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The Trump administration published on Thursday a new charter for the federal vaccine advisory committee that would allow Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to reclaim his changes to national vaccine policy, despite a ruling last month by a federal judge blocking them. The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by several medical organizations against Mr. Kennedy, froze the committee and reversed many of the decisions the health secretary and the panel had made in the last year to rescind longstanding recommendations for childhood vaccines. The judge also said the committee’s members were not qualified to recommend shots for Americans. (Mandavilli, 4/9)

Infectious disease experts warned that the renewed charter for the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) could become a revolving door for the return of vaccine-skeptical members. The new charter, published on Thursday, places greater emphasis on potential vaccine harms and widens the door to membership beyond ACIP's past emphasis on expertise in immunization practices, a move that follows a federal judge's ruling that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likely violated federal procedures when he revamped the CDC's influential vaccine panel in 2025. (Rudd, 4/9)

Also —

The Trump administration is putting Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on a low-risk messaging diet ahead of the midterm election. The Secretary of Health and Human Services has publicly and notably swallowed his trademark vaccine skepticism in recent weeks, even in front of the friendliest audiences. (Cohrs Zhang and Nix, 4/9)

When a federal judge in Mississippi ordered a sweeping rollback of the state’s strict school vaccine rules in 2023, the ruling hit some doctors like “a gut punch”. Mississippi had for years achieved some of the highest vaccination rates in the US for children – a point of pride in a place that consistently ranks at the bottom of other health measures. The state health director warned of the dire possible consequences, including a comeback of preventable illnesses like measles, diphtheria and pertussis – known as whooping cough. (Smith, 4/9)

With baby Arthur too young for the measles vaccine and a sibling due in June, the Otwells grew nervous when the threat of the highly contagious virus started factoring into their grocery run. ... By Arthur’s 9-month checkup, the South Carolina outbreak had exploded into the nation’s worst in more than 35 years, surpassing last year’s in Texas. That meant that under state guidance, Arthur could get his first dose of the MMR vaccine — for measles, mumps and rubella — earlier than the usual 12 to 15 months old. (Shastri and Ungar, 4/10)

Influenza vaccination may help protect against heart attack and stroke even when it does not prevent people from getting the flu, according to a new study published in Eurosurveillance. (Bergeson, 4/9)

US regulators have withdrawn their approval of a GSK Plc drug that the Trump administration had promoted as a treatment for autism, adding another twist to the unusual story of a decades-old drug. The Food and Drug Administration is pulling its approval of Wellcovorin, a branded version of leucovorin from GSK Plc, according to a post Thursday in the Federal Register. GSK had requested that the approval be withdrawn, the post said. (Smith, 4/9)

More news about the Trump administration —

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed weakening rules for the disposal of ash produced by burning coal that can contain hazardous heavy metals and contaminate groundwater. Those regulations were strengthened under the Biden administration as part of a wider crackdown on pollution from coal-fired power plants. The Trump administration proposed easing standards for monitoring and protecting groundwater near some coal ash sites, and rolling back rules that require the cleanup of entire coal properties rather than just the sites where ash was dumped. The revisions would also make it easier to reuse coal ash for other purposes. (Phillis and St. John, 4/9)

President Trump met privately on Thursday with leaders of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement as part of a high-level White House strategy session to keep disenchanted MAHA voters in the fold ahead of the midterm elections. Neither the White House nor Mr. Kennedy’s office would provide details of the meeting. (Gay Stolberg, 4/9)

Senior White House adviser Calley Means said on Thursday that “conversations are ongoing” amid doubts over whether his sister, surgeon general nominee Casey Means, has enough votes in the Senate for confirmation. Calley Means was asked during an appearance on NewsNation’s “The Hill” whether the White House still expected Casey Means to be the next surgeon general after President Trump recently indicated he was open to withdrawing her nomination. (Brams, 4/9)

U.S. abortion opponents are increasingly frustrated with the lack of action by President Donald Trump’s administration to stem the flow of abortion pills prescribed online that they view as undermining state abortion bans. A court ruling this week in a lawsuit the Louisiana attorney general brought against Trump’s Food and Drug Administration cast a spotlight on the simmering tension. The judge said the state has a strong case while declining to block telehealth prescriptions to the pill mifepristone for now. (Mulvihill and Perrone, 4/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Abortion Pills, The Budget, And RFK Jr
At the Trump administration’s request, a federal judge in Louisiana this week agreed to delay a ruling affecting the continued availability of the abortion drug mifepristone. That angered anti-abortion groups that want the drug, if not banned, at least more strictly controlled. But the administration clearly wants to avoid big abortion fights in the run-up to November’s midterm elections. (Rovner, 4/9)

