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In a large and hastily arranged Zoom call on Saturday, about 800 rattled staffers with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tried to make sense of the trauma they endured just a day earlier when a gunman opened fire on the agency’s buildings from across the street. They had been winding down for the weekend when more than 40 bullets smashed through their office windows, whizzing just over their cubicle walls and petrifying staffers in at least four buildings. (Faheld, Goodman and Tirrell, 8/11)

Dr. Elizabeth Soda felt helpless as she frantically messaged her co-workers Friday once a gunman had opened fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 40-year-old, who works at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, had just left her CDC office 30 minutes before the shooting. Now her colleagues were stuck and barricaded inside. (Aaro, 8/10)

The man suspected of opening fire on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's sprawling campus late Friday had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him sick and depressed, according to information gathered by law enforcement and sources close to the suspect. The investigation remains ongoing, and officials caution that the information is preliminary at this time. Patrick White is believed to have struggled with his mental health, according to that information. As he grappled with those issues, sources said, White had become increasingly fixated on the COVID-19 vaccine as a source of his grievances. (Abubey, Pezenik and Margolin, 8/10)

A union representing workers at the CDC said the incident was not random and “compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured.” It demanded federal officials condemn vaccine misinformation, saying it was putting scientists at risk. Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off CDC employees, has said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC’s workforce through “his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust.” (Haigh, 8/10)

A former U.S. surgeon general on Sunday said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “failed” in his response to the shootings that took place on Friday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta. “How you respond to a crisis defines a leader, and quite frankly Secretary Kennedy has failed in his first major test in this regard,” Dr. Jerome Adams told CBS’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.” (Daniels, 8/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News and Healthbeat: Inside The CDC, Shooting Adds To Trauma As Workers Describe Projects, Careers In Limbo 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers whose jobs have been reinstated after dizzying Trump administration disruptions say they remain stuck in a budgetary, political, and professional limbo. Their work includes major agency priorities such as HIV testing and monitoring, as well as work at the nation’s leading sexually transmitted infections lab. And while employees are back, many projects have been canceled or stalled, as funding disappears or is delayed. (Miller and Grapevine, 8/11)

President Trump wrote Sunday that homeless people should be moved out of Washington, D.C., "IMMEDIATELY" and relocated "FAR" away, as he hints at more aggressive policing in the nation's capital — and suggests putting the city under federal control. In a series of Truth Social posts over the weekend, the president suggested he may take further action, announcing a Monday morning press conference he said would "involve ending the Crime, Murder, and Death in our Nation's Capital." (Walsh, 8/10)

The federal government told Harvard University on Friday it could take control of the school's patents stemming from federally funded research — the latest in a months-long feud between the Trump administration and the Ivy League college. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is launching an "immediate comprehensive review" of whether Harvard has complied with federal laws around patents, he said in a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber. (Jacobs and Walsh, 8/8)

When President Trump wants to rattle academia, he turns to his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller. And then Mr. Miller turns to May Mailman. Ms. Mailman, a 37-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer, is the most important, least-known person behind the administration’s relentless pursuit of the nation’s premier universities. The extraordinary effort has found seemingly endless ways to pressure schools into submission, including federal funding, student visas and civil rights investigations. (Bender, 8/11)

President Donald Trump’s efforts to reshape higher education in a conservative mold aren’t just targeting Ivy League elites. They’re stripping millions from Florida universities — and the state’s Republican governor is happy to help. While institutions like Harvard University and Columbia University are taking heat from the Trump administration, colleges all across the country — including deep red Florida — are feeling the squeeze of sweeping federal research cuts. Florida universities this year saw more than 90 grants terminated across key federal agencies. (Atterbury, 8/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Journalists Talk Medicaid Work Rule Logistics And Colon Cancer Increase Among Young Adults 

