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The Trump administration on Tuesday released a final rule blocking the use of federal Medicaid dollars for transgender healthcare for minors, as well as barring Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans from paying for gender-affirming procedures for minors. The final rule released by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) bars Medicaid dollars from paying for what it refers to as “sex-rejecting procedures for children under 18” as well as blocking CHIP agencies from paying for the same procedures for people under the age of 19. (Choi, 8/11)

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals. ICE plans to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security. (Foley, 8/11)

The nation’s only detention center for families is routinely holding children beyond the 20-day limit, including an Iranian-born “average American kid” who’s been locked up for 123 days and counting. (García, Nguyen and DeGuzman, 8/12)

For months, much of the fight over one of the largest veterans legislative packages in years has centered on two medical conditions: sleep apnea and tinnitus. But leaders of some of the nation's largest veterans and military family organizations say that debate is obscuring who else is riding on the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, or TCAVA. (Lindsay, 8/12)

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking nominations for membership on the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC), according to a notice in the Federal Register. Although it won’t be published until [Wednesday], the Federal Register features a link to the unpublished document. (Van Beusekom, 8/11)

Dividing the combination measles-mumps-rubella vaccine into three separate shots would be likely to cost millions of dollars and take years to accomplish, vaccine experts say, making it impossible to follow President Donald Trump’s latest directive to break up the immunizations and give them at three doctor’s office visits. (Edwards, 8/11)

President Donald Trump issued this week a sweeping executive order aimed at changing how and when American children are vaccinated, defying guidance from major medical groups and sparking confusion among parents. The directive calls for reducing the number of recommended childhood vaccines, spacing out the shots and splitting up the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. The White House says the effort is to align the United States with its peer nations. The potential changes would diverge from long-standing federal guidance around immunizations, which medical experts credit with halting the spread of deadly preventable diseases in the United States. (Roubein and Sun, 8/11)

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) shared a post on Tuesday touting the effectiveness of vaccines following President Trump’s executive order seeking to decrease childhood vaccines and buck the standard order of shots by dividing immunizations for mumps, measles and rubella (MMR). “Since 1974, vaccination has averted 154 million deaths, including 146 million among children younger than 5 years of whom 101 million were infants younger than 1 year,” read a post from Cornyn’s account on the social platform X. Cornyn was directly citing an article published by The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. (Fields, 8/11)

Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coordinator of the COVID-19 pandemic under former President Biden, is speaking out against the Trump administration’s new “gold standard” recommendations for childhood vaccines. On Monday, President Trump signed an executive order that would split up the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot across three separate doctor’s visits. ... Jha called the move a “terrible idea” in a Monday interview with NewsNation, The Hill’s broadcast partner. (Davis, 8/11)

Health industry leaders pushed back on President Trump’s executive order on vaccines this week — including those he may need to rely on for his agenda. (Payne, 8/11)

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday defended its immunization guidelines amid the Trump administration’s decision to decrease the number of recommended childhood vaccines in the U.S. (Davis, 8/11)

BMJ Public Health retracted a study on excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic that appeared to suggest vaccination and other countermeasures as a possible explanation, following an investigation by the journal and the authors' institution. (Fiore, 8/11)

As soon as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began early in the pandemic, conspiracy theories about them started swirling. Some people claimed that the vaccines contained microchips, while others were suspicious about the intentions of the government or pharmaceutical companies. Researchers surveyed people in Japan about their beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories to understand who adheres to such ideas. The findings were published last week in Scientific Reports. (Holohan, 8/11)

California will begin phasing out paraquat, a powerful weedkiller associated with birth defects, thyroid issues and other serious health problems. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation said this week all manufacturers of pesticide products containing the active ingredient have voluntarily agreed to withdraw the product from the market. Paraquat is banned in more than 60 countries due to its toxicity but is still allowed in the U.S., and no state uses more of it than California. (Smith, 8/11)

Gov. Ron DeSantis is touting $188 million in funding to help expand healthcare access throughout Florida's rural communities. In a Tuesday announcement, DeSantis said the funds will be spent across 31 rural counties. (Vuxta, 8/11)

Tracy McClain remembers clearly the first time her son was arrested and charged with a crime because she was the one who placed the 911 call. She told dispatchers that her son JohnRobert Holmes III, 21 at the time, was at risk of hurting himself, hoping that he would get the help he needed — a pathway to a bed at a state psychiatric hospital. (Ma, 8/11)

Melanoma is one of Connecticut’s most common types of cancer, ranking among the top 10 diagnoses every year. So, Connecticut health officials have partnered with CT Cancer Partnership and American Cancer Society to place free sunscreen dispensers in some beaches, parks and public spaces in the state and provide sun safety outreach. (Ramkumar, 8/10)

