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A study published by the JAMA Network on June 1 suggests that internet searches for 'vitamin A' measles peaked in March 2025, around the same time RFK Jr. promoted the nutrient as a treatment. This correlates with America’s Poison Centers' report of increased vitamin A poisonings issued shortly afterward. (Goldberg and Walcott, 6/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Anguished Parents. Doctors In Tears. Utah’s Long Measles Outbreak Takes A Toll. 

SALT LAKE CITY — Ben Dowse hadn’t expected to treat measles when he became a doctor, but there he was, examining a newborn exposed to the virus in the womb. The infected mother had given birth just hours earlier. The hospital had alerted Dowse to the case before delivery, and he’d braced himself for the worst. Dowse wore a full-body protective suit with a plastic face mask. As a pediatrician in southern Utah, he couldn’t risk getting even a mild infection, because many of his patients are babies too young for measles vaccines or children whose parents choose not to protect them with immunizations. “I went in looking like a scientist in E.T.,” he said. (Maxmen, 6/10)

The measles virus has been detected in the wastewater of a California county, adding a new warning sign as the state continues to see a rise in cases this year, according to public health officials. The Merced County Department of Public Health said Friday that measles virus material was found in routine wastewater surveillance samples collected in the county. (Rodriguez, 6/9)

More than a year into President Donald Trump’s second term, poll findings released today show that trust in federal public health agencies has nosedived, with half of US adults skeptical of recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but most Americans are supportive of childhood vaccines. The poll also found that, while over half of respondents are in favor of recent changes to the US food pyramid and dietary guidelines, support for some of the alterations varies sharply by political bent. (Van Beusekom, 6/9)

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed what they describe as a fundamentally new type of vaccine using artificial intelligence (AI). The vaccine’s key component was designed entirely by AI and has now been tested in people for the first time. The goal is ambitious: a single vaccine that works not just against all known human coronavirus variants, but against related bat viruses that could jump from animals to humans and cause future pandemics. (Mabbott, 6/9)

Police shot and killed a man protesting the building of a US-funded Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya on Tuesday. The legality of the Nanyuki facility, which if completed, will have 50 beds, is still up in the air, but locals have protested the construction, saying it’s an unnecessary burden for Kenya to take on for the United States. This is the third death among Kenyan protesters who are angry over the unit, which would be built near the Laikipia Air Base. Two protesters were also killed last week in skirmishes with local police. (Soucheray, 6/9)

Nearly a month into one of the world’s largest ever ​Ebola outbreaks, medics in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are struggling to secure basic equipment to stay safe and prevent further spread of the disease, according to more than ‌a dozen doctors, humanitarian workers and public health officials. While major donors are surging funding, the size of the outbreak, reductions in pre-positioned stocks due to aid cuts, and logistical problems have caused shortages and driven up costs for personal protective equipment. (Farge, Rigby, Le Poidevin and Ross, 6/9)

The Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday said confirmed Ebola cases ​had climbed to nearly 600, raising awareness within the local ‌population about the importance of safety measures. (6/9)

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from obtaining the California hospital records of transgender minors who have undergone treatment. U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts of San Jose did not state his reasoning or the scope of his decision in the brief order he issued Monday night. But attorney Shannon Minter of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights said Tuesday the order applies to all hospitals in the state that have provided transgender care. (Egelko, 6/9)

The largest ICE detention center in the country lost track of a loaded firearm, did not provide treatment to detainees with chronic health conditions and failed to test immigrants for tuberculosis, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office published Tuesday. (Silva, 6/9)

The National Institutes of Health has appointed researcher John Powers III to lead its infectious disease institute on an acting basis, after weeks of being in leadership limbo following reports that the previous director, Jeffery Taubenberger, had stepped down. (Oza and Branswell, 6/9)

There’s a glaring lack of permanent leadership at the country’s major health agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gone from one acting director to another. The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration was ousted last month. The FDA’s second-in-command seat remains empty. And there has been no surgeon general for President Donald Trump’s entire second term. (Bendix, 6/10)

Last June, hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health broke rank in an unprecedented move and published an open letter of dissent to agency Director Jay Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya eventually met with many of the signers of the so-called Bethesda Declaration, who hoped it would spur a course correction at an agency they saw as going down a problematic path. But in a report published Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of the letter, 71 staffers write that they feel NIH leadership “largely ignored the concerns raised in our declaration.” (Oza, 6/9)

The Food and Drug Administration cleared a new ingredient for sunscreens on Tuesday, paving the way for American companies to begin using a compound that has long been a part of popular sunscreens in Europe and Asia. The ingredient, bemotrizinol, works by blocking ultraviolet radiation. It filters out two kinds of ultraviolet rays: ultraviolet A, which contributes to wrinkles and skin aging, and ultraviolet B, which causes sunburns. (Blum, 6/9)

