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The White House has backed away from a plan to issue an executive order that would subject billions of dollars in federal health and biomedical research spending to heightened political scrutiny, according to four people familiar with the situation. The proposed directive would have established a commission with the power to block government research grants if the money supported work in areas that did not align with President Trump’s political agenda. The plan was discussed in a White House meeting on Friday, and some on Capitol Hill had expected Mr. Trump to issue the order as soon as this week. (Stolberg and Romm, 9/23)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) wields a $47.5 billion budget. More than 80% of its funds go out the door as grants to answer pressing biomedical questions. Over the decades, those grants have helped decipher the human genome, eliminate the polio virus in the U.S. and turn AIDS from a death sentence to a survivable illness. But experts say this kind of fundamental science is coming up against an administration that has delayed funding and rerouted billions of dollars in research, resulting in chaos for researchers and patients alike. Trump officials say the administration's practices serve to further the agency's goals. (Kim, 9/24)

Eight sailors who were part of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted to take their lives during its long deployment in support of the war against Iran, according to a letter from the Navy. One of those sailors assigned to the Lincoln’s air wing “went overboard from the ship” in early August and was recovered by one of the carrier’s rescue helicopters, Hung Cao, the acting Navy secretary, said in the letter. A second sailor attempted to go overboard in March but was stopped by shipmates, Mr. Cao wrote. (Jaffe and Schmitt, 9/23)

John Gaitanis, MD, who was recently appointed the new chair of the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), co-founded a company that provides leucovorin to families of children with autism. Meadow Biosciences -- now called Meadow Health -- launched in April and described itself as the "first national telehealth platform dedicated to leucovorin care for children with autism." It says it provides "clinician-guided care through custom-compounded medications when prescribed, delivered to the patient's door." (Frieden, 9/23)

In the midst of increasing misinformation about acetaminophen (Tylenol) and its relationship to autism, many expecting women feel confused about what they should take if they experience a fever. A paper published today found that there’s no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism or attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). (Holohan, 9/23)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accepted $4 million in book advances and more than $270,000 in gifts over the past year from close allies who are working to advance his Make America Healthy Again agenda, according to his latest financial disclosure form. Ethics experts said the financial relationships may violate federal rules barring officials from profiting from their government position, and call into question the secretary’s ability to remain independent and impartial. (Jewett and Gay Stolberg, 9/23)

Senate Democrats are again insisting that administration officials release the contracts they negotiated with more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies as part of President Donald Trump’s initiative to lower drug prices. “Here we are, months later, with six written requests, legislation to compel release, and a Cabinet secretary’s commitment. And I have not seen a single page,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote Wednesday to Chris Klomp, the chief counselor of the Department of Health and Human Services. The letter was shared with The Washington Post. (Diamond, 9/23)

The CMS administrator’s comments Tuesday at an event hosted by an MA lobby suggest that the Trump administration remains interested in tougher oversight of the program. (Parduhn, 9/23)

The leader of an influential congressional advisory group is defending its estimates of Medicare Advantage overpayments amid growing controversy over how to best analyze spending in the privatized Medicare program. Dr. Amol Navathe, the chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, took the stage during an MA industry event in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday in support of the group’s research that the U.S. government is set to spend 14% more — an extra $76 billion — this year on seniors that opt into MA than it would if those same beneficiaries went into traditional Medicare. (Parduhn, 9/23)

Congress is considering the first major overhaul of how Medicare pays doctors in more than a decade, and both Democrats and Republicans appear to agree on the outlines of an approach. (Wilkerson, 9/24)

Trump administration officials last Friday touted the success of their drug pricing policy, saying every U.S. state had agreed to participate in a federal initiative designed to provide lower prices to state Medicaid programs. (Payne, 9/24)

President Donald Trump’s nominee to take over the Food and Drug Administration is set to answer questions Thursday, with Senate lawmakers likely to focus on her plans for vaccines, the abortion pill and other products that have come under new scrutiny at the regulatory agency. Dr. Heidi Overton, a physician and top White House aide, has spent most of her career working for Trump or conservative groups aligned with his agenda. That connection may prompt questions from some members of the Senate health committee which is considering her nomination. (Perrone, 9/24)

President Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, Heidi Overton, on Thursday will have to convince a handful of skeptical Republican senators to back her nomination. But the larger biotech world is watching for hints about how she'd lead the agency through a defining era for the sector. (Owens, 9/24)

