The Hill: Federal Judge Orders HHS To Restore $12m In Funding To American Academy Of Pediatrics
A federal judge late Sunday ordered the Trump administration to restore nearly $12 million in grants to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), after the organization’s funding was abruptly cut last month. Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction that will restore the grants and block the cuts from taking effect while the case proceeds. Howell concluded that the Department of Health and Human Services had a likely “retaliatory motive” for the terminations, due to the AAP’s outspoken opposition to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Weixel, 1/12)

In related news about federal funding cuts —

AP: The Trevor Project Receives $45M From MacKenzie Scott After Difficult Years And Federal Funding Cuts
The Trevor Project, known for its hotline for LGBTQ+ youth, received $45 million from billionaire and author MacKenzie Scott at the end of 2025, the organization said Monday. The gift is the largest in the organization’s history but also a major boon following years of management turmoil, layoffs and the loss of significant federal funding over the summer. “I literally could not believe it and it took some time. I actually gasped,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, when they were notified of Scott’s gift. (Beaty, 1/12)

Fierce Biotech: Flagship CEO Warns Trump Admin Is 'Undoing' Scientific Method
The Trump administration spent 2025 taking a sledgehammer to science, obliterating funding and reshaping agencies like the FDA and the National Institutes of Health through layoffs and restrictive new policies. In a new letter, Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D., co-founder of Moderna and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, warns that these actions risk undermining the foundations of science itself to the ultimate detriment of health and biotech innovation in America. “Skepticism is an important part of the scientific method. Debate about approaches and outcomes is central to how science works,” Afeyan wrote in the Jan. 12 letter. “But what we are seeing is skepticism that has curdled into an across-the-board, corrosive doubt in the scientific method itself.” (Incorvaia, 1/12)

More health news from the Trump administration —

The New York Times: E.P.A. To Stop Considering Lives Saved By Limiting Air Pollution 
For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency has calculated the health benefits of reducing air pollution, using the cost estimates of avoided asthma attacks and premature deaths to justify clean-air rules. Not anymore. Under President Trump, the E.P.A. plans to stop tallying gains from the health benefits caused by curbing two of the most widespread deadly air pollutants, fine particulate matter and ozone, when regulating industry, according to internal agency emails and documents reviewed by The New York Times. (Joselow, 1/12)

ProPublica: We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing
Civilians have had apparent seizures. One had his eyes roll back. Another had ribs broken. “I felt like I was going to pass out and die,” said a 16-year-old citizen put in a chokehold. The government won’t say if any agents have been punished. (Foy and Funk, 1/13)

KFF Health News: This California Strategy Safeguarded Some Medicaid Social Services Funding From Trump
When Virginia Guevara moved into a studio apartment in California’s Orange County in 2024 after nearly a decade of homelessness, she needed far more than a roof and a bed. Scattered visits to free clinics notwithstanding, Guevara hadn’t had a full medical checkup in years. She required dental work. She wanted to start looking for a job. And she was overwhelmed by the maze of paperwork needed simply to get her off the street, much less to make any of the other things happen. (Kreidler, 1/13)

Bloomberg: AbbVie Pledges $100 Billion US Investment To Avoid Tariffs
AbbVie Inc. signed an agreement with the US government to lower some drug prices and invest $100 billion domestically in exchange for an exemption from certain tariffs. The Trump administration has been using the threat of heavy tariffs to convince major drugmakers to increase their presence in the US, provide drugs more cheaply to Medicaid, sell less expensive drugs directly to patients and set prices abroad at least as high as in the US. AbbVie’s agreement “addresses” all four of these, the company said in a press release Monday. (Swetlitz, 1/13)

Related news on FDA vouchers —

Bloomberg: Pfizer Talking To Trump Administration About Priority Vouchers
Pfizer Inc. is looking to join its rivals in getting priority review vouchers, Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said, after several drugmakers received the express passes after striking deals with the White House on pricing. The national priority voucher program was designed to support US interests and speed reviews for companies that are working with the administration on critical health goals. (Muller, 1/12)

Stat: FDA Veteran Pazdur Warns That Politics, ‘Chaos’ Are Hurting Agency
Richard Pazdur, a veteran regulator at the Food and Drug Administration who left the agency last month, said Monday the firewall between political appointees and drug reviewers at the agency “has been breached,” and that there is not enough transparency around a new voucher program that grants accelerated review to certain drugs selected by Trump administration officials. (Chen, 1/13)