Mitzi Franklin was diagnosed with high blood pressure at the age of 16. She didn’t take it all that seriously, often skipping her medicine. “I was your typical teenager thinking I was invincible,” she said. A decade or so later, Franklin learned she had chronic kidney disease. At 42, she had a heart attack and a stroke, then four open heart surgeries. Then diabetes and congestive heart failure. (McKay, 6/9)

Tobacco companies spent decades honing marketing strategies, flavor engineering and processing technologies that helped addict consumers to cigarettes. Then, in the 1980s, they started buying up large food firms and deployed these same strategies to sell more ultra-processed foods. So says Laura Schmidt, a professor and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who has been studying old tobacco company archives. (Godoy, 6/9)

Glucosamine -- a popular supplement used for joint pain -- was associated with faster progression to Alzheimer's disease and worse survival among Alzheimer's patients, a retrospective study of electronic health records suggested. Glucosamine use was linked with a 25% higher likelihood of progression from mild cognitive impairment to dementia (P<0.001) over 5 years, reported Ramon Sun, PhD, of the University of Florida McKnight Brain Institute in Gainesville, and co-authors. (George, 6/9)

Dr. Shannon Carpenter is a rare breed among doctors. She wants to see fewer patients. The shoulder and elbow surgeon at the Kansas City VA Medical Center is finding ways to prevent bone fractures before they happen. She told Military.com that fragility fractures pose a serious, under-discussed threat to aging veterans, especially women, saying that prevention starts with the patient. (Damask, 6/10)

A key legislative panel voted Tuesday to bar the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from spending funds on a controversial prior authorization pilot. In an amendment added to the broader appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services after a unanimous vote, the House Appropriations Committee determined that "none of the funds made available in this Act or any other Act" should be used to implement the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) model, or another model that would add prior auth to traditional Medicare. (Minemyer, 6/9)

The Trump administration has warned more than 500 hospitals that they are failing to provide the public with basic pricing information — arguing that the lack of disclosure is keeping healthcare costs higher than they should be. The Associated Press obtained exclusively the list of hospitals that since April have either received letters of warning or, in more severe cases, requests to submit plans to provide transparent pricing. Failing to comply with the warnings comes with penalties as high as $2 million annually for each recipient that doesn’t create a plan to post clear pricing data. (Boak, 6/9)

The financial health of Social Security and Medicare has worsened over the past year, with the programs’ trust funds expected to run dry three months sooner than anticipated, according to reports issued Tuesday by the programs’ trustees. (Krawzak, 6/9)

More than 92,000 Illinois consumers lost or dropped their Affordable Care Act health insurance in recent months — an unusually large number — following the expiration of generous tax credits that had helped to curb the plans’ costs. (Schencker, 6/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Looming Medicaid Cuts Supercharge California’s Latest Labor-Industry Fight

The looming impact of federal Medicaid cuts has reignited a long-simmering, costly battle between California’s medical industry and one of its largest health worker unions. SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, with approximately 120,000 members, has put forward two ballot initiatives to cap the pay of medical executives and require community clinics to spend the vast bulk of their revenues on patient care. (Wolfson, 6/10)

A specialized psychiatric treatment program helped this 24-year-old with her complex OCD. Now, her family owes the facility more than $1 million. (Bendix, Kane and Snow, 6/9)

The Trump administration is launching a full-scale charm offensive across Europe to persuade governments to follow Britain’s lead to pay more for medicines. U.S. embassies across the continent are being mobilized to deliver a message to European capitals: American patients are paying too much for medicines — around three times more than Germany for new drugs — and Europe better chip in.  If not, the bloc risks losing out on pharmaceutical investment and access to new drugs, two industry figures with knowledge of negotiations told POLITICO.  (Hug and Von Der Burchard, 6/9)

In Europe, two divergent paths are emerging as countries grapple with what to do about drug prices, affecting pharma companies and patients across the continent — and testing the influence of the U.S. (Joseph, 6/10)

The number of prescription drug shortages in the U.S. fell by 23% last year, marking the second consecutive year of declines and the lowest level since 2017, according to a new analysis that otherwise found troubling signs about medicines that are in short supply. (Silverman, 6/9)

It didn’t have to be this way. The condemnations keep coming four days after security officers escorted five diabetes experts out of the American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans for handing out copies of an editorial criticizing federal cuts to biomedical research. Expelling the doctors and scientists has shocked people in the field, and the ADA’s communications explaining it have only made matters worse, leaders in diabetes research and practice told STAT. (Cooney, 6/9)

