Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026
KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES
KFF Health News: Medicaid Work Rule Leaves Homeless People In The Cold
Tywon Pugh has seizures that make it hard to find and keep a job. “They called me a ‘liability to the job site,’” Pugh said, recalling the words of his manager when a seizure cost him his last job at a fast-food restaurant in this western Montana city. When the 46-year-old lost work in the past, his wife of 10 years covered their rent and he tended to their home until he found another job. But his wife died last year. Soon after, Pugh became homeless. His problem with alcohol became worse, which made managing his seizures more difficult. (Houghton, 8/6)
KFF Health News: KFF Health News’ ‘What The Health?’: Watch: Democratic Senator Proposes A Fix For American Healthcare — Covering All Kids
In this “How Would You Fix It?” interview, Julie Rovner, KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent and host of the What the Health? podcast, sat down with Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, to discuss his proposal to grant all kids access to health coverage. Kim, who serves on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said it is “a real dereliction of our duty that we have not found a way to be able to ensure that every child is able to go see a doctor when they need to without breaking the bank.” (Rovner, 8/6)
KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest ‘KFF Health News Minute’
Katheryn Houghton reads the week’s news: Some older adults are seeking roommates to help them age in place. Plus, doctors say they shouldn’t be the ones determining if someone is too sick to comply with Medicaid’s new work rules. (8/6)
CDC LEADERSHIP
Stat: Dr. Erica Schwartz Confirmed As New CDC Director On 51-44 Vote
Erica Schwartz was confirmed Wednesday as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making her the second permanent leader of the agency since the second Trump administration took office. (Cirruzzo, 8/5)
The 19th: Dr. Erica Schwartz Faces An Uphill Battle As New CDC Director
Dr. Erica Schwartz will be the first Black woman to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, promising that she will show “radical transparency and unwavering scientific integrity” in the role. But she faces political headwinds and practical challenges as she starts the job. (Rodriguez, 8/5)
VACCINES
The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves Moderna’s MRNA Flu Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first mRNA flu vaccine, enabling use of a technology that will make it easier to rapidly target a widely prevalent or particularly virulent strain of the virus. The approval of the vaccine, called mFLUSIVA, which is manufactured by Moderna, follows a series of blows to mRNA research directed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the cancellation of 22 projects meant to develop vaccines with mRNA technology through the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. (Jewett, 8/5)
MedPage Today: Tool Brings Vax Vs Disease Risk Into Stark Contrast
As vaccine hesitancy continues to rise, fueling a record-breaking resurgence of measles, among other public health threats, an online tool launched this week aims to help people better understand vaccine safety. The free and interactive tool -- called "What's the Risk?" -- was created by the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) and Unbiased Science. (Henderson, 8/5)
GOP INVESTIGATION OF ANTHONY FAUCI
The New York Times: Senate Panel Has Obtained Copy Of Fauci’s Cellphone
On the eve of a planned vote by a Senate committee on whether to hold Dr. Anthony S. Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at a hearing last week, the chairman of a separate panel said that he has obtained a copy of Dr. Fauci’s cellphone. “Hopefully, this device will address many of the questions he refused to answer at last week’s hearing,” Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote on social media Wednesday night. (Stolberg, 8/5)
Poynter: Did Fauci's Private Diary Contradict What He Told The Public?
PolitiFact compared Anthony Fauci's private writings with what he said publicly about COVID's origins, school closures and masks. (Tuquero, 8/4)
Politico: Florida AG, Alongside 2 Other Red States, Subpoenas Fauci
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Wednesday that his office, alongside two other red states, issued a subpoena to former Covid czar Anthony Fauci for records tied to grant money, awards and book deals, among other areas of investigation. A pandemic diary kept by Fauci, a consistent GOP target for his Covid-era decision-making, was released just before a Senate hearing last month in which he declined to answer questions Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Just hours after the hearing, Uthmeier announced a Florida investigation into Fauci. (Sarkissian, 8/5)
CYCLOSPORIASIS OUTBREAK
Reuters: Mexico Investigating Tourist Hub For Cyclospora After UK Alert
Mexico's health ministry is testing food and water at more than a dozen hotels in the tourist hub of Quintana Roo after British health authorities reported cases of cyclosporiasis in travelers who had stayed there, the ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry said that results from the laboratory analysis would be released once testing is complete. Mexico has logged 33 cases of cyclosporiasis, which causes stomach illness, across several states. (8/5)
STLPR: CDC Adds Missouri To List Of States In National Cyclospora Outbreak
Missouri health officials confirmed Wednesday that the state is now included in a nationwide outbreak of cyclosporiasis linked to lettuce grown in central Mexico, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not publicly announced the change. (Fentem, 8/5)
CNN: Cyclospora Outbreak Follows Years-Long Pattern Of Taylor Farms Deflecting Blame
Taylor Farms has regularly downplayed problems after being linked to outbreaks in the past. (Tolan, Abou-Ghazala, Devine and Lah, 8/6)
Poynter: Food Recalls Are Making Headlines. Here’s What The Data And Experts Say.
