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A scientific review of 43 studies on acetaminophen use during pregnancy concluded that there was no evidence that the painkiller increased the risk of autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders. “We found no clinically important increase in the risk of autism, A.D.H.D. or intellectual disability,” Dr. Asma Khalil, a professor of obstetrics and maternal fetal medicine at St. George’s Hospital, University of London, and the lead author of the report, said at a news briefing. The study was published on Friday in the British medical journal The Lancet. (Ghorayshi, 1/16)

When President Donald Trump claimed last year that taking Tylenol during pregnancy can be linked with an increased risk of autism, ob-gyn Dr. Nathaniel DeNicola’s office had an influx of questions and confusion – but only for a few days. (Howard, 1/16)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘Letters To The Editor’: Readers Balk At 'Gold Standard' Of Autism Treatment
Autism Care: Pros and Cons. I am writing to provide additional context and research for your article on state cuts to the autism therapy known as applied behavior analysis, or ABA (“It’s the ‘Gold Standard’ in Autism Care. Why Are States Reining It In?” Dec. 23). While the piece focused on caps or cuts in service hours being a harmful thing, there have been recent studies showing that increased hours of therapy do not lead to better outcomes for autistic children. (1/20)

In other MAHA news —

Last year, when Utah lawmakers passed the nation’s first statewide ban on community water fluoridation, they included a provision making it easier for people to get fluoride supplements without having to visit a dental provider. This would make fluoride available through individual choice, rather than “mass public dosing,” as a Utah House of Representatives webpage put it — part of the rising rhetoric of skepticism that’s led to rollbacks of water fluoridation, a proven method to reduce tooth decay. (Clark, 1/16)

The Trump administration has put its full backing behind whole milk, with new dietary guidelines explicitly recommending full-fat dairy products and President Trump signing a bill to allow schools to serve whole milk again. And while the focus may seem abrupt, it reflects a growing discourse over our understanding of fat consumption. The updated 2025-30 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) mentions full-fat dairy or whole milk five times as recommended foods, recommending three servings a day and lumping it in with healthy fats such as olive oil and omega-3-rich seafoods. (Choi, 1/18)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s demonization of food and pharma has put the Trump administration on the wrong side of its traditional allies in industry – but opened a path to a new alliance with a longtime GOP nemesis: lawyers representing consumers who say they were harmed by companies. Kennedy’s moves, from his disparagement of Tylenol and ultraprocessed food to his broadsides against vaccines, have lawyers who assemble aggrieved plaintiffs to sue deep-pocketed companies envisioning the sort of cases that turn attorneys into Hollywood heroes and billionaires. (Chu, 1/19)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: GOP Promotes MAHA Agenda In Bid To Avert Midterm Losses. Dems Point To Contradictions
When a “Make America Healthy Again” summit was held at the posh Waldorf Astoria in Washington, the line of attendees stretched down the block. The daylong, invitation-only event in November featured a who’s who of MAHA luminaries. Vice President JD Vance attended, as did Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the leader of the ad hoc movement whose members rail against vaccines, Big Pharma, and ultraprocessed food. During a fireside chat that organizers broadcasted online, Vance extolled MAHA’s impact on the Trump administration, calling it “a critical part of our success in Washington.” (Armour, 1/20)

More on the Trump administration —

The earnest government disease fighter had become a kind of city archetype, alongside aspiring rappers and C-suite strivers. Now scientists are leaving. (Fausset, 1/19)

The Justice Department is considering loosening a slate of gun regulations as it seeks to bolster support from ardent Second Amendment advocates, according to three people familiar with the changes who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been made public. Some of the changes are expected to ease restrictions on the private sale of guns and loosening regulations around shipping firearms. (Stein, 1/19)

Outbreaks linked to declining vaccination rates are threatening to overwhelm hospital emergency departments — most of which aren't fully prepared to treat sick kids. More than 35 million children are taken to emergency rooms each year, but most go to local hospitals that see fewer than 10 children a day. (Goldman, 1/20)

Listen to the Trump administration’s rhetoric about vaccines and you’ll hear a refrain. In September, what replaced the government recommendation that everyone over 6 months get an annual Covid shot? “Shared clinical decision-making.” What’s at the heart of timing kids’ immunizations, according to National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya? “Shared decision-making.” (Boodman, 1/20)

