Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Patients Wary Of Governments, Companies Pushing AI As A Rural Healthcare Solution Two of the nation’s most powerful health officials predict artificial intelligence will play a key role in solving rural America’s health challenges. Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a panel of U.S. senators that AI nurses can provide “concierge care” to rural patients. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has said “the best way to help some of these communities is going to be AI-based avatars” that connect rural patients to mental health services. (Zionts and Tahir, 8/11)
KFF Health News: A Federal Policy Is Complicating How Organizations Battle The Opioid Crisis Last year, Baltimore had three mass overdose incidents in the span of three months in its Penn North neighborhood. In one incident, more than two dozen people were hospitalized after many were found unresponsive, lying in the streets or on sidewalks. No one died, but some came close. (Maucione, 8/11)
VACCINES
Roll Call: Trump Order Seeks To Stagger Childhood Vaccination Administration President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to drastically change the childhood vaccine schedule by recommending shots be administered in separate visits to the doctor’s office. The executive order acts on Trump’s long-held belief that splitting up routine childhood vaccinations across multiple visits lessens the risk of acquiring autism. Scientists have found no credible risk between vaccinations and autism. (Cohen, 8/10)
The Hill: Sen. Bill Cassidy Blasts Trump Order On MMR Vaccine Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) blasted an executive order President Trump signed Monday that splits the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot across three separate visits. “I’m a doctor. This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism,” Cassidy wrote on social platform X shortly after the order was signed. “Breaking up vaccines will mean children have to get more shots to get the same protection, not fewer shots. It will increase hesitancy and make children less safe.” (Beitsch, 8/10)
The Hill: AMA Warns Trump's New Vaccine Order Puts Children's Health At Risk The president of the American Medical Association on Monday said President Trump’s new recommendations on childhood immunizations put “children’s health at risk,” joining the chorus of medical experts criticizing the executive order. “Vaccines are among the most thoroughly studied, effective tools we have to protect children from serious vaccine-preventable diseases,” Dr. Willie Underwood III said in a release. “Decisions about how and when vaccines are used should be driven by rigorous scientific evidence, patient safety, and independent medical and public health expertise. (Rego, 8/10)
The Hill: American Academy Of Pediatrics Warns President Trump's Vaccine Order Is Dangerous The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics blasted President Trump’s Monday executive order calling for fewer childhood vaccines. “As measles cases reach a 35-year high in the U.S. and with cold and flu season quickly approaching, today’s executive order on vaccines is not only disheartening but dangerous,” Dr. Andrew Racine said in a release. “Instead of ensuring every family can access life-saving vaccines for measles, influenza, RSV and more, federal leaders are once again spreading misleading claims,” he added. (Rego, 8/10)
CIDRAP: Pediatrics Group Recommends Flu Vaccine For All Children 6 Months And Older The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all children 6 months and older without any medical contraindications receive the 2026-27 flu vaccine as soon as it’s available. “The good news is flu vaccines have been thoroughly studied,” Kristina A. Bryant, MD, a member of AAP’s Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID) said in a press release. (Holohan, 8/10)
The Washington Post: GOP Lawmakers Release Fauci Texts Discussing Covid Vaccine And Pregnancy The senators said the texts are among more than 34,000 recovered from a copy of the former government official’s iPhone. (Liss-Roy and Roubein, 8/10)
NOTUS: An Antidote To The Anti-Vaccine Movement Lives In Rural West Virginia For a pediatrician, Mark Tomsho is surprisingly calm when talking about the decline of childhood vaccination rates. “Pendulums swing, pendulums swing,” he mused, Zen-like, in his office between seeing patients one April evening. “Nothing stays the same. And I find that truth and reality usually win out.” (Manto, 8/10)
MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
Stat: Modifying 'GRAS Loophole,' FDA To Require Notice Of Food Additives The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday announced a new effort to catalog the many additives in the U.S. food supply, most of which entered with little oversight. (Cueto and Cooney, 8/10)
Military Times: Navy Removes California-Based Medicine And Readiness CO After just over a year on the job, the Navy relieved Capt. Mathew Loe, the commanding officer of Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Lemoore, the service announced on Friday. Citing the pro forma “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” Loe was relieved of his command by Rear Adm. Kevin Brown, commander of Naval Medical Forces Pacific, per the release. Based in California, Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Lemoore delivers healthcare to more than 32,000 active duty, retired military, and civilian beneficiaries from shore-based and operational commands, according to the Navy’s website. (Barrett, 8/10)
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
