First Edition: Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: Climate Activists Cite Health Hazards In Bid To Stop Trump From ‘Unleashing’ Fossil Fuels
In 2023, a group of 16 young Montanans won a much-heralded climate change case that said the state had deprived them of a “clean and healthful environment,” a right enshrined in Montana’s constitution. Their victory in Held v. Montana, later upheld by the state Supreme Court, resounded across the country, showing that young people have a stake in the issue of climate change, advocates say. Yet, state policies to address the causes of climate change in Montana — home to large coal, oil, and natural gas deposits — haven’t changed in the wake of the case. (Robbins, 9/11)

KFF Health News: Affirmative Action Critics Refuse To Back Down In Fight Over Medical Bias Training
Critics of affirmative action have launched a long-shot appeal aimed at stopping California from requiring training on unconscious bias in every continuing medical education class. A July ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s right to mandate that every course doctors take to remain licensed must address how bias contributes to poorer health outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities. (Cohen, 9/11)

KFF Health News: Watch: Patient Numbers At NIH Hospital Tumble After Trump Cuts
Government documents viewed by KFF Health News show a drop in patients receiving care this year at the National Institutes of Health’s renowned research hospital, a 200-bed facility at NIH headquarters in Maryland. We previously reported a decrease in the number of patients being treated at the NIH Clinical Center from February through April. Since then, we’ve obtained newer data showing the drop has continued. (Pradhan, 9/11)

9/11 ANNIVERSARY

ABC News: New York Fire Department To Honor 39 Members Killed By 9/11-Related Illnesses This Year 
The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack on the World Trade Center is still killing New York City firefighters 24 years later. On Tuesday, the New York City Fire Department will remember 39 members who died in the past year of illnesses related to their work during the rescue and recovery efforts at what was then known as The Pile. (Katersky, 9/9)

CNN: 9/11 Victim Barbara Keating Died When Her Flight Struck The North Tower. Her Remains Have Finally Been Identified, 24 Years Later 
Barbara Keating’s identification highlights the ongoing efforts of New York City officials, 24 years after the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, to identify the remains of those killed. (Andone, 9/10)

NPR: Inside The Lab Working To Identify The Remains Of 9/11 Victims
Last month, New York City officials announced they had identified the remains of another three victims who died in the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. It was the latest update to come out of the missing persons unit of the New York City medical examiner's office, which since 2001 has been running the forensic investigation into the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history. But the news may have surprised those who didn't know that many 9/11 victims still haven't had any of their remains identified — and that city officials are still trying, 24 years later. (Hernandez, 9/11)

NBC News: Democrats Demand Answers From Kennedy Over Delayed Actions Of 9/11 Health Program
Ahead of the 24th anniversary of 9/11, Democrats are demanding answers from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the future of the federal World Trade Center Health Program, which covers treatment for 9/11-related illnesses such as cancer and chronic coughs. In a letter to Kennedy on Wednesday, obtained exclusively by NBC News, six Democratic senators expressed concern that the program was not abiding by a mandate to evaluate whether additional health conditions should be eligible for the program’s medical coverage. (Bendix, 9/10)

Newsweek: 9/11 Health Program Cuts Could Hit Over 140K Americans—'Going To Get Worse'
Advocates are sounding the alarm for Congress to act expeditiously in response to funding cuts that can have long-term negative implications on more than 140,000 survivors and first responders who benefit from World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) funding approved after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The WTCHP is defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as a limited federal health care program that provides high-quality, compassionate medical monitoring and treatment for those directly affected by the conditions associated with the 9/11 attacks in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Mordowanec, 9/11)

GUN VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC

AP: Charlie Kirk Shooting Brings Condemnation From Victims Of Political Violence
The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah had particular resonance for public figures who have experienced political violence themselves. Kirk, who served as chief executive and cofounder of the youth organization Turning Point USA, made frequent appearances on college campuses and in other settings, engaging in political dialogue with students in public settings. Several leaders who have survived public attacks or had family members victimized joined in bipartisan condemnation of the attack on Kirk. (9/11)

