Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Monday, May 18, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: A Danish Couple’s Maverick African Research Finds Its Moment In RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy
In 1996, Guinea-Bissau seemed like an ideal research post for budding pediatrician Lone Graff Stensballe. Her supervisor, a fellow Dane named Peter Aaby, had spent nearly two decades collecting data on 100,000 people living in the mud brick homes of the West African country’s capital. Aaby and his partner, Christine Stabell Benn, believed that the years of research in the impoverished country had yielded a major discovery about vaccines — and what they described as “non-specific effects”: The measles and tuberculosis vaccines, which were derived from live, weakened viruses and bacteria, they said, boosted child survival beyond protecting against those particular pathogens. (Allen, 5/18)
KFF Health News: Trump Bought Stock In Drugmaker As His Government Boosted Its Obesity Drugs
President Donald Trump earlier this year bought as much as $680,000 in stock of Eli Lilly, the maker of blockbuster obesity drugs, as the agencies he oversees undertook an agenda that largely benefited the company. On May 14, the federal government released ethics disclosures revealing a list of stock and bond trades made on Trump’s behalf from January to March of this year. They included extensive trades across the economy, including investments in tech giants such as Microsoft and Nvidia, aerospace firms such as Boeing, and household-name companies such as Target and Chipotle. (Tahir, 5/18)
KFF Health News: Kids Keep Getting Stuck In Hospitals, Even After Being Cleared For Discharge
Overwhelmed by the demands of caregiving, Quette dialed 911 when she found her teenage son downstairs in their kitchen struggling to breathe. He had rolled his wheelchair to the oven to keep himself warm as he tried to regulate his temperature, she recalled, and was drenched in sweat from an apparent infection. (Anthony, 5/18)
KFF Health News: Journalists Unpack Latest On Vaccines, Vaping, And TrumpRx
KFF Health News journalists made the rounds on national media recently to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH
The Hill: Trump Administration Sued By Veterans Group Over VA Abortion Ban
A veterans advocacy group is suing the Trump administration over its ban on abortion care and counseling at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Minority Veterans of America said it brought the lawsuit on behalf of all its members harmed by the ban, including one pregnant member who has chronic medical conditions and a long history of pregnancy complications and needs access to abortion care and counseling to protect her health. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. (Weixel, 5/15)
Politico: Acting FDA Leader Tries To Explain Past Planned Parenthood Work To Abortion Opponents
The new acting head of the Food and Drug Administration is scrambling to reassure abortion opponents that he is on their side after court records surfaced listing him as an outside counsel for a Planned Parenthood Florida chapter for at least three years beginning in 2014. Within hours of his appointment on Tuesday to temporarily lead the agency after the resignation of former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, Kyle Diamantas was on the phone telling several anti-abortion leaders that he is morally opposed to the procedure. (Ollstein and Lim, 5/15)
CBS News: Religious Anti-Abortion Center Finds Opportunity In Town Without OB-GYNs
An anti-abortion pregnancy center on the outskirts of this Idaho Panhandle town greets visitors with an abridged Bible verse painted on the wall of its waiting area: "Come to me & I will give you rest." 7B Care Clinic has been operating in Sandpoint since 2001 and was previously called Life Choices Pregnancy Center and Sandpoint Crisis Pregnancy Center. (Orozco Rodriguez, 5/18)
AP: Parents Push For NICU Leave After Wins In Colorado And Illinois
As his daughter Olivia was born, Marlon White felt his wife’s hand slacken as she fainted. The baby, born at 29 weeks and weighing about 2 pounds, wasn’t making a sound as she was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit. Terrified, he waited in the hall while the doctors stabilized his newborn and wife. The next day, White, a welder, was back at work. Two days later, his wife, Farra Lanzer-White, was also back on the job, setting up a work station at the Denver hospital. For two months, first at one hospital then another, she kept up with emails and meetings as alarm bells went off each time Olivia stopped breathing, as she herself prepared for open-heart surgery for a condition discovered during her difficult pregnancy. (Olson, 5/18)
TRANSGENDER CARE
AP: Kansas Protects Gender-Affirming Care As Texas Case Attacks It
A Kansas judge on Friday protected access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors as the nation’s largest children’s hospital moved to restrict such care in Texas, buckling under pressure from the Trump administration. Texas Children’s Hospital, based in Houston, said in a statement that it had agreed to a legal settlement “to protect our resources from endless and costly litigation.” The hospital, which serves more than 1 million patients a year, stopped providing hormone treatments for transgender children and teens in 2022, a year before the state banned such care, but still faced a yearslong investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office. (Hanna, 5/16)
OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
MedPage Today: Many States Not Prepared To Respond To Public Health Emergencies, Report Finds
Even as hantavirus cases on a cruise ship continue to cause concern, about one-fourth of states are not fully prepared to manage a public health emergency if one should come their way, a report found. "The nation faced the most severe flu season in nearly a decade, the highest annual measles case count since 1991, and devastating weather-related emergencies, even as federal public health funding, staffing, and operational support were destabilized," J. Nadine Gracia, MD, president and CEO of the Trust for America's Health (TFAH), which sponsored the report, said in a press release. (Frieden, 5/15)
Bloomberg: CDC To Escalate Ebola Response After WHO Declares Emergency
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is escalating its response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, after the World Health Organization labeled the outbreak a public health emergency. The agency plans to deploy additional staff to the affected countries and will provide technical support including laboratory testing, contact tracing and surveillance through its country offices, said Satish Pillai, the CDC’s Ebola response incident manager, on a call with reporters Sunday. It has also activated its emergency response center. (Nix, 5/17)
Newsweek: How Ebola Compares To Hantavirus As 'Small Number' Of Americans Impacted In DRC
A “small number” of Americans are being withdrawn from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda after exposure to an Ebola outbreak, U.S. health officials said, not long after the hantavirus outbreak aboard an Antarctic expedition cruise ship, which has left dozens of Americans under monitoring following possible exposure. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it is assisting those “directly affected” by the outbreak following the World Health Organization’s declaration of a public health emergency of international concern. The outbreak has so far included 10 confirmed cases and 336 suspected cases—88 of them fatal—in the DRC, along with two confirmed cases and one death in Uganda. (Laws, 5/18)
The Hill: Donald Trump's Health Cuts Complicate Federal Messaging On Hantavirus
The federal hantavirus response has laid bare the impact of the Trump administration’s cuts to U.S. and global health, renewing concerns among public health experts that the U.S. is not prepared for a bigger health crisis. Career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been fired or left the agency, and there are far fewer people available to respond to outbreaks and to communicate with the public. That has largely left political appointees in charge of updating the public. (Weixel, 5/16)
CIDRAP: Hantavirus Outbreak Reduced To 10 Cases As Ship Passengers Return To Home Countries
The World Health Organization (WHO) today reduced the number of reported hantavirus cases from the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius from 11 to 10. WHO officials said at a press briefing this morning that the 11 cases reported in a disease outbreak update on May 13 included one inconclusive test in a passenger from the United States. But the agency learned yesterday that the patient has tested negative. Eight cases have been confirmed, and two are probable. (Dall, 5/15)
CIDRAP: Salmonella Outbreaks Linked To Backyard Poultry Send 54 To The Hospital
The number of people sickened by three multistate outbreaks of the Salmonella bacterium has rocketed to 184. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday there are 150 new cases since April 23, though the true number of sick people is likely higher. At least 54 people have been hospitalized and one person died in Washington state, according to the CDC. Over a quarter of people sickened in this outbreak are children under 5 years old, with a median age of 31 years. (Boden, 5/15)
CIDRAP: Survey: A Third Of US Backyard Flock Owners Don’t Know Signs, Symptoms Of Avian Flu
While most respondents to a survey of US backyard flock owners had heard of avian influenza, about one third didn’t know the signs or symptoms of infection in birds or people, highlighting the need for risk messaging and educational resources. The online survey was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with state and agricultural officials from July to December 2025. The aim was to learn more about flock owners and their knowledge, attitudes, and practices surrounding the H5 strain of avian flu that has affected millions of US poultry. Of 638 respondents, about half had an advanced degree. (Van Beusekom, 5/15)
CIDRAP: US Measles Total Nears 1,900, With 51 New Cases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today confirmed 51 new measles cases in a nationwide outbreak that has now reached 1,893 infections. All but nine cases are locally acquired, with the rest related to international travel. The agency reported two new outbreaks, for a total of 27. Last year the nation saw 48 outbreaks and 2,288 cases for the entire year. The United States could top that total in the coming months. (Wappes, 5/15)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