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Wednesday endorsed Galleri, a blood test designed by the biotech firm Grail to screen for multiple types of cancer, concluding that the benefits of the test outweighed its risks. (Herper, 9/23)

Possibly contaminated injections of a peptide called glutathione have been linked to dozens of illnesses and some hospitalizations, the federal health agencies reported. (Sullivan, 9/23)

The FDA issued a warning letter this month to Empower Pharmacy over its mass production of compounded GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs, citing illegal copycat manufacturing and insanitary conditions. (Monaco, 9/23)

A man found dead in an Idaho church decades ago may be connected to unsolved poisonings in 1982 that were dubbed the Tylenol murders and ushered in child safety caps for medicines, authorities announced Wednesday. Detective Tim Cooper of the Ada County Sheriff’s Office reopened a cold case investigation in 2019 that led authorities to identify Dr. Mathew Francis Betkouski posthumously. He fatally poisoned himself with cyanide more than 40 years ago and was buried anonymously. (Sun and Roubein, 9/24)

Theranos founder and convicted felon Elizabeth Holmes has been approved for placement in a community correction center, or halfway house, and is scheduled to be placed there next year, according to an update from the Department of Justice's Victim Notification System, ABC News has learned. Holmes is scheduled to be placed in the Austin Transitional Center in Del Valle, Texas, on Aug. 23, 2027, according to the notification. (Dunn, 9/23)

Most people don’t worry about their cardiovascular health until they get older. But strokes, one type of cardiovascular disease, in young adults are steadily on the rise — and have nearly doubled in the last three decades, according to a new study. (Nicioli, 9/23)

Walmart will pay $16 million to settle a California law enforcement investigation into allegations that its stores offered expired infant formula and over-the-counter drugs for sale, Sonoma County District Attorney Carla Rodriguez announced Wednesday. The settlement, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, bars Walmart from selling infant formula past its “use by” date and expired over-the-counter drugs at its California stores. It also requires the retailer to establish an enhanced program for checking inventories, removing expired products and training employees. (Vaziri, 9/23)

A knee or hip replacement can be a lifesaver for someone in chronic pain from arthritis, but they might have a hidden effect on the brain, a new study says. Cobalt particles from a person’s replacement joint can travel to their brain and lodge there, researchers reported recently in the journal Acta Biomaterialia. The cobalt particles did not appear to cause any cognitive decline among patients, but were associated with brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease, researchers said. (Thompson, 9/23)

More than a year after finding high levels of PFAS, or so-called “forever chemicals,” in the blood of many northwest Georgians, Emory University researchers have launched a new study to test if anything can be done to treat the problem. Researchers from Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health on Tuesday announced the launch of a clinical trial in the towns of Rome and Calhoun, where decades of use of stain-resistant chemicals by the region’s multi-billion carpet industry has contributed to a contamination crisis. (Jackson, 9/22)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Black Lung Disease Remains A Threat, But Federal Officials Delay Effort To Address It

Each day at New River Health in Oak Hill, Lisa Emery finds disheartening signs of what she describes as a slow-motion repeat of the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster. Emery is director of New River’s Breathing Center and chair of the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics. (Sisk, 9/24)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘�������ýҕ�l Health News Minute’

Jackie Fortiér reads the week’s news: Many small businesses say they can no longer afford to offer their staff health insurance. Plus, when friends and neighbors act as informal caregivers, they’re unlikely to receive protection for time spent away from work. (9/24)

Star Meat Delivery Inc. of Lucama, North Carolina, is recalling approximately 167,639 pounds of raw pork, beef and goat products, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture announcement posted Tuesday. The items were produced without the benefit of federal inspection, meaning they weren’t confirmed to be “safe, wholesome and properly labeled” by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). (Siclait, 9/23)

Wakefern Food Corp. has recalled jars of its Wholesome Pantry Organic Unsweetened Apple Sauce after federal testing turned up high levels of patulin, a toxin made by mold. The patulin levels are above food safety limits and don't meet the company's own quality standards, so the applesauce shouldn't be eaten, Wakefern said. No illnesses have been reported. (Vohnoutka, 9/23)

