First Edition: Monday, Sept. 8, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: When I Go, I’m Going Green
Our annual family vacation on Cape Cod included all the familiar summer pleasures: climbing dunes, walking beaches, spotting seals, eating oysters, reading books we had intended to get to all year. And a little shopping. My grandkid wanted a few small toys. My daughter stocked up on thousand-piece jigsaw puzzles at the game store in Provincetown. I bought a pair of earrings and a couple of paperbacks. And a gravesite. (Span, 9/8)

KFF Health News: Researchers Shift Tactics To Tackle Extremism As Public Health Threat
Rebecca Kasen has seen and heard things in recent years in and around Michigan’s capital city that she never would have expected. “It’s a very weird time in our lives,” said Kasen, executive director of the Women’s Center of Greater Lansing. Last November, a group of people were captured on surveillance video early one morning mocking a “Black Lives Matter” sign in the front window of the center, with one of them vandalizing its free pantry. That same fall, Women’s Center staff reported being harassed. (Sisk, 9/8)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Discuss Fallout Of CDC Turmoil And Recap Bitter RFK Senate Hearing
Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed recommendations for covid-19 vaccinations for children on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on Aug. 20. Gounder then discussed the infant mortality crisis in Mississippi on CBS News’ “CBS Evening News Plus” on Aug. 22. She also discussed the resignation of top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials after the ousting of agency director Susan Monarez on CBS News’ “CBS Mornings” on Aug. 28. (9/6)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: On Capitol Hill, RFK Defends Firings At CDC 
Just days after his firing of the brand-new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a defiant Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, defended that action and others before a sometimes skeptical Senate Finance Committee. Criticism of Kennedy’s increasingly anti-vaccine actions came not just from Democrats on the panel but from some Republicans who are also medical doctors. (Rovner, 9/5)

AUTISM

ScienceDaily: Autism Symptoms Vanish In Mice After Stanford Brain Breakthrough 
Scientists at Stanford have found that hyperactivity in the brain’s reticular thalamic nucleus may drive autism-like behaviors. In mouse models, drugs and neuromodulation techniques that suppressed this overactive region reversed symptoms, hinting at new therapeutic pathways that overlap with epilepsy treatments. (9/8)

CANCER

The New York Times: Federal Report On Drinking Is Withdrawn
The Department of Health and Human Services has pulled back a government report warning of a link between cancer and drinking even small amounts of alcohol, according to the authors of the research. Their report, the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, warned that even one drink a day raises the risk of liver cirrhosis, oral and esophageal cancer, and injuries. The scientists who wrote it were told that the final version would not be submitted to Congress, as had been planned. (Caryn Rabin, 9/5)

VACCINE POLICY AND COVID

Politico: Trump Is Back To Touting His Covid Shot
A day after senators of both parties rebuked his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for restricting access to Covid vaccines at a congressional hearing, President Donald Trump praised them, along with some other shots, during an Oval Office event. “A lot of people think that Covid is amazing,” Trump said, referencing the vaccine, not the disease. “You know, there are many people that believe strongly in that.” (Paun, 9/5)

The Hill: Trump Defends RFK Jr. ‘He’s A Different Kind Of A Guy’
President Trump on Sunday defended Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has come under increasing criticism from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill over his handling of vaccines and other issues. Trump has given somewhat conflicting messages over the last several days about Kennedy, defending his Cabinet member while also defending vaccines, including those for polio and COVID. (Swanson, 9/7)

The Washington Post: Covid Vaccines Difficult To Find For Many Americans Despite RFK Jr.’s Assurances
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told senators last week that anyone can get a new coronavirus vaccine. But many Americans are finding the opposite. Confusion is rippling through the health care system as pharmacies and doctors try to adjust to providing a vaccine that is no longer broadly recommended. Americans’ experiences vary widely, from easily booking appointments to having to cross state lines to access the shots, according to more than 3,200 submissions to The Washington Post’s request for readers to share their experiences. (Ovalle and Winfield Cunningham, 9/7)

NBC News: For Some, Medicare Isn't Covering The Updated Covid Vaccine Yet
Some older Americans on Medicare are facing an unexpected problem: The updated Covid shots — approved last month by the Food and Drug Administration for all adults 65 and up — aren’t being covered, forcing them to decide whether to pay out of pocket. Allison Engel, 74, said she visited her CVS in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday, where she was told the shot would cost $225 out of pocket. “They typed everything in, and handed me a rejection letter,” Engel said. “They told me it wasn’t in the Medicare system yet and I should come back in two weeks.” (Lovelace Jr., 9/5)

