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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has frequently advised Americans not to trust medical experts, said on Tuesday that artificial intelligence can offer patients “a second opinion that is much better informed than any doctor in the country” and has the power to “free us from medical tyranny.” Mr. Kennedy made the comments during a “fireside chat” conversation with Vice President JD Vance at a Make America Healthy Again conference sponsored by companies that have business before his department, as well as artificial intelligence companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. (Stolberg, 9/29)

Trump administration officials mingled with insurers, corporate executives and wellness influencers at the second Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) summit. They discussed issues ranging from affordability, the U.S. food supply and the food pyramid, as well as the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Along with many other mainstream outlets, The Hill was not granted press credentials to attend but watched a free livestream. Here are takeaways from the event. (Weixel and Choi, 9/29)

The Make America Healthy Again movement has changed, if Tuesday’s MAHA Summit is any indication. The insurgent movement that coalesced around mistrust of the health system and corporate influence put on a summit where industry leaders promoted their work under the MAHA banner, whether as insurers controlling costs or pharma companies developing the next breakthrough. (Cueto and Payne, 9/29)

The president would not like many answers that America.gov provides. ... Largely citing figures from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan scorekeeper, America.gov said that Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill, signed into law last year, is estimated to add trillions of dollars to the national debt and cause more than 10 million people to lose their health insurance. The chatbot agreed with a statement that the law “on average made the poorest people in America even poorer and the richest people in America even richer.” (Cameron, 9/29)

President Donald Trump said he was assured that companies are placing the appropriate guardrails on their models, despite a growing number of incidents where some of the most advanced AI systems escaped their testing environments and hacked into private companies and government databases. “I’m seeing tremendous self-policing,” Trump said. (Miller, Long and Dahlkamp, 9/29)

Months before OpenAI’s artificial intelligence went rogue, two employees raised an alarm with top executives. They were ignored. In emails, the employees said they worried that OpenAI’s newest artificial intelligence models were not being appropriately monitored during testing to gauge the technology’s sophistication and to secure the models, according to messages viewed by The New York Times. In response, OpenAI executives told the employees that the tests needed to move forward as quickly as possible to release the A.I. models on time. ... OpenAI’s models later broke out of their testing environments and attacked the A.I. start-up Hugging Face and other organizations, setting off a global debate about A.I. safety. (Frenkel, Volz and Freedman, 9/29)

Should Medicare's annual wellness visit (AWV) be less physician-driven and more artificial intelligence (AI)-driven? That's the question being asked by CMS in its proposed physician payment rule, issued this past summer. (Frieden, 9/29)

We’re starting to learn more about how the technology can change us. (Varón and Freedman, 9/29)

But critics worry the AI-aided program enables shoddy research. (Robertson, 9/28)

Leadership of the agency that oversees the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) suppressed the group's recommendations, a former task force chair said. The director of the Agency for Research Healthcare and Quality (AHRQ) blocked the group's final recommendation on cervical cancer screening in fall 2025, former chair Michael Silverstein, MD, MPH, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, wrote in a commentary in the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Frieden, 9/29)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its national measles tally late Monday to include another death in 2026, bringing its total to two, after Pennsylvania reported four measles-associated deaths in a growing outbreak. The CDC’s website did not identify the person who died or say where the death occurred, leaving unclear whether it was one of the four Pennsylvania cases. No other states have reported any measles-associated deaths. The agency updated its tally last week to include one death in 2026. (Sun, 9/30)

Most US adults either still mistakenly believe that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. doesn’t recommend the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine or are unsure of his stance, prompting doubt about his ability to address ongoing measles outbreaks across the country, according to a poll released today by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania. (Van Beusekom, 9/29)

Since announcing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his pick for Health and Human Services secretary last year, President Trump and Kennedy have touted their dedication to "Gold Standard Scientific Research" and making federal health agencies "beacons of Transparency." But a recent report released by the agency has left some experts with substantial doubts about its researchers' methods, its claims about its findings and its authors' political intentions. (Hagen, 9/30)