The U.S. food supply is “among the safest in the world,” said Steven Mandernach, the Association of Food and Drug Officials’ executive director. “It’s always been among the safest in the world. I see nothing that has changed. ”But it’s notoriously difficult to answer in real-time whether our food is getting less safe, food safety experts said. (Czopek, 8/5)
MORE OUTBREAKS AND HEALTH THREATS
ABC News: Cases Of Potentially Deadly Fungus Detected In 27 States, CDC Data Shows. What To Know
Cases of a potentially deadly fungus have been detected in 27 states so far this year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of the week ending July 25, there have been 3,437 cases of Candida auris (C. auris) identified. This is about 1,000 fewer cases than the 4,290 figure detected at the same time last year. California has recorded the most cases with 873, followed by Texas with 433 and Tennessee with 283. (Kekatos, 8/6)
AP: Congo Ebola Health Workers Protest Unpaid Wages, Disrupting Response As Deaths Top 1,800
Dozens of Congolese health workers at the epicenter of the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record staged protests Thursday to demand payment for their wages, abandoning several health facilities even as aid workers warn that the disease is still spreading at an alarming rate. (Bagalwa, 8/6)
CIDRAP: Despite Quick Rollout Of Trials, Ebola Outbreak Outpaces Response Efforts In DR Congo
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the fastest-growing in history, but the testing of new and experimental vaccines and treatments has also been speedy. “If you compare this outbreak to previous Ebola outbreaks, we have been able to start trials more quickly," Vasee Moorthy, MD, PhD, acting head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Research and Development Blueprint program, told reporters in Geneva yesterday. "It's true that the preclinical data that we're seeing is promising.” (Soucheray, 8/5)
THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
The Washington Post: U.S. Decertifies Transplant Group That Tried To Collect Organs From Living Patients
The Department of Health and Human Services began the process of decertifying a multistate organ procurement group a year after a federal investigation found the organization prepared dozens of patients for organ recovery while they were still alive, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday. The cases included a Kentucky man, T.J. Hoover, who was brought to the operating table in 2021 for organ recovery even as he was thrashing in bed, crying and shaking his head. A congressman likened the account to a “horror movie” during a congressional hearing in July 2025. (Wu, 8/5)
The New York Times: Trump Seeks A Boost For Hemp That Would Benefit A Top Aide’s Family
The White House is lobbying Congress for a reprieve from a ban it approved last year on potent intoxicating hemp products, seeking a delay whose beneficiaries would include the son-in-law of Susie Wiles, President Trump’s chief of staff. Under pressure from the administration, senators tucked the delay into a stopgap spending measure they are working to pass this week in an effort to head off a government shutdown at the end of September. (Vogel, Jewett and Diaz, 8/5)
AP: Trump Administration Awards $150M Migrant Child Contract To Texas Firm
The Trump administration has awarded a $150 million contract to give legal representation to migrant children traveling alone to the U.S. to a small Texas law firm with ties to the administration but little experience in immigration law, prompting legal aid groups who’ve long represented those children to warn that the move could make them vulnerable to deportation. ... The providers have increasingly raised worries that children won’t have the experienced legal help they need at a time when the administration is intensifying efforts to remove people from the country. (Santana, Gonzalez, Mayes-Osterman and Foley, 8/6)
Stat: Federal Regulators Invite Industry, Lobbyists To Closed-Door Meetings On Clinical AI
Federal health officials held closed-door conversations with prominent technology companies last month as the health department and its subagencies aim to safely boost adoption of clinical artificial intelligence. (Aguilar, 8/5)
MedPage Today: Who Is Steven Quay, The Biotech Exec Likely To Take Fauci's Old Job?
