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New Jersey’s highest court ruled Thursday that expert testimony about shaken baby syndrome is scientifically unreliable and inadmissible in two upcoming trials, a decision that comes as the long-held medical diagnoses have come under increased scrutiny. The New Jersey Supreme Court determined that a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, which is also known as abusive head trauma, is not generally accepted within the “biomechanical community” and is therefore not “sufficiently reliable” for admission at the trials. (Marcelo, 11/20)

More health news from across the U.S. —

Physicians and public health experts in a number of states in the mid-Atlantic region are reporting an uptick in hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). HFMD, which is caused by enteroviruses such as coxsackievirus, can occur among people of all ages, but it is particularly common in children, especially those younger than 5 years, according to the CDC. It is characterized by flu-like symptoms, mouth sores, and rash on the hands and feet, as well as the buttocks, legs, and arms. (Henderson, 11/20)

Roughly 70 former employees of a Metro East factory tied to the Manhattan Project, and the spouses of deceased workers, have become the first group in Illinois to receive workers’ compensation for radiation exposure. (Bauer, 11/21)

A nonprofit provider for people with severe developmental disabilities is going to court against the state, arguing Gov. JB Pritzker’s Department of Human Services improperly denied it permission to build a cluster of new homes in Elgin. (Olander, 11/20)

In 2022 and 2023, Kia A. Player received nearly $1 million in government funds to open and operate a homeless shelter for women and children in Richmond. She pocketed nearly $200,000 of it and bought herself airline tickets, a luxurious ferry ride in Miami Beach and splurged on a tattoo. Player, 41, pleaded guilty Tuesday to redirecting government funds for her homeless shelter into her personal coffers, according to a U.S. attorney’s office news release. (Munro, 11/20)

A year ago, the federal Indian Health Service posted dozens of flyers on Facebook promoting flu and COVID-19 vaccine clinics across the Navajo Nation, where the pandemic had inflicted a staggering toll just a few years earlier. ... Through mid-October, IHS had published far fewer posts on Facebook promoting vaccine clinics this year than last, ProPublica found. And in those posts as well as other notices, it replaced language touting immunization’s benefits with wording that frames both routine childhood vaccinations and annual flu and COVID-19 shots as a personal choice, advising patients to consult health care providers about their “options regarding vaccines.” (Hudetz, 11/21)

On the fentanyl crisis —

Slumped over in a wheelchair in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, Johnny White said he finally felt ready to quit fentanyl and try to rebuild the life he’d lost. White, 45, relapsed a few years ago, costing him his apartment and job as an ironworker in Santa Rosa. He plunged deep into his addiction and wound up homeless in San Francisco. But twice in recent months, he failed to pick up prescriptions for medication to treat his opioid addiction that outreach workers had helped arrange. (Angst, 11/20)

Eight months pregnant and in pain, Stephanie Rosell went to the Holy family hospital emergency room after an infection began spreading up her legs. Unemployed and homeless, estranged from her family, she lived in a shed she had built in a friend’s yard. She was also addicted to fentanyl. As doctors treated her infection, she began to panic. Withdrawal was setting in. She leaned over the bed and vomited. Stephanie finally broke down. “Listen, I gotta go. I have to go home and get high.” She had used fentanyl before coming to the ER and had just enough time to get treated before she needed to go home to get high again. (Neumann, 11/20)