First Edition: Friday, Feb. 7, 2025

KFF Health News: Measles Outbreak Mounts Among Children In One Of Texas’ Least Vaccinated Counties
A measles outbreak is growing in a Texas county with dangerously low vaccination rates. In late January, two school-age children from Gaines County were hospitalized with measles. Since an estimated 1 in 5 people with the disease end up in the hospital, the two cases suggested a larger outbreak. As of Feb. 6, there were 12 confirmed cases and health officials expected an additional six, said Zach Holbrooks, executive director of the South Plains Public Health District, which includes Gaines. The department is investigating many other potential cases among close contacts, he said, in hopes of treating people quickly and curbing the spread of the virus. (Maxmen, 2/7)

KFF Health News: Some Incarcerated Youths Will Get Health Care After Release Under New Law
Valentino Valdez was given his birth certificate, his Social Security card, a T-shirt, and khaki pants when he was released from a Texas prison in 2019 at age 21. But he didn’t have health insurance, mental health medications, or access to a doctor, he said. Three years later, he landed in an inpatient hospital after expressing suicidal thoughts. After more than a decade cycling through juvenile detention, foster care placements, and state prisons, Valdez realizes now that treatment for his mental health conditions would have made life on his own much easier. (Rayasam, 2/7)

KFF Health News: On The Front Lines Against Bird Flu, Egg Farmers Say They're Losing The Battle
Greg Herbruck knew 6.5 million of his birds needed to die, and fast. But the CEO of Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch wasn’t sure how the family egg producer (one of the largest in the U.S., in business for over three generations) was going to get through it, financially or emotionally. One staffer broke down in Herbruck’s office in tears. “The mental toll on our team of dealing with that many dead chickens is just, I mean, you can’t imagine it,” Herbruck said. “I didn’t sleep. Our team didn’t sleep.” (Wells, 2/7)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Chaos Continues In Federal Health System
The Senate has yet to confirm a Health and Human Services secretary, but things around the department continue to change at a breakneck pace to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders. Payment systems have been shut down, webpages and entire datasets have been taken offline, and workers — including those with civil service protections — have been urged to quit or threatened with layoffs. Meanwhile, foreign and trade policy changes are also affecting health policy. (Rovner, 2/6)

AP: Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Plan Offering Incentives For Federal Workers To Resign
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s plan to push out federal workers by offering them financial incentives, the latest tumult for government employees already wrestling with upheaval from the new administration. The ruling came hours before the midnight deadline to apply for the deferred resignation program, which was orchestrated by Trump adviser Elon Musk. (Megerian, Binkley and Tau, 2/6)

Politico: Decision Day For Federal Workers 
It’s the final day that federal employees can take a resignation offer, but some HHS employees aren’t biting. ... A Wednesday email from HHS to its employees and viewed by Pulse offered early retirement to staff who are at least 50 with 20 years of service or employees with 25 years of service. According to media reports, around 40,000 federal employees across the government have accepted the offer so far. But it’s unclear how many health agency employees the 40,000 includes. Two federal health agency employees, granted anonymity to speak freely, told Pulse that they won’t take the offer nor have they heard that other colleagues would take it. (Cirruzzo and Hooper, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump White House Preparing Executive Order To Cut Thousands Of Federal Health Workers
The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services workers, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees. (Whyte and McKay, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Health Agencies Told To Rank Some Workers As Fear Of Layoffs Grows 
Leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services have been told urgently to rank thousands of their employees who are in probationary periods, with some managers bracing for layoffs of staff members who have been identified as less essential, according to eight people with knowledge of the matter and emails obtained by The Washington Post. The anxieties have been heightened at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where officials were told to rank 10 percent of their probationary staff as mission-critical, 50 percent as important and 40 percent as not mission-critical, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal. (Diamond, Sun and Davies, 2/6)