More on the high cost of prescription drugs —

Fierce Healthcare: HHS Appears Ready To Pull Appeal Of 340B Rebate Pilot Pause
The Department of Health and Human Services appears willing to take its contentious 340B Rebate Model Pilot Model back to the drawing board. After a lawsuit filed by hospitals secured a last-minute halt from a district court, that was later upheld by a three-judge panel, the federal government penned a letter informing the appellate court that it is speaking with the plaintiff hospital groups about whether the fall's green light for participating drugmakers should be "reconsidered." (Muoio, 1/12)

Becker's Hospital Review: Hospital Groups Push CMS To Revise Drug Cost Survey
Eight national hospital associations are urging CMS to revise a statement in its drug acquisition cost survey, saying the language in one of its frequently asked questions misleadingly implies hospitals are required to respond. In a Jan. 12 letter, the groups said it is “wrong to tell hospitals and health systems that they ‘are to’ complete” the Outpatient Prospective Payment System Drug Acquisition Cost Survey. The FAQ states that “all such hospitals are to respond to the survey,” referring to facilities paid under OPPS between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. (Jeffries, 1/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Medi-Cal Halts GLP-1 Obesity Drug Coverage
Many low-income Californians prescribed wildly popular weight loss drugs lost their coverage for the medications at the start of the new year. Health officials are recommending diet and exercise as alternatives to heavily advertised weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, advice experts say is unrealistic. (Thompson, 1/12)

The New York Times: David Mitchell, Who Led Fight On Drug Prices, Dies At 75 
David Mitchell, a public relations executive who, after receiving a cancer diagnosis in 2010, set aside plans to retire and instead became one of the country’s leading voices in the campaign to lower prescription drug prices, died on Jan. 2 at his home in Annapolis, Md. He was 75. His family said in a statement that the cause was multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer he had kept at bay for 15 years. (Risen, 1/12)

On ACA subsidies —

Modern Healthcare: ACA Open Enrollment For 2026 Lags Behind 2025 Sign-Ups: CMS
Health insurance exchange enrollment is trending downward compared with a year ago, according to preliminary data the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released Monday. Nearly 22.8 million people — including 2.8 million new enrollees — had signed up with about two weeks to go, down 3.5% from a comparable period a year ago. This total reflects enrollments on the federal platform as of Jan. 3, on most state-based exchanges as of Dec. 27 and on Your Health Idaho as of its final deadline on Dec. 15. (Tepper, 1/12)

Axios: Scoop: Democrats Make Health Deal Offer With ACA Subsidies
Democrats sent Republicans a proposal over the weekend to renew enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years, paired with extensions of other expiring health programs, sources said. Sunday's offer shows there's increasing bipartisan sentiment to address long-stalled priorities like overhauling pharmacy benefit manager business practices — even if prospects for the ACA subsidies are much murkier. (Sullivan, 1/12)

MedPage Today: Medical Groups Urge Congress To Probe Kennedy's Vax Schedule Changes
Hundreds of medical and public health organizations urged Congress to investigate the sweeping changes recently made to the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his administration. In a letter signed by more than 230 organizations representing clinicians, scientists, public health professionals, and patient groups, the signatories called on lawmakers to "conduct swift and robust oversight" of an overhaul they described as abrupt and opaque. (McCreary, 1/12)

CIDRAP: States, Health Organizations Reject New CDC Vaccine Guidance
A growing number of states are pushing back against sweeping changes to the US childhood vaccine schedule. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an overhaul of the immunization schedule January 5, paring the number of universally recommended immunizations from 17 to 11. Since then, at least 17 states have announced that they won’t follow new CDC vaccine schedule: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. (Szabo, 1/12)

KFF Health News: RFK Jr.’s MAHA Movement Has Picked Up Steam In Statehouses. Here’s What To Expect In 2026
When one of Adam Burkhammer’s foster children struggled with hyperactivity, the West Virginia legislator and his wife decided to alter their diet and remove any foods that contained synthetic dyes. “We saw a turnaround in his behavior, and our other children,” said Burkhammer, who has adopted or fostered 10 kids with his wife. “There are real impacts on real kids.” (Greenblatt, 1/13)

In other news about vaccines —

CIDRAP: Pfizer’s RSV Vaccine Safe To Use During Pregnancy, Study Suggests
An analysis of safety data suggests that Abrysvo, the Pfizer respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) RSVpreF vaccine, does not increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes when administered after 32 weeks’ gestation, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA. (Bergeson, 1/9)