The top biosecurity official at the Department of Health and Human Services announced he’s stepping down ahead of the arrival of Donald Trump’s permanent nominee to lead the division, according to an internal email viewed by Bloomberg News. John Knox, the principal deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said his last day would be Oct. 2 in an email to staff. Sean Kaufman, Trump’s pick to lead the division, will start on Oct. 5 in the principal deputy role, the email said. Kaufman’s confirmation to the top role is still pending before the Senate. (Cohrs Zhang and Nix, 9/29)

Solstice Advanced Materials, the corporate owner of a nuclear fuel facility at the heart of President Donald Trump’s push for a nuclear renaissance, has agreed to pay $80 million to settle claims that the plant for decades spewed radiation over an Illinois town, sickened residents and contaminated properties. ... As part of the conversion process, the plant emits radiotoxic material that litigants alleged have accumulated on homes, buildings, parks and playgrounds, causing property damage and an increase in brain, lung and other cancers. (Riley and Waldman, 9/29)

�������ýҕ�l Health News and AP: Rural MAHA Followers Say Trump Health Policies Haven’t Reached Their Communities 

President Donald Trump has championed sprawling health policy changes under the Make America Healthy Again movement, but a KFF-Associated Press survey of rural voters found people aren’t seeing the initiatives reach their communities. (Swenson, Tribble, and Sanders, 9/30)

Becoming a new mom can require an abundance of supplies for both mother and baby — diapers, blankets, carriers and more. That’s why a bipartisan Senate duo is teaming up on a bill to provide new moms with starter pack newborn kits in communities with high rates of infant or maternal mortality. (Leach, 9/29)

Several are adopting more conservative rhetoric or publicly opposing transgender girls playing in girls’ sports. (Binday, 9/30)

The Make America Healthy Again movement has been closely associated with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration, but at least one Democrat in a closely watched Senate race is making a play for MAHA supporters. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s pivotal Senate seat, on Tuesday is releasing a “Building a Healthier America” policy agenda focusing on cracking down on pesticides, changing drinking water standards and boosting access to healthy food. However, El-Sayed, a former public health official, does not share some MAHA supporters’ skepticism of vaccines, saying in an interview that he “believe[s] in vaccines.” (Roubein, 9/29)

President Donald Trump is not permitted to withhold beyond the end of the fiscal year ending Wednesday more than $800 million in spending approved by Congress. That’s according to a review from the Government Accountability Office that was sent to federal lawmakers and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday. The president announced his intention on Friday night to impound more than $800 million from 11 appropriations accounts, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives. (Freking, 9/29)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: US Poised To Boot Legal Immigrants From Medicaid, Including Refugees And Sex-Trafficking Victims

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants with legal status are at risk of losing government health coverage starting Oct. 1, state data shows, signaling that the impact of Medicaid changes in President Donald Trump’s signature legislation from 2025 may be greater than anticipated. Many lawfully present immigrants will be among the first people to lose Medicaid coverage under congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is expected to cut spending by more than $900 billion through 2034 for the state-federal health program for people with low incomes or disabilities. The law will strip many more immigrants of their Affordable Care Act plan subsidies and Medicare coverage next year. (Galewitz, Jones and Boyd-Barrett, 9/30)

The Trump administration can resume deporting certain migrants to countries where they are not citizens for the time being, while the justices hear arguments and make a final ruling on the policy, a divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. The ruling is a temporary victory for a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda and sets up a major Supreme Court argument in December over the controversial policy. (Mark and Jouvenal, 9/29)

Prosecutors say Wilber Garces Perez struck an agent with his car’s mirror before another agent shot him. ... A spokeswoman for Mr. Garces Perez’s lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said in a statement that the charges were surprising. Noting that a bullet remains lodged in Mr. Garces Perez’s body, the statement condemned the Department of Homeland Security’s actions. “Rather than provide the life saving medical care he needs, D.H.S. and the government are playing games with his life,” the statement said. (Sandoval and Aleaziz, 9/29)

President Donald Trump has revived a policy change from his first term that gives immigration agents broad authority to deny green cards and visas to applicants who have received public benefits — or whose families have. The change to what’s known as the public charge rule took effect on September 18. (Becker, 9/28)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday banning local, state and federal law enforcement officers from using gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to people. The ban on shock gloves will take effect next year and remain in place until 2030. It comes weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to equip its officers with the gloves, which are designed to gain compliance from combative individuals. Last month, the agency awarded a nearly $17 million contract to buy 6,000 pairs. (Austin, 9/29)