The 19th: Massachusetts Expands Abortion Law To Any Point During Pregnancy Massachusetts eliminated its cutoff for when someone can get an abortion, making it the tenth state — along with Washington, D.C. — to allow the procedure at any point in pregnancy. (Luthra, 8/10)
Axios: "Not Helpful": White House Winces Over Conservatives Bashing AOC For Egg Freezing When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a video Saturday giving herself a shot in preparation to freeze her eggs, she instantly injected issues of fertility, family and feminism into political discourse. And some of the online backlash from the conservative right is making Republicans, including some in the White House, a little nervous. (Caputo, 8/11)
The Hill: Katie Miller Praises AOC's Decision To Freeze Eggs Conservative media personality Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, praised Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) decision to freeze her eggs.“If one woman wants to preserve her right to have children, which means more than having none—we should celebrate that. If she inspires other women to have babies, we should celebrate that,” Katie Miller said in a post Sunday on the social platform X. “More women should get married and have babies younger, but too many women buy into the feminist lie and spend their childbearing years climbing the career ladder,” she added. (Suter, 8/10)
NPR: Scarce Maternity Care Is Particularly Concerning For Black Mothers Nadia Gramby cherishes quiet moments with her baby girl River Emmanuel, who's starting to talk. They exchange snuggles and baby coos each morning. "Did you sleep well last night?" Gramby asks her little girl, who has dark curls and a big smile. Besides being a mother of two and a wife, Gramby spends her days and many nights as a midwife caring for other moms and babies across Alabama where she lives and practices. (Wright, 8/11)
HealthDay: Working At Home Makes Breastfeeding Harder, Not Easier, Study Says Mothers who worked from home had lower breastfeeding rates than those working outside the home, researchers reported recently in the Western Journal of Nursing Research .Surprisingly, stay-at-home moms reported the lowest rates of exclusive breastfeeding. Researchers attributed the lower breastfeeding rates to a lack of formal support for mothers at home. (Thompson, 8/10)
MedPage Today: Residential Context Matters In Ovarian Cancer Survival Living in areas of greater social vulnerability was linked to worse overall survival among women with epithelial ovarian cancer, particularly Black women, a retrospective cohort study suggested. (Robertson, 8/10)
NPR: Testosterone Is Having A Moment. But Who Actually Needs It? A few times, Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt suspected he might have low testosterone. But when he checked his numbers, he discovered they were entirely within a normal range. "Turns out it was more so my sleep and stress and everything else," says Brahmbhatt, a urologist at Orlando Health in Florida. (Stone, 8/9)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Modern Healthcare: CoxHealth Insurance Arm Scaling Back ACA Exchange Business Another health system is scaling back its insurance business. Cox HealthPlans will not sell exchange policies on the Affordable Care Act of 2010’s federal health platform next year, the company announced Friday. The insurance arm of Springfield, Missouri-based CoxHealth will instead partner with insurer Oscar Health to provide on-exchange coverage in eight Missouri counties. (Tepper, 8/10)
Healthcare Dive: Healthcare Job Growth Decelerated In July The healthcare sector added 22,000 jobs in July, marking a significant slowdown compared to recent months, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday. The industry added significantly fewer jobs than the 42,000 roles created in June and the 35,000 created in May. The number of jobs added also fell below the 36,000 average monthly increase over the past year. (Hughes, 8/10)
Healthcare Dive: CVS Pharmacists Take Step Towards Strike Over Staffing, Burnout Unionized CVS pharmacists in three states overwhelmingly voted to approve a strike sanction late last week over what they say are unsafe staffing levels and taxing workloads. It’s the first of two approvals needed before employees can actually walk off work. (Parduhn, 8/10)
Modern Healthcare: Allina Health CEO Lisa Shannon Details Sutter Merger Goals Allina Health will unveil the largest capital project in the health system’s history in a few weeks, just months before it anticipates completing a proposed merger with Sutter Health. The 620,000-square-foot surgical and critical care center at its flagship Minneapolis hospital and the proposed merger with Sacramento, California-based Sutter, will help Allina manage financial pressures and grow, said President and CEO Lisa Shannon. Sutter has said Allina would become Sutter’s upper Midwest division, led by Shannon. (Kacik, 8/10)
Modern Healthcare: Access Taps Johnson & Johnson For ASC Ablation Push Access, a physician-led management services organization, and its group purchasing organization announced an agreement Monday with Johnson & Johnson to bring cardiac electrophysiology technologies to affiliated ambulatory surgery centers. The deal includes pulsed field ablation, radiofrequency ablation, 3D mapping and intracardiac imaging technologies. (Dubinsky, 8/10)
Stat: Nurses Seek A Seat At The Table As They Fight Expanding Clinical AI Nurses, who make up the largest part of the health care workforce, are getting more vocal about the risks posed by clinical artificial intelligence to their jobs and patient care as the technology makes deeper inroads into the practice of medicine. (Palmer, 8/11)