In related news about measles —

An international panel of experts must determine whether this resurgence will cost the United States its elimination status, a designation given to countries that have not had continuous spread of measles for more than a year. It’s a public health victory that the country achieved in 2000 after a nearly 40-year campaign to promote the vaccine and has maintained every year since. (Rosenbluth and Mandavilli, 1/19)

The South Carolina measles outbreak is growing at an astounding speed. “Over the last seven to nine days, we’ve had upwards of over 200 new cases. That’s doubled just in the last week,” Dr. Johnathon Elkes, an emergency medicine physician at Prisma Health in Greenville, South Carolina, said during a media briefing Friday. “We feel like we’re really kind of staring over the edge, knowing that this is about to get a lot worse.” On Friday, the state’s health department said that 124 measles cases had been diagnosed since Tuesday, bringing the state’s total since the outbreak began last fall to 558. (Edwards, 1/16)

The fast-moving South Carolina measles outbreak has spread to Clemson University. The state’s Department of Public Health has told Clemson officials that an “individual affiliated with the University” has come down with a confirmed case of the contagious disease, Clemson said in a statement. (Edwards and Siemaszko, 1/19)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News’ ‘On Air’: Physician-Journalist Shines Light On Measles Upsurge And New GLP-1 Study
�鶹Ů�� Health News editor-at-large for public health Céline Gounder discussed an increase in measles cases in the U.S. on CBS News’ CBS Mornings on Jan. 15. Gounder also discussed a new study on GLP-1 weight loss drugs on CBS News’ CBS News 24/7 and CBS Mornings on Jan. 8. (1/17)

On influenza —

Seasonal flu activity in the United States remains high nationally but appears to be declining, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The latest FluView report from the CDC shows several flu markers on the decline for the week ending January 10. (Dall, 1/16)

Two new analyses, one from France and one from China, suggest that seasonal influenza vaccination provided moderate protection during the early months of the 2025–26 flu season, despite the rapid spread of influenza A(H3N2) subclade K viruses, which differ from the strains anticipated during vaccine development for the current flu season. (Bergeson, 1/16)

Ellie Rudd will be buried in a light blue and white Princess Elsa costume, made for her as a last gift from her aunt. “Frozen” was one of her favorite movies. The rambunctious 4-year-old – who loved mud and getting dressed up and having dance parties with her brother and sisters – died January 6, after the flu and a co-infection with an adenovirus turned into pneumonia and sepsis. (Goodman, 1/16)

On the common cold —

A new study helps explain why you get sick from a common cold virus. The secret, it turns out, lies inside your nose. Winter brings a surge of respiratory illnesses, including rhinoviruses, the most frequent cause of the common cold. How your nasal-passage cells respond to the rhinovirus helps determine whether you get sick and how bad you feel, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Cell Press Blue. (Woodward, 1/19)

Virginia lawmakers have approved a constitutional amendment that would protect reproductive rights in the Commonwealth. The proposed amendment—which passed 64-34 in the House of Delegates on Wednesday and 21-18 in the state Senate two days later—will be presented to voters later this year. (Holmes and Oakes, 1/16)

Colorado will pay $6.1 million to two religious rights organizations to settle a case over a law that sought to ban so-called abortion pill “reversal.” The law, supported by Democrats and passed in 2023, was blocked by a federal judge who found it unconstitutionally infringes upon religious liberty. (Ingold, 1/19)

Roughly 1% of the more than 53,000 Missourians who received abortions over the past 10 years in Illinois and Kansas experienced complications, ranging from infection to incomplete abortions to hemorrhaging. Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and the Missouri attorney general’s office are dissecting dozens of Missouri’s Targeted Regulation of Abortion, or TRAP laws, as a judge decides which, if any, should remain in place. The safety of abortion is at the heart of the debate. (Spoerre and Hardy, 1/19)

For over a year, we’ve been writing about pregnant women who have died in states that banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned. And we’ve been trying to better understand: Who are the women who are most likely to suffer because of these new laws? Many of the early cases we uncovered involved fast-moving emergencies. While women were miscarrying, they needed procedures to quickly empty their uterus, and, tragically, they didn’t get them in time. (Surana and Presser, 1/20)

Also —

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday told Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz that it is not “cool” that robots are performing ultrasounds in Alabama, after Oz brought up the subject at the White House earlier in the day. Oz joined President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to tout rural health in the U.S. Oz said there are no OB-GYNs in most Alabama counties, “so they’re doing something pretty cool. They’re actually having robots do ultrasounds on these pregnant moms.” (Mancini, 1/16)