AP: RFK. Jr's Family Members Call Him 'Threat' To Americans' Health And Want Him To Resign
Members of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s family are calling for him to step down as health secretary following a contentious congressional hearing this past week, during which the Trump Cabinet official faced bipartisan questioning about his tumultuous leadership of federal health agencies. Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, and his nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, issued scathing statements Friday, calling for him to resign as head of the Health and Human Services Department. (9/6)

The Washington Post: Doubts About RFK Jr. Grow For Some Republicans
Seven months after they voted to confirm longtime anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s health secretary, some Republican senators are having second thoughts. “I’m a doctor. Vaccines work,” Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told Kennedy at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. “Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I’ve grown deeply concerned.” (Diamond, Meyer and Roubein, 9/7)

The Hill: Republican Senator Defends RFK Jr. From Democratic, GOP Criticism On Vaccines
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) on Sunday defended Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. days after senators from both parties offered pointed questions about a vaccine policy-related shake-up at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Marshall told host Margaret Brennan of CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Kennedy was chosen to be a “disruptor to the CDC,“ and that is exactly what he is doing. (Limon, 9/7)

AP: Florida's Plan To Drop School Vaccine Rule Won't Start For 90 Days
Florida’s plan to drop school vaccine mandates likely won’t take effect for 90 days and would include only chickenpox and a few other illnesses unless lawmakers decide to extend it to other diseases, like polio and measles, the health department said Sunday. The department responded to a request for details, four days after Florida’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, said the state would become the first to make vaccinations voluntary and let families decide whether to inoculate their children. (White, 9/7)

CIDRAP: US COVID Levels May Be Peaking, CDC Data Show
COVID-19 appears to be peaking in many parts of the country amid low respiratory illness activity overall, according to today's respiratory illness update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, the CDC's COVID-19 surveillance data show test positivity for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is 10.8%, down from last week's peak of 11.6%. But the percentage of emergency departments visits diagnosed as COVID-19 rose slightly, from 1.5% to 1.6%, and are elevated in children ages 0 to 4 and 5 to 17 years. (Dall, 9/5)

ABORTION

The Washington Post: Justice Amy Coney Barrett Defends Supreme Court’s Decision To Overturn Roe 
Justice Amy Coney Barrett defends her vote that helped the Supreme Court overturn the right to abortion in 2022, writing in a new memoir that the idea that the Constitution guarantees such access is not deeply rooted in American history. She says that the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision to establish a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade went against the will of many Americans and set in motion five decades of conflict over an issue that should have been rightly decided by voters — not judges. (Jouvenal, 9/7)

MEDICARE AND MEDICAID

Bloomberg: Medicare’s Plan To Hire 2,000 Auditors Appears To Stall
The US government appears to be behind on its goal of hiring staff to audit private Medicare Advantage insurance plans for potential overpayments, casting doubt on how quickly it can clear a yearslong backlog that the new administration promised to tackle. In May, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it would hire about 2,000 medical coders by Sept. 1 to verify the data insurers submit for payment in the government’s health insurance program for the elderly. This would be an increase from the 40 people the agency already had in place. (Tozzi, 9/5)

Modern Healthcare: What Medicaid Work Requirements Might Learn From The Unwinding
A year after concluding a long, messy process to trim the Medicaid rolls of ineligible beneficiaries, states, insurance companies and others in the healthcare system are bracing for impact as work requirements loom. President Donald Trump enacted a sweeping tax law in July that cuts Medicaid spending $960 billion over 10 years and includes significant new restrictions on enrollment. Work requirements promise to be the most impactful. (Early, 9/5)

