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The Trump administration reversed a plan to shut down the government website that ships free coronavirus tests to households late Tuesday, after The Washington Post reported that the administration was preparing to end the program and was evaluating the costs of destroying or disposing of tens of millions of tests. (Sun and Johnson, 2/18)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: The Covid ‘Contrarians’ Are In Power. We Still Haven’t Hashed Out Whether They Were Right

In October, Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya hosted a conference on the lessons of covid-19 in order “to do better in the next pandemic.” He invited scholars, journalists, and policy wonks who, like him, have criticized the U.S. management of the crisis as overly draconian. Bhattacharya also invited public health authorities who had considered his alternative approach reckless. None of them showed up. (Allen, 2/19)

Jessica Farren, 38, a stay-at-home mom from North Attleboro, received COVID shots during the pandemic but regrets rolling up her sleeve. She doesn’t understand why she still caught COVID after being vaccinated. Farren and her husband Nick have now forsworn all vaccines for themselves and their 2-year-old daughter. “I’m no longer going to let them stick me with a needle,” she said. Five years after the COVID outbreak sparked a frantic push for vaccines to build what public health officials called “herd immunity,” a growing number of Americans don’t want to be part of the herd. (Weisman and Hagen, 2/18)

Viruses, wildfires, emissions from manufacturing ... the list of natural and man-made airborne contaminants is long. Our air quality is affected by nearby environmental factors, as well as ripple effects from thousands of miles away. Understanding how these factors affect our health and planet is crucial. In his upcoming book, Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe (Dutton), award-winning science journalist Carl Zimmer chronicles the beginnings of the field of aerobiology, exploring how microorganisms, particles and pollutants populate the air we breathe—for good and ill. In this exclusive excerpt, Zimmer shares the story of how COVID-19 affected a small choir group and, more generally, how airborne viruses are transmitted and their implications for public health. (Zimmer, 2/19)

Investment in medical oxygen systems could save millions of lives by filling gaps in oxygen access for more than half the world's population and boosting pandemic preparedness, says a report published yesterday in The Lancet Global Health. The Lancet Global Health Commission on medical oxygen, made up of an international slate of experts, was convened in 2022 to prevent crises such as the COVID-19 supply shortages from recurring and to speed achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by making recommendations on medical oxygen to governments, industry, global health agencies, donors, and the healthcare workforce. (Van Beusekom, 2/18)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired "several" agency employees who are working on the federal government's response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak. The agency said it is now trying to quickly reverse the firings. (Smith, Zanona and Strickler, 2/18)

The nation’s top public health agency is losing most of the scientists in a prestigious, but lesser-known, laboratory program that has become a mainstay of outbreak responses. The fellowship program was hit hard during the layoffs coming to many federal departments. ... The program had been created about 10 years ago to help the CDC remedy embarrassing lab-safety failures. The cuts may not have an immediate impact, but they likely will haunt the nation in the months to come, said Stephan Monroe, a former CDC official who oversaw the reform of the agency’s lab services. (Stobbe, 2/19)

With egg prices soaring, the Trump administration is planning a new strategy for fighting bird flu that stresses vaccinations and tighter biosecurity instead of killing off millions of chickens when the disease strikes a flock. The federal government will seek “better ways, with biosecurity and medication and so on” rather than the current standard practice of destroying all the birds on a farm when an infection is detected, Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said Sunday on the CBS program “Face the Nation.” (Karnowski, 2/18)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave conditional approval for an updated bird flu vaccine to protect poultry against the H5N1 strain that's stricken more than 150 million birds in commercial and backyard flocks. Why it matters: None of the current vaccines completely match the deadly strain driving the current outbreak, and officials are working to rebuild a national stockpile for use in livestock. (Bettelheim, 2/18)

China has reported two more human infections involving H9N2 avian flu, and, unlike most earlier patients, the latest are adults, according to a weekly avian flu update from the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection. The developments follow two H9N2 reports from China last week, involving a child and a teen who were from Hunan province. (Schnirring, 2/18)

President Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to reduce the high cost of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. The order directs the Domestic Policy Council to make recommendations “on how to ensure reliable access to IVF,” according to a White House fact sheet. It sets a 90-day deadline for the recommendations to be submitted. (Weixel, 2/18)