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, has selected former Majority Leader Eric Cantor as its next president. Cantor, a Virginian who led House Republicans from 2011 to 2014, will now helm the trade group for branded drugmakers as it navigates growing scrutiny from the Trump administration and Congress over its pricing practices, as well as increasing competition from China. Cantor, who starts on Nov. 9, has served as vice chairman and managing director at Moelis & Company, an investment bank, since his defeat in a 2014 primary to a tea party-backed challenger, Dave Brat. (Chu, 9/29)

A growing number of congressional lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to rethink a federal rule going into effect next month over concerns it will prevent Americans from obtaining prescription medicines from licensed international pharmacies. (Silverman, 9/29)

Medication prices are soaring in Iran and some treatments have become hard to find, leaving patients and their families scrambling as a U.S. blockade and stepped-up sanctions squeeze the country’s pharmaceuticals industry. Some medicines have more than tripled in price, further squeezing Iranians’ finances seven months into the country’s war with the United States and Israel. Prices for food and other goods have skyrocketed even as unemployment has risen and the currency, which hit a record low this week, has lost half its value. The war has become an economic endurance test. (Karimi and Radjy, 9/30)

An experimental gene therapy for Huntington’s disease, developed by the biotech company UniQure, continued to slow the progression of the neurodegenerative disease four years after it was surgically implanted into the brains of patients, the company reported Tuesday. (Feuerstein, 9/29)

The FDA approved tiratricol (Emcitate) to treat peripheral thyrotoxicosis in patients with monocarboxylate transporter 8 (MCT8) deficiency, the agency announced on Monday, marking the first approval for this rare genetic disorder. The thyroid hormone receptor agonist is indicated for adults and children with MCT8 deficiency, also known as Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome. (Monaco, 9/29)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Drugs Are Widely Used To Sedate Dementia Patients. Her Sons Wanted To Keep Her Off Them

In December 2024, Marjorie Tingley’s adult sons received an urgent email from the dementia care unit at Vista Grande Villa, a Michigan senior living community. They were told that their 85-year-old mother was a major safety threat. On at least 10 days the previous month, Tingley had hit, kicked, or elbowed aides when they were trying to help change her briefs, get dressed, bathe, or go to the bathroom, according to Vista Grande behavior logs. Vista Grande wanted permission to sedate her. (Rau, 9/30)

The gene-editing company Beam Therapeutics is alleging that one of its scientists stole intellectual property and used it to co-found a Chinese company that made a deal with VC firms. The allegation comes at a time of escalating tensions between American biotech companies and their Chinese counterparts. (DeAngelis and Mast, 9/29)

The next generation of medical technology may be taking shape at The Pearl, the medical innovation district in Charlotte, North Carolina. IRCAD North America, a surgical education center headquartered at The Pearl, is a unique space where major medtech companies and startups work under the same roof, bringing together hands-on surgical training and the development and testing of new devices. (Dubinsky, 9/29)

Carnegie Mellon University will build a new campus in Miami centered on solving society’s greatest challenges, funded by a historic $3 billion gift from entrepreneur Ken Griffin. The donation, believed to be the largest ever from an individual to a university, comes at a time when higher education has been under attack on many fronts. But private donors have made some prominent gifts recently, including $1 billion from Phil and Penny Knight to the University of Oregon last week. (Svrluga, 9/30)

The Russian attack on Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences on Monday dealt a serious blow to the country’s pre-eminent research institution, a recent center of wartime innovation that is also responsible for almost every major Ukrainian civilian discovery of the past century. Scientists affiliated with the academy have contributed to recent discoveries in the fields of astronomy and medicine and have been instrumental in developing new military technologies, including drones and enhanced armor for vehicles. (Andrews and Novosolova, 9/29)

The ride at Magic Mountain near Los Angeles has fueled lawsuits claiming that it had caused brain injuries, including two that were fatal. (Vigdor, 9/29)

