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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Monday, Jul 14 2025

麻豆女优 Health News Original Stories 3

  • In Rush To Satisfy Trump, GOP Delivers Blow to Health Industry
  • Vested Interests. Influence Muscle. At RFK Jr.鈥檚 HHS, It鈥檚 Not Pharma. It鈥檚 Wellness.
  • Journalists Tally State and Local Health Care Implications of GOP Megabill

Medicaid 1

  • Hospitals Ready Lobbying Efforts To Fight Big Cuts From Trump's Megabill

Administration News 1

  • Judge Reverses Biden-Era Rule That Wiped Medical Debt Off Credit Reports

Outbreaks and Health Threats 1

  • Arizonan Dies Of Pneumonic Plague

Science And Innovations 1

  • Severe Climate-Related Disasters Affect Area Health Care For Years: Study

Health Industry 1

  • US Sees Fewer Health Care Data Breaches This Year, But Cases Still High

Mental Health 1

  • Effectiveness Of Involuntary Mental Health Care Inconclusive, GAO Finds

State Watch 1

  • North Carolina To Build Stand-Alone 500-Bed Children's Hospital

Editorials And Opinions 1

  • Viewpoints: There鈥檚 Still Hope For PEPFAR; Eliminating The LGBTQ+ Suicide Prevention Line Is Dangerous

From 麻豆女优 Health News - Latest Stories:

麻豆女优 Health News Original Stories

In Rush To Satisfy Trump, GOP Delivers Blow to Health Industry

The health industry couldn鈥檛 persuade GOP lawmakers to oppose big Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump鈥檚 tax and spending bill for many reasons. A big one: Congressional Republicans were more worried about angering Trump than a backlash from hospitals and low-income constituents back home. ( Phil Galewitz and Stephanie Armour , 7/14 )

Vested Interests. Influence Muscle. At RFK Jr.鈥檚 HHS, It鈥檚 Not Pharma. It鈥檚 Wellness.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lambasted federal agencies he accused of being overly influenced by the pharmaceutical industry. But he and other 鈥淢ake America Healthy Again鈥 notables have their own financial ties to the vast and largely unregulated $6.3 trillion global wellness industry that ethicists say raise red flags. ( Stephanie Armour , 7/14 )

Journalists Tally State and Local Health Care Implications of GOP Megabill

麻豆女优 Health News journalists made the rounds on national and local media recently to discuss topical stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances. ( 7/12 )

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RED TAPE AND UNMET CARE

Endless paperwork.
Care delayed, denied, deterred.
Health wanes, hope withers.

鈥 Anonymous

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Summaries Of The News:

Medicaid

Hospitals Ready Lobbying Efforts To Fight Big Cuts From Trump's Megabill

Delayed implementation until 2028 gives hospitals time to persuade Congress to rescind $340 billion in cuts to their budgets. The Republican One Big Beautiful Bill Act included the money to pay for tax cuts and other priorities. Separately, the legislation is also expected to impact insurers due to the volatility in Medicaid-eligible patients.

Hospitals lost big in President Donald Trump鈥檚 megabill, but they still have plenty of time to fight back. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed on the 4th of July will take a $340 billion bite out of hospital budgets over a decade to pay for tax cuts and other Trump priorities. Then again, maybe it won鈥檛. That鈥檚 because Congress delayed implementation of the most devastating of those cuts till 2028, and hospitals, their armies of lobbyists and many allies on Capitol Hill are already gearing up to use the next two and a half years to persuade lawmakers to rescind them. (King, Chu and Lim, 7/14)

Hospitals are bracing for the impact from the Medicaid cuts in President Trump鈥檚 sweeping spending and tax cut law. 聽While most of the cuts won鈥檛 happen immediately, rural facilities in particular say they likely will have to make difficult financial decisions about which services they can afford to keep and which may need to be cut.聽Hospitals loudly raised alarms about the legislation, but their warnings went unheeded, and now they say they will bear the brunt of the changes.聽(Weixel, 7/13)

Christine Mertzelos is trying to avoid having her leg amputated. Twice a week, a hospital van carries her from her home in Wrigleyville to the wound clinic at Humboldt Park Health, where a diabetic ulcer on her ankle is cleaned, treated and dressed. At one point, the ulcer wrapped nearly all the way around her lower leg 鈥 a situation that can lead to amputation if not controlled. The ulcer, however, has shrunk significantly. (Schencker, 7/13)