Bloomberg: HHS Asked To Go After ‘Anything Related To Covid,’ Wasteful Spending
The Trump administration is pushing the Department of Health and Human Services to go after “anything related to Covid” and contracts that would “be deemed wasteful by an average citizen if made public,” according to an email sent to Food and Drug Administration staff on Thursday seen by Bloomberg. That includes General Services Administration contracts for services to support diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility offices, telework, swag or advertising spending, the memo said. Staff were asked to report data back on such wasteful spending by Thursday morning. (Griffin, 2/6)

Politico: EPA Puts 168 Staffers On Administrative Leave
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it placed on leave 168 employees who worked on addressing pollution facing communities of color and low-income and rural areas. The move is the latest and most sweeping action by EPA to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda targeting diversity, equity and inclusion activities across the federal government. (Guillén and Snider, 2/6)

The New York Times: Trump Administration To Lay Off Nearly All Of USAID Staff
The Trump administration plans to reduce the number of workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development from more than 10,000 to about 290 positions, three people with knowledge of the plans said on Thursday. he small remaining staff includes employees who specialize in health and humanitarian assistance, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to publicly discuss the cuts. (Demirjian and Kavi, 2/6)

The New York Times: Dozens Of Clinical Trials Have Been Frozen In Response To Trump’s USAID Order
Asanda Zondi received a startling phone call last Thursday, with orders to make her way to a health clinic in Vulindlela, South Africa, where she was participating in a research study that was testing a new device to prevent pregnancy and H.IV. infection. The trial was shutting down, a nurse told her. The device, a silicone ring inserted into her vagina, needed to be removed right away. (Nolen, 2/6)

The New York Times: Senate Confirms Russell Vought As Office Of Management And Budget Director 
The Senate voted along party lines on Thursday to confirm Russell T. Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget, putting in place one of the most powerful architects of President Trump’s agenda to upend the federal bureaucracy and slash spending that the administration thinks is wasteful. In speeches, Mr. Vought made clear that he relished the opportunity to overhaul the ranks of career federal workers that Mr. Trump views as part of the “deep state.” (Rappeport, 2/6)

The Hill: Searches For 'Abortion' On CDC Website Prompt Suggestion To Try 'Adoption'
Users who search for abortion information on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website are now directed to try searching for the word “adoption.” The change comes less than a week after more than a dozen federal agency websites — including the CDC’s — went offline. Some of the CDC’s webpages have since been restored, but scientists and public health researchers are concerned that the information that has come back has been altered in some way. (O’Connell-Domenech, 2/6)

Roll Call: Community Health Centers Caught Up In Funding Freeze 
Funding delays have pushed several community health centers nationwide to close or cut back on staff, citing issues accessing federal funding. The financial problems, the centers say, appear to stem from last week’s temporary domestic funding grant freeze and the implementation of new executive orders. (Hellmann and Raman, 2/6)

The 19th: Trump Federal Funding Freeze Worries Domestic Violence Nonprofits
The Trump administration’s push to align federal spending to the president’s agenda — which last week came with the striking freeze of grants and loans to a broad swath of the nation’s nonprofits — has sent shockwaves through the network of organizations that provide services to victims of gender-based and domestic violence. (Mithani and Barclay, 2/6)

NPR: Senate Democrats Demand Answers On Health Communications Freeze
Unions representing foreign service officers and federal employees at the United States Agency for International Development are suing the Trump administration to halt efforts to dismantle the agency and freeze foreign aid. "These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests," the lawsuit, filed in a Washington D.C. federal court on Thursday evening, said. (Wroth, 2/6)

MedPage Today: CDC Journal Resumes Publication, But Without H5N1 Studies
The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) resumed publishing after an unprecedented 2-week hiatus, but without the three H5N1 avian influenza papers that were slated to publish on Jan. 23. A CDC spokesperson told MedPage Today that these papers "are still in the pipeline" but they did not have a confirmed publication date. (Fiore, 2/6)