CIDRAP: Novel Cholera Vaccine Shows Promise In Phase 1 Trial
Oral cholera vaccines have played a critical role in efforts to prevent and control the severe and potentially life-threatening diarrheal disease. But they could be better. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends three licensed vaccines for use in areas experiencing cholera outbreaks or where the disease is endemic. All three are killed, whole-cell vaccines that provide protection against cholera by stimulating the intestinal immune response to the Vibrio cholerae bacterium, which spreads through contaminated water and food and produces toxins that cause severe vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydration. (Dall, 1/9)

On covid —

Bloomberg: Heart Failure Deaths Have Accelerated In US Since Covid Pandemic
The Covid pandemic didn’t just kill people directly. It appears to have accelerated a long-brewing reversal in US heart failure deaths, with mortality climbing faster since 2020 after years of decline, new research shows. The increases have been most pronounced among younger adults and Black Americans, pointing to disruptions in care and worsening conditions such as diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure that intensified during the health emergency, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. (Gale, 1/12)

CIDRAP: Moderna COVID Vaccine 53% Effective Against Adult Hospitalization In 2024-25 Season, Data Suggest
A large observational study using US healthcare claims and electronic health record data suggests that Moderna’s updated 2024-25 COVID vaccine was 39% effective at preventing medically attended illness among adults and 53% effective against hospitalization, particularly those at high risk for severe disease. (Bergeson, 1/12)

On influenza —

CIDRAP: North Dakota Confirms Pediatric Flu Deaths As Some States Note Surge In Flu Activity
For the first time in 10 years, the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services has reported flu-related deaths in children. The agency said two children have died from influenza complications and are among the five influenza-related deaths recorded in the state this flu season. News sources said the children were under the age of 10, but no additional information was being released at this time. As of January 3, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said there have been 17 pediatric flu deaths this season. (Soucheray, 1/12)

Technology Networks: Flu Transmission Depends On Coughing And Airflow, Study Finds
Researchers from University of Maryland Schools of Public Health and Engineering in College Park and the School of Medicine in Baltimore wanted to find out how the flu spreads, so they put college students already sick with the flu into a hotel room with healthy middle-aged adult volunteers. The result? No one caught the flu. (1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth Used Aggressive Tactics To Boost Medicare Payments, Senate Report Finds
UnitedHealth Group deployed aggressive tactics to collect payment-boosting diagnoses for its Medicare Advantage members, a Senate committee investigating the company’s practices said. In Medicare Advantage, the federal government pays insurers a lump sum to oversee medical benefits for seniors and disabled people. The government pays extra for patients with certain costly medical conditions, a process called risk adjustment. (Weaver and Wilde Mathews, 1/12)

On health care workers —

Bloomberg: Mamdani Joins NYC Nurses On Hospital Walkout Picket Line
Thousands of nurses at three major hospitals in New York City began to strike on Monday, amid a severe flu season and broader pressures on the US health-care system. The walkout impacts roughly 15,000 nurses at hospitals including Mount Sinai Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian in Manhattan as well as Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined striking nurses on the picket line in Washington Heights. “All parties must return immediately to the negotiating table,” Mamdani said in brief remarks. “They must bargain in good faith.” (Harris and Sapienza, 1/12)

MedPage Today: How Often Do Physicians Encounter 'Difficult' Patients?
Nearly one-fifth of adult patient encounters in non-psychiatric settings were considered difficult by physicians, a meta-analysis found. The prevalence of difficult encounters was 17% across 10 studies measuring this parameter, Jeffrey Jackson, MD, MPH, of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Clement J. Zablocki Veterans' Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee, and colleagues reported. (Henderson, 1/12)

On nursing homes —

AP: Massachusetts Enacts Safety Reforms At Assisted Living Facilities After A Deadly Fire
Massachusetts is enacting a series of safety reforms at assisted living facilities including increased inspections and better access to records following a fire last year that killed 10 residents, the governor announced Monday. The recommendations, detailed in a report from the Assisted Living Residents or ARL commission tasked with reviewing the sector, call for annual inspection signed off by the local fire department, board of health and building inspector. It also calls for annual update and review of emergency plans and quarterly emergency exercises with all staff and annual evacuation drills. (Casey, 1/12)