The New York Times: House Moment of Silence for Kirk Descends Into Partisan Strife
The shooting that killed the political activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday drew expressions of sympathy and outrage from across the political spectrum. But on the floor of the House of Representatives, a request for a moment of silence to honor him quickly gave way to a moment of bitter partisanship, in a reminder of the polarization that has fueled political violence in recent years. ... As other Republicans began yelling at Democrats, calling on them to back down, one Democrat responded, “Pass some gun laws!” (Gold, 9/10)

AP: Authorities Say A Student Is Dead After Shooting 2 Peers And Then Himself At Colorado High School 
A student shot two of his peers Wednesday at a suburban Denver high school before shooting himself and later dying, authorities said. The handgun shooting was reported around 12:30 p.m. at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, about 30 miles west of Denver in the Rocky Mountain foothills. The teens were originally listed in critical condition, St. Anthony Hospital CEO Kevin Cullinan said. Their ages were not released. By early evening, one teen was in stable condition with what Dr. Brian Blackwood, the hospital’s trauma director, described as non-life threatening injuries. He declined to provide more details. (Slevin and Brown, 9/10)

CNN: Since Columbine In 1999, Colorado Continues To Be Scarred By Gun Violence
Once again, a shooting with multiple victims has rocked Colorado – this time at a high school in Evergreen. At least two students were shot Wednesday at Evergreen High School, which is located roughly 28 miles southwest of Denver. The suspect, a student at the school, died from self-inflicted injuries, officials said. It is the 47th shooting at a school in the United States so far this year — 24 of which were on college campuses and 23 on K-12 school grounds. For nearly three decades, Colorado has experienced some of the highest-profile shootings in the nation. (Sanchez and Tucker, 9/11)

TRANSGENDER CARE

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Won’t Block Transgender Student’s Use Of School Bathroom
The Supreme Court on Wednesday left standing a lower court order allowing a 14-year-old transgender student to use a school bathroom that aligns with his gender identity, turning aside an emergency appeal from South Carolina to lift the ruling. The majority said the state had not met the bar to seek an emergency reversal of a preliminary injunction by a federal judge, who had permitted the teen to use the boys’ restroom while he sues over the state’s bathroom restrictions for transgender students. (Jouvenal, 9/10)

AP: Georgia County's Gender-Affirming Surgery Case Sees Federal Court Reversal
A federal appeals court has reversed previous court rulings that found a Georgia county illegally discriminated against a sheriff’s deputy by failing to pay for her gender-affirming surgery. In its ruling Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in an 8-5 decision that Houston County’s policy of denying coverage did not violate the civil rights of sheriff’s Sgt. Anna Lange. (Amy, 9/10)

AP: Texas Drops Lawsuit Against Doctor Accused Of Violating Transgender Care Ban
One of the nation’s first doctors accused of illegally providing care to transgender youth under GOP-led bans was found to have not violated the law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office says, nearly a year after the state sued the physician. Dr. Hector Granados, a pediatric endocrinologist in El Paso, was called a “scofflaw” last year by Paxton’s office in a lawsuit that accused him of falsifying medical records and violating a Texas ban that took effect in 2023. (Stengle, 9/11)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County First In Ohio To Ban Conversion Therapy Targeting Gender Identity And Sexual Orientation 
Cuyahoga County, on Tuesday, became the first county in Ohio to ban the use of conversion therapy on minors and vulnerable adults. (Durbin, 9/10)

GOVERNMENT SPENDING

Bloomberg: US Government Shutdown Threatened By Democrats Over Obamacare
Democrats are threatening to block a bill needed to avert an Oct. 1 US government shutdown unless Republicans agree to stop a sharp spike in Obamacare health insurance premiums or meet other demands by the minority party. Obamacare insurance subsidies, which have slashed premiums for millions of Americans, will expire Jan. 1, and out-of-power Democrats said they view the stopgap funding bill as their best legislative chance. Republicans need at least seven Democratic votes in the Senate to pass the bill. (Wasson and Dennis, 9/10)