Steven Quay, MD, PhD, is reportedly in final vetting for the job of director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a position formerly held by Anthony Fauci, MD, for decades. So, who is he? Quay is the founder, CEO, and chairman of Atossa Therapeutics, a biotech company based in Seattle that's focused on breast cancer treatments. But he also made a name for himself during the COVID pandemic by promoting the lab-leak theory of COVID origins. (Fiore, 8/5)
SOCIAL SECURITY
The Washington Post: As Social Security Benefit Cuts Loom, Congress Wades Into The Crisis
After decades of procrastination, Congress is beginning to grapple with a Social Security shortfall set to slash benefit checks in six years unless lawmakers fix it. But instead of discussing actual fixes, a Senate Finance Committee hearing Wednesday focused on how to kick-start the painful debate to come. (Thompson, 8/5)
HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY
Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealthcare To Cut Medicare Advantage Plans In 34 Counties
UnitedHealthcare is making moves in Medicare Advantage for 2027. The UnitedHealth Group subsidiary is considering departures from 34 counties in 12 states, according to a preliminary list the company distributed to third-party marketing organizations last week. That represents 1.2% of the counties where it sells Medicare Advantage policies this year. UnitedHealthcare is the only Medicare Advantage insurer in three of the counties it may exit. (Tepper, 8/5)
Modern Healthcare: Cigna, UnitedHealthcare Push 'Level-Funded' Health Plans
A decades-old spin on traditional employee health benefits is making a comeback. Cigna Group subsidiary Cigna Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group subsidiary UnitedHealthcare division and a bevy of insurers and emerging companies are offering “level-funded” products to employers desperate to reduce rising healthcare costs. (Tong, 8/5)
Healthcare Dive: Sentara Moves To End Anthem Contracts In Virginia
Sentara Health has formally notified Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Virginia that it intends to allow some of its commercial, Medicare and Medicaid agreements to expire if the companies cannot reach a deal for a new contract. The dispute could affect nearly 380,000 Anthem members in Virginia. (8/5)
MedPage Today: Health Plans Losing Court Battles In No Surprises Act Cases
The fate of the No Surprises Act's independent dispute resolution (IDR) clause continues to hang in the balance as it winds its way through the courts. The No Surprises Act, signed into law in 2020 by President Donald Trump, was intended to protect patients from unexpected bills for care from out-of-network providers and to ensure fair contracts between health plans and physicians. It requires health plans and providers to resolve their billing disputes by establishing an IDR arbitration process in which the insurer and the provider each come up with an offer and an independent third party chooses one of the two. (Frieden, 8/5)
PHARMACEUTICALS
Stat: FDA Approves Takeda’s Narcolepsy Drug, A Boon For New Class Of Treatments
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a novel type of treatment for narcolepsy made by Takeda, backing a drug class that scientists hope can transform the treatment of sleep disorders and potentially address a broad range of neurologic conditions. (Chen, 8/5)
Stat: Second Death In Chinese Clinical Trial Rekindles Debate On Safety
Last year, a little-known Chinese startup took center stage at the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy annual convention in New Orleans. Speaking before a sprawling conference hall for the presidential symposium, HuidaGene CEO Alvin Luk presented data from one of the world’s first trials to test if CRISPR gene editing could treat children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, an intractable, fatal disease. (Mast and Yang, 8/5)
CNBC: Bank Of America CEO: GLP-1 Drugs For Employees Cost $250M A Year
Bank of America spends more than $250 million a year covering GLP-1 weight loss drugs for its employees, CEO Brian Moynihan told CNBC on Wednesday, saying the rapidly rising cost is a worthwhile investment in his workforce. (Son and Constantino, 8/5)
FiercePharma: Emergent BioSolutions Restructuring Eliminates Top R&D Role
Two and a half years into his tenure as Emergent BioSolutions CEO, Joseph Papa is executing another round of restructuring to align the business with “current business realities.” The Narcan maker will lay off 93 employees across all areas of the company and remove 21 open positions, the company said Wednesday alongside its second-quarter earnings report. (Liu, 8/5)
Nevada Public Radio: National Blood Crisis Tied To Heat And Other Environmental Factors
The Red Cross has declared a national blood supply crisis after blood donations fell to a four-year low this summer. Extreme heat is one environmental factor affecting donations. (Fernandez, 8/5)
STATE WATCH
The New York Times: Abortion Foes Backed Ballot Measures In 2 Red States. Voters Said No.
