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President Biden will move Wednesday to pardon LGBTQ military service members who were discharged or prosecuted because of their sexual orientation, providing a path for them to clear their records and apply for veterans benefits. Administration officials said Tuesday evening that they didn’t know exactly how many former service members would be affected by the order, which creates a process for veterans to apply for a pardon, but they estimate the number is in the thousands. (Linskey, 6/26)

Health officials in the Biden administration pressed an international group of medical experts to remove age limits for adolescent surgeries from guidelines for care of transgender minors, according to newly unsealed court documents. Age minimums, officials feared, could fuel growing political opposition to such treatments. (Ghorayshi, 6/25)

Three Oregon advocacy groups are launching a ballot measure campaign to enshrine the right to abortion, transgender health care and same-gender marriage in the Oregon Constitution. (Fuentes, 6/25)

A Texas doctor who is accused of leaking patients' medical records to a conservative activist never filed an ethics or misconduct complaint against Texas Children's Hospital despite receiving extensive training to report suspected malfeasance, according to an indictment obtained by the American-Statesman. Houston surgeon Eithan Haim — a 34-year-old doctor who identified himself as the whistleblower behind Christopher Rufo’s May 2023 article slamming the Houston-based children's hospital for allegedly continuing to provide gender-affirming care to minors after it said in 2022 it would cease such care in response to state orders to investigate gender-affirming care as "child abuse" — is described in the indictment as contacting the media “to promote his own personal agenda” rather than flagging concerns through the hospital’s reporting mechanism. (Chomnalez, 6/25)

Peru will stop listing individuals who identify as transgender, among others, as suffering from mental disorders, the country's health ministry announced on Tuesday, following a backlash to the move that critics derided as unnecessary and discriminatory. (6/26)

As studies show service members continue to struggle to access birth control, a group of Senate Democrats is pushing the Defense Department to do more to expand contraception services and counseling. In a letter Tuesday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a dozen Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee pushed for details on any "barriers preventing the department from implementing provisions mandated by Congress to protect and expand service members' access to contraception and contraceptive counseling." (Kheel, 6/25)

The Supreme Court, nearing the end of its term, is poised to soon deliver rulings in high-profile cases on everything from presidential power to abortion access. The justices will release opinions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. It will mark the first time in at least a decade the justices have done three opinion days in a row. The timing means key decisions, some with enormous consequences for the 2024 campaign, could be handed down just before President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump meet on stage in Atlanta for their first debate. (Dwyer and Hutzler, 6/25)

The first-ever Wyoming Reproductive Freedom Summit took place at the Lander Convention Center on June 22. On a Saturday afternoon, more than 150 people gathered to talk about the state of abortion care in the Cowboy State. The summit was hosted by Chelsea’s Fund, a Wyoming-based non-profit abortion advocacy organization. (Habermann, 6/25)

On a disgustingly hot Thursday in June, car after car pulled into the parking lot of A Preferred Women’s Health Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and left their engines running to cool off the abortion seekers sitting inside. They could be waiting well over two hours before getting a notification on their phones that it’s their turn to enter the clinic. Two years after Dobbs, APWHC is one of vanishingly few places in the South where someone can get an abortion. (Gonzalez-Ramirez, 6/24)

Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively striking down the nationwide right to an abortion, the law surrounding abortion services in Bristol, Virginia, has become unique, to say the least. Bristol is a city that includes portions of both Virginia and Tennessee. While abortion remains legal in Virginia, it has since been banned in Tennessee, creating an awkward situation for an abortion clinic in Bristol that’s on the Virginia side of the city. (Iannelli, 6/24)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory Tuesday alerting authorities, health care providers and the public of the increased risk of dengue fever infections in the United States. The alert comes as an unexpectedly higher number of dengue fever cases have been reported across the country, according to the CDC. (Acevedo, 6/25)

From 2004 through 2013, 64 cases of human Powassan virus were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but that number jumped to 270 cases from 2014 to 2023. (Soucheray, 6/25)

Don Prater, DVM, acting director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, said the FDA last week launched a second round of testing in retail products to fill remaining gaps in knowledge about the status of products from different geographic areas and about a wider variety of products, which will include aged raw-milk cheese, cream cheese, butter, and ice cream. In an update on its website, the FDA said it will test 155 dairy products collected from retail outlets for H5N1. (Schnirring, 6/25)

The H5N1 cattle virus remained infectious in unpasteurized milk on stainless steel and rubber inflation lining after 1 hour, and the H5N1 cattle virus had a similar decay rate to the human H5 virus. (Soucheray, 6/25)