The Washington Post: States Face Massive New Costs Under Trump Budget Cuts 
States are scrambling to prepare for an unprecedented shift of costs and responsibilities under President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending plan, which will force them to make difficult decisions about cuts to state programs to offset the new financial burdens. Unlike the federal government, states must balance their budgets each year. That means deep cuts and changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will require state legislatures and governors to cope with hundreds of millions of dollars in new costs each year. (Abutaleb and Reston, 9/7)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Healthcare Brew: Walgreens Private Equity Takeover May Bring Layoffs, Pharmacy Closures, Experts Warn
Walgreens has completed a deal to be bought by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, and pharmacy experts are worried it’ll bring with it layoffs and pharmacy closures. Rumors of the takeover began swirling last December, and Walgreens executives confirmed in March they had signed a definitive agreement with Sycamore. As part of the deal, Walgreens and its subsidiaries are to be split into five separate, privately owned companies: retail pharmacy chain Walgreens, pharmaceutical wholesaler the Boots Group, specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions, post-acute care company CareCentrix, and primary care clinic chain VillageMD. (Anderson, 9/5)

Yahoo Finance: Elizabeth Warren Warns About The Walgreens Takeover, Saying 'Private Equity Has A Record Of Running Companies Into The Ground'
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is sounding the alarm over Walgreens Boots Alliance $10 billion sale to private-equity firm Sycamore Partners. The company has already been struggling, and Warren says the buyout could make things much worse for workers and customers alike. “Walgreens just got taken over by private equity. Private equity has a record of running companies into the ground,” Warren said last week in a post on X. She warned that Walgreens “could be the latest victim: closing more stores, service plummeting, workers losing their jobs, and eventually bankruptcy.” (Volenik, 9/5)

Modern Healthcare: Banner Health Layoffs, Relocations To Affect 351 Employees
Banner Health plans to lay off or relocate 351 employees in Colorado as the nonprofit health system restructures its acute care and outpatient networks. Nurses account for about a quarter of the displaced workers, according to a Thursday Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing. Physicians, certified patient care assistants and ultrasound technologists are among dozens of other affected roles. (Kacik, 9/5)

North Carolina Health News and The Charlotte Ledger: Duke Health Sets Its Sights On Statewide Expansion 
For years, Charlotte’s health care market has been dominated by two names: Atrium Health and Novant Health. Between them, the two hospital systems hold a near lock on the region’s hospitals, a growing share of its doctors and much of its specialty care. Now a third player is muscling into the market. (Crouch, 9/8)

Modern Healthcare: Aetna, OptumHealth Finalize ‘Dummy Code’ Settlement Fee
Aetna and Optum will pay $8.4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging they used “dummy codes” that increased members’ out-of-pocket costs. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina approved the agreement Thursday. The companies and the lead plaintiff, a retiree with a self-funded Aetna employer plan named Sandra Peters who initiated the suit in 2015, agreed to settle in November. Coming to terms on the payout brings the case to a close. (Tong, 9/5)

Modern Healthcare: The Prior Authorization Companies Ready To Take On Insurers
Providers are doubling down on artificial intelligence, seeking to better arm themselves in the battle over prior authorizations against insurers that have invested heavily in the technology. Major insurers such as UnitedHealth Group, Cigna and Humana have invested heavily in AI. Providers, in turn, are looking to use the technology to ease prior authorization, a perpetual headache that has contributed to burnout for nearly 90% of physicians, according to a survey from the American Medical Association in February. (Perna, 9/5)

The Baltimore Sun: Concierge Care A Boon To Doctors But Problematic For Some Patients
When Annapolis resident Maria Pittarelli began pursuing concierge primary care for her mother, she quickly came down with an acute case of sticker shock. The idea behind concierge is that primary care doctors can charge a membership fee so that they can see fewer patients for relatively the same amount of money, thereby allowing them to dedicate more time to each patient. However, as more practices adopt the business model, those fees can become a barrier. (Rothstein, 9/8)

MedPage Today: Most Docs Say It's Fine To Get Tiny Gifts From Pharma, Survey Finds
Most doctors said it's appropriate to accept gifts valued at under $50 from the pharmaceutical industry, according to one of the many findings from a longitudinal study that surveyed physicians at the start of their careers in 2011 and then again last year. Yet a majority of the participants agreed at both points that marketing interactions threaten trust in medicine, with the share who strongly agreed with that idea growing from 5.6% in 2011 to 14.5% in 2024 (P=0.004), reported Aaron Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues. (Robertson, 9/5)

PHARMACEUTICALS

CNN: FDA Calls On Nicotine Pouch Manufacturers To Use Child-Resistant Packaging Amid A Rise In Accidental Exposures 
The US Food and Drug Administration is urging nicotine pouch manufacturers to use child-resistant packaging on their products. This comes as a rise in nicotine pouch exposure cases has been reported among young children – with some causing nicotine poisoning. (Howard, 9/5)