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Bloomberg: Harvard Says US To Restore Some Research Funds After Freeze
Harvard University said it has received notice that some of the federal research funding frozen by the Trump administration is being restarted, although the money hasn’t started flowing yet. The notification followed a court victory for Harvard last week in which a federal judge ruled that the US illegally froze more than $2 billion in research dollars for the school. It can take several days for the university to receive authorized funding after submitting a request. (Lorin and Ryan, 9/10)

The New York Times: U.S. Drugmakers Warn White House Of Chaos As Trump Weighs Curbs On China
The Trump administration has been discussing severe restrictions on medicines from China that, if enacted, could upend the American pharmaceutical industry and availability of everything from generic drugs to cutting-edge treatments. At the heart of the possible clampdown is a drafted executive order that threatens to cut off the pipeline of Chinese-invented experimental treatments. Major pharmaceutical companies have been buying the rights to drugs created in China for cancer, obesity, heart disease and Crohn’s disease. (Copeland and Robbins, 9/10)

VACCINES

CIDRAP: US Government Signs $56 Million Deal For Smallpox/Mpox Vaccine
Emergent BioSolutions announced yesterday that it has received a $56 million contract extension to supply the US government with doses of a combined smallpox/mpox vaccine. The single-dose vaccine, ACAM2000, was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007 for active immunization against smallpox in people considered to be at high risk of infection, then for active immunization against mpox in high-risk individuals in 2024. It's one of two FDA-approved smallpox and mpox vaccines, along with Bavarian Nordic's Jynneos vaccine. (Dall, 9/10)

Stat: Lawmakers Snub Kennedy, Include MRNA Vaccine Funding In Spending Bill
House appropriators have snubbed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by including an amendment in their 2026 spending bill that specifically funds continued messenger RNA vaccine research, despite his effort to roll it back. (Cirruzzo, 9/10)

ABC News: New Jersey Becomes Latest State To Expand Access To COVID-19 Vaccines
New Jersey has become the latest state to sign orders expanding access to COVID-19 vaccines, breaking with guidance from federal health agencies. The state Department of Health issued an executive directive on Tuesday allowing anyone aged six months or older to receive an updated COVID-19 vaccine, in time for the upcoming respiratory virus season. (Kekatos, 9/10)

The CT Mirror: Conn. Gov. Lamont Issues Orders Aimed At COVID Vaccine Access
Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday issued a slew of executive actions seeking to protect COVID-19 vaccine access in Connecticut amid recent federal changes that are causing confusion over who’s eligible for shots, where people can get them and how much they’re going to cost. (Golvala, 9/10)

ABC News: RFK Jr. Said US Children Receive Up To 92 Vaccine Doses. How Many Shots Do Kids Really Get?
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a Senate hearing on Thursday that children receive up to 92 vaccine doses in early childhood "in order to be fully compliant between maternity and 18 years." But doctors tell ABC News that that number isn't accurate. Excluding annual flu and COVID-19 shots, children generally receive roughly 30 vaccine doses – many in combined injections – before the age of 18. (Cobern, 9/10)

RACE AND HEALTH

AP: Judge Blocks Trump Policy Ending Social Services For Immigrants
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Trump administration restrictions on services for immigrants in the country illegally, including the federal preschool program Head Start, health clinics and adult education. The order from the judge in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island applies to 20 states and the District of Columbia, whose attorneys general, all Democrats, sued the administration. It puts the administration’s reinterpretation of a Clinton-era federal policy on hold while the case is decided. (Seminera, 9/10)