Modern Healthcare: Low Medicaid Rates Slowing Patient Transfers To Nursing Homes
Hospitals are having trouble discharging patients to nursing homes as those operators receive skimpier reimbursements from state Medicaid programs. Some companies are taking fewer Medicaid patients and more patients covered by higher-paying, fee-for-service Medicare or by private insurance. Others are considering adding special clinical services that provide higher reimbursements for more medically complex patients. (Eastabrook, 1/12)

More health care industry updates —

Modern Healthcare: Tampa General Hospital, Mass General Brigham Launch Outpatient JV
Mass General Brigham and Tampa General Hospital are launching a joint venture focused on outpatient care. Through the venture, the organizations aim to create an ambulatory care network offering primary care, specialty care, advanced imaging, oncology and outpatient surgical procedures for residents of the east coast of Florida, according to a Monday news release. (DeSilva, 1/12)

Modern Healthcare: Providence Turnaround Plan May Include Hospital Sales
Providence is considering selling more assets, including potentially some hospitals, as it seeks to streamline operations and improve the health system’s finances, executives said Monday. “We have 51 hospitals, most of which have No. 1 market share in their communities, but we do have a handful that we may have to find a different purpose or different sponsors for,” Chief Financial Officer Greg Hoffman told attendees during a morning presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. (Kacik, 1/12)

Stat: As They Brace For Bigger Challenges, Hospitals At JPM Say They’re Going 'Back To The Basics' 
At this swanky investor event in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district, the country’s biggest nonprofit health systems usually talk up their money-making prowess and market share. But at this year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, held as hospitals stare down historic cuts to Medicaid, the leaders who spoke lacked their normal swagger. Their pitch to investors was decidedly measured, with executives on Monday hammering themes of stability and consistency. (Bannow, 1/12)

CIDRAP: Stewardship Intervention Fails To Reduce Antibiotic Overuse At Discharge, Trial Finds
An effort to reduce antibiotic overuse in patients being discharged at 10 US hospitals did not achieve its primary goal, according to the results of a randomized trial published late last week in JAMA Network Open. (Dall, 1/12)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Decisions On Abortion Pill Were Based On Science, New Analysis Finds 
A new study, published Monday in the medical journal JAMA, evaluates the F.D.A.’s track record of making decisions about mifepristone, drawing on rare access to internal memos, emails and thousands of pages of other documents. The study was led by experts in federal health policy and drug regulation at Johns Hopkins University. They found that, in the 12 years they examined, from 2011 to 2023, important F.D.A. actions involving mifepristone almost always adhered to evidence-based recommendations from the agency’s scientists. (Belluck, 1/12)

More news about abortion and Planned Parenthood —

ABC15: Final Arguments Made In Lawsuit Challenging Multiple Arizona Abortion Laws
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge is considering a case that could strike down several Arizona abortion regulations following a legal challenge that argues the current laws violate the state's constitutional right to abortion access. The case, which concluded closing arguments Monday, centers on three sets of laws that require a 24-hour waiting period with two separate provider visits, laws banning abortion based on the patient’s reasoning behind the procedure, and a ban on telemedicine for medication abortions. (Donahue, 1/12)

News Service of Florida: About 20,000 Fewer Abortions Were Performed In Florida In 2025 Than In 2024 
More than 44,000 abortions were reported in Florida in 2025, a large drop during the first full year of a law that prevents most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Data posted on the state Agency for Health Care Administration website showed that 44,206 abortions had been reported as of Jan. 1. That was down from 64,854 abortions reported in 2024, though it was not immediately clear whether the 44,206 total was a final number for 2025 because of lags in reporting. (1/12)

Fox News: Students For Life Report Finds Massive Uptick In Christian Colleges' Support For Abortion, Planned Parenthood
Support for abortion among Christian colleges in the United States has skyrocketed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to a new report by Students for Life of America’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement (IPA). IPA identified 725 Christian schools, defined as "an institution of higher education affiliated with a Christ-centered denomination and publicly claiming historical Christian faith in its founding," and combed through the colleges' websites for references to abortion found that one in seven is connected to the abortion industry. Information for the report was gathered during the 2024-2025 academic year. (D'Abrosca, 1/13)