California’s San Joaquin Valley needs more doctors. The roughly 250-mile region, stretching from Stockton to Bakersfield, has about 200 physicians per 10,000 residents, according to the California Healthcare Foundation. In the Bay Area, that ratio is more than twice as high. Medical schools are almost non-existent too —  with not a single standalone program offering a doctorate of medicine, or M.D., in the entire region of 4.3 million people. (Echelman, 9/29)

Sitting in a pediatric intensive care unit last year, watching a ventilator keep her 17-month-old daughter alive, Emily Marris scoured the contents of her phone for evidence to give to California health and food safety investigators. She had bought raw goat milk from a farm recommended to her in a Facebook group run by her chiropractor. Marris had hoped the milk, unprocessed and natural, would help with her daughter Brooklyn’s constipation. But doctors now suspected the unpasteurized milk, which hadn’t been heated to kill off pathogens, was the source of the toddler’s severe E. coli infection. (Waldman, 9/30)

Scientists figured out how to cure hepatitis C a decade ago, and at the time, public health authorities were enthusiastic about potentially ending an epidemic that is one of the leading causes of severe liver disease in California. But today, several hundred thousand Californians are still living with the chronic infection, which can lead to a need for a liver transplant and can cause premature death. The problem is access: to testing and to treatment. (Allday, 9/29)

An Ohio woman filed a lawsuit accusing a hospital and her doctors of amputating the wrong leg during an operation last year. The 74-year-old woman is now a double amputee after the correct surgery was later performed at another facility. The woman, Sharon Jacks, of Meigs County, Ohio, said her original surgery was intended for her right leg. Instead, her left leg was amputated at Selby General Hospital in September 2025, according to the lawsuit, which was filed this month in Washington County Court in Marietta, Ohio, where the hospital is based. (Diaz, 9/29)

Rural communities across Colorado will train and retain healthcare workers, expand mobile healthcare clinics and adopt modern electronic health record systems — among other priorities — through nearly $170 million in federal grant funds aimed at improving access to care for rural residents. (Breunlin, 9/29)

Missouri is working to increase maternal mental health screenings, but provider shortages and travel can keep moms from getting needed help. (Cunningham, 9/28)

When she was growing up in rural southeastern North Carolina, Alicia Freeman saw people whose mental health and substance use concerns went untreated because her area had very few resources to help them. Freeman, who’s been at UNC Chapel Hill since 2019, said watching her community members struggle is part of why she now works to help people cope with mental illness. (Crawford, 9/30)

The most notable thing about Melissa’s son’s 6th birthday should have been the vacation the family took. Instead, it was the letter waiting for them when they returned home. Her child was assigned to the disciplinary campus in their school district in McKinney, Texas, for 30 days, the April 2024 letter told them, over allegations that the kindergartner had assaulted a teacher about a week prior. (Butrymowicz, 9/29)

The woman who calls 911 says there's a diabetic teen boy in distress, but when police and paramedics arrive at the house in Mesa, Arizona she comes outside to say he's just "pretending that he's dead on the floor" because he wants attention. When those first responders go inside, they find something tragically different. (Shapiro, 9/30)

The program was intended to address what the university called a “mental health crisis.” But the plan was met with criticism that it was coddling students. (Rubin, 9/29)

Dartmouth Health and Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine aim to create a new home-based care model with a $20 million gift. The two organizations said Tuesday they will launch Dartmouth Health at Home in January. The initiative will provide home-based primary and palliative care, create a family caregiver institute and develop best practices for in-home care. The initiative will provide health services to patients in parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, and could serve as a blueprint for other states, Lebanon, New Hampshire-based Dartmouth Health said. (Eastabrook, 9/29)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: These 100 Nursing Homes Face Perilous Flood Risk. Minnesota Shows What Can Happen

Floodwater seeped through the nursing home’s front door just before sunrise. Inside the New Richland Care Center, staff members rushed to move 36 residents out of the building on Sept. 19 while they still could. They pushed elderly residents in wheelchairs through 4-inch-deep water to buses waiting in the parking lot, said nursing home administrator Robert Johannsen. (Kelman, Hacker, Chang, McLister and Rantala, 9/30)

Patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may have a higher risk of developing cancer, a new study has suggested. The study, which looked at data over a 27-year period, was presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, Italy, and has not yet been submitted to a medical journal for publication. (O'Connor, 9/29)