The University of Michigan will replace traditional letter grades for some first-semester freshmen with a pass/fail-style grade, to more gently ease new students into academic life. The plan will go into effect in the fall of 2027 at the university’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts. It is intended to relieve pressure on freshmen and help them “start strong and curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals,” the university said in a statement. (Arsenault, 8/11)

Lindsay Clancy messaged one of her caregivers less than two months before she killed her three young children in 2023 to say she was having “intrusive thoughts I never had before,” “feeling completely hopeless” and worried about becoming addicted to some medications. Rebecca Jollotta, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at South Shore Health Perinatal Behavior Health Program, testified at the trial Tuesday she exchanged messages with Clancy regularly on a patient portal throughout in late November and December 2022. (Casey, 8/11)

Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma plan to execute inmates Thursday in what would be the first time in nearly 16 years that three people are put to death on the same day in the United States. The executions come as a small number of states, including the three with scheduled lethal injections Thursday, drive execution numbers in the United States. (Chandler, Loller and Stengle, 8/11)

A lightning strike at Grafton Correctional Institution sent 16 incarcerated people to hospital for treatment Wednesday evening, according to a statement from the facility. The lightning strike at the correctional institution, which is located approximately 30 miles southwest of Cleveland, occurred while incarcerated individuals were returning from their evening meal, according to the update. One person was airlifted to a hospital, officials said, but there have been no reported deaths in the incident. (Haworth, 8/12)

The Food and Drug Administration conducted just under 1,000 foreign food safety inspections in 2025, and the farm in Mexico believed to be at the center of the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak in the U.S. was not one of them. (Ingram, 8/11)

Mexico's health ministry ‌said on Tuesday that tests carried out ​at over a ​dozen hotels in the ⁠Riviera Maya, a ​Caribbean tourist hub, came ​in negative for the cyclospora parasite. British health authorities ​had reported cases of ​cyclosporiasis, a stomach illness spread ‌by ⁠contaminated food or drink, in travelers who had stayed ​there. (8/11)

Cases of cyclosporiasis — gastrointestinal illness caused by the foodborne parasite cyclospora — are rising in California, but are not related to the major outbreak in the Midwest and Northeast, state health officials said Tuesday. (Ho, 8/11)

The moment Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. figured out it was the jalapeños, its automated recall system began calling restaurants, again and again and again. With diners falling ill with salmonella across the country, Chipotle kept at it, flooding its stores with alerts until someone responded and confirmed the tainted peppers had been destroyed. This was while health agencies were still investigating a handful of ingredients as the potential source. They’d sent the company a “guac signal,” warning there was trouble with something in the guacamole. (Sirtori, 8/11)

Thousands of cases of a potentially deadly, drug-resistant fungus have been reported across 27 states so far this year, according to provisional CDC data. As of the week ending July 25, a total of 3,437 clinical cases of Candida auris (C. auris) had been documented in the U.S. so far in 2026. (Rudy, 8/11)

Florida officials said a second person has died from a Vibrio vulnificus infection this year. The death occurred in an adult from Marion County and follows a late-July death recorded in Palm Beach County, also in an adult, according to a new update from the Florida Department of Health (Florida Health). So far this year, Florida has tracked 14 cases of the flesh-eating bacteria, which thrive in warm, brackish water. Last year, the state saw 33 cases and 15 deaths. In 2024, there were 82 cases and 19 deaths. (Soucheray, 8/11)

The Pee Dee, a region in the northeastern corner of South Carolina, is reporting a West Nile virus outbreak. “Two human cases of West Nile virus were diagnosed in the Pee Dee within a similar time frame and geographic radius, indicating sustained West Nile virus activity in the area and meeting the definition of an outbreak,” the South Carolina Department of Public Health announced. (Soucheray, 8/11)

The CDC on Tuesday warned doctors about the risk for severe arboviral neuroinvasive disease in patients on B cell-depleting or modulating agents, calling out anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies in particular. Published case reports indicate an overall mortality of about 40% for patients on anti-CD20 antibodies with arboviral neuroinvasive disease, and neurologic sequelae were common in survivors. The most common virus involved in the reports was West Nile, but severe cases also involved eastern equine encephalitis, Powassan, La Crosse, and others. (Ingram, 8/11)

About 30,000 pounds of Argentine beef has been recalled by the U.S. Agriculture Department because it wasn’t inspected before entering the country. The different cuts of raw beef from the company Corte Argentino USA were shipped to retailers and grocery distributors in Florida and Texas. The meat was produced from May 15 to May 20 and had freeze-by dates of Sept. 15-20. The recalled meat included cuts of top sirloin and eye round. (Canino-Quiñones, 8/11)