President Donald Trump's spending bill is set to raise administrative costs and make managing costs more difficult for insurers like UnitedHealthcare and CVS Health's Aetna that operate Medicaid health plans, experts say. As a result, those insurers will likely pull back their Medicaid coverage and invest more in existing markets to retain their healthier members, experts said. (Niasse, 7/14)

麻豆女优 Health News: In Rush To Satisfy Trump, GOP Delivers Blow To Health Industry

Doctors, hospitals, and health insurers for weeks issued dire warnings to Republican lawmakers that millions of people would lose health coverage and hospitals would close if they cut Medicaid funding to help pay for President Donald Trump鈥檚 big tax and spending bill. But Republicans ignored those pleas, made even deeper cuts, and sent the legislation on July 3 to the White House, where Trump signed it the next day. (Galewitz and Armour, 7/14)

When President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on the Fourth of July, many people heard about the major provisions that affected healthcare, such as hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and a 1-year, 2.5% increase in payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. But what about some of the lesser-known health provisions? (Frieden, 7/11)

Also 鈥

The new Medicaid work rules in President Trump's tax-and-spending law put states on a tight timetable for setting up systems to notify millions of recipients about the requirements 鈥 and to track if they're complying. Previous efforts to set work rules in Georgia and Arkansas showed it could be a messy and expensive process that generally relies on outside vendors to set up the necessary infrastructure. (Reed, 7/14)

The number of people receiving Medicaid in Connecticut has grown sharply over the last decade. In Connecticut, Medicaid operates under the name HUSKY and insures about one-quarter of the state鈥檚 population. The number of people served through any Medicaid-funded coverage steadily grew over the last decade, rising 61% from 2012 to 2023. (Daou, 7/11)

Democrats used a Louisiana town hall Thursday night to preview one of their main strategies for attempting to retake the U.S. House next year, ripping into the health care changes in the just-passed Republican tax and spending bill. The top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, said the event in the home state of House Speaker Mike Johnson was the first stop on a nationwide tour to educate voters about the bill, which he called 鈥渁n all-out assault against the American people.鈥 (Brook, 7/11)

Administration News

Judge Reverses Biden-Era Rule That Wiped Medical Debt Off Credit Reports

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the FDA may offer to fast-track drug reviews for companies that lower their U.S drug prices. Also: a billion-dollar backlog of delayed grants at HHS, and more.

A federal judge in Texas reversed a Biden-era rule on Friday that permitted medical debt to be wiped from credit reports, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan, a 2019 appointee of President Trump, said the rule by the previous administration exceeds the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). ... The Biden administration estimated that the action would remove nearly $50 billion of medical debt from the credit reports of roughly 15 million Americans. (Fields, 7/12)

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said his agency may fast-track new drugs from pharmaceutical companies that 鈥渆qualize鈥 the cost of their medicines between the US and other countries, an unusual proposition from the regulator that鈥檚 long avoided contentious pricing debates. ... Price adjustments may give companies another way to obtain 鈥渘ational priority vouchers,鈥 the reward that comes as part of a new program the FDA announced last month that would slash review times for companies it says are backing national interests. (Cohrs Zhang and Hornblower, 7/11)

The Department of Health and Human Services has asked some laid-off staff if they could return to work temporarily, as the department grapples with a backlog of grants that has swelled to more than a billion dollars in the wake of hurdles set up by DOGE. Multiple HHS officials, who were not authorized to speak to the press, said the laid-off staff asked to return to work include a handful of employees who managed grants in the department's Administration for Children and Families, or ACF. (Tin, 7/11)

Regarding vaccines and MAHA 鈥

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent much of his confirmation process before becoming the nation鈥檚 health secretary reassuring lawmakers that he would not undermine public confidence in vaccines and seeking to distance himself from the anti-vaccine group he founded, Children鈥檚 Health Defense. As health secretary, he has installed former prominent members of that group and other vaccine skeptics in positions at the department he runs or agencies it oversees. (Cirruzzo, 7/14)