From Capitol Hill —

Hospitals are still absorbing the financial shock of last summer’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and Capitol Hill is already preparing another round of federal funding cuts. Republican lawmakers have agreed on a two-track plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security and immigration enforcement, with healthcare spending once again in the crosshairs as a funding offset. The House blocked the DHS portion on April 2 and is now in recess until April 14, a sign of the internal GOP friction that could complicate — but is unlikely to stop — the broader effort, according to The New York Times. (Condon, 4/9)

Former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) detailed his battle with cancer and reflected on his life during a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times’s Ross Douthat. The conversation, released Thursday as part of Douthat’s “Interesting Times” podcast, took place less than four months after Sasse revealed his Stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis.“ In mid-December I got a three- to four-month life expectancy, and I’m at Day 99 or something since then, and I’m doing a heck of a lot better than I was doing at Christmas,” he told the host. (Rego, 4/9)

California officials on Thursday said they uncovered a multimillion-dollar scheme to use stolen identities from people outside the state to charge for hospice services paid for with a government insurance program. State Attorney General Rob Bonta said officials have charged 21 and have so far arrested 5 people involved as the Trump administration accused California of not doing enough to crack down on fraud. (Ding, 4/9)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

In May, Nebraska will be the first state in the nation rolling out new Medicaid work requirements under President Donald Trump’s tax law. With less than a month to go, providers and advocates in the state say they’re worried about still-unresolved specifics about eligibility and public outreach, and the impact on their patient base. (McAuliff, 4/9)

Leitaea Lowrimore had hallmark symptoms of a dangerous ectopic pregnancy in February: vaginal bleeding, sharp pain, low hormone levels and no visible embryo on a uterine ultrasound. The 28-year-old mother and former nursing assistant was stunned when an Arkansas emergency room doctor said he wanted to discharge her, as ectopic pregnancies – or when an embryo implants somewhere other than the uterine lining – are never viable and can be life-threatening. (Rinkunas, 4/9)

In the basement of his Colorado home, Robert Bunn types commands into a computer he built himself. ... Bunn is the founder of Ultrasound AI, a company he has spent more than a decade building around a central idea: Using artificial intelligence to better predict when a baby will actually be born and to identify pregnancies at higher risk for premature delivery. "A lot of doctors have said this is going to completely change their clinical practice," Bunn said. (Werthmann, 4/9)

Oversupply and competition from other states have helped upend Colorado’s legal cannabis market, which was the nation’s first. (Brulliard, 4/10)

A decades-old federal program designed to put Native Hawaiian doctors and nurses to work in some of Hawaiʻi’s most underserved communities has become the target of national conservative activists whose stated mission is to “expose political bias and discrimination in healthcare and medical education.” Do No Harm, an advocacy group based in Utah, filed a federal lawsuit last week against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services arguing that its Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program is unconstitutional because it discriminates based on an applicant’s race and ethnicity. (Grube, 4/9)

Alpha-gal syndrome, the tick-borne illness that causes people to develop a serious allergy to meat and dairy, is "an emerging public health concern in Massachusetts," the state epidemiologist says. Dr. Catherine Brown with the Department of Public Health says the Lone Star tick, which is most commonly associated with the disease, has historically been found in the south. But climate change and changes in landscape use have resulted in the species moving north, she said. (Parseghian and Riley, 4/9)

Burials at New York City’s Hart Island potter’s field began outnumbering expected deaths in early March 2020, coinciding with COVID-19 pandemic onset, peaking five weeks later with 22 deaths for each death during the same week in 2019, investigators from the City University of New York Institute for Demographic Research report. The study, published yesterday in Scientific Reports, suggests that the pandemic greatly magnified inequalities and highlights the particularly devastating effects of COVID-19 on economically and socially vulnerable groups, the authors said. (Van Beusekom, 4/9)

The collapse of Prospect Medical, a for-profit hospital chain plundered by private equity and the company’s management, has generated a painful litany of woes. Amid a debt-fueled acquisition spree that saw the small California company grow to 17 hospitals in six states, Prospect was repeatedly cited for dangerous medical care, poor infection control and unsanitary facilities. The company stiffed state and local governments on more than $135 million in taxes and didn’t pay vendors for equipment, services and supplies. It shuttered four safety-net hospitals in a Philadelphia suburb that it had promised to keep open, laying off thousands. (Elkind, 4/9)