NBC News: FDA Leadership Shakeup Continues With Departure Of Top Drug Regulator
Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg is leaving her role as head of the FDA division that regulates over-the-counter and prescription drugs, according to a Department of Health and Human Services official. Høeg, a sports medicine doctor who criticized Covid shots for children during the pandemic, served as acting director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research for about five months. (Lovelace Jr. and Bendix, 5/15)
Politico: RFK Jr.’s Department To Make It Easier To Fire Career Staff
The Health and Human Services Department is moving hundreds of senior career staff to a new civil service classification that will make it easier to fire them. President Donald Trump tinkered with the idea late in his first term and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, recommended the reclassification of career staff with policy-making responsibilities in its Project 2025 blueprint for Trump’s second term. Trump dismissed that document during his campaign, but has since adopted many of its proposals. (Paun and Sophie Gardner, 5/15)
Politico: How Cassidy’s Loss Could Turn Into An Even Bigger Win For RFK Jr.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his followers scored a big win Saturday when Kennedy’s nemesis, Sen. Bill Cassidy, went down in his Louisiana primary. The cherry on top for Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement would be if another Republican doctor in the Senate, Kansas’ Roger Marshall, replaces Cassidy next year as chair of the Health Committee. Marshall, unlike Cassidy, is a big Kennedy fan, having founded a MAHA caucus to promote Kennedy’s push to combat chronic disease. (Levien, 5/17)
Stat: U.K. Advocacy Groups Threaten Legal Action Over Provision In U.S. Pharma Deal
Two advocacy groups are demanding the United Kingdom revoke regulations at the heart of a new trade agreement with the U.S. over concerns the deal will allow outsiders to influence official decisions about the cost-effectiveness of medicines. And if the government does not comply, the groups are readying legal action. (Silverman, 5/17)
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Washington Post: Efforts To Understand America’s Drugged-Driving Problem Stalls Under Trump
Two state transportation workers were replacing a sign on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 6 in western Colorado one morning when a Jeep Grand Cherokee swerved off the road and struck them. The workers, Nathan Jones and Trent Umberger, died in the September 2024 crash, as did a passenger in the Jeep. Tests found that the driver, Patrick Sneddon, then 59, had oxycodone and six times Colorado’s presumed impairment threshold of THC — the psychoactive compound in cannabis — in his blood. He pleaded guilty and is serving 30 years in prison on three counts of vehicular homicide and other charges. (DiCola, 5/17)
Military.com: Veterans Still Dying From 'Miracle Mineral' Asbestos Linked To Mesothelioma
Army veteran Alan Bonnin would be alive today if not for an aggressive three-year fight with asbestos-causing mesothelioma that ultimately took his life. The hardworking husband, father and retired soldier never questioned his work as a longtime mechanic and HVAC technician after leaving the armed forces. His specialty of working on brakes and then later for 30 years at a heating and cooling company is believed to be how he contracted the cancer from the hidden asbestos risk he faced on the job. (Dennis, 5/17)
The Hill: FDA Recall Impacts Seasoning Sold At Walmart Stores Nationwide Due To Salmonella
Federal health officials report that a company is recalling a seasoning product sold nationwide at Walmart stores as it may be contaminated with salmonella. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday that Blackstone Products, based in Utah, is voluntarily recalling some lots of its “Blackstone Parmesan Ranch” products. The company says the products contain powdered milk that was recalled earlier this year because of possible salmonella contamination, posing a health risk to people who purchased the seasoning. (Self, 5/16)
The New York Times: Straus Family Creamery Issues Voluntary Ice Cream Recall
A California dairy company has issued a recall for five ice cream flavors, warning customers that some tubs may be contaminated with metal. The company, Straus Family Creamery, recalled some of its organic ice cream, which was sold in 17 states since May 4. It said it ordered the recall because of “the potential presence of metal foreign material,” without giving further details. The warning applies to its vanilla bean, strawberry, cookie dough, Dutch chocolate and mint chip flavors with specific “best-by” dates in late December 2026. (Sands, 5/17)
SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONS
CIDRAP: Virus In The Vents: Study Traces COVID Spread In High-Rise Apartment