A sterile fly facility is set to open in Texas next spring amid a New World Screwworm (NWS) outbreak that has affected two states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Monday. The USDA social media account dedicated to providing updates on the federal response to the NWS spread said the facility will open seven months ahead of schedule at the Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas. (Davis, 8/11)

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott looked up at the clear blue Texas sky Monday as Border Patrol agents launched drones that are now being used to find New World screwworm infections. (Sanchez, 8/10)

At least 2,000 people have died among the confirmed cases in Congo’s Ebola outbreak that is the fastest growing on record, according to the latest government data, as health authorities struggle to get help quickly to remote localities due to rebel conflict, bad roads and work stoppages over payment issues. Data published overnight into Tuesday showed the outbreak has recorded a total of 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths. A total of 704 patients are in admission and isolation. (8/11)

If you are pregnant in rural America, especially in the South, chances are you are among the millions of women for whom the nearest prenatal care or maternity hospital is more than an hour away. (Alvino, 8/11)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has intervened in a Dallas County surrogacy case involving an unborn baby with a severe heart defect, seeking to ensure the fetus receives life-saving medical treatment after birth despite objections from his intended parents. The unborn child, who Paxton’s office referred to as “baby Gabriel,” was diagnosed in utero with hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a congenital condition in which the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped and unable to properly pump blood throughout the body. (Swai, 8/11)

Eight long years ago, Meg Quinn decided not to share the details of a big decision. She was 37 and just out of a long-term relationship when she started panicking. Was she running out of time to have children? Feeling helpless, she decided to do something that was expensive but might help her chances of becoming a mother. She froze her eggs. (Macur and Hartocollis, 8/11)

People taking GLP-1 drugs may find themselves part of an unexpected baby boom, with experts noting the popular weight-loss drugs can affect medications and fertility. Researchers say it is unclear exactly how GLP-1s interact with birth control pills, but there is some evidence that the drugs, which include Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, could reduce the effectiveness of the pills. One possible explanation has to do with how GLP-1 drugs work. The medications work on hormones that control appetite as well as how food moves through the digestive tract. (Whiteside, 8/11)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Hospitals Say They Found A Tool To Help Reduce Childbirth Risks: Wristbands

Hospitals across the U.S. are trying to reduce maternal deaths and complications after pregnancies using one small tool: a silicone wristband stamped with the declaration “I Gave Birth.” The wristbands are part of a growing initiative first launched by North Carolina-based ECU Health as Congress sought to address the nation’s growing maternal mortality crisis during the covid pandemic. Since 2021, nearly 50 North Carolina hospitals and the state’s health department have begun distributing the wristbands, to give mothers and care providers a visual reminder of the life-threatening health risks after birth. (Jones, 8/12)

More than two-thirds of US sales of e-cigarettes are illicit, with most targeting young people, according to a Public Health Alerts report today. The report’s authors—scientists from the CDC Foundation—analyzed retail scanner data from Circana, a market research company that collects point-of-sale data, to estimate the proportion of unauthorized sales of e-cigarette products in US stores last December. (Wappes, 8/11)

A new study finds 98% of shampoos, sunscreens, baby lotions and other personal care and cleaning products contain at least one undisclosed chemical, many with known or suspected health risks. (8/11)

When mice at Patricia Hunt’s lab at Washington State University began losing fetuses with devastating birth defects — facial deformities and missing hindquarters — or failed to reproduce at all, Hunt immediately put on her detective hat. She had seen a similar mystery before. (LaMotte, 8/9)

Not long after guidelines shifted to considering statin therapy as early as age 30, new research from France suggests there may be no harm in stopping the cholesterol-lowering drugs at age 75 in people with no history of cardiovascular disease. The lessons, however, may not translate elsewhere. (Cooney, 8/11)

A new Duke University study finds the real-world safety and effectiveness of Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab (Leqembi) closely match clinical trial results, with about 80% of early-stage patients staying on treatment for at least a year despite risks of brain swelling and bleeding (ARIA). (Thompson, 8/11)

It may be possible to ward off or prevent one of the most common types of dementia, a new long-term study suggests. The risk of cognitive decline increases as we get older, with about 42% of Americans over the age of 55 expected to develop dementia during their lives. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Neurology Open Access, found that people who avoid three vascular risk factors in middle age — high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking — had about 13 more dementia-free years. (Alvino, 8/7)

GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound have helped millions of people shed significant amounts of weight. But for many, the next step isn’t losing more pounds—it’s addressing the aesthetic changes that can follow rapid weight loss. (Surles and Falkenberg-Hull, 8/12)

Kielee Rustici lay face down on her bedroom floor in Ammon, Idaho, unresponsive. On her dresser sat three, 8-ounce bags of powder: one empty, one unopened and one half-full. (Reddy, 8/11)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Years After He Quit Smoking, A Lung Cancer Scan Saved His Life