The Washington Post: Education Department Ends Grants For Some Minority College Students
The Trump administration said Wednesday that it will withhold $350 million in grants to hundreds of colleges that serve large populations of minority students, calling the decades-old programs discriminatory. The Education Department said it would cease funding eight discretionary grant programs that individually support Black, Native, Hispanic and Asian American students across the country. The agency said it will reallocate funding for fiscal 2025 to other priorities. (Douglas-Gabriel and Rosenzweig-Ziff, 9/10)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Fierce Healthcare: FTC Warns Healthcare Employers, Staffers To Review Noncompetes
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent letters to "several large healthcare employers and staffing firms" Wednesday suggesting they review their employment contracts for any noncompete agreements that are overly broad or anticompetitive. The letters were sent to an undisclosed number of unnamed companies, and were intended as a broad warning rather than a suggestion that the recipients had engaged in illegal conduct. (Muoio, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: CMS' Medicare Plan Finder Updates Push Insurers To Revise Plans
A little over a month before the annual enrollment period, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is urging Medicare Advantage insurers to make significant changes to how they present their offerings to beneficiaries. Perhaps most notably, CMS will incorporate provider network lists into the Medicare Plan Finder tool enrollees use to select plans, it notified insurers last month. The agency is simultaneously developing a national provider directory that will not be ready in time for the 2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D sign-up campaign, which runs Oct. 15-Dec. 7. (Tepper, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente, Renown Health Form Joint Venture
Kaiser Permanente and Renown Health signed an agreement to form a joint venture to operate a health plan and ambulatory care services in Nevada. As part of the deal, Kaiser would acquire a majority stake in Renown’s insurance arm, Hometown Health, which has more than 73,000 members. Kaiser plans to start offering health plan coverage in northern Nevada as Kaiser Permanente Nevada with an open enrollment period late next year, according to a Wednesday news release. (Hudson, 9/10)

Phys.org: Doctors Are Joining Unions In A Bid To Improve Working Conditions And Raise Wages In A Stressful Health Care System
The share of doctors who belong to unions is rising quickly at a time when organized labor is losing ground with other professions. The Conversation U.S. asked Patrick Aguilar, a Washington University in St. Louis pulmonologist and management professor, to explain why the number of physicians joining unions is growing—a trend that appears likely to continue. (Aguilar, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Compensation Is Up In 2025. Here’s What To Know
Hospitals and health systems are rethinking compensation and staffing as they navigate financial challenges, and it’s not nurses but other employees who are seeing sizable pay bumps. The median national wage increase across all healthcare jobs for 2025 is 4.3%, up significantly from 2.7% in 2024, according to a recent survey by healthcare consultant SullivanCotter. (DeSilva, 9/10)

PHARMA AND TECH

Stat: Child Dies After Receiving New Experimental Gene Therapy 
The first child to receive a new experimental gene therapy for a rare neurological disorder died a few days after dosing, the company sponsoring that trial said Wednesday. The company, Capsida Biotherapeutics, is one of a group of companies and labs engineering new viruses potentially capable of safely ferrying genes deep into the brain. Its first effort was designed to treat STXBP1 encephalopathy, a condition that can cause seizures, developmental delays, and other symptoms. (Mast, 9/10)

Stat: Study: Robotic Device Could Make Intubation Faster In Emergencies 
It’s a long-standing challenge for first responders: Opening the airways of critically injured patients struggling to breathe often takes multiple attempts, costing crucial seconds. The problem caught David Haggerty’s attention when he was a graduate student, and he set out to see if he could make the rescue procedure, called intubation, easier. In a paper published Wednesday, Haggerty and a research team led by the University of California, Santa Barbara, described a robotic device they say has the potential to be faster and more reliable. (Wosen, 9/10)

STATE WATCH

NPR: California Considers Allowing Doctors To Prescribe Abortion Drugs Anonymously
A California bill that would allow health care providers to anonymously mail abortion drugs could soon become law, marking the latest effort by a blue state to safeguard access to medication abortion. The two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol is used in more than 60% of abortions in the U.S., and roughly a quarter of abortions are now done via telehealth, according to the Society of Family Planning. (Adams, 9/10)