Wearable health devices no longer are just a fashion statement for the already-healthy consumer. Health systems and tech companies see wearables playing an important part in improving the health of all populations. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., last month suggested every American could use a wearable device to track their health metrics and said HHS would launch a marketing campaign to promote them as a key to preventative health. (Perna, 7/11)

麻豆女优 Health News: Vested Interests. Influence Muscle. At RFK Jr.鈥檚 HHS, It鈥檚 Not Pharma. It鈥檚 Wellness

On his way to an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped by the home of podcaster Gary Brecka. The two spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and tried some intravenous nutrition drips that Brecka, a self-avowed longevity and wellness maven, sells and promotes on his show, 鈥淭he Ultimate Human.鈥 Then the podcast taping started, and Kennedy 鈥 who was also on the mic 鈥 took aim at Big Pharma鈥檚 influence on federal health policy. (Armour, 7/14)

The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction. Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. (Thiessen, 7/12)

Federal funding 鈥

Just a week had remained before scientists in South Africa were to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine, and hopes were high for another step toward limiting one of history鈥檚 deadliest pandemics. Then the email arrived. Stop all work, it said. The United States under the Trump administration was withdrawing all its funding. The news devastated the researchers, who live and work in a region where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world. (Magome, 7/14)

Senate Republicans remain wary of eliminating the popular and successful global HIV/AIDS program PEPFAR, as they face down a July 18 deadline to vote on President Trump鈥檚 first tranche of rescissions requests.聽In his rescissions request to Congress last month, Trump asked that $900 million budgeted for the President鈥檚 Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) be cancelled. The House has already passed Trump鈥檚 rescissions, and now the Senate must make the final move.聽(Choi, 7/12)

Despite the Trump administration鈥檚 efforts to shrink the FDA, Senate appropriators unanimously advanced a funding bill Thursday that maintains the agency鈥檚 funding in fiscal 2026 at roughly the same level as in fiscal 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee bill, which advanced by a 27-0 vote, funds the agency at $7 billion, comprised of $3.6 billion in taxpayer funds and $3.4 billion in user fee revenues. (Gardner and Lim, 7/11)

Outbreaks and Health Threats

Arizonan Dies Of Pneumonic Plague

The diagnosis was confirmed through rapid testing after the Coconino County resident was admitted to Flagstaff Medical Center. Pneumonic plague is the only form of the plague that can be transmitted person to person, but officials say the risk of exposure is low.

A resident of Coconino County, Ariz., died from pneumonic plague, the first such death in the county in almost two decades, officials announced on Friday. The resident went to Flagstaff Medical Center recently and died the same day despite attempts to provide 鈥渓ifesaving resuscitation,鈥 according to a statement on Friday from Northern Arizona Healthcare, which runs the hospital. (Fahy, 7/12)

Pneumonic plague is the only form that can be spread from person to person, rather than animal to person, through airborne droplets, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But this has not been documented in the United States since 1924. Slightly more common is airborne infection from sick animals. The pneumonic form is also the deadliest: It is always fatal when left untreated, according to the World Health Organization. The bubonic plague, the most common type, has a fatality rate of 30 to 60 percent. (Vinall, 7/12)

Measles updates 鈥

A second case of measles has been confirmed in Wyoming. The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) said the source of exposure for the unvaccinated child in Niobrara County is unknown. There鈥檚 no known connection to the case in Natrona County reported earlier this month. (Ouellet, 7/11)

Three states have reported new measles cases over the past few days, including Kansas, with four more cases, all linked to an outbreak in the southwestern part of the state.聽(Schnirring, 7/11)

As national cases of measles soar and federal health officials engage in vaccine skepticism, Illinois so far this year has seen only one small outbreak of the highly infectious disease that health officials say was quickly brought under control. (Olander, 7/13)

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately declare a public health emergency for measles, blaming the senior Trump administration official for failing to respond to the rapid resurgence of the disease. Schumer accused Kennedy in a bluntly worded letter Friday of walking 鈥渙ur country into the nation鈥檚 largest measles outbreak in 33 years, leading cases to hit a record high a full 25 years after this country eliminated the disease.鈥 (Bolton, 7/11)

麻豆女优 Health News: Journalists Tally State And Local Health Care Implications Of GOP Megabill