President Trump's order to expand access to in vitro fertilization will test Republican solidarity on an issue that split GOP ranks in the run-up to the election. Why it matters: IVF is generally enjoys broad support among Americans, including many conservatives, but at times has been problematic for some in the anti-abortion movement, who object to the destruction of surplus embryos created through the process. (Reed, 2/19)

A 38-year-old woman is suing the fertility clinic she used to conceive a child after the wrong embryo was implanted in her, resulting in a shocking discovery as soon as the infant was born, according to a lawsuit. The suit, filed Tuesday in Georgia state court, alleges that Krystena Murray “unknowingly and unwillingly carried a child through pregnancy who was not biologically related to her,” something she learned only once she delivered the baby boy. Murray then had to give custody of the baby to his biological parents five months later, adding to her trauma, the suit says. (Sridhar and Chuck, 2/19)

Legislation introduced in Missouri would create a list of “at risk” pregnant women in the state in order to “reduce the number of preventable abortions.” House Bill 807, nicknamed the “Save MO Babies Act,” was proposed by Republican state Rep. Phil Amato. The bill summary states that, if passed, Missouri would create a registry of every expecting mother in the state “who is at risk for seeking an abortion” starting July 1, 2026. The list would be created through the Maternal and Child Services division of the Department of Social Services, but the measure did not specify how the “at risk” would be identified. (Mueller, 2/18)

Planned Parenthood of Illinois is expanding abortion access using medication through an app, less than a month after announcing it would close four clinics, including one in Chicago. Patients can use the PPDirect app to get birth control, emergency contraception, treatment for urinary tract infections (UTIs), at-home testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and medication abortion. (Feurer, 2/18)

To earn the vote he needed to become the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a special promise to a U.S. senator: He would not change the nation’s current vaccination schedule. But on Tuesday, speaking for the first time to thousands of U.S. Health and Human Services agency employees, he vowed to investigate the childhood vaccine schedule that prevents measles, polio and other dangerous diseases. (Seitz, 2/18)

As Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of anti-vaccine activism, takes the helm at the Department of Health and Human Services, infectious disease specialist and pediatrician Adam Ratner is weighing in with serious concerns. Speaking on behalf of himself and not the organizations he is affiliated with, Ratner says: "It's very disturbing that someone who has spent so much of his career trying to undermine confidence in vaccines, trying to tear down the infrastructure that approves and recommends vaccines, has the potential to be in a position of power over the infrastructure that has those goals." (Mosley, 2/18)

As part of his pledge to “Make America Healthy Again,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants to build an “off-ramp” from the country’s reliance on insecticides and herbicides to grow food. ... Mr. Kennedy’s opposition to herbicides, particularly a widely used chemical called glyphosate, has earned support from some environmental advocates, so-called “MAHA moms” and wellness influencers. But some of the claims he and others have made about glyphosate — including that it is potentially linked to cancer, gluten allergies and a variety of other health issues — are based on science that is still not settled. (Sheikh, 2/19)

New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote a Monday letter to newly minted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., urging him to reverse recent cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that impact a program for 9/11 first responders. “...These brutal cuts mean layoffs for staff who have dedicated their careers to caring for our 9/11 survivors. It means delayed care for our sick first responders,” Schumer said in a Tuesday statement about the reported cut to the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP). (Fields, 2/18)

An official who oversees a team at the Food and Drug Administration that reviews Neuralink Corp. devices was fired, according to an email the agency sent to staff Tuesday morning viewed by Bloomberg. Ross Segan, who was formerly the director of the Office of Product Evaluation and Quality at the FDA’s medical device center, was one of thousands of employees fired across the US Department of Health and Human Services in recent days. (Cohrs Zhang and McBride, 2/18)

The pharmaceutical industry’s biggest lobbying group is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, part of an effort to persuade him to scale back some of his predecessor’s policies. The meeting will include Stephen Ubl, head of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, one of the people said, along with the CEOs of several major drugmakers. The industry is hoping to win the new administration’s support for changes to a law that allows the federal government to negotiate certain drug prices. (Garde, Muller, and Wingrove, 2/19)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Republicans Are Eyeing Cuts To Medicaid. What’s Medicaid, Again?