Michigan has led the nation in making inroads with its farmers as it has worked to contain spread of H5N1 bird flu infections in dairy cows. Now the state’s health authorities are trying to do the same in looking for undetected infections among farmworkers. (Branswell, 6/25)

Three months since an outbreak of avian influenza in U.S. dairy cattle was declared, the country is failing to take the necessary steps to get in front of the virus and possibly contain its spread among cows, according to interviews with more than a dozen experts and current and former government officials. (Joseph, Zhang, Branswell and Molteni, 6/26)

There are no signs so far that the new LB.1 variant is causing more severe disease in COVID-19 patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, as infections have begun to accelerate in this summer's wave around the country. The LB.1 variant currently makes up 17.5% of new COVID cases, the CDC projected Friday, and could be on track to overtake its sibling, the KP.3 variant, which has also been growing in recent weeks. (Tin, 6/25)

Rep. John Torbett, a Republican from the small Gaston County town of Stanley, lingered with reporters after a June 11 legislative meeting to talk about a law that would govern when and where people can wear face masks in North Carolina. Republicans in the state Senate had overhauled one of his bills earlier in the session to ban face coverings in public, even for public health purposes. (Blythe, 6/26)

When Congress sent tens of billions of dollars to schools — an unprecedented sum — to battle the pandemic, it seemed like reopening campuses was going to be the toughest thing. Or maybe keeping teachers and students covid-free. But it turns out the hardest thing was helping students recover from severe academic losses sustained during the depths of the pandemic. Schools reopened. Students and teachers were, for the most part, kept safe from covid. But what about academic recovery? Did the money help kids get back on track? Two new reports offer the same answer: Yes. (Meckler, 6/26)

The Philippines is still seeking clarification from the Pentagon about a secret U.S. propaganda operation that aimed to cast doubt among Filipinos about Chinese vaccines at the height of the COVID pandemic, a foreign ministry official said on Tuesday. A Reuters investigation on June 14 detailed how the Pentagon ran a clandestine influence campaign in 2020 and 2021 to denigrate the Sinovac vaccine and other pandemic aid from China across the developing world. (6/25)

Four months after a crippling cyberattack on a company that manages prescription processing and community provider payments for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the VA continues to address the fallout, with officials saying Tuesday they are taking steps to clear a backlog of payments to pharmacies and medical providers. A Feb. 21 ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that serves as a clearinghouse for insurance payments and pharmacy prescriptions, disrupted operations at hospitals and clinics nationwide, including the Defense Department and VA. (Kime, 6/25)

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging the Biden administration to prohibit Medicare Advantage insurers from using artificial intelligence tools to deny care until it completes a systematic review of their accuracy and effects on patients. (Ross and Herman, 6/25)

The American Hospital Association is throwing its clout behind a push to overturn the regulation that established minimum staffing levels for nursing homes. On Monday, the AHA sent a letter to Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) endorsing his plan to subject the rule to a congressional vote that would void it. (McAuliff, 6/25)

The doctors at the hospital saw 771 gunshot victims last year, and their trauma center is one of the busiest in the country. Stroger Hospital doctors called the public health crisis declaration a long time coming. They also emphasized that gun violence is felt by more than just the gunshot victims they treat directly—which is the approach they say the advisory addresses. (Molina, 6/25)

One of three Houston heart surgeons accused of improperly performing overlapping surgeries continues to treat patients in his leadership role at Baylor College of Medicine, which maintained on Tuesday that the doctor “did nothing wrong.”  Dr. Joseph Coselli, a 71-year-old Houston native, was first appointed to a leadership post at Baylor in 2004 and now serves as executive vice chair in the surgery department. Having trained under legendary surgeons Drs. Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley, he is recognized by peers as a pioneer in the field. (Gill, 6/25)

Saint Peter's Healthcare System has signed a definitive agreement to join Atlantic Health System. If the deal is approved by regulators and the Catholic Church, Morristown, New Jersey-headquartered Atlantic would become Saint Peter's "sole corporate member," according to a Tuesday news release. (Hudson, 6/25)

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System Authority signed an agreement to acquire Ascension St. Vincent's for $450 million, the nonprofit systems announced Tuesday. UAB Health would acquire St. Vincent's five hospitals, a specialty care and rehabilitation center, a freestanding emergency department, imaging centers and clinics that are part of Ascension Medical Group under the proposed deal, according to a news release. (Hudson, 6/25)

Hackensack Meridian Health is going big on hospital-at-home care, with plans to roll out the service in its 18 hospitals within six months. The health system is partnering with Boston-based Medically Home, which will provide a command center, technology and logistics support. Health system employees will be trained on hospital-at-home protocols, CEO Robert Garrett said Tuesday. (Eastabrook, 6/25)