C茅line Gounder, 麻豆女优 Health News鈥 editor-at-large for public health,聽discussed measles cases on CBS News鈥 鈥淐BS News 24/7鈥 on July 9. Gounder also discussed the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in medical facilities on CBS News鈥 鈥淐BS Mornings Plus鈥 on July 8. (7/12)

Regarding covid, flu, RSV, and HIV 鈥

Cases of COVID-19 are now likely growing in 25 states, according to estimates published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, as this year's summer wave of the virus appears to be getting underway. The agency's modeling suggests that the uptick is in "many" Southeast, Southern and West Coast states, the CDC said in its weekly update. COVID-19 activity nationwide, however, is still considered "low," based on data from wastewater samples, although that is up from "very low" the week before. (Tin, 7/11)

Amid the sultry summer months, a few signs of fall become apparent, such as the appearance of school supplies on stores shelves after the Fourth of July. Another is doses of flu vaccine on the move, and three of the companies that supply doses for the US market announced this week that shipments have begun. Meanwhile, the 2024-25 season is still in the rearview mirror, a period that marked the first high-severity season since 2017-18. Hospitalizations for flu were the highest since the 2010-11 season, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Schnirring, 7/11)

Two new studies demonstrate the impact of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in different populations, with one showing that聽children with chronic medical conditions (CMCs) affecting multiple body systems have the highest rate of RSV hospitalization, and a second showing that more than 8 in 10 adults have had RSV exposure. (Wappes, 7/11)

The World Health Organization is now recommending that countries include an HIV drug newly approved for prevention, lenacapavir, as a tool in their efforts to fight HIV infections 鈥 especially for groups most at risk and in areas where the burden of HIV remains high. (Howard, 7/14)

Health threats 鈥

Walmart is recalling about 850,000 stainless steel water bottles because the lid can 鈥渇orcefully eject鈥 and unexpectedly strike consumers 鈥 resulting in permanent vision loss for two people to date. The recall covers Walmart鈥檚 鈥淥zark Trail 64 oz Stainless Steel Insulated Water Bottles,鈥 which have been sold at the chain鈥檚 stores across the country since 2017. According to a notice published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday, these products pose 鈥渟erious impact and laceration hazards.鈥 (7/11)

Nicotine pouches like Zyn have exploded in popularity in the U.S. With that growth comes a steep increase in the risk of young children accidentally eating the pouches, with potentially serious consequences, according to a new study. (Todd, 7/14)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)聽yesterday declared its investigation into a multistate Salmonella outbreak tied to organic and cage-free brown eggs over after 134 people fell ill and 1 died. The outbreak has grown by 55 cases and three affected states since the CDC first reported the event on June 6. Ten states have confirmed cases. The death, in a patient from California, is also new. (Wappes, 7/11)

Science And Innovations

Severe Climate-Related Disasters Affect Area Health Care For Years: Study

While severe climate-related disasters were linked with decreased access to health care infrastructure, moderate climate-related disasters were linked with increased access and redevelopment. In other news, GLP-1 drugs are showing promise in areas of addiction. Also: bariatric surgery, muscle loss, and menopause.

Counties that undergo severe climate-related disasters often suffer reduced access to critical health care infrastructure in the years that follow, a study suggests. The analysis, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, looked at what happened to hospitals, pharmacies and ambulatory 鈥 or outpatient 鈥 care facilities after climate-related disasters. (Blakemore, 7/13)

The Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a program Thursday to advance brain-repair research and develop treatments for brain injuries and devastating neurological diseases like stroke and Alzheimer鈥檚. Why it matters: The program, called the Functional Repair of Neocortical Tissue, or FRONT, aims to find cures for these neurodegenerative and other traumatic diseases long regarded as irreversible by leveraging stem-cell technology to regenerate brain tissue and restore brain function. (Nguyen, 7/11)

Staying awake to watch "just one more episode" is a classic excuse for delaying bedtime. And with popular shows like Peacock's "Love Island" airing almost every night as the drama unfolds live, there鈥檚 more pressure to finish the latest episode and to engage in conversation with others the next day. In addition to making us sleepier in the morning, staying awake to watch TV is not good for the brain, according to Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist, brain imaging doctor and founder of Amen Clinics in California. (Stabile, 7/13)