Tina Ridler has been living with long COVID since 2020. The condition has sent her to the hospital many times, including a trip to the emergency department to treat a life-threatening blood clot. Until now, Ridler has never been afraid to seek medical care. Ridler, 60, is delaying health appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for fear of crossing paths with agents from Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), who are conducting raids and arrests near the hospital. Although Ridler is a US citizen who was born in this country, she said she worries about being stopped in her car, hassled by ICE agents, or caught up in the crossfire. (Szabo, 1/16)

There’s a spot on El Camino Real on the San Francisco Peninsula where Dr. Deborah Kado likes to get brunch after working out on the weekends, and lately she’s spotted a trend: protesters, not a lot of them, but all looking over age 65, marching down the street with signs and flags. “It’s not a super diverse group in any way, shape or form,” said Kado, a Stanford geriatrician and co-director of the Stanford Longevity Center. “But what it says to me is that, regardless of age, this person has agency. They’re saying, ‘Look at me, I have something to say.’” (Allday, 1/19)

More health news from across the U.S. —

Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened many times to withhold state homelessness funds from cities and counties that aren’t doing enough to get people off the streets. This year, those threats seem more real than ever. Newsom’s administration and the Legislature are adding new strings to that money, which they hope will help address one of the state’s most obvious policy failures: Despite California’s large recent investments in homelessness, encampments are still rampant on city streets. But cities and counties already are chafing under the tightening requirements, which they worry will make it harder to access crucial state funds without directly improving conditions on the street. (Kendall and Christopher, 1/16)

State officials last week voted to tap private health insurance plans to make up for an expected loss in funding and rate-setting control as Maryland transitions to a new federal framework for Medicare payments to state hospitals. The changes approved Wednesday by the Health Services Cost Review Commission will not take effect for at least a year, but will likely mean higher premiums for people on private health insurance plans when they do kick in. (Brown, 1/19)

Tampa Bay's oncology "arms race" took a major step with the recent grand opening of Moffitt Cancer Center's outpatient center in Pasco County, adding to a flurry of recent expansions and new technologies aimed at elevating cancer care in the region. The 120,000-square-foot outpatient facility — the first completed project on Moffitt's 775-acre Speros biotech campus — will begin treating patients Monday. Services will include cancer screenings, imaging, infusion and specialty clinics. (Mayer, 1/19)

A Portland, Oregon, boy is struggling to recover from infant botulism after drinking contaminated ByHeart baby formula donated through a program that aims to help poor and homeless families. Ashaan Carter, now 10 months old, was hospitalized twice and remains on a feeding tube after contracting the dangerous infection that has sickened more than 50 babies across the U.S. (Aleccia, 1/19)

A recent sample from Dupo’s public water system exceeded state and federal limits for so-called “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday. (Cortes, 1/19)

Visions of phantom exchange enrollees may be haunting health insurance executives as the open enrollment period winds down. Thursday was the deadline for people to sign up for Affordable Care Act of 2010 plans in most states. Preliminary federal data show that sign-ups are down, but not as much as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and others predicted. (Tepper, 1/16)

President Donald Trump has been channeling public anger over health care costs in recent weeks, pillorying “money sucking” insurers and alleging that “BIG, BAD Insurance Companies” have been “ripping off the public for years.” Following in his tracks, a Congressional committee scheduled a meeting Thursday to hear testimony from five health insurance executives who will also make easy targets of populist outrage: Their individual compensation packages reach as high as $23 million. (Whoriskey, 1/20)

Updates from Connecticut, Florida, and New Jersey —

Though Gov. Ned Lamont pledged $70 million in early December to partly offset vanishing federal aid for health insurance, prices quoted by the state’s health exchange don’t reflect that assistance yet — and might not until late March. (Phaneuf, 1/20)

The cost of health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace is up, and Florida saw the largest number of people fall off the rolls compared to any other state in the nation, according to government data released last week. (Sheridan, 1/20)

As health insurance subsidies expire, New Jerseyans covered by the Affordable Care Act are opting for plans that have lower monthly premiums but higher out-of-pocket costs, state health officials said. (Diamond, 1/20)

Related news about the high cost of prescription drugs —

In a surprise move, Florida officials are proposing drastically reducing eligibility for the state AIDS drug assistance program, which critics say will force thousands of people to seek help to obtain HIV medicines and thwart efforts to combat the infectious disease. (Silverman, 1/20)