Eli Lilly’s highly anticipated GLP-1 drug retatrutide helped people with Type 2 diabetes lose up to 60 pounds, or about 23% of their body weight, according to late-stage trial results published Tuesday in The Lancet. It’s the most weight loss ever recorded in a drug trial for diabetes patients, a group that often has a harder time losing weight. (Lovelace Jr., 9/29)

The ‘Godzilla’ of weight-loss drugs could help improve blood sugar levels, reduce inflammation and cut a person’s body weight by a quarter, according to the largest study of its kind. Retatrutide mimics three key gut hormones that help control appetite, blood sugar and metabolism: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. Unlike other drugs such as Wegovy, which primarily targets the GLP-1 pathway to suppress appetite, or Mounjaro, which contains GLP-1 plus GIP to control blood sugar levels, retatrutide also engages the glucagon receptor, which helps increase energy expenditure. (Gregory, 9/29)

Blockbuster GLP-1 drugs have transformed the lives of millions of people. Lately, they’re undergoing a makeover of their own. Once promoted as tools to address obesity as a medical issue, GLP-1 drugs are increasingly being seen — and marketed — as a way to look and feel better generally. And, as the pioneer in the field, Novo Nordisk, in particular, has leaned into the shift. (Chen, 9/28)

For nearly a half-century, Sujoy Guha has worked to perfect a male contraceptive. Now the 86-year-old Indian doctor’s idea is gaining momentum, raising the prospect of changing the way birth control is practiced across the globe. Injecting hydrogel into the vas deferens — the tubes that carry sperm from the testicles — temporarily blocks sperm from passing through. Guha’s injectable contraceptive, known as RISUG, remains under development in India after decades of research, regulatory review and bureaucratic obstacles. But now companies in the United States are pursuing their own versions, racing to bring “vas-occlusive” contraceptives to market. (Hetherman, 9/30)

Mars Inc. is pulling its Pop-Tarts and BuzzBallz collaboration just a month into its rollout over concerns that the product could appeal to underage drinkers. The company, which also owns M&M’s and Snickers candy brands, has canceled all planned marketing of the limited-time release, according to a press release from the US Alcohol Policy Alliance. (Brown, 9/29)

Nowadays, you can find protein in pretty much every section of American grocery stores—beyond the typical meat aisle. Thirsty? Protein shakes and soda are on the shelves. Hungry? Aisle 20 has got all your meals covered with protein cereal, coffee, chips, and even mac and cheese. (Sataua, 9/29)

Research suggests women with peripheral artery disease are less likely than men to have the textbook symptom of claudication, or pain in the calf with walking that subsides within 10 minutes of rest, said Heather Gornik, medical director of the Women’s Cardiovascular Center at University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute. Their day-to-day function also tends to take a bigger hit, with PAD more significantly limiting their mobility, walking speed and endurance. And women, especially Black women, are also less likely than men to receive the guideline-recommended treatment for PAD. (Sloan, 9/30)

People living with persistent suicidal thoughts may find relief from psilocybin paired with structured psychological support, according to a small clinical trial led by Sheppard Pratt clinicians. (Hille, 9/29)

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released in early September found that in 2024, 71.5 percent of adults reported that at least some of the time in the past three months they felt fatigued, defined as “physical or mental tiredness or exhaustion that does not improve with additional sleep or rest.” (Bill McKibben, 9/29)

President Donald Trump has vowed to return America’s declining coal industry to its glory days. But the only real revival of trying to put this polluting fuel back at its peak is its ability to destroy the health of its miners. (Mark Gongloff, 9/29)

Last week, President Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Washington for the first time in a decade. Tariffs, Iran, and rare earth minerals were among the issues that dominated their summit. But another arena of competition deserves Washington’s attention: biotechnology. (Gary Locke and Patrick McHenry, 9/30)

What would happen if you generated a new type of lab mouse whose brain was substantially human? Would they be really smart or somehow have a different consciousness? (Paul Knoepfler, 9/30)

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, has a simple pitch to voters. Imagine, he says, a health-insurance plan with “no premium, no copay, no deductible — just healthcare when you need it.” El-Sayed and other proponents call the idea Medicare for All. (9/29)