�鶹Ů�� Health News Montana correspondent Katheryn Houghton discussed Medicaid work requirements on The Majority Report with Sam Seder on Aug. 7. Céline Gounder, �鶹Ů�� Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed what’s fueling the rise of colon cancer in adults under 54 on CBS News 24/7’s “The Daily Report” on Aug. 4. (8/9)

Vinay Prasad is returning to the Food and Drug Administration to resume his role overseeing vaccine, gene therapy, and blood product regulation. “At the FDA’s request, Dr. Vinay Prasad is resuming leadership of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,” Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon told STAT on Saturday. (Lawrence, 8/9)

Top drug regulator George Tidmarsh assured Food and Drug Administration staff this week that he and other leaders are trying to bring operations back to normal. “I know that I’m coming in here at a challenging time,” Tidmarsh said at a town hall meeting on Friday with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research staff. “That is not lost on me.” (Lawrence, 8/8)

The FDA has granted accelerated approval to zongertinib (Hernexeos, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) for certain adults with unresectable or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Specifically, the TKI was approved for patients whose tumors harbor HER2 (ERBB2) tyrosine kinase domain-activating mutations as detected by an FDA-approved test and who have received prior systemic therapy, according to the approval notice. (Worcester, 8/8)

British drugmaker GSK said on Monday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted its application for priority review of gepotidacin, an oral antibiotic to treat sexually transmitted uncomplicated gonorrhea. (8/11)

A pair of sweeteners are being recalled nationwide due to a labeling mishap, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Oregon-based company known for its sugar-free sweeteners is recalling NuNatural’s Organic Pure Stevia and Pure Monk Fruit Sweetener because 78 bottles of each – 156 in total – bear the other’s label. (Tanner, 8/8)

The U.S. Postal Service has cracked down on distributors of unregulated vapes using its services for business shipments, letters reviewed by Reuters show, in a blow to a multi-billion dollar industry that has dented Big Tobacco's sales. The letters, previously unreported, show that USPS wrote to major New York-based distributor Demand Vape, blocking it from using its services after New York City's Law Department, which represents the city's government and officials in legal matters, provided evidence that its shipments broke laws. (Rumney, 8/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen: Regulatory Rollbacks And Federal Layoffs Could Threaten America’s Food Supply 

If there were an outbreak of E. coli or another foodborne pathogen, would you want to know about it? Some scientists at the Food and Drug Administration worry that looser regulations and layoffs could make it harder for people to get that news and protect themselves. �鶹Ů�� Health News senior correspondent Stephanie Armour explained on WAMU’s “Health Hub” on Aug. 6. how the Trump administration is reshaping America’s food safety system. (Armour, 8/11)

Ten years after the Supreme Court extended marriage rights to same-sex couples nationwide, the justices this fall will consider for the first time whether to take up a case that explicitly asks them to overturn that decision. Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for six days in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to a gay couple on religious grounds, is appealing a $100,000 jury verdict for emotional damages plus $260,000 for attorneys fees. ... More fundamentally, she claims the high court's decision in Obergefell v Hodges -- extending marriage rights for same-sex couples under the 14th Amendment's due process protections -- was "egregiously wrong." (Dwyer, 8/11)

About 60% of LGBTQ+ adults live in states where access to marriage equality would change if Obergefell were struck down. (Rubin, 7/26)

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office certified petition titles and summaries for two proposed constitutional amendments that were once part of a singular effort to enshrine equal rights in the Ohio Constitution on Friday, moving the initiatives closer to potential ballot placement. The original, singular proposal would have added new equal rights protections to the Ohio Constitution to a wide range of protected classes and would have also extended those equal rights protections to marriage, removing existing language from an unenforceable same-sex marriage ban that was approved by voters in 2004 that remains in the Ohio constitution. (McGowan, 8/8)

New York City opened the country’s first city-funded shelter for transgender and gender-nonconforming people experiencing homelessness. Ace’s Place, which opened this week in Queens and will offer 150 beds, is a collaboration between the NYC Department of Social Services and Destination Tomorrow, an LGBTQ nonprofit in the Bronx. (Yurcaba, 8/7)