Stat: Summit Therapeutics Hits Possible Snag On Lung Cancer Drug Seen As Blockbuster
Summit Therapeutics may have a geography problem with its lung cancer drug ivonescimab. In a study update reported Sunday, patients from North America and Europe treated with the drug saw their lung cancer return and progress faster than patients from China — a discordant result that could complicate Summit’s plans to secure approval of ivonescimab in the U.S. and Europe. (Feuerstein, 9/7)

MedPage Today: Fracture Protection May Be Another Benefit Of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists
GLP-1 receptor agonist use was tied with a reduced risk for fracture among older women with type 2 diabetes, a retrospective cohort study found. Among over 350,000 GLP-1 users, there was a significantly lower risk for several different types of fractures compared with women with diabetes not using one of these agents, reported Jawaad Chaudhry, BS, MD candidate, of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. (Monaco, 9/7)

Stat: Alkermes, Takeda Show Encouraging Data On Narcolepsy Drugs 
Alkermes and Takeda Pharmaceuticals said Monday that their respective drug candidates for a form of narcolepsy substantially helped patients stay awake, fueling the race to develop a new class of therapies that could transform sleep medicine. (Chen, 9/8)

STATE WATCH

Minnesota Public Radio: Medical Debt Lawsuits In Minnesota Soar To 5-Year High 
Medical debt lawsuits across Minnesota have surged to the highest level in five years, according to a new analysis by independent nonprofit Pew. When patients are unable to pay their medical bills and fall into debt, hospitals and health care providers often turn over that debt to collection agencies, and eventually they can be sued by the provider or a collection firm for payment. Lester Bird, a senior manager with Pew Charitable Trusts, said those lawsuits can come with financial repercussions such as having your wages garnished, and it can also have emotional consequences. (Work, 9/7)

Kansas City Star: Fentanyl Keeps Killing Toddlers In MO & KS Despite Progress 
In late March, a 3-year-old Leavenworth boy known as EJ fell asleep for the night on a neighbor’s couch after eating grapes. Before sunrise the next morning, the little boy who loved Spiderman and wanted to play sports when he got bigger wasn’t breathing. Officers tried to resuscitate him, doing repeated CPR on his small body, as his mother sat in her neighbor’s apartment watching police try to save him. (Bauer and Green, 9/7)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Parental Consent Law Confuses School Nurses 
A new state law requiring schools to obtain parental consent before administering health care services to students has triggered confusion among campus nurses who worry they could face punishment for routine acts like offering bandages or handing out ice packs. (Edison, 9/5)

LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH

The Washington Post: Meta Suppressed Research On Child Safety, Employees Say 
At her home in western Germany, a woman told a team of visiting researchers from Meta that she did not allow her sons to interact with strangers on the social media giant’s virtual reality headsets. Then her teenage son interjected, according to two of the researchers: He frequently encountered strangers, and adults had sexually propositioned his little brother, who was younger than 10, numerous times. “I felt this deep sadness watching the mother’s response,” one of the researchers, Jason Sattizahn, told The Washington Post regarding the April 2023 conversation. “Her face in real time displayed her realization that what she thought she knew of Meta’s technology was completely wrong.” (Swaine and Nix, 9/8)

Fox News: Marathon Runners May Face Higher Cancer Risk, Study Suggests
Long-distance running, like marathons and ultramarathons, may not always be the health badge we thought it was. In fact, it could increase your cancer risk, according to a new study out of Virginia. Dr. Timothy Cannon of the Inova Schar Cancer Institute began work on the study, which was presented at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, after noticing ultramarathoners under 40 were showing up with advanced colon cancer. (Quill, 9/7)

CNN: Experimental Brain Stimulation May Help Turn Off The ‘Fire Alarm’ Of Chronic Pain 
Edward Mowery lived with excruciating pain for years: Picture being put into a hot frying pan, he said, and then someone holding you down on that pan forever. The fiery, shooting pain got so bad that he quit his job, stopped playing sports and had to abandon his beloved death metal band just as the group was taking off. (Christensen, 9/7)

