Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Europe Is Warning Travelers To Be Careful In America If They Are LGBTQ+
Axios: U.S. Allies Adjust Travel Guidelines Amid Trump's Rollback On Transgender Rights
Finland, Denmark and Germany urged cautionary planning for trans and nonbinary travelers seeking to enter the U.S. following an executive order requiring the federal government to recognize only two sexes: male and female. The advisory changes come as citizens from several European countries and beyond have been detained by U.S. immigration authorities over issues with travel visas. (Lotz, 3/23)
AP: Researchers Say US Government Tried To Erase Sexual Orientation From Findings
Two California researchers said Friday that a U.S. government health publication instructed them to remove data on sexual orientation from a scientific manuscript that had been accepted for publication. The researchers also said they were told to remove the words “gender,” “cisgender” and “equitable” from their paper, which looked at smoking among rural young adults. (Johnson, 3/21)
Politico: Trump Demands Maine Governor Apologize — Or The State Will Face Consequences
President Donald Trump is demanding a “full throated apology” from Maine Gov. Janet Mills in his spat with the state over transgender athletes, implying his administration will continue to target the state unless he gets one. The Democratic governor got into an argument with the president during a governors’ meeting at the White House in February, telling the president “we’ll see you in court” when he threatened to pull federal funding from the state if it failed to comply with his order to ban trans athletes from playing in women’s and girls sports. (Ruhiyyih Ewing, 3/22)
More health news from the Trump administration —
Bloomberg: Trump Administration Plans Detention Centers For Migrant Children
The Trump administration is seeking to bring back juvenile detention centers for unaccompanied immigrant children, just as a critical contract providing legal services to these minors who enter the US without their parents is in jeopardy. A request for information published this week said that the federal government is looking to solicit bids for beds in so-called “secure” facilities to detain teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17. (Akinnibi and Adams-Heard, 3/21)
The New York Times: Kennedy Instructs Anti-Vaccine Group To Remove Fake C.D.C. Page
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, on Saturday instructed leaders of the nonprofit he founded to take down a web page that mimicked the design of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s site but laid out a case that vaccines cause autism. The page had been published on a site apparently registered to the nonprofit, the anti-vaccine group Children’s Health Defense. Mr. Kennedy’s action came after The New York Times inquired about the page and after news of it ricocheted across social media. (Gay Stolberg, Rosenbluth and Mandavilli, 3/22)
NBC News: Kennedy Praises Cell Phone Bans In Schools, For Science-Backed And Tenuous Reasons
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took aim at a new target this week as part of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda: cellphones in schools. In an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Thursday, Kennedy praised cellphone restrictions in schools and listed health hazards that he said were linked to phone use among children and teens — some backed by scientific research, others less so. (Bendix, 3/22)
Axios: A Blueprint For Trump To Address Drug Prices
The America First Policy Institute — the think tank founded and staffed by Trump officials to advance his vision for the country — has written a new paper making the case against what it calls pharmaceutical "global freeloading" and outlining various policy measures to address it. (Owens, 3/21)
