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Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Monday that he is acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development, confirming the de-facto takeover of the humanitarian agency by the State Department. Rubio said in a letter to lawmakers Monday he had delegated the authority of acting administrator to Pete Marocco, a Trump appointee who served at USAID in the president’s first term and has been accused by aid groups and officials of intentionally dismantling the organization. (Hansler, Kent, Marquardt and Liptak, 2/3)

A group of Senate and House Democrats were blocked from entering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Monday. The Democratic lawmakers, who are opposed to President Trump’s efforts to shut down the agency, left without incident after a brief exchange with security officials. The group, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), were told the front office of the administrator of USAID was not available to meet. (Kelly, 2/3)

"The impending shutdown of USAID is unconstitutional and reveals complete ignorance or indifference to how vital its work -- in global health, conflicts, disasters and beyond -- is to Americans and humanity," Atul Gawande, M.D., who served as assistant administrator for global health at USAID during the Biden administration, posted on X on Monday. (Landi, 2/3)

Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii) said he would place a “blanket hold” on all of President Trump’s State Department nominees until the administration’s attack on the leading U.S. foreign-assistance agency ends, a move that threatens to stall Trump’s ability to get his foreign-policy team in place. The Senate typically speeds up the confirmation of many nominees through “unanimous consent,” a process that bypasses a formal vote if no senator objects. By objecting, Schatz’s hold would halt the Senate’s ability to move nominees quickly, requiring Senate Majority Leader John Thune to use precious floor time to advance the president’s picks through the confirmation process. (Ward, 2/3)

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) blocked a resolution in the Senate that supported the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as the agency undergoes turmoil via the Trump administration. Democratic Sen. Chris Coons (Del.) asked unanimous consent that the Senate agree to a resolution that affirmed USAID’s role in protecting the United States’ national security. Coons has more than 40 Democrats backing him on the bill. (Irwin, 2/3)

Beijing responded swiftly on Tuesday to the tariffs President Trump had promised, announcing a fusillade of countermeasures targeting American companies and imports of critical products. Mr. Trump’s 10 percent tariff on all Chinese products went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the result of an executive order issued over the weekend aimed at pressuring Beijing to crack down on fentanyl shipments into the United States. (Swanson and Buckley, 2/4)

President Donald Trump agreed Monday to grant Mexico and Canada a 30-day reprieve on the U.S. tariffs that were scheduled to take effect Tuesday, after both countries pledged to intensify their efforts to prevent illicit drugs and migrants from crossing into the United States. ... Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was the first to secure a tariffs extension, when she promised to rush 10,000 national guard troops to the border to block the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the United States. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needed two calls with Trump before securing a delay in return for implementing a border security package, including the appointment of a fentanyl czar and several previously announced initiatives. (Lynch and Sheridan, 2/4)

Double-digit tariffs, if they take effect as proposed, threaten to escalate healthcare costs, disrupt supply chains and create affordability challenges for patients, healthcare executives say. President Donald Trump on Saturday signed executive orders intending to impose sweeping tariffs on the country’s three largest trading partners. (Landi, 2/3)

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention purged from its website thousands of pages that included terms such as “transgender,” “L.G.B.T.” and “pregnant person,” to comply with an executive order barring any material that promoted “gender ideology.” By Monday, some of the pages had reappeared, in part in response to intense media coverage, backlash from the scientific community and concern for the public’s health, according to a senior official with knowledge of the matter. (Mandavilli and Caryn Rabin, 2/3)

The professional society for microbiologists began stripping content about Black, female, and LGBTQ+ scientists from its website in the last few days, angering its members and highlighting the reach of President Trump’s directives to federal agencies to halt activities that promote diversity and inclusion. (McFarling, 2/3)

President Donald Trump’s end of diversity, equity and inclusion language in federal agencies has caused US health data to be removed or not be updated. Medical experts warn that the losses, even in areas like flu and Covid tracking where DEI isn’t central, make it harder to manage outbreaks and fix health disparities. “When they take that data away, we’re absolutely blind,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “The true impact is more people get sick and more people die.” (Smith, Meghjani and Nix, 2/3)