Modern Healthcare: AI Helps Providers Grow In-Home Physical Therapy Business Healthcare providers are boosting profits by using artificial intelligence and other technologies to grow lucrative in-home physical therapy businesses. Home-based rehab can help health systems and physician groups meet rising demand for services from aging baby boomers and other patients without investing in brick-and-mortar facilities. Technology is helping capture some of those patients, although selling them on something other than hands-on rehab can require some work. (Eastabrook, 8/10)
PHARMA AND TECH
New Hampshire Public Radio: The American Red Cross Is Limiting Distribution Of Type O Blood Amid Shortage The national blood shortage that began earlier in the year has now become a blood crisis, meaning there’s a critical depletion in blood supply across the country. The American Red Cross is asking for donors of all blood types. (Richardson, 8/10)
Stat: In Surprise Move, FDA Rejects Cancer Drug Expected To Rival Novartis Therapy The Food and Drug Administration has rejected a radiopharmaceutical therapy because of manufacturing issues, halting what would have been a competitor for Novartis. (DeAngelis, 8/10)
Bloomberg: Hims & Hers Plans To Offer Some Allowed Peptides Before Year-End Hims & Hers Health Inc. plans to jump into the peptides market before the end of the year, with executives seeing opportunity to seize on a booming corner of the health industry. The telehealth company said Monday that it’s preparing to sell already allowed popular compounds including sermorelin and glutathione, which patients seek out for wellness and longevity benefits despite limited clinical evidence. (Ambaye and Muller, 8/10)
Stat: Sionna’s Experimental Cystic Fibrosis Pill Falls Flat In Mid-Stage Trial Sionna Therapeutics said Monday that its experimental pill for cystic fibrosis did not show any benefit when added onto Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Trikafta in a Phase 2 trial. (Mast, 8/10)
MENTAL HEALTH
Bloomberg: Meta Loses Last Minute Bid To Pause Landmark State AGs Trial Meta Platforms Inc. failed to obtain an emergency order pausing a landmark trial slated to begin this week involving claims from dozens of state attorneys general alleging the social media giant addicts children and has caused a youth mental health crisis. A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a ruling Monday said the court lacked the jurisdiction to review Meta’s early appeal and dismissed it. (Poritz, 8/10)
Bloomberg: YouTube, TikTok GLP-1 Content Has Teens Obsessing Over Their Health, Bodies In 2024, Amelia Cate Prosser remembers feeling as if GLP-1 drugs were suddenly everywhere: stashed in her friends’ parents’ refrigerators, glorified on the red carpet and dominating the cafeteria conversations at her private all-girls high school in Melbourne. But it was on social media where the noise was — and continues to be — the loudest. The teen says she could hardly open an app without being bombarded with posts and advertisements about weight-loss injections. Impeccably sculpted models in sports bras warning that sometimes “effort alone isn’t enough” crowded her feeds; so did before-and-after images glamorizing other young women’s rapidly transformed physiques. (Levine and Muller, 8/10)
The Baltimore Sun: Columbia Crisis Center To Lay Off 62 Employees Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center will lay off dozens of employees by the end of next month. Executive Director Mariana Izraelson said the nonprofit is expected to have a “reduction in force” of 62 employees effective Sept. 29 after its federal contract for the 988 National Back-Up Text and Chat was not renewed. (Santana, 8/10)
LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH
CIDRAP: Night Shift Workers Face 88% Greater Risk Of Long COVID, Study Suggests People who work night shifts may face a significantly higher risk of developing long COVID, according to a study published last week in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. That risk may rise even further among night shift workers who also have chronic insomnia. (Bergeson, 8/10)
Newsweek: Scientists Discover Brain Change That May Explain Alzheimer’s Around age 50, the brain's memory center begins swapping out its longtime immune cells for more inflammatory ones, according to a new study—a discovery that may explain how normal aging paves the way for dementia, especially its most talked about form, Alzheimer's disease. "Honestly, this surprised me," Furhan Qureshi, a board-certified internal medicine physician, told Newsweek. "We were taught in med school that brain's main immune cells tracked in the study are lifers—they show up before you're born and stay with you, renewing themselves in the brain. (Fleur Afshar, 8/10)
MedPage Today: Pet Hamsters Linked To Rare Brain Disorder People with autoimmune cerebellar ataxia were more likely to have been exposed to pet hamsters versus a control group, a hospital-based study in China suggested. (George, 8/10)
Military.com: Most Veterans Are Drinking Less. Those Ages 35-49 Are An Exception Veterans between the ages of 35 and 49 who are supposed to be past their rowdiest years and settled into careers and families are the one group whose heavy drinking is climbing. (Gramegna, 8/11)
Vermont Public: 'It's The Ultimate Gift': Why Some People Are Donating Their Bodies To Dartmouth And UVM For Science When thinking about end-of-life plans, people often think in terms of being buried or cremated. But former Essex Junction, Vermont resident Alberta Bundy had something else in mind. When she died of cancer last year at 86, her family was well aware she wanted to donate her body to science. (Keck, 8/10)
GLOBAL WATCH
AP: Congo Says 2,000 People Have Died In Its Ebola Outbreak, The Fastest Growing On Record 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)
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