More health industry updates —

Celebrity-backed Function Health has acquired mobile healthcare company Getlabs to expand its user-facing lab testing capabilities. Function Health provides a subscription-based service that offers customers more than 160 lab tests. Under the acquisition, members will be able to obtain blood draws and other services at home, at the office “or wherever they are,” according to a Thursday news release. Financial details were not disclosed. (DeSilva, 4/9)

Zac Jiwa, a federal Medicare official, delivered a eulogy of sorts at a Thursday Medicare event highlighting the successes of the Health Tech Ecosystem initiative. The eulogy’s subject? The clipboard. (Trang and Wilkerson, 4/9)

Medicare navigation company Chapter has banked a $100 million series E funding round as it continues to grow and build out its platform. Generation Investment Management led the round, and Fifth Down Capital and 8VC joined as new investors, according to an announcement released on Thursday. Existing backers Stripes, XYZ Venture Capital, Addition, Narya Capital, Susa Ventures and Maverick Ventures also backed the round. (Minemyer, 4/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: For Many Patients Leaving The ICU, The Struggle Has Only Just Begun
The accident happened in Pittsburgh on Nov. 16. Joseph Masterson, a lawyer who was just days from retiring at age 63, suffered cardiac arrest while driving, plowed into a guardrail, and lost consciousness. Other drivers stopped, broke the car window, and pulled him to safety. A passing volunteer firefighter performed CPR until an ambulance arrived to take Masterson to UPMC Mercy hospital. He spent 18 days in the medical intensive care unit there, 14 of them on a ventilator. (Span, 4/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Watch: As AI Makes More Health Coverage Decisions, The Risks To Patients Grow
This year, executives from nearly every major health insurance company made the same declaration in calls with Wall Street analysts: Using artificial intelligence to make coverage decisions would help save them money. Even the Trump administration is testing AI’s usefulness in managing the prior authorization process for the Medicare program, as well as seeking to override AI regulation by states. (Tahir and Norman, 4/10)

Eli Lilly has rolled out Foundayo, its oral GLP-1 pill, directly to consumers through its LillyDirect cash-pay channel, as well as to telehealth providers and pharmacies across the U.S. The drug is a once-daily oral obesity treatment. It is to be used alongside a reduced-calorie diet and increased exercise, the pharma company said in an announcement. (Gleeson, 4/9)

A flood of cheap copies of Novo Nordisk A/S’ blockbuster weight-loss drug in India is already reshaping the country’s fast-growing obesity medicine market, showing how quickly the patent cliff will affect GLP-1 makers like Eli Lilly & Co. Within days of dozens of generics hitting the Indian market after Novo’s patent expired locally, semaglutide’s share in the country’s GLP-1 segment jumped to 33% in March from 25% a month earlier, according to researcher Pharmarack. That gain came at the expense of tirzepatide — the active ingredient in Lilly’s Mounjaro, which is still under patent protection in India — whose share fell to 64% from 71%, Pharmarack said. (Sanjay, 4/9)

More pharma and tech developments —

Japanese drugmaker Shionogi announced yesterday that its US subsidiary has received a $119 million contract from the US government to bolster the nation’s ability to respond to drug-resistant infections and national health security threats. The contract, awarded through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), seeks to establish a US manufacturing site for the antibiotic cefiderocol and support procurement of the drug. It will also help fund development of cefiderocol to respond to high-priority bacterial biothreats. The contract has multiyear options that could bring the total up to $482 million. (Dall, 4/9)

The Food and Drug Administration has sent a warning letter to Medline Industries over reported issues with syringes used in cardiac procedures and the company could face regulatory action if the issues are not corrected. The company received the letter March 25 following a December inspection of its facility in Glen Falls, New York. The agency said the Namic angiographic control syringes, which are packaged into Medline’s cardiovascular procedure kits, were disconnecting from the hub that controls the flow of fluids. The letter was made public Tuesday. (Dubinsky, 4/9)

Intuitive Surgical dominates the soft tissue robotic surgery market, but smaller players are beginning to gain ground, looking to capitalize on the quick expansion of ambulatory surgery centers. The field has seen a surge of new entrants, ranging from companies cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for either multiple procedures or a single one to those awaiting the agency’s review. (Dubinsky, 4/9)

Abbott Laboratories said it faces a jury award of at least $53 million over claims by four mothers that the company hid risks its premature-infant formula can cause a bowel disease which creates serious health issues for frail babies. Jurors in state court in Chicago on Thursday found Abbott knew premature babies could develop necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC, by ingesting the company’s cow-milk-based formula, but continued to market the product to hospital intensive-care units. After awarding the mothers compensation for their losses, the jury will convene Friday to determine whether to impose punitive damages on Abbott. (Feeley, 4/10)