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to demote career employees who oversee scientific research, the enforcement of pollution laws, hazardous waste cleanup and the agency’s human resources department and replace them with political appointees, according to two people familiar with the approach. The move would give Trump administration loyalists more influence over aspects of the agency that were traditionally led by nonpartisan experts who have served across Republican and Democratic administrations. (Friedman, 2/4)

Acknowledging the widespread fear of retaliation among early-career researchers if they speak out, a number of the laureates called on the National Academies — whose members are preeminent scientists, physicians, and engineers — and the biotechnology industry to lead the charge in resisting the Trump administration’s attacks. (Molteni, 2/3)

The in-office order comes as the General Services Administration announced plans to significantly reduce the federal government's real estate footprint. "One of the things that our government has become is more efficient with respect to cost, in terms of its physical footprint, as a result of increased use of telework and remote work," said Stier. "So those things do run in conflict with each other, and certainly it's so important to understand the transition needs of any organization." (Frieden, 2/3)

Democratic lawmakers in the US are asking Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stay away from all vaccine-related decisions if confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because his family could benefit from anti-vaccine litigation. “These conflicts, combined with your decades-long career casting doubt about the safety and efficacy of life-saving vaccines, give us grave concern about your fitness to serve as Secretary,” Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter to Kennedy dated Feb. 2. (Muller, 2/3)

The nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has concerned doctors and public health experts across the world who are alarmed by Kennedy’s decades-long mission to sow distrust in vaccines. But key groups representing physicians in Washington have stayed silent in the face of what their members call a threat to public health. (Hellmann, 2/3)

President Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the nation’s next health secretary will face a critical test in the Senate on Tuesday, when members of the Finance Committee — including a Republican doctor uneasy about Mr. Kennedy’s views on vaccines — will vote on whether to reject the nomination or forward it to the Senate floor. The Finance Committee has 14 Republicans and 13 Democrats. If every Democrat votes against Mr. Kennedy, a no vote by Mr. Cassidy would deprive Mr. Kennedy of a favorable recommendation to the full Senate. But it would not necessarily doom his nomination; it is possible that Republicans could use procedural tactics to force the full Senate to vote. (Stolberg and Jewett, 2/4)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s bid to serve as America’s top health official could come down to a Louisiana Republican who’s openly wrestling with his training as a physician and his instincts as a politician. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), who has begged Kennedy to stop invoking the debunked link between vaccines and autism, is seen as one of several swing votes on Kennedy’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. (Diamond and Roubein, 2/3)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s health secretary nominee, levied a surprising accusation last week against the lawmakers who questioned him aggressively during his confirmation hearings: That they’re bought and paid for by “Big Pharma.” (Facher and Zhang, 2/3)

Vaccines do not cause autism. You’ve almost certainly read that before — probably hundreds of times. But many people do not believe it, perhaps because too often it is repeated without a real explanation of how we know that. So here is an attempt to offer that explanation. (Herper, 2/3)

Mehmet Oz, seated in a cushioned chair before a studio audience, directed his two guests to a giant screen behind them. It showed a ghastly scene: rubber-gloved hands holding two live rats with tumors bigger than their heads protruding from their sides and bellies. They’d been fed genetically modified food as part of a study. It’s hardly the standard backdrop for someone now poised to lead a $1.5 trillion federal agency that oversees crucial health care programs for older adults, low-income Americans, and people with disabilities. But little about this famous surgeon-turned-TV host adheres to tradition. (Bannow, 2/4)

Cigna Group said it will tie its executives’ pay to customer satisfaction in a move that follows an outcry against the insurance industry over denials of care. The change is the start of what Cigna called a yearslong effort to improve customers’ experience and “ensure accountability,” the company said in a statement Monday. (Tozzi, 2/3)