The rollout marks the second wave of deployments in 2026 after the VA largely paused the project for years to fix technical issues and errors. (Olsen, 6/9)

Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic announced it will close on July 31. Starting in August, Campbell County Health (CCH) will be the only large healthcare provider in the area. CCH CEO Matt Shahan said they are evaluating whether and how the provider can absorb the primary and specialty care needs of Hoskinson patients. (Kudelska, 6/9)

The University of Minnesota, Fairview Health Services and M Physicians have finalized a 10-year deal to fund the U’s medical school and support physician training and research, following a tumultuous negotiation process. This agreement formalizes the mediated resolution reached by the three parties in January and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027. (Zurek, 6/9)

Community health workers fill the gaps in places without enough doctors and nurses. Trump's budget cuts are costing them their jobs, putting untold clients at risk. (Greenwell, 6/9)

A federal judge on Tuesday permanently blocked Alabama from executing a man with nitrogen gas after declaring the method violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Alabama became the first state in the nation to use the execution method in January 2024, but has faced repeated legal challenges to its use. Emily C Marks, a US district judge, permanently enjoined the state from executing Jeffery Lee by nitrogen gas. Lee was scheduled to be executed Thursday at an Alabama prison. (Nowell, 6/9)

The state said it intends to divvy out new contracts, which represent tens of billions of dollars in revenue for each awardee, to six insurers. Winners are mostly incumbents, except for Humana. (6/9)

A new report says states are finally seeing reductions in fatal drug overdoses, alcohol-induced deaths and suicides after two decades of increases across the nation, leaving some hopeful of a potential “turning point” in those types of deaths. While the 2026 edition of “Pain in the Nation: The Epidemics of Alcohol, Drug, and Suicide Deaths” released this week said deaths by suicide fell 3% nationwide from 2023 to 2024, Maryland actually saw a 4% increase, one of more than a dozen states to see a rise that year. (Brown, 6/10)

The research, conducted by scientists from the University of Maryland (UMD), found that Enterococcus bacteria were present in nearly half (46%) of 86 Maryland homes that had sewage backups from clogged, broken, or overwhelmed pipes from October 2023 to June 2025. Analysis of sewage water samples found that multidrug-resistant (MDR) enterococci were present in 12% of the homes with backups. (Dall, 6/9)

Too many "forever chemicals" are in Temple Terrace's water supply, so the city is trying to figure out a plan. A report shows nearly five times the recommended level of PFAS in city water. And the city could spend more than $70 million to reequip its water treatment system. (Newborn, 6/9)

An 18-year-old man on a daylong hike at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona died after experiencing “heat-related symptoms” as temperatures spiked beyond 100 degrees in some parts of the canyon, the National Park Service said on Saturday. The authorities received reports on Wednesday afternoon of a man in need of help on a popular hike, the Bright Angel Trail, the service said in a news release. (Desai, 6/8)

Perhaps it's understandable. Wars are raging. Prices for everything from gasoline to tomatoes are soaring. Chaos is the order of the day in the nation's capital. Who's got time to talk about the country's broken and failing healthcare system? So here we are, kicking the healthcare can down the road for another several years, even though the system's costs are once again outpacing ever higher inflation, millions more are without even basic coverage for doctor and hospital bills, and smaller, rural health centers are going broke. (Dave Zweifel, 6/10)

If the closure of the strait continues into the summer, the World Food Program estimates that the number of people worldwide who face food scarcity could grow by 45 million. This deadline is especially acute for fertilizer, which must be applied at specific moments in the crop cycle. A delay of even a few weeks forces farmers to reduce application or abandon it altogether. Food prices are already rising, and crops planted with less fertilizer will produce smaller harvests in the fall. The suffering a food shortage could inflict will hit months after the news cycle has moved on. (Mark Gee, 6/10)

Millions of adolescents live in states where they believe they have access to abortion care if they require it. They may be startled, if the time comes, to discover they have little option but to travel hundreds of miles for the mere possibility of care, resulting in limited health care options, higher-risk procedures, and worse mental health outcomes. (Sunaya Krishnapura, 6/10)

The demise of USAID did not cause this Ebola outbreak. But it is a gift to Ebola. It likely delayed its detection and hampered efforts to deliver tests and treatment to the affected areas. It has broken down meticulously constructed networks of trust and generally slowed the response to the virus. (Jill Filipovic, 6/9)

While acting CDC director Jay Bhattacharya signed the initial Ebola travel restrictions, the subsequent expansion to include green-card visa holders was signed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The administration has publicly given no scientific rationale explaining why citizenship or immigration status would alter risk of infection or transmission. Pathogens don’t recognize passports. (6/9)