Regarding weight loss drugs 鈥

To make sense of the reds and greens dancing across a computer monitor displaying a scale image of a human brain, one requires a vivid vocabulary. At this upscale addiction treatment facility, 鈥渘eurofeedback therapy鈥 and 鈥渜uantitative electroencephalogram鈥 are part of the holistic, no-expenses-spared treatment philosophy on offer. (Facher, 7/14)

In order to maximize weight loss, a GLP-1 receptor agonist may be needed both before and after bariatric surgery, a retrospective analysis found. In 568 patients who underwent bariatric surgery, those who also used a GLP-1 receptor agonist during the preoperative and postoperative period experienced significantly greater weight loss -- a 33% total weight loss and 17.9-point change in BMI -- compared with surgery alone, reported Angela Rao, MD, of Stanford Health Care in California. (Monaco, 7/13)

Eating more protein may help offset some of the loss of lean mass during semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) treatment, an observational prospective study suggested. After 3 months of treatment, 47.5% of weight lost by adults with obesity taking the GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) was lean mass compared with 35.7% treated with diet and lifestyle intervention as measured by dual emission x-ray absorptiometry (P=0.39), reported Melanie Haines, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. (Monaco, 7/13)

Menopause hormone therapy (MHT) was tied to a weight-loss boost in postmenopausal women taking a weight loss agent, a real-world study found. Among 120 women with overweight or obesity, MHT users lost 19.18% of their total body weight with tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) compared with a 13.96% loss in women not on such therapy after an average of 18 months (P=0.002), said Regina Castaneda, MD, of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. (Monaco, 7/13)

On PMS, gonorrhea, and vaccines 鈥

Premenstrual disorders are associated with a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, a large, long-term study has found. New research analyzing patient health data from more than 3 million women in Sweden over a 20-year period found that those who were diagnosed with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) had an 11% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease at some point, compared to women who did not have a diagnosis. (Srinivasan, 7/11)

A genomic analysis of US gonorrhea isolates shows a dramatic increase in tetracycline resistance. In a letter published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the University of Georgia reported that their analysis ... show that the percentage of isolates carrying the tetM resistance gene rose from 10% in 2020 to more than 30% in 2024. The tetM gene confers high-level resistance to tetracycline antibiotics. (Dall, 7/11)

An increase in uptake of routine childhood vaccines among US children over 15 years was associated with a decrease in antibiotic prescriptions and antibiotic-treated sinus infections, according to an ecological study published today in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology. (Dall, 7/11)

Health Industry

US Sees Fewer Health Care Data Breaches This Year, But Cases Still High

Other health care industry news is on the impact of immigration policies on nursing home staffing, a long-covid clinic closure in St. Louis, and more.

A record-high number of organizations reported healthcare data breaches in 2024 鈥 and the first half of 2025 forecasts another challenging year for cyberattacks. As of Friday, the Health and Human Services Department鈥檚 Office for Civil Rights has listed 378 breaches affecting 500 or more individuals in the first six months of 2025. That鈥檚 fewer than the 408 reported through June in 2024, but more than all years previous. (Broderick, 7/11)

Nursing homes already struggling to recruit staff are now grappling with President Donald Trump鈥檚 attack on one of their few reliable sources of workers: immigration. Facilities for older adults and disabled people are reporting the sporadic loss of employees who have had their legal status revoked by Trump. But they fear even more dramatic impacts are ahead as pipelines of potential workers slow to a trickle with an overall downturn in legal immigration. (Sedensky, 7/13)

They face different symptoms of Long COVID, but they all share one common experience 鈥 finding answers at a clinic run by Washington University School of Medicine. For three years, Emily, 34, from St. Louis, said she suffered with crushing fatigue, nausea, a racing heart rate and difficulty breathing after getting COVID-19 in August 2020. Her first appointment with a nurse at the Care and Recovery After COVID-19 (CARE) Clinic was life changing. (Munz, 7/13)

Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders gave the thumbs-up to the company鈥檚 private-equity buyout by Sycamore Partners, with about 96% of votes cast approving the sale, the Deerfield-based retail pharmacy giant announced this morning. Under the terms of the roughly $10 billion merger agreement, Walgreens shareholders will receive $11.45 per share in cash at closing. (Asplund, 7/11)