St. Louis Public Radio: Planned Parenthood CEO Remains Optimistic
As a landmark trial over the legality of Missouri’s restrictions on abortion begins in Kansas City, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers CEO Margot Riphagen said she remains hopeful that this coming year will be different from the last. In 2025, multiple injunctions and appeals from the state’s attorney general led Missouri courts to repeatedly revive and prohibit access to abortion. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood is forbidden to prescribe medication abortion under state law. Missouri is currently trying to further restrict access to medication abortions through a federal lawsuit with national implications. (Wicentowski, 1/12) 

The Baltimore Sun: New Alzheimer's Treatment Goal Found
Johns Hopkins researchers identified a new target for treating Alzheimer’s disease by focusing on a protein that produces tiny amounts of hydrogen sulfide in healthy brain cells. The gas that gives rotten eggs their signature smell also protects brain cells from damage, and the researchers told The Baltimore Sun that you can get more of it from eating foods like broccoli and garlic. (Hille, 1/12)

ScienceDaily: A Hidden Brain Signal May Reveal Alzheimer’s Long Before Diagnosis 
Researchers have discovered a brain activity pattern that can predict which people with mild cognitive impairment are likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Using a noninvasive brain scanning technique and a custom analysis tool, they detected subtle changes in electrical signals tied to memory processing years before diagnosis. The findings point to a new way of spotting Alzheimer’s early—by listening directly to how neurons behave. (1/12)

The Independent: Sound Stimulation Can Flush Out Toxic Alzheimer’s Proteins From Brain, Scientists Find 
Scientists have shown that a non-invasive sound stimulation of the brain at a specific frequency can clear toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease, an advance that could lead to low-cost therapy. (Sankaran, 1/13)

The Washington Post: Risky Medications Still Prescribed To Dementia Patients Despite Warnings 
An estimated quarter of traditional Medicare beneficiaries with dementia are prescribed risky, brain-altering drugs despite years of clinical guidelines cautioning against the practice, a new study shows. The drugs fall into five broad categories — including antidepressants, antipsychotics, and barbiturates — that may leave older adults in a drowsy, confused fog that can make them less steady on their feet and more prone to falls. (Johnson, 1/12)

New York Post: ‘Potentially Scary’ Link Between Nose Picking And Alzheimer’s
Researchers are investigating the theory that trauma to the nasal lining can transmit germs to the brain, potentially triggering inflammation and the formation of amyloid plaques. (Swartz, 1/13)

Also —

New Orleans Times-Picayune: ‘Rare In This World’: Memory Cafes Provide Community For Alzheimer’s Patients, Caregivers 
The New Orleans Jewish Community Center’s Alzheimer's Care and Enrichment Program has become a lifeline for families dealing with dementia. (Mipro, 1/12)

The Baltimore Sun: Why Denmark's Vaccine Model Won't Work Here 
Vaccination policies are key to public health strategies worldwide, but approaches vary significantly between countries. In the United States, vaccine requirements for school entry and certain jobs are common, whereas in some countries, such as Denmark, they depend more on recommendations than mandates. This analysis examines the potential effects of replacing U.S. vaccine requirements with individual doctor recommendations and explains why the Danish vaccine schedule model isn’t directly suitable for the U.S. (A.J. Russo, 1/12)

Stat: The Maddening Inconsistencies Of The New Dietary Guidelines 
If I said there’s usually a flurry of excitement and questions for dietitians when the new dietary guidelines are released, I’d be lying. Most Americans don’t follow them closely, and since the recommendations are grounded in decades of research, they’ve historically rarely changed much from one cycle to the next. (Hannah Van Ark, 1/13)

Stat: The New Food Pyramid’s Confusing, Outdated Design 
When the Trump administration unveiled its new 2026 dietary guidelines, it didn’t merely revise nutrition policy. It resurrected the food pyramid as a central visual metaphor for how Americans should eat. In doing so, the administration revived not only an outdated symbol, but also an outdated way of thinking about visual communication. The resulting graphic feels less like a contemporary public health tool and more like a collection of emoji-inspired illustrations or clip art from a 1950s health pamphlet. (Debbie Millman, 1/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Here’s What California Should Do To Combat Medical Misinformation
Generative AI has enabled coordinated information manipulation at unprecedented scales by both domestic and foreign actors. (Anthony B. Iton, Pranay Narang, and Tiffany Ngo, 1/12)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Daily Aspirin Use Defies Standard Health Care Recommendations 
For many people, a daily aspirin may do more harm than good. (Leana S. Wen, 1/13)