The CT Mirror: CT Approves Double Digit Rate Hikes For 2026 Health Plans
Officials with the Connecticut Insurance Department announced Wednesday they have signed off on an average rate hike of 16.8% for 2026 state-regulated individual health plans. They also approved an average increase of 11% on small group policies. (Carlesso, 9/10)

CIDRAP: Utah Reports High School–Related Measles Outbreak; US Total Reaches 1,454
Utah's health department is reporting a measles outbreak linked to a high school cycling event held on August 16. The department didn't say how many illnesses have been identified in the outbreak, only that event attendance was 2,000. (Soucheray, 9/10)

AP: Charlotte Commuter Train Stabbing Suspect Had Long Criminal History
After Decarlos Brown Jr. was arrested for the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee aboard a North Carolina commuter train, he was quickly sent to a state mental hospital for an evaluation. It was a sharp contrast from a January misdemeanor arrest, where it took more than six months for a court to order a mental evaluation after Brown told officers that he had been given a human-made substance that controlled when he ate, talked or walked. (Lauer, 9/10)

SUBSTANCE USE

AP: Federal Agents Seize 600,000 Illegal Vapes In Nationwide Raids
Federal agents seized hundreds of thousands of illegal vaping products in raids across the country on Wednesday as the Trump administration moved to crack down on devices that are regularly used by teens in the U.S. after being smuggled in from China. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top federal officials traveled to Illinois to tout the seizures, which included more than 600,000 illegal products taken from a distributor outside of Chicago, officials said. (Durkin Richer, 9/10)

The Hill: Abbott Issues Order To Ban THC Sales To Minors
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an executive order on Wednesday directing state agencies to ban the sale of THC products to minors, after state lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on restrictions this year. “Texas will not wait when it comes to protecting children and families,” Abbott said in a statement. (Crisp, 9/10)

The Wall Street Journal: More Pregnant Women Are Turning To Marijuana. Many Cite Health Issues Behind The Controversial Decision.
Pregnancy was a complicated time for Tasha Taylor. The 33-year-old was already managing her bipolar disorder with a psych medication when she got pregnant. Then Taylor learned the prescription drug could hurt her baby. She decided to get off the medication, which led to night terrors. She’d wake up shaking from nightmares of her abusive ex-partner. She struggled to eat. Taylor went on to get a medical marijuana card. The cannabis helped her sleep during her pregnancy and tamped down feelings of mania. (Wernau, 9/11)

PUBLIC HEALTH

AP: West Nile Virus Cases Running Higher Than Normal, Prompting Health Warnings
West Nile virus infections are intense so far this year, with case counts running 40% higher than normal, health officials say. More than 770 cases, including about 490 severe cases, were reported as of early September, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data posted this week. About 550 cases — 350 of them severe — are usually reported by this time of year. Health officials are ramping up warnings to the public, because most cases of the mosquito-borne disease are reported in August and September. (Stobbe, 9/10)

The Hill: Recall Expands To Shampoo, Deodorant And More Over Bacteria That Can Cause Sepsis
A DermaRite Industries hand soap recall has been expanded to more than 30 products, including deodorant, lotions, shampoo, hand sanitizer and more. The recall was initiated in July and was expanded recently over concerns that more of its products may include Burkholderia cepacia complex. Exposure to the bacterium could “result in serious and life-threatening infections,” the company said in a release. (Kaplan, 9/10)

The Washington Post: Chronic Insomnia Associated With 3.5 Additional Years Of Brain Aging, Study Suggests
Persistent sleeplessness may be far worse than a passing annoyance — gradually unraveling memory and mental sharpness, according to new research. A study published Wednesday in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, identifies a troubling link: Older people who have chronic insomnia appear more likely to experience accelerated aging of the brain. These changes are revealed in both cognitive tests and imaging scans showing the altered structure of the brain. (Eunjung Cha, 9/10)

CNN: More Of The World’s Children Are Now Obese Than Underweight, UNICEF Warns 
More school-age children and adolescents are now obese than underweight, a new report from the United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, has revealed, with 188 million young people affected. (Woodyatt, 9/10)