A COVID-19 outbreak in a residential building in Spain during the early months of the pandemic likely spread through shared bathroom ventilation ducts, according to a study published this week in PLOS One. The outbreak occurred in June 2020 in a seven-story apartment building in the city of Santander in northern Spain, during a period when transmission in the city (population 172,000) had dropped to zero. Fifteen COVID cases were identified in four vertically stacked apartments connected by the same bathroom ventilation shaft. No cases were detected in surrounding apartments or elsewhere in the building. (Bergeson, 5/15)
San Francisco Chronicle: Leaving The Workforce Early May Affect Brain Health, Researchers Say
Early retirement sounds pretty great. It’s hard to picture a downside of ditching the daily grind for a lifetime of more personally fulfilling pursuits. But leaving employment before traditional retirement age — especially because of layoffs or weak labor markets — could have negative impacts on cognitive abilities, according to a new working paper from researchers at UC Irvine published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. (Roy, 5/17)
San Francisco Chronicle: Exercise Intensity May Matter More Than Duration, Study Finds
People who do more short bursts of vigorous activity — like running to catch the bus or running up stairs — are less likely to develop several chronic diseases including heart disease and dementia compared to people who do no vigorous activity, according to a recent study in the European Heart Journal. The takeaway, the researchers said, is that people may want to prioritize intense activity over total volume of activity because it may prevent many chronic diseases more effectively. Even as little as 15 to 20 minutes a week of vigorous activity, or just two to three minutes a day, appear to have meaningful health benefits. (Ho, 5/17)
MedPage Today: Low-Intensity Ultrasound Shatters Kidney Stones In 70% Of SOUND Trial Patients
An in-office device that uses low-pressure ultrasound waves to breaking up kidney stones was safe and effective, according to data from the SOUND trial. Treatment with the Break Wave lithotripsy device reduced stones to passable fragments of ≤4 mm in seven out of 10 patients and with minor complication, reported Benjamin Chew, MD, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. (Bassett, 5/17)
MedPage Today: Too Much Or Too Little Opioid Pain Relief May Drive Refills After Urologic Surgery
Too much or too little opioid pain management at discharge after urologic surgery significantly increased the likelihood of refills, providing new insight into opioid overuse, according to a study reported here. More than 60% of patients received discharge opioid prescriptions that were mismatched with their last in-hospital opioid dose, with underdosing accounting for a third of the mismatches. As compared with patients who received matched opioid doses at discharge, overprescription increased the odds for additional refills by as much as 85% and underprescription increased the odds by as much as 47%. (Bankhead, 5/17)
MedPage Today: GLP-1 Drug Makes Its Case For Treating Plaque Psoriasis
Adding a dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist to the psoriasis drug ixekizumab (Taltz) significantly improved outcomes in adults with difficult-to-treat plaque psoriasis due to overweight or obesity, the open-label TOGETHER-PsO trial indicated. (Ingram, 5/15)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Bloomberg: Astra’s Potential Blockbuster Blood Pressure Pill Approved In US
AstraZeneca Plc’s new hypertension pill won US Food and Drug Administration approval in a boost for the drugmaker that’s seeking to garner more than $5 billion in annual sales from the medicine. The drug, called Baxfendy, significantly lowered blood pressure when added to other hypertension medicines in clinical trials. The regulator cleared it for patients who aren’t adequately controlled with existing treatments. (Furlong, 5/18)
Modern Healthcare: CMS Finalizes ACA Exchange Rule For 2027
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a regulation Friday that will usher in major changes to the Affordable Care Act of 2010 health insurance exchanges next year. The final rule institutes substantial new policies, including tighter eligibility verification requirements and broader access to non-traditional health plans such as catastrophic policies that can be in place for multiple years and insurance without provider networks. (Early, 5/15)
Modern Healthcare: CMS Healthcare Fraud Push Draws Caution From Hospitals, Insurers
As federal regulators continue broadening their healthcare fraud crackdown, providers and insurers want them to move cautiously. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a formal request for information in February to solicit recommendations for an anti-fraud campaign dubbed Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare, or CRUSH. CMS asked about issues such as blocking Medicare-banned providers from participating in Medicare Advantage; using artificial intelligence in Medicare Advantage oversight; and improving identity verification for Medicare-enrolled providers and suppliers. (Early, 5/15)
Bloomberg: UnitedHealth Tracks Workers’ AI Use In Push To Transform Company