CenterWell鈥檚 efforts to buy The Villages Health is the latest step in its cautiously optimistic growth plan amid economic uncertainty. The Humana subsidiary鈥檚 recent stalking horse bid to buy The Villages Health System as it restructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection would add 10 senior primary care and specialty offices to the company鈥檚 portfolio. A stalking horse bid is the initial bid on a bankrupt company鈥檚 assets that sets the floor price for other potential buyers. (Eastabrook, 7/11)

The biotechnology industry is experiencing a tectonic shift, driven by Chinese drugmakers who have come a long way from their copycat days to challenge Western dominance on innovation. The number of novel drugs in China 鈥 for cancer, weight-loss and more 鈥 entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union and nearly catching up to the US鈥檚 count of about 1,440, an exclusive Bloomberg News analysis showed. (Tong, Hong, and Chen, 7/13)

Mental Health

Effectiveness Of Involuntary Mental Health Care Inconclusive, GAO Finds

Despite HHS finding favorable outcomes, GAO disagrees, claiming the earlier assessments are unreliable due to methodological flaws. In other news: some common sweeteners can increase the risk of early puberty; Propecia causes fertility issues for some users; and more.

In the last decade, the federal government has provided $146 million to organizations that provide outpatient care to people with serious mental health conditions like psychosis. The people were ordered to undergo treatment so they wouldn鈥檛 be a threat to themselves or society.聽Did it work? (Broderick, 7/14)

A recently published study from finance site WalletHub ranked 182 U.S. cities from most to least stressed, with Detroit taking the crown for most and South Burlington, Vt., winning in the least stressed category. The study determined its rankings through five different dimensions 鈥 work, financial, family, and health/safety stress. A higher number denotes a lower level of stress. (Sanders and Tanner, 7/12)

Beginning next summer, Minnesotans scrolling social media sites will get a pop up warning. Before they can proceed to photos, articles or posts, they鈥檒l have to click through the warning, acknowledging the site could pose a hazard to their mental health. (Ferguson, 7/14)

In public health news 鈥

Common sweeteners found in foods and drinks may significantly increase the risk of early puberty in children, new research shows. The findings come from a large-scale study that was presented on today at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Francisco. (Gray, 7/13)

Many people try to limit the time they spend on social media when they鈥檙e with their kids. But new research suggests social media use has a significant effect on interactions with children 鈥 even when adults aren鈥檛 looking at their screens. Mothers who were in the habit of spending more time on social media talked much less to their kids when they played with them than did moms who spent less time on social networks, and that difference carried over when they weren鈥檛 using their devices, according to a study to be presented Tuesday at the Digital Media and Developing Minds International Scientific Congress in Washington, DC. (Alaimo, 7/13)

For more than 30 years, Frank Frost, worked as a long-distance truck driver, ferrying industrial chemicals across the U.K. "I worked away from home six days a week, working up to 12-15 hours a day," says Frost, now 76. "My only exercise was looking for a fast food outlet in the evening when I'd parked up," he says. He gained weight and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in his 50s. His doctors put him on insulin injections and told him to lose weight and move more. (Chatterjee, 7/14)

Finasteride, sometimes sold as Propecia, is the most widely used prescription medicine for male-pattern baldness. Prescriptions have reportedly tripled in recent years alongside the rise of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies popular among young men. For many, the medication comes with no issues and can provide newfound confidence, but it does carry side effects. ... Finasteride is prescribed at higher doses to treat enlarged prostates and has been known to mildly affect sperm counts. (Brown, 7/11)

State Watch

North Carolina To Build Stand-Alone 500-Bed Children's Hospital

The Raleigh-area facility will be built as a joint agreement between UNC Health and Duke Health. More news comes from Texas, New York, Arizona, and Maryland.