Vizient plans to take full ownership of Kaufman Hall, the organizations said Tuesday. Vizient in 2021 made a minority investment in Kaufman Hall, which offers healthcare consulting and analytics including a monthly report on hospital financial data. The group purchasing and consulting organization exercised its option to acquire the remaining interest in Kaufman Hall from private equity firm and majority owner Madison Dearborn Partners. (Kacik, 6/25)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Closing Of Rural Hospitals Leaves Towns With Unhealthy Real Estate

In March 2021, this town of about 2,000 residents in the hills of east Tennessee lost its hospital, a 54-bed acute care facility. Campbell County, where Jellico is located, ranks 90th of Tennessee’s 95 counties in health outcomes and has a poverty rate almost double the national average, so losing its health care cornerstone sent ripple effects through the region. (Sisk, 6/26)

Hospital mergers can mean rising prices for individual patients, but there also may be implications for the larger economy, including higher unemployment costs and reduced tax revenue, according to a study published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study on the effects of hospital mergers, compiled by researchers from four universities including Yale and Harvard as well as the Treasury Department, concluded that resulting price increases hurt employers and workers outside the healthcare industry. (Hudson, 6/25)

Jennifer Witherspoon can’t stop sharing photos of her new body. After losing more than 100 pounds on a weight-loss drug, the 47-year-old in Austin got a tummy tuck and breast lift to get rid of the loose, sagging skin she was left with. Now, she’s flaunting washboard abs in a bikini for the first time in 20 years. “I am literally living my best life,” she said. (Muller, Furlong, and Kresge, 6/25)

New research added to concerns about the downsides of shedding pounds with popular weight-loss shots. A study done on Saxenda, an older daily weight-loss shot made by Novo Nordisk A/S that’s similar to newer treatments like Ozempic but considered less effective, reported that patients on the drug experienced a decline in bone density in the hips, spine and forearm. (Vahanvaty, 6/25)

Joanna Bailey, a family physician and obesity specialist, doesn’t want to tell her patients that they can’t take Wegovy, but she has gotten used to it. Around a quarter of the people she sees in her small clinic in Wyoming County would benefit from the weight-loss medications, which also include Ozempic, Zepbound and Mounjaro, she says. The drugs have helped some of them lose 15 to 20 percent of their weight. But most people in the area she serves don’t have insurance that covers the cost, and virtually no one can afford sticker prices of $1,000 to $1,400 a month. (Whang, 6/25)

Nestle's health unit on Tuesday launched a web platform to provide nutritional support for individuals on weight loss programs, including those using GLP-1 medications. Nestle Health Science said the website will address specific needs such as preserving lean muscle mass, supporting gut health, and offering personalized diet assistance. (6/25)

Eli Lilly said on Tuesday it will collaborate with OpenAI to leverage its generative AI to develop antimicrobials that can be used to treat drug-resistant bacteria. (6/25)

Flagship Pioneering launched Cellarity in December 2019. The startup says it’s using artificial intelligence and other computational technologies “to move away from reductionist drug discovery, and unravel the complexities of disease biology to produce ‘game-changing’ medicines out of reach previously.” (Trang, 6/26)

A journal published by the American Medical Association has corrected four articles from two of the nation’s top tobacco researchers, Ray Niaura and David Abrams, after STAT uncovered undisclosed ties the New York University professors had with the e-cigarette company Juul. (Florko, 6/25)

California leaders scratched two voter initiatives from the November ballot on Tuesday, reaching deals with proponents to pull their measures in exchange for legislative changes. Gov. Gavin Newsom said that backers had agreed to withdraw a pandemic preparedness measure that had been backed by disgraced former crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as a measure sponsored by children’s hospitals that would have expanded state funding for healthcare for seriously ill children. (Nelson, 6/25)

Sriya Srinivasan stopped menstruating for nearly three years and had no idea why. She went online for answers, and the search results frightened her so much that she stayed silent about the problem instead of asking relatives or teachers for help. (Nittle, 6/25)

California cannabis regulators on Tuesday issued the state’s first recall of a pesticide-tainted weed product following a Los Angeles Times investigation disclosing dangerous contamination in the state’s legal cannabis supplies. The product ordered pulled from sale is an “Orange Cookies”-flavored West Coast Cure vape cartridge produced in September. The state recall said the vape exceeded safety limits for a single chemical, the insecticide chlorfenapyr. (St. John, 6/25)