A group of incarcerated transgender women and men have sued Georgia corrections officials, challenging a new law that prevents them from receiving gender-affirming medical care. The lawsuit, filed Friday morning, accuses the state of violating the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. (Norwood, 8/8)

The Phelans ran the only bookstore in Vermillion, South Dakota. They sold it and moved after a new law would’ve required their daughter to use a boy’s bathroom. (Parks, 8/10)

Veterans hospitals are struggling to replace hundreds of doctors and nurses who have left the health care system this year as the Trump administration pursues its pledge to simultaneously slash Department of Veterans Affairs staff and improve care. Many job applicants are turning down offers, worried that the positions are not stable and uneasy with the overall direction of the agency, according to internal documents examined by ProPublica. The records show nearly 4 in 10 of the roughly 2,000 doctors offered jobs from January through March of this year turned them down. That is quadruple the rate of doctors rejecting offers during the same time period last year. (Armstrong, Umansky and Coleman, 8/8)

Leah Stiles kept a dark secret tucked in a pocket of her Navy uniform, something she knew could get her booted from the service. In the end, it did. In 2017, her ship, the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush, was at war as part of a strike group that attacked Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq.  For 15 years in uniform, she’d been at war with an eating disorder — a constant urge to purge her meals. She kept a toothbrush in her pocket to gag. (Wiehe, 8/8)

In every way, a study published this January in a major medical journal was a win for UnitedHealth Group. It showed that UnitedHealth’s preferred approach to covering Medicare patients, an especially profitable line of business, was producing higher-quality care for older Americans than the standard method. But a closer inspection reveals reasons to distrust the narrative. (Ross, Herman, Bannow and Lawrence, 8/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Why Young Americans Dread Turning 26: Health Insurance Chaos 

Amid the challenges of adulthood, one rite of passage is unique to the United States: the need to find your own health insurance by the time you turn 26. That is the age at which the Affordable Care Act declares that young adults generally must get off their family’s plan and figure out their coverage themselves. When the ACA was voted into law in 2010, what’s known as its dependent coverage expansion was immediately effective, guaranteeing health insurance to millions of young Americans up to age 26 who would otherwise not have had coverage. But for years, Republicans have whittled away at the infrastructure of the original ACA. The erosion of the law has now created an “insurance cliff” for Americans who are turning 26 and don’t have a job that provides medical coverage. (Rosenthal and Norman, 8/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: A Guide To Finding Insurance At 26‌ 

Young adults looking for health insurance will likely benefit from talking with so-called navigators who work for the online marketplaces. But if you want to go it alone, here are some tips about shopping for a plan, based on the advice of policy experts and people who have spent hundreds of hours helping others navigate this unwieldy set-up. Buckle up. (Rosenthal, 8/11)

Margot Damaser has long been fascinated by bladders, urine and figuring out what’s wrong when a person can’t tinkle properly. Decades ago, the associate professor of biomedical engineering at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine wondered if there was a way to replace a common, though cumbersome, bladder-function test that requires patients to urinate in front of strangers while wired up to a monitor. (Washington, 8/11)

Breast cancer may become easier to detect before it even develops with the help of new AI-based software created in St. Louis. Prognosia Breast, which was developed by a team of Washington University School of Medicine researchers, analyzes mammograms to determine a person’s risk of developing breast cancer within five years. The technology recently cleared a major hurdle earning a breakthrough device designation from the Food and Drug Administration. (Lewis-Thompson, 8/11)

DermaRite Industries has voluntarily recalled specific lots of its products nationwide due to contamination with Burkholderia cepacia, a bacterium that can cause serious infections in immunocompromised individuals. The products include DermaKleen, Dermasarra, Kleenfoam, and Perigiene items. The products are commonly used in health care settings for handwashing and skin care. (Marsden, 8/10)