Amanda Watson was diagnosed with breast cancer three weeks after having an emergency cesarean section to deliver her second son. Her test results showed she had one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer, with a high recurrence rate and low survival rate. The following six months of chemotherapy treatments included five hospitalizations, the loss of her hair, and the inability to care for herself or her children. To make a gut-wrenching situation worse, her insurance company denied coverage for treatment multiple times, leading to delays in her care. (Vitaglione, 2/4)

The US Department of Health and Human Services is investigating four unnamed medical schools over alleged antisemitism that took place during graduation ceremonies last year. “The review will specifically examine whether the institutions acted with deliberate indifference regarding events that may have impacted Jewish students’ rights to access educational opportunities and benefits,” HHS’ Office for Civil Rights said in a statement Monday. (Muller, 2/4)

The Ensign Group has completed the acquisition of five nursing home properties in Texas, the company announced Monday. The San Juan Capistrano, California-based company said in a news release it completed the acquisitions for undisclosed sums in two separate deals. (Eastabrook, 2/3)

Molina Healthcare said Monday it closed its purchase of ConnectiCare. The deal adds 140,000 Medicare, exchange and commercial enrollees to Molina’s portfolio, Molina said in a news release. It also allows the insurer to expand into Connecticut. (Tepper, 2/3)

Baxter announced Monday the abrupt retirement of President and CEO José Almeida. Almeida also stepped down from the board, which he chaired. Lead independent director Brent Shafer was named chair and interim CEO. Almeida will act as an adviser through Oct. 31. (Dubinsky, 2/3)

A year ahead of the implementation of a mandatory Medicare payment demonstration, hospitals are on the lookout for post-acute care providers that can help them prevent lost reimbursements. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized the Transforming Episode Accountability Model, or TEAM, in August. It takes effect in 2026 and runs for five years. TEAM sets payments for 30-day episodes of care for lower-extremity joint replacements, femur fracture surgeries, spinal fusions, coronary artery bypass grafts and major bowel procedures. (Early, 2/3)

Oura is planning to deliver health insights to its customers using AI that runs locally on the smartphones of owners of its smart rings. By running its models on the phone rather than relying on a cloud-based service, Oura CEO Tom Hale tells Axios says it can better protect customers' privacy. (Fried, 2/4)

A bill Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Monday aims to make it harder for authorities in other states to prosecute New York doctors who prescribe abortion medication online. The new law allows doctors to keep their names off of prescription labels for mifepristone and misoprostol, drugs commonly used to terminate early pregnancies. Instead, they’ll be allowed to list their practices or — once lawmakers approve an agreed-upon tweak in the coming days — the addresses of the practices instead, according to Hochul’s approval message. (Campbell and Max, 12/3)

Can Louisiana extradite a New York doctor charged with a felony for sending abortion pills? (Ziegler, 2/4)

Virginia moved closer Monday to shielding doctors from extradition if they provide reproductive or gender-affirming healthcare to out-of-state patients, advancing legislation that underscores the deepening divide over healthcare access and state sovereignty. The Senate narrowly passed Senate Bill 1098, sponsored by Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, which would block the extradition of health care providers facing criminal charges in other states for performing medical services that are legal in Virginia. Every Republican opposed the measure. (Woods, 2/3)

Two bills aimed at restricting abortions passed the Wyoming House of Representatives last week. One bill, HB 64, requires women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound no more than 48 hours before taking abortion medication. It includes a requirement for the ultrasound provider to tell a woman the age, length and head diameter of the embryo or fetus and give the woman the "opportunity" to view or hear the heartbeat. Another, HB 42, is the return of a bill Gov. Mark Gordon vetoed last year. It aims to up requirements of facilities performing in-clinic abortions, of which Wyoming has only one, in Casper. (Boyd-Fliegel, 2/3)

States with more maternal-fetal medicine physicians had lower rates of maternal mortality, according to a cross-sectional analysis of nearly 15 million births. States with a low density of these specialists had an adjusted maternal mortality rate of 24.25 per 100,000 live births compared with 16.96 per 100,000 live births for states with a high density (incidence rate ratio 0.70, 95% CI 0.58-0.85), reported Tetsuya Kawakita, MD, MS, of Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, during a presentation at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine annual meeting. (Robertson, 2/3)