NBC News: Space Travel May Accelerate The Aging Of Stem Cells As Much As Tenfold, Study Says
Traveling to space is brutal on the body. Spaceflight can cause astronauts’ bones to lose density, their brain and eye nerves to swell, and their genes to change expression. Research suggests spending time in space is akin to fast-tracked aging. NASA’s pioneering study of the identical twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly tracked signals of aging in both men while Mark remained on Earth and Scott spent 340 days in space. (Bush, 9/6)

OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS

NBC News: Frozen Vegetables Sold In 6 States Recalled Over Possible Listeria Contamination
Frozen vegetables sold in six states were recalled over a possible listeria contamination. Endico Potatoes Inc. in Mount Vernon, New York, recalled its frozen peas and carrots, as well as its mixed vegetables, the company announced Wednesday. No illnesses have been reported, according to the announcement shared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Burke, 9/5)

CBS News: Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Metabolic Meals Sickens More Than A Dozen People, 7 Hospitalized, CDC Says
A Salmonella outbreak linked to certain home delivery meals from Metabolic Meals has sickened more than a dozen people across 10 states, and seven had to be hospitalized, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. ... People sickened lived in California, Missouri, Georgia, Minnesota, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Washington state, the CDC said. (Tabachnick, 9/5)

AP: Radioactive Metal At An Indonesia Industrial Site May Be Linked To Shrimp Recall
Contaminated metal at an industrial site in Indonesia may be the source of radioactive material that led to massive recalls of imported frozen shrimp, international nuclear safety officials say, as efforts are underway to halt more U.S.-bound shipments. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that officials are in “constant contact” with Indonesian nuclear regulators who have detected Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope, at a processing plant that sent millions of pounds of shrimp to the U.S. (Aleccia, 9/5)

CIDRAP: Report Describes N Meningitidis Conjunctivitis Outbreak On US Military Base That Sickened 41
A study yesterday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report describes an outbreak earlier this year of Neisseria meningitidisconjunctivitis of an unknown source among young military trainees living in dormitories on a Texas Air Force base. Officials at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland led the investigation of 41 N meningitidis conjunctivitis cases, which are uncommon in adults with healthy immune systems, on the 11,800-trainee base from February to May. (Van Beusekom, 9/5)

CIDRAP: H5N1 Detected In Texas Dairy Herd; Researchers Can't Pinpoint Source Of California Child's Illness
After a month with no H5N1 avian flu detections in dairy cattle, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) today reported a positive test involving a herd from Texas, raising the nation's total since early 2024 to 1,079 infected herds in 17 states. The detection is Texas's first since May. (Schnirring, 9/5)

GLOBAL WATCH

NBC News: China Battles Mosquito-Borne Virus With Covid-Era Methods As U.S. Issues Travel Warning
For nearly two months, health officials in southern China have been waging war on mosquitos, reviving top-down tactics from the country’s zero-Covid playbook. ... While no locally acquired cases have been reported in U.S. states or territories since 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel health notice in August urging “enhanced precaution” amid chikungunya outbreaks in China’s Guangdong province and four other countries. (Mackey Frayer and Guo, 9/6)

Bloomberg: Ebola Outbreak In DR Congo Tests Global Response After US Aid Cuts
Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases on Earth, with a fatality rate as high as 90%. It’s among a handful of illnesses so dangerous that governments consider them threats to national security. The Democratic Republic of Congo declared an outbreak on Sept. 4 after 28 suspected cases and 15 deaths were reported. Health services in the country have been under strain this year as the US government’s decision to cut funding for international aid, and worsening conflict in the country’s east, complicate efforts to contain other diseases such as mpox, cholera and measles. (Kew and Gale, 9/5)

Bloomberg: WHO Ends Mpox Global Health Emergency, Calls For Vigilance
Mpox is no longer a global health emergency, but more needs to be done to eradicate the sometimes deadly virus that causes unsightly, painful rashes, the World Health Organization said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lowered the global alert level on mpox, previously known as monkeypox, more than a year after declaring the spread of the virus an extraordinary event. (Kew, 9/5)

Bloomberg: WHO Adds Ozempic And Mounjaro To Its List Of Essential Medicines
The World Health Organization added Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Mounjaro to its list of essential medicines, a step that may expand access to the drugs around the world. The recommendation applies to a range of GLP-1 drugs that also includes Lilly’s older medicine Trulicity and Novo’s Victoza, the WHO said on Friday. (Kresge, 9/5)