BuzzBallz are hard drinks sold in bottles that resemble phosphorescent billiard balls. They contain around 15 percent alcohol by volume, more than double that of the average beer. And Lucy Rocca first heard about them from her 13-year-old daughter. (Holtermann, 4/10)

In other health and wellness news —

The family of a 17-year-old Texas cheerleader has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a distributor of a popular energy drink, saying the teenager died from an enlarged heart caused by ingesting large amounts of caffeine. Larissa Nicole Rodriguez, a college-bound high school student in Weslaco, Texas, died in October. Benny Agosto Jr., her family’s attorney, said at a news conference Wednesday that the Hidalgo County medical examiner determined that her cause of death “was an enlarged heart due to stress and large amounts of caffeine.” Hidalgo County did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Silva and Lenthang, 4/10)

People who followed a high-quality plant-based diet had a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementia, while those with a low-quality plant-based diet had a higher risk, prospective data showed. At baseline, people who ate the most plant foods overall had a 12% lower risk of dementia over nearly 11 years of follow-up compared with those who ate the least ..., reported Song-Yi Park, PhD, of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, and co-authors. (George, 4/9)

During a 2022 field expedition, Peter Larsen, PhD, was asleep in an open-air house in Guyana when he was awakened by the sensation of liquid on his feet, which were pressed against his mosquito net—except it wasn’t raining. He flicked on his headlamp, startled to find that the liquid was blood, and a vampire bat—a species he had gone there to study—was feeding on him. That experience, along with his work with vampire bats in several Central and South American countries, prompted Larsen to ponder the pathogens the bats might carry. (Van Beusekom, 4/9)

In 2003, a shipment of exotic African rodents to a pet store in Illinois sparked the United States' first mpox outbreak. Gambian giant rats and other rodents infected prairie dogs, which in turn infected nearly 100 people who handled the animals. Ebola outbreaks are often triggered after contact with bats, which are sometimes eaten or used for traditional medicine. (Lambert, 4/9)

As the four Artemis II astronauts looped around the moon this week before their return trip to Earth, so did four transparent chips, each about the size of a USB thumb drive and seeded with their bone marrow cells. Each chip is an “avatar” — an attempt to model key aspects of the biology of Victor Glover, Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman, the four humans whose courage and wonder have captivated the world. (Johnson, 4/9)

The Artemis astronauts’ reflections echo a long described change that occurs when humans are given the chance to view Earth from space. (Wattles, 4/8)

Research suggests that rocket exhaust and debris could be threatening the ozone layer, though many uncertainties persist. (Skibba, 4/6)

Also —

New research is upending what we thought about the consciousness of patients, leaving families with agonizing choices. (Engelhart, 4/9)

Matthew Shifrin loved building Lego sets as a child. But since he's blind, he relied on others for help. (Casey, 4/6)

Plastic ice rinks almost certainly generate microplastics because they are made of polyethylene and exposed to constant friction from skates — but there has been little rigorous study of how much is produced, said Sanjay Mohanty, an associate professor of environmental engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Even seemingly small amounts, like a couple of grams of plastic shavings per square meter per month, translate into millions of particles,” he said. (Belson and Tabuchi, 4/5)

In places like Indonesia, plastic refuse is often burned in unregulated low-tech furnaces that pose grave health risks. (Gardiner, 4/10)

These raw dairy E. coli outbreaks are exposing something troubling. (Alexander Sundermann, 4/9)

I didn’t expect to find myself face to face with leaders and activists from the “Make America Healthy Again” movement in respectful dialogue, or to consider inviting one into a public health classroom. But that’s exactly where I found myself this spring. At a national public health meeting in March, I attended a session that brought together public health professionals, physicians, and MAHA leaders for a rare, good-faith conversation. I went out of curiosity. I left with a level of clarity I hadn’t expected — and a few unexpected connections. (Monica L. Wang, 4/10)

When a MAHA activist went to a public health conference, he found a much more welcoming reception than he expected. (Aaron Everitt, 4/10)

This week Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall focus on long COVID, tackling some listener questions and providing context about what long COVID is, its potential risks, as well as some of the latest research and reports about it. Dr. Osterholm also discusses the CDC's pause on testing for rabies and pox viruses, plus a respiratory update and the latest on US measles outbreaks. Dr. Osterholm also honors National Health Week in the public health history segment. (4/9)

This new tech from Australia is coming to America’s senior care facilities. (Leana S. Wen, 4/9)