Dennis Schmidt started smoking as a teenager, when that was so unexceptional that his Catholic high school designated outdoor “senior smoking quarters,” where students in their final year could take cigarette breaks. He smoked a pack of menthols daily for nearly 40 years. As a registered nurse at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and a former Air Force medic, he knew this was a bad idea. “I made a couple of attempts to quit and they failed miserably,” said Schmidt, now 75. (Span, 8/12)

Anderson, S.C.-based AnMed said unauthorized posts appeared on its social media accounts Aug. 11 as part of its ongoing cybersecurity incident. In a statement posted to its website, AnMed said it removed the content, disabled access to the platform and is working to secure its accounts. (Diaz, 8/11)

The health data of more than 15 million individuals was compromised after a hacker breached Massachusetts-based dental and vision benefits administrator DentaQuest this spring, according to a breach notice filed with federal regulators. It’s the largest health data breach reported to the government this year. DentaQuest, the second-largest dental benefits administrator in the U.S., has approximately 32 million beneficiaries across its dental and vision plans. The company discovered that hackers had accessed its computer systems from May 17 to May 20, according to the notice. (Hughes, 8/11)

The National Labor Relations Board on Aug. 4 revived a petition to remove the union representing about 563 nurses at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, reversing the decision of a regional director who had blocked it. (Gooch, 8/11)

As clinical artificial intelligence becomes more common, designing workflows that ensure the tools can help clinicians detect diseases, and evaluating their efficacy, will be crucial to advancement. Aidoc, a company that offers tools for radiology, vascular, neurovascular and cardiology teams, sees an opportunity to work with health systems partners on that shared goal. The company has launched a diagnostic AI consortium with 12 health systems. (Famakinwa, 8/11)

Molina Healthcare CEO Joseph Zubretsky’s plan to keep membership in the Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges “small, silver and stable” is faltering. Last month, the insurer announced it expects to lose money in the exchanges after too many healthy members fled and remaining enrollees used high-cost drugs that did not correspond to higher risk-adjustment payments. Its difficulties contrast with the positive second-quarter financial results reported by rivals Elevance Health, Centene and Oscar Health. (Tepper, 8/11)

Pennsylvania is becoming an increasingly difficult place to own or operate a hospital. Of the 22 hospital closures Becker’s reported in 2025, four were in Pennsylvania — more than in any other state. (Condon, 8/11)

Delaware last month passed a two-year ban on for-profit acquisitions of hospitals amid wider scrutiny of private equity’s role in the healthcare system. Effective immediately, the law restricts the purchase of nonprofit acute-care hospitals to charities or other nonprofit organizations through July 1, 2028. State officials said the move was inspired at least in part by last year’s closure of the Springfield, Pennsylvania-based Crozer Health. The health system, which served Delaware, was owned by the private equity company Prospect Medical Holdings. (McAuliff, 8/11)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Hospital Prepayment Requirements Add New Wrinkles To Patients’ Financial Responsibility

Thomas Zordani flew from his home in Denver to Phoenix for a consultation with a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon, hoping to find out what could be done to treat his debilitating headaches after worrisome brain scan findings. When making the appointment, Zordani said, he’d been told the clinic was in his insurer’s network. Upon arrival, Zordani was summoned to the clinic’s financial office and told he had to make a $5,000 preservice deposit, because Mayo had since determined it did not accept his insurance. He was automatically designated “self-pay,” even though his plan had out-of-network benefits. (Appleby, 8/12)

A paramedic responding to a 911 call in coastal North Carolina recently piloted a "Jetsons"-like personal aircraft to the scene, landing in the patient's yard to begin treatment roughly 20 minutes before ground ambulances arrived. (Muller, 8/11)

The sky was a smoky grayish-orange and trees a few hundred yards away had turned to ghostly outlines. This July marked the third summer since I’ve lived in Chicago that the city was covered in a suffocating blanket of smoke from Canadian wildfires, and the air quality was breaking records: as high as 753 on the air quality index one afternoon, earning an “extremely hazardous” warning. Even with all our windows closed and two air purifiers running in different rooms, I was still getting headaches, a sore throat, and burning eyes. And my arthritis pain was worsening. (Lorraine Boissoneault, 8/12)

The White House fact sheet accompanying President Trump’s executive order, which he signed Monday, makes a claim worth examining: that most peer nations sustain high childhood vaccination rates through “public trust and education” rather than mandates. Let’s use trust as the test. (Katrine Wallace, 8/11)

The president is lying about the MMR vaccine. (8/11)

Every drop in participation represents a family with diminished access to healthy food, nutrition counseling and other critical health and social services. (Teon Hayes, 8/11)

The HPV vaccine prevents not only cervical cancer in women, but also multiple cancers in men. (Leana S. Wen, 8/11)