The Boar’s Head deli meat plant at the heart of last year’s deadly food poisoning outbreak is set to reopen in the coming months, company officials said. But recent inspections at Boar’s Head sites in three states documented sanitation problems similar to those that led to the listeria contamination that killed 10 people and sickened dozens. The Jarratt, Virginia, plant was shut down in September. (Aleccia, 8/8)

Amid a slow but steady rise in COVID activity, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater detections last week rose from the low to the moderate level, with the highest levels in the West, followed by the South, where detections in Louisiana are at the very high level, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly data updates. The CDC said wastewater trends and model-based epidemic trends suggest that COVID infections are growing or likely growing in most states. (Schnirring, 8/8)

As childhood vaccination rates plummet across the Suncoast and measles cases resurge nationwide, Sarasota County faces a critical threat to public health. Roughly 82% of kindergarteners in the public school system were fully immunized against the disease this year — well below herd immunity. (Herman and Newhouse, 8/8)

For Dr. Melissa Buddensee, Ammonoosuc Community Health Services in Franconia has been home to her medical practice for a decade. But this summer, she’s had to deliver the bad news to her patients that the practice is closing, in part due to Medicaid cuts President Trump signed into law in July. Around New England, health care providers and experts warned those cuts are a damaging blow to a health system that was already in trouble. At least two other health facilities in New Hampshire have announced they will close in the fall amid federal Medicaid cuts. (Gokee, 8/10)

The violations against generations of New Hampshire teenagers and children were staggering in scale: decades of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, claimed by more than 1,500 victims at state-run youth detention centers, one of the worst abuse crises in state history. After long negotiations to avoid lawsuits, New Hampshire pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to a state fund to settle abuse claims, and hearings began in 2023. Payments averaged about $540,000. But New Hampshire, which is facing a fiscal downturn, is trying to wrest back control of the cost. (Russell and Hubler, 8/11)

Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which had been scheduled to lose Medicare funding Saturday, ceased most of its operations Friday, officials confirmed. They also warned that without additional funding, West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park could face the same fate. (McCoppin and Soglin, 8/8)

In a community of roughly 230 people about six hours by car from Fairbanks on a gravel road, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. heard from Alaska Natives about how hard it is to find fresh food. The king salmon that once sustained the village of Tanana are disappearing. Because of high fuel and shipping costs, a half gallon of milk at the local grocery store costs $10.99. A greenhouse took millions of dollars to construct, according to Kennedy, but was never hooked up to water and electricity, making it unusable for most of the year. (Essley Whyte, 8/10)

A moped injury left Ed Levien vulnerable and grateful to strangers for their help. That led him to his second, and most meaningful, act — as an EMT. (Melnick, 8/1)

Chris Kolstad had enough of people grabbing leftovers from the dumpster behind his pizza shop and eating them. He posted on Facebook telling them to stop. Just ask for a pizza, he said. No one should be eating from the garbage. “Leave me a note,” Kolstad wrote on Facebook, “and we will find a way to leave any extras or mistakes out back so you have something to eat without going through the trash.” Kolstad’s act of kindness went viral, and comments from customers and strangers poured in offering to help. So in addition to giving away dozens of pizzas, he began raising money — more than $3,000 so far — for Minnesota food banks, pantries and shelters. Minnesota news channel WCCO first reported the story. (Melnick, 8/7)

IIn a one-room studio tucked down an alley in Burbank, four dancers spin in unison around an orange-walled room. Two on foot and two in wheelchairs. It’s late and it’s hot — the AC is busted. But their unrelenting positivity and persistence are in full force as they prepare for a music video shoot. They’re members of Infinite Flow Dance, which employs disabled and non-disabled dancers of diverse identities. The company also represents an array of non-apparent disabilities including chronic illness, deafness, blindness and neurodivergence. (Burtner, 8/6)

A patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has become the first person in the world to control an iPad entirely by thought, according to neurotech company Synchron. This means Mark Jackson, 65, from western Pennsylvania, can control the product without using his hands or voice commands. Instead, an implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) translates his thoughts into actions. (Kekatos, 8/8)