Bloomberg: Bird Flu Expert Tapped By Trump Administration For Pandemic Response Unit
The Trump administration has chosen Gerald Parker, a veterinarian and former top US health and security official, to lead the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, people familiar with the matter said Thursday. Parker’s career includes more than three decades in the federal government focusing on global health, national security and pandemic preparedness. He will serve as director of the office, which was established by Congress in 2022 as the Covid-19 pandemic began to abate. (Griffin, 2/7)

The New York Times: Trump Signs Order To Fight ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ 
President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at eradicating “anti-Christian bias” in the federal government by having agencies review policies and practices that he says have tried to squelch religious activities and activism. Mr. Trump, who announced the order at the National Prayer Breakfast, appointed his new attorney general, Pam Bondi, to lead a task force at the Justice Department to spearhead the effort. Mr. Trump said the task force would “fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society” and “move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.” (Green, 2/7)

The 19th: NCAA Bans Trans Women From Women's Sports In Reversal Of 15-Year Policy
The largest college sports governing body in the country has completely banned transgender women student-athletes from competing in women’s sports, following President Donald Trump’s executive order threatening federal funding for schools that allow trans girls on girls’ teams. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Thursday rescinded its former guidance for transgender student-athletes, which had been in place since 2010 and was amended in 2022. (Rummler, 2/6)

Military.Com: Veteran Dies By Suicide At VA Syracuse Medical Center Parking Garage
A veteran apparently took their own life Jan. 27 at the parking garage at the VA Medical Center in Syracuse, New York, draped in a banner associated with transgender rights. A witness said the veteran died by suicide wearing a body-length pink, light blue and white flag -- a symbol of transgender pride. According to Syracuse.com, which first reported the death, the veteran was a patient who had been discharged from the hospital's inpatient facility on Jan. 21. (Kime, 2/6)

MedPage Today: Hospitals Fret Executive Orders Targeting Trans Youth
Last Friday, St. John's Community Health, a large southern California network of federally qualified health centers serving 430,000 individuals a year, tried to withdraw funds from a $1.67 million CDC grant specifically earmarked for transgender health services. "We weren't able to access it," Jim Mangia, St. John's president and CEO, told MedPage Today, "even though there was an injunction forbidding federal departments from initiating any funding freezes or terminations based on [the president's] executive orders." And even though the money is needed for payroll and service expenses. (Clark, 2/6)

Newsweek: Scientists Discover Way To Reverse Cancer
Scientists have discovered a molecular switch that can reverse cancer—turning cancer cells back into their healthy counterparts. The revelation by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon, South Korea, could lead to new cancer treatments. (Randall, 2/6)

Stat: Personalized Cancer Vaccine Shows Potential In Kidney Cancer 
Nine patients with advanced kidney cancer who received an experimental vaccine tailored to their tumors’ specific mutations mounted an immune response to their disease and remained cancer-free for three years, an early-phase clinical trial has shown. (Cooney, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai Push For In-Home Cancer Care
Technology and hospital-at-home programs are paving the way for in-home treatments to be the new frontier in cancer care — if reimbursement and other challenges can be worked out. Mayo Clinic, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Mount Sinai and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are among the providers leveraging acute care at-home programs and telehealth to treat certain patients outside of traditional care settings as the number of cancer diagnoses in the U.S. climbs. But patient safety, regulatory and reimbursement challenges are obstacles to expanding in-home cancer care. (Eastabrook, 2/6)

The Hill: GOP Seeks To Corner Democrats With Fentanyl Bill
House Republicans are moving quickly to pass legislation that would result in harsher sentences for people convicted of fentanyl-related offenses, putting pressure on Democrats who were divided on the bill during the previous Congress. Leadership on Wednesday teed up the GOP-sponsored HALT Fentanyl Act for a floor vote this week. The bill would permanently classify fentanyl-like substances into Schedule 1, a category reserved for the most dangerous drugs. (Weixel, 2/6)