Nursing homes would no longer be required to report each week how many residents were stricken by Covid and other respiratory diseases, under a Trump administration plan to repeal a key public health response to thousands of pandemic deaths. A draft summary of the proposed rule obtained by The New York Times outlines how the administration agrees with the industry’s objections to weekly reporting of viral caseloads, calling it burdensome. In its waning days, the Biden administration made Covid reporting rules permanent, adding influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (R.S.V.) to the list of threats that facilities also must track and record. The policy took effect in January 2025. (Rowland and Johnson, 9/23)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month raised its benchmark for levels of the Covid virus in wastewater, adjusting a key metric for assessing the disease’s transmission. As a result, a level that would previously have been classified as high transmission may now register as moderate instead. (Gross, 9/23)

States are now able to access updated coronavirus vaccines through a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program serving nearly half the nation’s children after it had been in limbo for nearly a month, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post. Earlier Wednesday, The Post reported that ordering was set to begin as early as Wednesday or Thursday, citing two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Within a few hours, an email sent out shortly before 5 p.m. from a CDC official informed partners in the federal program that covid-19 vaccines were “now available for ordering.” (Sun and Roubein, 9/23)

More than one in 10 US healthcare personnel (HCP) reported persistent moderate or severe long-COVID symptoms at both three and six months after infection, according to a study published this week in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. The study also found that older age, female sex, multiple underlying health conditions, and multiple COVID infections were associated with greater odds of persistent symptoms. (Bergeson, 9/23)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged Wednesday that one measles death has occurred so far in 2026 but provided no clarity about who died or where. The agency previously declined to recognize four measles-associated deaths the Pennsylvania Health Department reported over the last month. On Wednesday, the CDC’s measles outbreak page was updated to show one death with a note that the number “is subject to change” and that the agency will “update its reporting as additional information becomes available.” (Edwards, 9/23)

In JAMA Network Open yesterday, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Illinois public health agencies estimated the cost of a 2024 measles outbreak in two Chicago shelters for unhoused people newly arrived in the country at $8.7 million. The economic evaluation tallied the costs of the outbreak, which took place from March 7 to April 30, in terms of the public-health response, direct medical expenses, and productivity losses in patients in isolation or quarantine and those caring for children who missed school or daycare due to isolation. (Van Beusekom, 9/23)

The Trump administration is curbing its efforts to encourage Americans to get the flu vaccine this fall despite the virus rising as a cause of death in the U.S. and killing a higher number of children in recent years. President Trump signed an executive order last month calling for most children to receive fewer vaccines. That will result in Americans seeing notably less federal support for the shots in the coming months. The nation’s top health agencies have halted multimillion-dollar campaigns urging Americans to get vaccinated against flu and other respiratory viruses. They have also scaled back efforts to send informational materials to clinicians and pharmacies ahead of respiratory-virus season. (Siddiqui, 9/23)

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, who was shot Sunday by federal immigration officers in Austin, needs surgery to remove the bullet lodged near his spine, U.S. Rep. Greg Casar said Wednesday after visiting the Venezuelan man in a detention center in Pearsall. (Leggio and Nguyen, 9/23)

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is suing three drug manufacturers as well as three pharmacy benefit managers, alleging that they worked together to drive up the price of insulin and line their own pockets. In the lawsuit, filed this week in the state's 11th Judicial Circuit Court, targets Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, which Uthmeier's office said produce 90% of the world's insulin, alongside the PBM industry's "Big Three" organizations, CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx. (Minemyer, 9/23)

Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds reiterated Tuesday that he remains open to reappointing Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo if he wins the Nov. 3 election. That marks a clear distinction with Democrat David Jolly, who has vowed to fire Ladapo on his first day in office. (Perry, 9/23)

Three people who went to California’s Six Flags Magic Mountain have filed lawsuits saying they were left with traumatic brain injuries from the park’s famed X2 roller coaster that is advertised as a rite of passage for the “ultimate daredevil.” The filings are the latest against the world-famous amusement park operator and S&S Worldwide, the manufacturer of the X2 roller coaster cars. Six Flags recently settled a wrongful-death lawsuit from the family of a 22-year-old man who died after riding the coaster in 2022. (Ding, 9/24)

A Central Business District homeless shelter could close as the New Orleans City Council considers tightening its budget for 2027. The Low Barrier Shelter (LBS) faces a proposed $5 million budget cut following Mayor Helena Moreno’s budget presentation on Tuesday (Sept. 22), threatening New Orleans’ largest emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Under a low-barrier model, the shelter is the only New Orleans shelter that boards pets and does not require sobriety tests and identification. (Perdomo, 9/23)