A drug used for asthma, Zileuton, has been found to treat food allergies "shockingly well", in a breakthrough that could offer new protection for millions affected. This is the discovery of Northwestern Medicine scientists, who have revealed the already FDA-approved drug nearly eliminated life-threatening allergic reactions to food allergens in mice. (Millington, 8/7)

Innovative diagnostic tests — some newly developed, others currently in the works — are using menstrual blood to look for biomarkers of endometriosis, as well as other reproductive conditions like uterine fibroids. These tests are as simple as inserting a tampon or putting a smart pad in underwear, allowing women to get answers quickly and painlessly. Qvin’s Q-Pad, which is FDA-cleared and has been dubbed “a pad with a purpose,” features an embedded and removable strip to collect and analyze period blood. And the NextGen Jane Smart Tampon, which is not yet cleared by the FDA, is a diagnostic tampon that collects menstrual blood to look for biomarkers of reproductive health conditions. (Miller, 8/4)

The very qualities that make chatbots appealing—they always listen, never judge, and tell you what you want to hear—can also make them dangerous. Especially for autistic people. When chatbots say things that aren’t true or reinforce misguided beliefs, they can be harmful to anyone. But autistic people, who often have a black-and-white way of thinking and can fixate on particular topics, are especially vulnerable. Now, Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism advocacy organization, is calling on OpenAI to develop more guardrails not only for the benefit of autistic people, but for anyone who might find themselves going down potentially dangerous chat-rabbit holes. (Julie Jargon, 8/9)

When Canada’s Parliament in 2016 legalized the practice of euthanasia—Medical Assistance in Dying, or MAID, as it’s formally called—it launched an open-ended medical experiment. One day, administering a lethal injection to a patient was against the law; the next, it was as legitimate as a tonsillectomy, but often with less of a wait. MAID now accounts for about one in 20 deaths in Canada—more than Alzheimer’s and diabetes combined—surpassing countries where assisted dying has been legal for far longer. (Elaina Plott Calabro, 8/11)

In its campaign against transgender rights, the Trump administration has been spotlighting stories of people who have regretted transitioning. A recent Federal Trade Commission event, titled “The Dangers of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors,” included testimony from six people who had come to believe their gender transition hurt them more than it helped. (Kinnon R. MacKinnon, 8/10)

One of the more notable successes of President Donald Trump’s first term was how the administration was able to develop effective COVID-19 vaccines so quickly. That impressive speed — less than one year compared to the decade or more of research and development that other vaccines have required — likely saved millions of lives worldwide. And what made that Operation Warp Speed feat possible? That would be Messenger RNA or mRNA. In layman’s terms, laboratory-created mRNA vaccines can teach human cells how to make a specific protein that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. (8/10)

For years, as insurance premiums climbed and Americans worried about medical expenses, economists have pointed to industry concentration as one cause. That policy conversation, however, usually focuses on how today’s competitors exit the market, through hospital mergers or medical practice buyouts. It neglects the other side of the competition question: whether new providers are able to join the fray or bring innovative service models to patients. (Dan O'Neill, 8/11)

At approximately 4:50 p.m. on Friday, a gunman opened fire at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta. The attack left bullet holes in office windows and claimed the life of DeKalb County police officer David Rose. Authorities believe the shooter, Patrick Joseph White, may have been motivated by anti-vaccine sentiment, blaming the CDC for personal health complications allegedly tied to the Covid-19 vaccine. (Jerome Adams, 8/9)

In early July, I began teaching a summer course: introductory biostatistics for an accelerated master’s of public health program. Most of the students are clinicians, and biostatistics is (understandably) not often the favorite course. On day one, I told them that one measure of the power of statistics is the way unscrupulous leaders attempt to shut them down when they do not like what the data reveal. (Lee Kennedy-Shaffer, 8/9)