In January, during a congressional hearing on his way to becoming secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got basic details wrong about Medicaid — a program he now oversees. He said that Medicaid is fully funded by the federal government (it’s not) and that many enrollees are unsatisfied with high out-of-pocket costs (enrollees pay limited, if any, out-of-pocket costs). (Rayasam and Whitehead, 2/19)

Kansas became the latest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors Tuesday after the Republican-controlled Legislature overrode the Democratic governor’s veto of the measure. Kansas is the 27th state to ban or restrict such care. GOP lawmakers reversed Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto less than a month after President Donald Trump issued an order barring federal support for gender-affirming care for youth under 19. (Hanna, 2/19)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Deny And Delay? California Seeks Penalties For Insurers That Repeatedly Get It Wrong

When Colleen Henderson’s 3-year-old daughter complained of pain while using the bathroom, doctors brushed it off as a urinary tract infection or constipation, common maladies in the potty-training years. After being told her health insurance wouldn’t cover an ultrasound, Henderson charged the $6,000 procedure to her credit card. Then came the news: There was a grapefruit-sized tumor in her toddler’s bladder. (Mai-Duc, 2/18)

Plagued by enrollment and verification barriers, the program is a warning for other states looking to cut Medicaid under Trump. (Coker, 2/19)

At least 58 new cases of measles have been reported across northwest Texas in recent weeks, state health officials said Tuesday, in a "highly contagious" outbreak that might be linked to lack of vaccination. ... At least four patients had been vaccinated, but the "rest are unvaccinated, or their vaccination status is unknown," the health department said. Most of the infections are in school-age kids, and 13 have been hospitalized. (Li, 2/18)

The pollution of syringes and needles in Bronx parks has been a reoccurring issue CBS News New York has been following for several months. The battle continues as New York City Councilmember Oswald Feliz, of the 15th district, pushes for more to be done within the city's Syringe Exchange Program to keep the needles away from parks and schools. (Lunsford, 2/18)

Anne Marie Hochhalter, who spoke publicly about the long-lasting effects of gun violence after she was paralyzed in the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, was found dead on Sunday at her home in Westminster, Colo. She was 43. ... The Adams County coroner, which initially handled Ms. Hochhalter’s case, said it had been transferred to the Jefferson County coroner, “given that her death was likely related to complications of paraplegia associated with the Columbine shooting.” (Levenson, 2/18)

Environmental and lifestyle factors play a far greater role than genetics in determining the likelihood of dying young, according to the largest study yet to untangle the contributions of nature and nurture to healthy aging. A range of external factors including exercise and smoking — collectively dubbed the “exposome” — was almost 10 times more likely than genetic risk factors to explain premature mortality, scientists from the University of Oxford and Massachusetts General Hospital said in the Nature Medicine journal. (Kresge, 2/19)

The key to reversing cellular aging may lie in a protein responsible for toggling cells between a "young" and an "old" state. This is the conclusion of researchers from the University of Osaka, who experimented with the expression of the protein "AP2A1" in cells of different ages. "The results were very intriguing," bioengineering professor Shinji Deguchi, one of the paper's authors, said in a statement. (Randall, 2/18)

If you’re like most Americans, you probably down a daily multivitamin or take turmeric pills from time to time. About 58% of U.S. adults 20 and older, including 64% of women and 51% of men, reported consuming a dietary supplement in the past 30 days, according to the 2017–18 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A 2024 poll from the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), a dietary supplement trade association, suggests usage is even higher, with 75% of U.S. adults 18 and older taking dietary supplements. Nearly all users in the CRN survey (91%) said supplements are essential to maintaining their health—which is why it’s so troubling that supplement-spurred liver damage is skyrocketing. A 2022 study published in the journal Liver Transplantation found that drug-induced acute liver failure tied to herbal and dietary supplements had increased eightfold from 1995 through 2020. (Leake, 2/19)

Apple opened a massive new health study last week that will track data from hundreds of thousands of iPhone owners who volunteer to participate. The goal is to uncover previously unseen connections between the human body and all manner of medical conditions. Data collected from phones, smartwatches, and other Apple devices will be flowing through the office of cardiologist Calum MacRae, vice chair for scientific innovation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and principal investigator for the Apple study. MacRae, who moved to Boston in 1991 after studying medicine in the United Kingdom, hopes that eventually millions of people will share their data to improve medicine. (Pressman, 2/18)