Sam Trumbull once wrote public assistance policy to help people receiving food assistance, then needed public assistance for her family. Amanda Nataro won’t take personal effects to her new job, after being crushed by the sudden end of her last one. Nicoletta Barbera and her husband are considering leaving the area because of rising costs and lower salaries than they once had. (Fields and Sanders, 9/24)

Minnesota teenagers are using cannabis at lower rates than they were a decade ago. But researchers and mental health experts say they’re still trying to understand what’s behind the change. (Ki, 9/24)

Artificial intelligence agents for OpenAI infiltrated a government-run public health care website in Australia in June and accessed nonpublic information, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday. The case prompted a government investigation into the breach and raised alarm about rogue activities by fast-advancing A.I. systems. OpenAI informed Australia of the unauthorized access on Sept. 10, nearly three months after it happened, Mr. Albanese said in disclosing details of the incident, the first known instance of a breach into government systems. Calling the hack “unacceptable,” Mr. Albanese, who was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said he had personally raised his concerns with Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, earlier in the day. (Kim, 9/23)

In the latest sign that artificial intelligence is fueling higher health care costs, a group of insurers released a report Thursday claiming that hospitals’ use of A.I. was responsible for nearly $1 billion in additional expenses over two years. Using codes for various medical conditions, hospitals submitted claims for tens of thousands of patients that described their illnesses as more complex in 2024 and 2025 than in 2023. Despite the added conditions, there was no evidence that the patients had received different treatment from the hospitals, according to the analysis by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which represents state Blue Cross plans. (Abelson and Rosenbluth, 9/24)

Nearly two-thirds of hospital nursing professionals surveyed by Black Book Research said they feel individually watched or behaviorally tracked by AI or algorithmic systems used in their workplaces. The findings come from Black Book Research’s State of AI in Hospital Nursing report, an August assessment of 202 hospital nursing professionals who had direct exposure to AI-enabled or algorithmic systems during the previous 12 months. Respondents included bedside nurses, charge nurses, managers, informatics professionals, utilization and case-management nurses, quality and safety personnel, administrators and advanced practice nurses. (Diaz, 9/23)

Oracle Health announced new artificial intelligence revenue cycle management capabilities and an oncology electronic health record Wednesday at the Oracle Health and Life Sciences Summit. The revenue cycle management tools help with the prior authorization process by checking coverage, pulling documentation requirements and automatically adding the information and evidence. The goal is to help reduce delays and denials, the company said in a Wednesday news release. (Famakinwa, 9/23)

As the healthcare sector rapidly adopts and deploys artificial intelligence, one organization urges stakeholders to use their purchasing power to demand environmental transparency from AI vendors. Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) has published its U.S. Artificial Intelligence Procurement Guide to support healthcare organizations in identifying their preferred AI vendors and encouraging them to become better stewards of the environment. The guide was created at the behest of HCWH’s health system and payer partners, who were also involved in its development. (Gliadkovskaya, 9/23)

A decade ago, machine learning scientist and Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton made a proclamation that still puts radiologists on edge. “If you work as a radiologist,” the so-called godfather of artificial intelligence said at a conference, “you’re like a coyote that’s already over the edge of the cliff, but hasn’t yet looked down.” Deep learning was getting so good, so fast, said Hinton, that “people should stop training radiologists now.” In five years — ten, max — AI would do better than radiologists, he predicted. (Palmer, 9/24)

Millions of federal dollars are going toward developing new medical residency programs in rural areas to help fill gaps in coverage. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $11.2 million to support programs in 14 states. That includes Arizona, Utah and Wyoming. This comes as hospitals shut down and providers retire in small towns across the West. (Merzbach, 9/23)

An oncologist failed to show that his former employer discriminated against him on the basis of disability in part because his burnout did not qualify as a disability under relevant federal laws, a Colorado federal judge held Wednesday. The plaintiff in Peddada v. Catholic Health Initiatives Colorado alleged that his termination violated the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. But because his burnout did not substantially impair major life activities — and because it was transitory and minor — it did not rise to the level of a disability as defined by either law, the judge found. (Golden, 9/21)