UnitedHealth Group Inc. is tracking how often some employees use artificial intelligence tools as part of a push to embed the technology throughout its operations, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is monitoring whether some workers in its Optum services division perform at least one query a day with programs such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Microsoft Corp.’s Copilot, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal operations. (Tozzi and Fletcher, 5/15)
Modern Healthcare: GE HealthCare, Philips Raise Prices Amid War In Iran
Providers could face higher prices for medical devices and supplies as a result of the war in Iran. Major medtech companies said during recent earning calls that rising oil, transportation and component costs are driving the inflationary pressure, though most indicated they are not seeing widespread supply disruptions or shortages. The price increases come at a time when the companies are launching new products. At the same time, providers are looking to cut costs amid approximately $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funding cuts and other policy changes under the tax bill the Trump administration signed into law in 2025. (Dubinsky, 5/15)
Politico: Hospitals Are Taking The Fall For High Health Care Costs
Two of the most powerful lobbies in the country are turning on a third in the hopes of deflecting Washington’s wrath and securing bigger shares of the $5 trillion Americans spend on health care each year. Drugmakers and insurers are aiming to take advantage of lawmakers’ worries about affordability to convince them it’s the hospitals they should regulate, and not them, if they want to bring down Americans’ bills. Some of the changes the drugmakers and insurers are pursuing would pad their own profits. (Chu, 5/17)
Bloomberg: Elliott Builds Stake In Life-Science Firm Bio-Rad, WSJ Says
Activist investor Elliott Investment Management has built a sizable stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories to boost the firm’s underperforming stock price, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The exact size of Elliott’s stake in Bio-Rad, a supplier of life-science tools, was unclear, the Journal said. Bio-Rad has a market value of about $6.7 billion. The firm’s stock has dropped more than 70% since a peak in late 2021. (Yilun Chen, 5/18)
Modern Healthcare: Kinderhook Industries Completes $1.1B Acquisition Of Enhabit
Private equity firm Kinderhook Industries has closed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Enhabit Home Health and Hospice. Enhabit’s common stock will no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the companies said in a Friday news release announcing the deal’s completion. Enhabit shareholders voted Tuesday to accept Kinderhook’s offer of $13.80 per share in cash. (Eastabrook, 5/15)
STATE WATCH
NPR: Trump's Immigration Crackdown Takes A Toll On Mental Health. One Clinic Tracks It
As the Trump administration's immigration crackdown stretches into its second year, researchers and health care workers say that it is creating a mental health crisis in immigrant communities. Data from one primary care clinic in Los Angeles, shared exclusively with NPR, shows a sharp rise in anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts among patients. (Chatterjee, 5/17)
CalMatters: California Lawmakers Rush $25 Million To Hospitals
A $25 million grant to cash-strapped hospitals became law less than a week after it was introduced — so fast that it caught some hospitals, their advocates, and even some lawmakers, off guard. It also left a litany of unanswered questions: who came up with the narrow criteria, how many hospitals would qualify and whether the funding will be enough to prevent hospital closures in the near term. (Yu and Ibarra, 5/15)
NBC News: More Mushroom Poisoning Cases Reported In California In Biggest U.S. Outbreak Ever
California’s monthslong spate of mushroom poisonings, in which four people have died and 43 others hospitalized, has become the largest known outbreak of its kind in U.S. history, experts say. Three cases were reported earlier this week, long after the typical growing season for the mushrooms behind the illnesses, leaving public health officials and mycologists puzzled about why the poisonings have been so widespread and what is causing the trend. (Bush, 5/15)
North Carolina Health News: Families With Disabled Children Press Lawmakers To Preserve Funding
Finley Thomas is an 11-year-old girl who’s got a morning makeup and skin care routine. She loves Halloween, dressing up, her older brothers and cheering with her squad. She also uses a wheelchair, has a tracheostomy tube that gets hooked up to a ventilator at night, receives tube feedings for much of her nutrition, and has multiple therapy sessions each week—all the result of a neurological condition she was born with that has recently required a couple of surgeries. (Hoban, 5/18)
Connecticut Public: Effort To Bring Dental Cleanings To Homebound People In CT Failed
When the Connecticut legislature gaveled out on May 6, several bills didn’t make it across the finish line. Among them was a proposal that would have allowed dental cleanings in private residences. (Savitt, 5/15)