The Food and Drug Administration has given two biotechnology companies approval for clinical trials that will transplant organs from genetically modified pigs into patients with kidney failure, an experimental but potentially groundbreaking innovation for thousands of Americans on the waiting list for organ transplants. (Pannett, 2/4)

A new high-tech help for young heart patients has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Doctors say this will allow them to save more lives, an important milestone as we kick off American Heart Month. It's a little device with a big job. "It does all the work for your heart," Katrina Penney, 21, said. "It did save my life, 100%." It is the Impella 5.5 – the world's smallest heart pump that helps blood circulate. (Stahl and Kuhn, 2/3)

Cognitively normal human brain samples collected at autopsy in early 2024 contained more tiny shards of plastic than samples collected eight years prior, according to a new study. Overall, cadaver brain samples contained seven to 30 times more tiny shards of plastic than their kidneys and liver, said co-lead study author Matthew Campen, Regents’ Professor and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. (LaMotte, 2/3)

People diagnosed with severe headaches may be at an increased risk of suicide. This is the warning from a team of researchers from the U.S. and Denmark who studied the suicide risk of nearly 120,000 people with a headache disorder, in comparison with their counterparts with no such diagnosis. (Randall, 2/3)

This winter’s Covid wave in the United States has been the gentlest to date, in a welcome reprieve. According to wastewater data aggregated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, not only was there less Covid circulating over the holidays than in previous years, but there was also less virus in the wastewater than in all the summer waves the program has tracked. (Paris, 2/4)

The proportion of people being diagnosed with lung cancer who have never smoked is increasing, with air pollution an “important factor”, the World Health Organization’s cancer agency has said. Lung cancer in people who have never smoked cigarettes or tobacco is now estimated to be the fifth highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). (Gregory, 2/3)

Chappell Roan won best new artist at the Grammys and used her speech to hold record labels accountable. After thanking her friends, family and team, the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer said, “I told myself that if I ever won a Grammy and got to stand up here before the most powerful people in music, I would demand that labels in the industry profiting millions of dollars off of artists would offer a livable wage and health care, especially developing artists.” (Shanfeld, 2/2)

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, has warned New York hospitals that complying with the White House’s executive order that seeks to end gender-affirming medical care for transgender young people could well violate state law. The warning, in a letter the attorney general’s office sent Monday morning to health care providers and other organizations, puts hospitals at the center of a conflict between the federal government and state authorities. (Goldstein, 2/3)

A Missouri House committee will consider four bills Monday that would continue limits on gender-affirming care for minors beyond a 2027 expiration date. The current law, which prevents minors from receiving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, is set to expire in August 2027. The Republican bills would get rid of the expiration date. (Bitterman, 2/3)

Following the deadly wildfires that ravaged communities in Los Angeles and left behind acres of destruction, several local and state officials are calling for federal action to protect families against dangerous pollutants. At a news conference Monday morning, U.S. Representatives Judy Chu, Laura Friedman, Brad Sherman, Pasadena Vice Mayor Jess Rivas and Pasadena Public Health Director Manuel Carmona asked for the creation of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency task force to regularly monitor air quality in the LA area. (Hylton, 2/3)

A new California bill aims to tackle chatbot addiction. A Democratic California lawmaker wants to protect kids from developing addictions to artificial intelligence chatbots amid growing nationwide concern that the technology may be detrimental to youth mental health, POLITICO’s Tyler Katzenberger reports. The bill, introduced late last week by California state Sen. Steve Padilla, would mandate that AI platforms limit kids’ exposure to algorithms that reward users at random intervals to keep them engaged in conversation with chatbots. (Paun, Reader and Schumaker,2/3)

A new study from UCSF reveals an “alarming” rise in advanced prostate cancer rates across California. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open last week, highlight a significant increase in aggressive cases over the past decade. Researchers suggest that this surge may be linked to changes in screening guidelines that have reduced routine prostate cancer screening, potentially delaying the diagnosis of aggressive tumors. (Vaziri, 2/3)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: For California Farmworkers, Telehealth Visits With Mexican Doctors Fill A Gap