Dr. Jonathan Perlin, president and CEO of the Joint Commission, plans to retire from his position at the end of the year. Dr. James Merlino, chief operating officer of the accrediting agency, will succeed Perlin Jan. 1, according to a Wednesday news release. After Merlino takes the helm, Perlin will serve as a strategic adviser and president emeritus through at least 2027, the Joint Commission said. (DeSilva, 9/23)

In a Winona State University biology lab, freshman Chayse Pulvermacher was isolating the DNA of an apple and then pipetting it into a special gel to see if she could identify it. The process is full of skills she hopes will help her land a job after college. (Richert, 9/24)

A California health system must pay $18.5 million to seven women who claimed a physical therapist sexually abused them under the guise of providing therapy, according to a settlement agreement reviewed by the Chronicle. In a lawsuit filed in May 2025, the women accused the therapist, Jason Elias, of groping them, rubbing their genitals during what he claimed were therapeutic massages and covertly photographing them while they were exposed on treatment tables. (Vân Neely, 9/23)

Cool blues and soothing greens cover the walls at the new inpatient Pardee Adolescent Behavioral Health Center at UNC Health Pardee’s Hospital in Hendersonville. And for teens in Henderson and surrounding counties, those walls will enclose a safe space for kids experiencing mental health challenges. (Fernandez, 9/24)

Health systems are partnering with third-party vendors or building their own logistics operations to solve one of the trickier parts of hospital-at home-programs — getting supplies to the patient. They’ve found that coordinating the movement of remote monitoring equipment and other products to and from patients’ homes can be challenging. A growing number of companies including Cardinal Health, DispatchHealth, Ryder and United Parcel Service are stepping in to provide those services to hospital-at-home programs. (Eastabrook, 9/23)

Health insurance companies are joining forces to simplify the arduous provider credentialing process. UnitedHealth Group subsidiary UnitedHealthcare, Cigna Group subsidiary Cigna Healthcare and Centene are partnering with third-party vendor CertifyOS to launch a national shared credentialing program, CertifyOS announced Wednesday. The partnership will also include other insurers, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield carriers, CertifyOS CEO Anshul Rathi said. (Tong, 9/23)

The FDA on Thursday approved rebisufligene etisparvovec (Fayuvi) as the first treatment for pediatric patients with mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA (MPS IIIA), also known as Sanfilippo syndrome type A, the agency announced Thursday. (George, 9/18)

The FDA approved the Selution sustained limus release (SLR) drug-eluting balloon (DEB or DCB) to treat coronary in-stent restenosis (ISR), Cordis announced Monday. This makes Selution SLR the only sirolimus-based DEB available to treat an obstruction or narrowing of a stented vessel in patients with coronary artery disease. (Lou, 9/21)

A remote-controlled artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) has shown early promise for relieving urinary incontinence after prostate cancer surgery, while addressing one of the most awkward aspects of existing devices. (Bankhead, 9/20)

A quarter of patients with cirrhosis from metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) presented before the age of 50 and had distinct features, including inherited genetic risk factors and type 2 diabetes, according to data from a prospective multicenter study. (Bassett, 9/17)

Getting your neck adjusted by a chiropractor does not appear to increase the risk of a rare but serious artery tear. Researchers analyzed data from more than 862,000 U.S. adults who sought care for a new episode of neck pain or headache between 2010 and 2025. (9/23)

The animals may help reveal the causes of brain disease in people and point the way to treatments. But researchers already are calling for new ethical guidelines. (Zimmer and Johnson, 9/16)

Congress has already rebuked the president on this issue multiple times. (9/23)

Over 400 trained graduates have been formally notified their applications are on hold. (Mikhail Shneyder, 9/21)

When I was in kindergarten in 1961, I survived a near-fatal case of measles. One of my siblings caught it, then another, and then me. They recovered quickly, but my clearest memory of that period is my father carrying me to our station wagon and rushing me to the hospital. I stayed for a month, part of it in a coma, my blood pressure dangerously unstable. (Jewel Mullen, 9/24)

Earlier this month, Novartis released the top-line results of Lp(a) HORIZON, its highly anticipated Phase 3 trial of pelacarsen. Pelacarsen held promise as potentially the first approved therapeutic targeting lipoprotein(a), a genetically determined cholesterol particle strongly associated with heart attack and stroke risk. (Vishal Khetpal, 9/24)

Restricting food aid is a cynical tactic by elite lawmakers to keep vulnerable citizens divided. (LZ Granderson, 9/18)