Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Feds Are Denied Access To California Hospital Records For Transgender Minors
San Francisco Chronicle: Trump Administration Blocked From Transgender Minors' Records
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from obtaining the California hospital records of transgender minors who have undergone treatment. U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts of San Jose did not state his reasoning or the scope of his decision in the brief order he issued Monday night. But attorney Shannon Minter of the National Center for LGBTQ Rights said Tuesday the order applies to all hospitals in the state that have provided transgender care. (Egelko, 6/9)
On the immigration crisis —
NBC News: Problems At ICE Facility Include Guard Who Lost Loaded Weapon, Failure To Test For Tuberculosis, Report Says
The largest ICE detention center in the country lost track of a loaded firearm, did not provide treatment to detainees with chronic health conditions and failed to test immigrants for tuberculosis, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office published Tuesday. (Silva, 6/9)
On Trump administration personnel —
Stat: NIAID Appoints New Acting Director After Weeks-Long Questions Over Leadership
The National Institutes of Health has appointed researcher John Powers III to lead its infectious disease institute on an acting basis, after weeks of being in leadership limbo following reports that the previous director, Jeffery Taubenberger, had stepped down. (Oza and Branswell, 6/9)
NBC News: High-Profile Exits, Curious Absences: The Leadership Vacuum Plaguing U.S. Health Agencies
There’s a glaring lack of permanent leadership at the country’s major health agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has gone from one acting director to another. The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration was ousted last month. The FDA’s second-in-command seat remains empty. And there has been no surgeon general for President Donald Trump’s entire second term. (Bendix, 6/10)
Stat: NIH Bethesda Declaration: Dissenters See Little Progress On Big Issues
Last June, hundreds of staffers at the National Institutes of Health broke rank in an unprecedented move and published an open letter of dissent to agency Director Jay Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya eventually met with many of the signers of the so-called Bethesda Declaration, who hoped it would spur a course correction at an agency they saw as going down a problematic path. But in a report published Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of the letter, 71 staffers write that they feel NIH leadership “largely ignored the concerns raised in our declaration.” (Oza, 6/9)
