reports. But starting around the time of nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers in 2020, at least 50 school districts nationwide decided to take a different approach — decreasing funding or ending school resource officer programs, according to federal data reported in Education Week. (McCullom, 11/6)

Today’s teenagers were born into the global-warming crisis, but already it’s upending their adolescence — and will define their future. (Locke, 11/4)

Republicans may well feel empowered to continue their long campaign against the nation’s public health infrastructure, to step up their attacks on science, and to spread the anti-vaccine mantra of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has worked his way into [Donald] Trump’s inner circle. (Michael Hiltzik, 11/7)

Abortion rights measures passed in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and New York; abortion rights secured well over half of the vote in Florida, although not enough to reach the 60 percent threshold to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s Constitution. (Jill Filipovic, 11/7)

Even before the pandemic, the U.S. ranked well below other wealthy countries in life expectancy at birth, a hypothetical measure based on current, age-specific death rates. An expert panel of the Institute of Medicine termed this lower ranking the "U.S. health disadvantage" in 2013, due largely to higher death rates before age 50. Over time, the gap in life expectancy has grown between the U.S. and other countries. (Mary C. White, 11/7)

I can’t fret about who will serve as our next president, because that matter settled itself Tuesday night. So, to dwell on it takes my mind off the present, off things that hold more personal significance. Prostate cancer, for one. I’m a survivor of a disease that takes thousands of men’s lives each year. (Justice B. Hill, 11/8)