Voters in Kansas and Missouri have long filled their legislatures with Republican lawmakers who oppose abortion. Those same Kansans and Missourians, when given the choice, have also voted in favor of abortion rights. And though the word “abortion” did not appear on the ballot in either state on Tuesday, voters resoundingly shot down Republican-backed ballot measures that could have made it easier to ban the procedure in the future. In Kansas, voters rejected a proposal to start electing Supreme Court justices, and in Missouri, voters declined to make it harder for residents to amend the Constitution. (Smith and Klein, 8/5)
Modern Healthcare: Massachusetts Tests Hospital-To-Home PATHways Program
Massachusetts is investing nearly $1.4 million into a new initiative aimed at getting older patients out of the hospital faster. Seven hospitals will partner with aging services organizations and use the money to help patients line up nonmedical services such as meals, medication management and transportation after an inpatient stay. The program, if it is successful and overcomes long-term funding challenges, could serve as a model for other states and health systems grappling with delayed discharges. (Eastabrook, 8/5)
The Connecticut Mirror: CT Prisons To End In-Cell Restraint
The Connecticut Department of Correction has agreed to end its longtime practice of in-cell restraints under a settlement announced Thursday, following years of criticism over the treatment of incarcerated people with mental illness in Connecticut. The settlement, reached with the American Civil Liberties Union and Disability Rights Connecticut, resolves a yearslong case challenging the department’s use of in-cell restraints on incarcerated people with mental illness. The agreement requires DOC to revise its policy, provide staff training on full-stationary restraints and report their use to the ACLU. (Chau, 8/5)
The CT Mirror: CT Adopts New Cellphone And Screen Time Guidance For Schools
The Connecticut State Board of Education adopted new guidance Wednesday encouraging schools to implement bell-to-bell restrictions on cellphone and personal technology use. The new guidelines follow an unsuccessful attempt in the General Assembly this spring to impose a statewide bell-to-bell ban on cellphone use in public schools. (Peck-Suzuki, 8/5)
Chicago Tribune: Disability Advocates March On Gov. JB Pritzker’s Office
Advocates urged the state to invest in community-based alternatives to nursing homes for people with disabilities before attempting to enter Gov. JB Pritzker’s Chicago office in the West Loop on Wednesday. More than a dozen activists, mostly those in wheelchairs and on mobility scooters, raised a chant of “let us in” as they blocked the building’s doorway at 555 W. Monroe St. Illinois State Police pushed back, telling the crowd to leave. (Anastasakos, 8/5)
Chicago Tribune: Chicago Lab Owner Cooperating Against Fugitive Loretto Exec
A Chicago lab owner pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with fugitive ex-Loretto Hospital executive Anosh Ahmed in a COVID-19 testing fraud scheme that generated tens of millions of dollars in government reimbursements over a two-month period in 2021, much of which was for tests that were never performed. (Meisner, 8/5)
LIFESTYLE AND HEALTH
The Hill: The Risks Of Many Diseases Are Linked To Birth Order, Study Finds
The order in which a person was born may have an impact on their risk for developing disorders or diseases, a new study has found. Those born first carry a higher risk for neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism and ADHD, and food allergies, according to a new study of more than 10 million individuals published in Nature. Second-born children, per the research, carry excess risk for substance abuse and gastrointestinal issues. The researchers tested more than 569 diseases to find out which ones, if any, were more or less likely between first-borns and second-borns. (Soriano, 8/5)
HealthDay: Pet Dogs May Shield Infants From Infections, Study Finds
Kids with pet dogs get fewer respiratory tract infections and require fewer rounds of antibiotics than children not exposed to canines, a new study says. Microbes from dogs appear to provide some protection to children, helping them remain healthier on average, researchers reported recently in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. (Thompson, 8/6)
GLOBAL WATCH