The New York Times: Marijuana Dependence Linked To Higher Risk Of Death
Hospital and emergency room patients diagnosed with cannabis use disorder — defined as an inability to stop using cannabis even when the drug is causing harm — died at almost three times the rate of individuals without the disorder over the next five years, according to a study published on Thursday, the largest on the subject. Patients with cannabis use disorder were 10 times as likely to die by suicide as those in the general population. (Caryn Rabin, 2/6)

Fierce Healthcare: Hospitals' Strong December Caps A Year Of Improving Operating Margins
The past year was a step in the right direction for the hospital industry as outpatient revenue and below-inflation expense increases fueled a 9% year-over-year increase in 12-month operating margins. The new numbers from advisory firm Kaufman Hall run through December and reflect operating data from 1,300 hospitals nationwide as collected by Syntellis Performance Solutions. (Muoio, 2/6)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealth Group, Amedisys Drop Motion To Dismiss DOJ Lawsuit
UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys dropped their request to dismiss a government antitrust lawsuit over the insurer's proposed $3.3 billion acquisition of the home health provider. In a filing Wednesday to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys said the Justice Department disclosed which counties it alleges would experience reduced competition under the deal, making the motion to dismiss the lawsuit at a preliminary stage moot. (Eastabrook, 2/6)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente, Tufts Launch Food-Is-Medicine Network
Kaiser Permanente and Tufts University have launched a joint initiative aimed at improving nutritional and dietary health, the organizations said Thursday. The Food is Medicine National Network of Excellence comprises Tufts University's Food is Medicine Institute in Medford, Massachusetts, and Oakland, California-headquartered Kaiser, along with network members such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, CVS Health, Devoted Health, Elevance Health, Geisinger Health and Highmark Health. (DeSilva, 2/6)

Becker's Hospital Review: Wisconsin Couple Sues Walgreens, Optum Rx Over Son's Death
A Wisconsin couple has filed a lawsuit against pharmacy benefit manager Optum Rx and Walgreens, alleging their son's death was linked to a sudden price increase in his asthma medication. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Jan. 21, alleges that Cole Schmidtknecht, 22, died after being unable to afford a $500 spike in cost of his asthma medication, according to court documents obtained by Becker's. (Murphy, 2/6)

Bloomberg: Bausch + Lomb Stock Drops After Disclosing It Won’t Go Private Now
Bausch Health Companies Inc.’s years-long process of trying to separate its Bausch + Lomb Corp. eye-care business hit a roadblock Thursday when a potential sale to private equity fell through, raising questions about the parent company’s future. Bausch Health, which owns 88% of Bausch + Lomb, has been trying to complete a separation since as early as 2020, first entertaining a spinoff and then a sale. Disagreements between shareholders and lenders, as well as Bausch Health’s debt, which stands at more than $20 billion, have complicated the efforts. (Swetlitz, 2/6)

The Colorado Sun: Denver Health Rolls Out New AI Program To Help Doctors Take Notes
Dr. Daniel Kortsch is a pretty popular guy these days in the hallways of Denver Health, the hospital where he works in primary care. Colleagues come up to him for spontaneous hugs. He’s received at least one box of chocolates. The reason for this affection has to do with Kortsch’s other job at the hospital — as chief medical information officer, sort of a guru at the intersection of technology and patient care. (Ingold, 2/7)

The Baltimore Sun: Spring Grove Hospital Legionella Testing, Treatment Could Take Weeks
A Maryland Department of Health email obtained by The Baltimore Sun sent to workers at state-owned psychiatric facility Spring Grove Hospital Center  says testing and treatment for the bacteria could take weeks to complete. (Bazos, 2/6)

The Texas Tribune: This Texas Mental Health Program Has A Waitlist Of 900 Kids
The Youth Empowerment Services (YES) Waiver is an intensive mental health service program for families who cannot afford long-term psychiatric inpatient care or who would rather see their child receive treatment in their own community. The program, which serves about 2,200 children, is currently in desperate need of additional funding as providers leave the program due to low Medicaid reimbursement rates. The waitlist for this mental health service is nearly 900 families on a given day. (Simpson, 2/7)