A Hawaiian Gardens man was convicted of using the popular online marketplace OfferUp to sell a tar-like substance containing fentanyl to a teenager who later died of an overdose. Gregory Hevener, 47, was found guilty in federal court Monday of one count each of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death and possession with intent to distribute heroin, according to a statement by the U.S. attorney’s office. (Sheets and Blakinger, 6/25)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Los Angeles County Approves Medical Debt Relief For Residents

Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to buy up and forgive millions of dollars in medical debt as part of a comprehensive plan to tackle a $2.9 billion burden that weighs on almost 800,000 residents. The measure, authored by supervisors Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell, allows the county to enter into a pilot program with Undue Medical Debt, previously known as RIP Medical Debt, a national organization that relieves patients of what they owe by purchasing their medical debt for pennies on the dollar then retiring it. (Castle Work, 6/25)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: California’s $25 Health Care Hourly Wage Relies On Federal Boost, State Worker Exemption

California’s nation-leading $25 minimum wage for health workers will rely on a significant boost in federal funding and exempt thousands of state employees under an agreement that is expected to be approved in the coming days. The minimum wage hike for more than 400,000 health workers, which will be phased in over several years, was to start June 1, but will now begin no earlier than Oct. 15 and no later than Jan. 1 under a budget deal announced June 22. (Thompson, 6/26)

Norfolk Southern and its contractors overestimated the risk that five train cars could explode after the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment last year, leading to the unnecessary release and burn of chemicals, the National Transportation Safety Board found Tuesday at its final meeting on the incident. The railway’s failure to quickly provide information to emergency responders after the derailment also unnecessarily exposed the public to hazards, the board found. In addition, chemical shippers’ use of a vulnerable model of train car that was punctured and spilled chemicals after derailing led to the fire that dramatically escalated the situation. (McDaniel, 6/25)

DuPont, 3M, Honeywell and 16 other defendants were sued on Tuesday by Connecticut firefighters who said their protective gear was contaminated by toxic "forever chemicals" linked to cancer. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they believed the proposed class action filed in the New Haven, Connecticut federal court is the first to exclusively target firefighter gear containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. (Stempel, 6/25)

A Rochester mother is concerned about her 16-year-old son's allergy medication after she says it arrived at their home without the equipment to keep it at a certain temperature. "It's like a gamble. It's like Russian roulette now with this medication," says Lisa Rutter. Her family recently had to switch insurance providers, so if they want insurance to cover his Auvi-Q auto-injectors, they have to go through CVS Caremark delivery services. (Laster, 6/25)

Connecticut colleges and universities are expanding their capacity to admit students into nursing degree programs. Albertus Magnus College and Eastern Connecticut State University are set to launch bachelor’s degrees in nursing in the fall of 2024. And UConn School of Nursing will open an expanded space in 2026 to accommodate more students. Still, it’s a drop in the bucket. (Srinivasan, 6/25)

Researchers in Pittsburgh are proposing a diagnostic tool that could change the game for health professionals and patients. The hope is that the small but mighty device dreamed up by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC could someday detect diseases more efficiently. Pitt engineering assistant professor Amir Alavi said the portable pocket-sized lab doesn't even need batteries. It only needs a drop of blood to generate electricity and measure its conductivity. (Guay, 6/25)

New Hampshire is the latest state to sue TikTok, saying that the social media platform is intentionally designed to get kids addicted, which seriously harms their mental health. In fact, the state's complaint claims that as TikTok grew in popularity, so did instances of mental health issues among children. (6/25)

A multiyear experiment in this working-class city on Lake Erie’s banks holds clues to how America could get a handle on its overdose crisis — if politicians embrace the lessons. Fatal drug overdoses in the U.S., driven by the synthetic opioid fentanyl, increased by more than half during the pandemic and remain near record levels. But in Lucas County, where Toledo is, they plummeted 20 percent between 2020 and 2022. Researchers credit the county’s effort to bring together health department workers, treatment providers, clergy and law enforcement to look at where overdoses and deaths were happening, so they could target resources to where they were most needed. The community support, in turn, made it easier to overcome bureaucratic obstacles to getting drug users into treatment. (Reader, 6/26)

Federal food safety regulators said Tuesday that they have warned a top U.S. bakery to stop using labels that say its products contain potentially dangerous allergens when they don’t. U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors found that Bimbo Bakeries USA — which includes brands such as Sara Lee, Oroweat, Thomas’, Entenmann’s and Ball Park buns and rolls — listed ingredients such as sesame or tree nuts on labels even when they weren’t in the foods. (Aleccia, 6/25)