This coastal valley made famous by the novelist John Steinbeck is sometimes known affectionately as “America’s salad bowl,” though the planting and harvesting is done mostly by immigrants from Mexico. For Taylor Farms, a major global purveyor of packaged salads and cut vegetables, that’s made it a logical place to pioneer a novel type of health care for its workforce, one that could have broad utility in the smartphone era: cross-border medical consultations through an app. (Clayton, 2/4)

Colorado is poised to raise the minimum age to buy firearm ammunition to 21 and require that retailers keep bullets in an enclosed display or behind a counter where customers could not access them without assistance. (Paul, 2/4)

It’s been over two years since Mayor Eric Adams rolled out a controversial policy expanding involuntary hospitalization to get more people with serious mental illnesses off the streets and the subway, but his administration has released little information on its impact to date. ... The data shows that law enforcement personnel, mental health clinicians and homeless outreach teams conducted at least 7,700 involuntary “removals” under Adams’ policy last year — meaning individuals were transported against their will to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. (Kaufman and Cordero, 2/3)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Indiana Governor Appoints Business Leader To Shake Up Health Care

Gloria Sachdev has spent years challenging the health care industry, trying to bring down the high cost of care. It’s working, even in an unlikely place: Indiana, which has had some of the nation’s highest hospital prices. Over the past few years, Indiana lawmakers have passed bills pushed by Sachdev that target complex and sometimes wonky health policy issues. (Liss, 2/4)

[Republican Sen. Bill] Cassidy pressed [Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] for a “yes” or “no” answer on whether he would disavow his previous false statements that vaccines cause autism. Kennedy demurred, responding, “If the data is there, I will absolutely do that.” Later Cassidy returned to the topic, citing an analysis of five studies of more than 1 million children that showed no link between vaccines and autism. The senator pleaded with Kennedy to “convince” him that he will be a “public health advocate” rather than a peddler of vaccine misinformation. But Kennedy only promised to meet with the senator to discuss it, adding there are studies that show “the opposite.” (2/3)

Proposals elevating unqualified individuals like [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] erode public confidence in medicine. When people mistake political messaging for scholarly debate, they miss opportunities to protect themselves and their children from preventable harm. As a neonatal critical care physician, I fear for the babies whose parents refuse the standard of care while believing they are acting in their child’s best interest. (Brooke Redmond, 2/2)

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or H5N1, can be fatal to birds. Waterfowl and aquatic birds are most at risk, along with raptors that eat bird carcasses. Avian flu has also spread to dairy cows, with around 950 infected herds reported nationwide, although none so far in Massachusetts. Most worryingly, there have been 67 reported human cases and one death, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost all of them among people exposed to infected birds or cattle. The biggest fear about avian flu is that it will mutate to a form that’s more dangerous to people. (2/2)

The National Institutes of Health is at a crossroads with the RECOVER Initiative, its flagship program to address long Covid. Designed to provide answers and treatments for the millions suffering from long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the initiative has already received significant criticism for failing to prioritize the needs of patients and advance meaningful clinical trials. Now, as Congress, the scientific community, and advocates call for the inclusion of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) within the RECOVER framework, NIH has an historic opportunity to transform post-viral illness research. (W. Ian Lipkin and Elizabeth Ansell, 2/4)

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has had a taxpayer-funded drug development program for nearly 70 years, initiated at a time when there was no private investment in oncology drugs.  I worked closely with NCI’s Investigational Drug Branch (IDB) from 1990-2016, including as a principal investigator of one of only six contracts with NCI to conduct Phase 1 clinical trials from 1990-1995, and serving as co-chair of NCI’s Investigational Drug Steering Committee from 2005-2008. Today, global oncology sales exceed $200 billion and are growing faster than any other therapeutic area. At this stage, U.S. taxpayers should stop funding clinical trials of industry-owned drugs. (Mark J. Ratain, 2/4)