Corporate CEOs trying to figure out how to get on President Donald Trump’s good side need look no further. David Ricks, CEO of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Eli Lilly, is putting on a masterclass. Trump demonstrated his affection on Friday when he — not for the first time — praised the company executive. “The head of Eli Lilly, and I really mean it, an unbelievable executive, an unbelievable guy, one of the most successful companies,” Trump said during remarks about his “Great Healthcare Plan.” (Lim, 1/17)

One year ago, Tim Andrews was among the world’s first recipients of a genetically modified pig kidney. Now, he is the first in that small group of pioneers to go on to receive a human kidney. (Kounang, 1/17)

For Lacy Cornelius Boyd, March 19, 2024, was an exciting day. She and her husband had taken their 6-year-old daughter to the Grand Canyon as part of a family road trip. Boyd, her husband and their daughter were planning to stop at McDonald's before heading home to Oklahoma. Everything was well — until their car hit a patch of black ice. (Breen, 1/17)

In pharma and tech news —

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear an appeal from global agrochemical manufacturer Bayer to block thousands of state lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller could cause cancer. The justices will consider whether the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of the Roundup weedkiller without a cancer warning should rule out the state court claims. (Sherman, 1/16)

GSK Plc agreed to buy Rapt Therapeutics, a US-based biotech developing treatments for patients with inflammatory and immunologic diseases, in a deal valued at $2.2 billion. The UK drug company will pay $58 a share, equivalent to an equity value of $2.2 billion, according to a statement Tuesday. ... The acquisition includes ozureprubart, a potential prophylactic protection against food allergens that would require less frequent dosing than the current standard of care. GSK said the deal will give it the global rights to the ozureprubart program, excluding Greater China. (Hipwell and Furlong, 1/20)

In 2020, a foster care supervisor in Montcalm County, Michigan, messaged her boss with concerns about drug testing. A father who was working to reunite with his children had tested positive for methamphetamine with the lab the state had a contract with, Averhealth, and the results contradicted tests ordered by other law enforcement agencies, she wrote. “Judge indicated on the record that the issue of Averhealth’s testing results was a state-wide issue and that probate court judges all over the state were having similar problems.” (Hines, 1/20)

When endocrinologist Mary Elizabeth Patti looks at a patient with type 2 diabetes who could benefit from weight loss, she sees more than body mass index and blood glucose levels. She also recognizes the challenges of social vulnerability, understanding how low income, food insecurity, and limited access to health care might matter in treatment choice. After all, those factors are strongly linked to developing type 2 diabetes and obesity in the first place. (Cooney, 1/19)

Artificial intelligence’s potential to simplify administrative tasks, increase revenue, accelerate research and improve patient care got a hearty endorsement this week. Many providers have moved past pilot programs to systemwide rollouts for AI-fueled back-office applications designed to transcribe and organize patient visit notes, limit inbound electronic health record messaging, manage claims, guide patient appointments and streamline operating room scheduling. Health systems are slowly wading into AI’s clinical applications, such as using it to reduce mortality in sepsis patients and analyze medical imaging. (Kacik, 1/16)

A.I. isn’t perfect, but it doesn’t have to be to improve medicine. (Robert Wachter, 1/19)

In bioethics, emerging technologies often rekindle prior discourse. For example, gene editing discoveries around 2017 revived worries about enhancing children, such as making them more intelligent, first raised during gene therapy debates in the ’90s. We see the pattern again with the emergence of stem cells, which can be used to create sperm and eggs. (Zubin Master and Scott D. Rhodes, 1/20)

[Last week] we explored four key myths and why they don’t stand up to scrutiny. ... Today we’ll delve into five more that you also have likely encountered. The nine myths reflect those most frequently seen in my clinical practice and in discussions. Each has been studied extensively and refuted. Yet each persists, because misinformation travels faster than correction and because they tap into genuine fears. Study after study presents solid evidence to the contrary, as I illustrate below. (Jake Scott, 1/16)

At a Food and Drug Administration cell and gene therapy (CGT) roundtable last June, most speakers pushed for the agency to soften oversight of the field. It seems they got their wish. The agency recently released new documents announcing CGT oversight changes to make the system much more flexible. (Paul Knoepfler, 1/20)

Binge drinking is harmful, but abstinence may not be necessary for everyone. (Leana S. Wen, 1/20)