Ascension is still grappling with the operational fallout from last year's cyberattack impacting millions of patients. After discovering the attack in May, Ascension took several weeks to restore its main systems, and clinicians pivoted to paper records and fax machines. Since then, nonprofit Ascension has worked to recover lost revenue and patient volumes negatively impacted by the incident. (Hudson, 2/18)

Companies flooded the Federal Trade Commission with premerger notification filings the week before new requirements went into effect. FTC’s Premerger Notification Office during the week ended Feb. 7 received nearly 400 filings that accounted for about 200 transactions, Chairman Andrew Ferguson said in a Monday staff memo. The filings represented an estimated fourfold increase from historical weekly averages. FTC staff should evaluate those filings using the 2023 merger guidelines, which the agency plans to retain, Ferguson said. (Kacik, 2/18)

Healthcare analytics company MultiPlan has rebranded and changed its name to Claritev. The company, which spent much of the past year navigating rising debt and antitrust lawsuits, said Tuesday the rebrand will have no affect on its existing services. It also plans to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CTEV on Feb. 28. (DeSilva, 2/18)

CVS Health has named Ed DeVaney president of its pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark. DeVaney has served as interim president of CVS Health's PBM unit since December and has worked with the company for two decades. He was responsible for growing and retaining CVS Caremark’s business as president of employer and health plans before taking the role of interim president, the company said in a news release Monday. (Berryman, 2/18)

Cleveland Clinic researchers are using artificial intelligence to identify existing FDA-approved drugs that may be repurposed to treat other complex diseases. The effort is led by Feixiong Cheng, PhD, director of the Genome Center at Cleveland Clinic. Through advanced computer-based systems and analytical tools, Dr. Cheng and his research team analyze databases of human gene sequences and molecular targets to uncover potential new uses for established medications. The most promising AI-predicted repurposable drugs are then tested using large-scale data. (Diaz, 2/18)

A screening tool was effective in identifying abuse among young children with a single bruise in a pediatric emergency department, a secondary analysis of a validation study showed. Of 349 kids with a single bruise, the TEN-4-FACESp bruising clinical decision rule (BCDR) was positive for 22 of 27 cases classified as abuse and 40 of 322 classified as an accident, thus performing with 81.5% sensitivity and 87.6% specificity, reported Mary Clyde Pierce, MD, of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, and colleagues in Pediatrics. (Henderson, 2/18)

The Trump administration reportedly plans to eliminate two essential CDC training programs, a decision that would weaken America’s public health defenses. The Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) and Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS) strengthen critical capabilities in local health departments and public health laboratories. Their elimination is shortsighted and risks public safety at a time when the nation’s ability to detect and contain health threats, including H5N1 avian influenza, is already strained. (Tom Frieden, 2/18)

You need medical care, but the earliest available appointment isn’t for weeks. Even if you could wait, you’d still have to take time off work, find childcare and somehow get to a clinic that’s an hour away. America has some of the best medical expertise in the world, but actually accessing that care is like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded. The most radical change the pandemic brought to the U.S. health care system was the near-universal embrace of telemedicine to deliver virtual care. (Kiki Freedman, 2/18)

On Jan. 20, the Trump administration issued Executive Order 14168 “From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The aim of this new rule is to restrict gender and sex to two biological sexes and to assign strict definitions of who is male and who is female. Many of us learned a similar, simple definition in high school biology. But just like Mendel and his peas don’t fully explain the actual complexity of genetic inheritance, simple definitions for biological sex do not fully capture the human experience. (Dane Samilo, 2/18)

In our careers as pulmonary and critical-care doctors, we have witnessed a revolution in treating asthma, a disease that affects one in 12 Americans. Newer medications make it possible to reverse the course of the disease and bring people with severe asthma into remission. These new treatments mean that no one should die of an asthma attack. Yet we continue to see patients with life-threatening flare-ups in the intensive care units where we work. Shockingly, 10 people die of asthma daily in the United States. (Jehan Alladina, C. Corey Hardin and Alexander Rabin, 2/18)

Patients want to know, and clearly deserve to know, who is treating their injury or illness in every medical setting. Clarity and transparency have never been more important than they are today, when healthcare is delivered by a broad range of health professionals. Asking medical professionals to display their credentials and capabilities allows patients to make informed choices about their healthcare. American Medical Association (AMA) research shows that 91% of patients believe a physician's years of education and training are vital elements of optimal care. (Bruce A. Scott, 2/18)