A few of your favorite ice cream products might no longer be in the freezer this summer after a prominent supplier to brands such as Hershey’s and Friendly’s issued a recall notice over a potential listeria contamination. Maryland-based Totally Cool recalled products from 13 brands distributed nationwide in retail locations and through direct delivery after sampling by the Food and Drug Administration discovered the presence of Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium that causes listeria infections, the agency said Monday. (Masih, 6/26)

Two makers of plastic baby bottles were hit with proposed class actions in California federal court on Tuesday over claims that they failed to warn parents that the bottles leached dangerous microplastics when heated. The lawsuits against Philips North America and Handi-Craft Company, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, say the companies knew their popular bottles would be heated as part of regular use. (Jones, 6/25)

In recent years, turmeric has been implicated in a growing number of cases of acute liver injury, some of which have led to liver transplant or even death. (Kim, 6/25)

About 170 billion cells are in the brain, and as they go about their regular tasks, they produce waste — a lot of it. To stay healthy, the brain needs to wash away all that debris. But how exactly it does this has remained a mystery. Now, two teams of scientists have published three papers that offer a detailed description of the brain's waste-removal system. Their insights could help researchers better understand, treat and perhaps prevent a broad range of brain disorders. (Hamilton, 6/26)

Scientists unveiled Tuesday a humanoid robot face they created from lab-grown, self-healing human skin. The researchers from the University of Tokyo, Japan, hope the breakthrough could one day prove "useful in the cosmetics industry and to help train plastic surgeons," per a statement announcing the breakthrough. (Falconer, 6/26)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Listen To The Latest '�鶹Ů�� Health News Minute'

“Health Minute” brings original health care and health policy reporting from the �鶹Ů�� Health News newsroom to the airwaves each week. (6/25)

The celebrated actor and honorary Academy Award recipient Gena Rowlands is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, her son, the filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, has revealed. In the 2004 film “The Notebook,” Rowlands played a character who had dementia. (6/25)

Scientists are helping to develop standards and safety protocols that would allow pharmacies to print drugs onsite at a dosage best for you. (National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 6/25)

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 20 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) suggests preventive azithromycin in pregnancy and labor has benefits but might not reduce maternal or neonatal mortality, Indian researchers reported late last week in eClinicalMedicine. (Dall, 6/24)

For those suffering from treatment-resistant depression, the anesthetic drug ketamine offers hope, but it has side effects and can be costly to access -- a clinical trial may change that. (University of Otago 6/24)

Data from a single-center study show that in patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections, resistance occurred more commonly among those treated with ceftazidime-avibactam (CZA) than those treated with ceftolozane-tazobactam (C/T), researchers reported last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 6/25)

An international study shows new drug improves sleep, health in patients diagnosed with obesity and sleep apnea. (University of California - San Diego, 6/21)

A microbiota-based live biotherapeutic for treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) remained effective after subsequent antibiotic exposure, researchers reported this week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 6/20)

In the first half of this year alone, more than 500 discriminatory anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures. Among many other goals, these bills would ban access to life-saving health care for transgender individuals and criminalize teachers for discussing the existence of LGBTQ people. (Brittany Charlton, 6/25)

The use of artificial intelligence is happening in “unlikely places.” So says a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. While much of the nation is debating the future of AI, health care providers in rural America are pioneering new uses of it in their practices. As the leader of the U.S.’s largest rural health care system, I predict the impact of AI on rural health care will be consequential. (Bill Gassen, 6/26)

The two primary contenders for the presidency of the United States — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump — will debate on Thursday, June 27, in front of a national television audience on CNN for the first of two presidential debates. If the past is any indication, millions of people will tune in. (Anand Kumar, 6/25)

When people think of the history of HIV and AIDS on the West Coast, San Francisco is usually the first city to come to mind. Before the first case of HIV was discovered in the early 1980s, San Francisco had put itself on the map as the epicenter of California’s fight for gay liberation. The city held its first gay pride parade in 1970, and local activists successfully fought statewide anti-LGBTQ legislation. Supervisor Harvey Milk’s assassination and the subsequent White Night riots drew national attention. So, when news emerged that a disease was killing gay men, the media flocked to San Francisco. Across the water, however, Oakland was left in the dark. (Nuala Bishari, 6/24)

When Congress passed the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act (FDORA) in December 2022, it was hailed as a landmark step toward codifying diversity and inclusion in clinical trials. Under FDORA, sponsors of Phase 3 and other pivotal trials are required to submit a diversity action plan to the Food and Drug Administration along with their study protocol. The FDA’s goal is to ensure that enrollment goals include clinically relevant study populations. (Tamei Elliott and Maria Vassileva, 6/26)