North Carolina鈥檚 first standalone children鈥檚 hospital will be built in a bedroom community near the state capital, the project鈥檚 health systems announced Thursday, creating a campus estimated to bring 8,000 jobs to the area. UNC Health and Duke Health announced in January an agreement to jointly build the proposed 500-bed pediatric hospital and linked facilities in the state鈥檚 Research Triangle region, which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. (7/11)

After several ultrasounds and consultations with specialists, J made the wrenching decision to terminate her pregnancy in February 2024.聽To do it, she had to leave her home in eastern North Carolina and travel four hours to Richmond, Virginia. (Crumpler, 7/14)

Boxy, gunmetal gray buildings loom over a labyrinth of ducts and tubes and catwalks, beyond which 100 train cars loll on their tracks. Smokestacks wait to exhale. This is StarPet, a mammoth factory in north Asheboro that manufactures PET polymers, derived from fossil fuels and used in polyester fibers and plastic bottles.聽(Sorg, 7/13)

News from Texas, New York, Arizona, and Maryland 鈥

Central Texas is continuing to recover from one of the deadliest floods in the state's history, which killed more than 120 people, many of whom were children. While there is an economic toll from floods due to the damage it causes to property, commerce and transportation, there is a risk to public health as well. Although rainwater is not harmful, flooding increases the risk of injury, illness and death. Heavy rainfall can cause waterways to overflow and overwhelm sewer and septic systems, environmental health experts told ABC News. (Kekatos, 7/11)

Chemical maker DuPont has agreed to a $27 million settlement to resolve a nearly decade-long lawsuit over the contamination of an upstate New York village鈥檚 water supply. The deal was announced Wednesday by lawyers representing residents of Hoosick Falls, located northwest of Albany, just as the case was headed to trial in federal court this week. The settlement brings the total recovered in the class action suit brought in 2016 to more than $90 million, lawyers for Rochester-based firm Faraci Lange said. (7/11)

A hyperbaric chamber caught fire in Arizona, leading to the gruesome death of a 43-year-old man inside the highly pressurized, oxygen-filled compartment, authorities said Thursday. Police officers and firefighters in the resort community of Lake Havasu City rushed to the 1800 block of Mesquite Avenue at about 10:50 p.m. MST on Wednesday answering calls for a "reported medical emergency for a burn patient," city officials said. (Li, 7/11)

Anne Arundel County could get an eating disorder treatment facility as a county council bill aims to spell out how the potential facility fits into zoning regulations and what its purpose within the county would be. (Matheson, 7/14)

Editorials And Opinions

Viewpoints: There鈥檚 Still Hope For PEPFAR; Eliminating The LGBTQ+ Suicide Prevention Line Is Dangerous

Opinion writers discuss these public health issues.

Mr. Rubio has positioned himself as a champion of PEPFAR. And indeed, his waiver, PEPFAR鈥檚 operational structure (it has been housed in the State Department and implemented by multiple government agencies since it began) and the work of volunteers like those in Tororo have kept the program operational, even as U.S.A.I.D. formally shut down this month. (Emily Bass, 7/14)

Last month, the federal government announced it would eliminate the national suicide prevention hotline鈥檚 specialized services for LGBTQ+ callers 鈥 a decision that pulls vital support away from some of the most at-risk young people in America. The end of the service on July 17 is a crushing moment, but it should also be a wake-up call.聽This isn鈥檛 just a political decision. It鈥檚 a public health failure.聽(Jaymes Black and Christine Yu Moutier, 7/12)

The first things I noticed when I woke up after my recent wrist operation at Mass General Hospital were the 鈥淵ES鈥 stenciled in purple ink on my right thumb, a marker that had given my surgeon the green light to operate on that hand, and an equally luminous 鈥淏LOCK鈥 on the same arm, which was the anesthesiologist鈥檚 separate signpost for where to administer a nerve block. (Larry Tye, 7/14)

Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has marked his first 100 days in charge of the agency that regulates a quarter of the U.S. economy with a miniature media tour and a series of bold-sounding announcements. (Matthew Herper, 7/14)

The One Big Beautiful Bill Trump signed on Independence Day will cut about $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade 鈥 the largest ever pruning of the program 鈥 ultimately bumping nearly 12 million needy Americans off health insurance, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. It also reduced subsidies for health plans under the ACA. Sequestration rules will require additional cuts to Medicare, totaling more than $500 billion. (Eduardo Porter, 7/11)

AstraZeneca has the largest market value on the London Stock Exchange, exceeding 拢160 billion ($216 billon). It delivered a British Covid vaccine in partnership with Oxford University and saw off an unwanted US takeover approach in 2014. A listing switch would provide the ultimate pretext for more FTSE-100 members to decamp too. Such a move could drag the headquarters, high-value jobs and tax revenue with it. (Chris Hughes, 7/14)

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