First Edition: Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025

KFF HEALTH NEWS ORIGINAL STORIES

KFF Health News: ‘Sick To My Stomach’: Trump Distorts Facts On Autism, Tylenol, And Vaccines, Scientists Say
Ann Bauer, a researcher who studies Tylenol and autism, felt queasy with anxiety in the weeks leading up to the White House’s much-anticipated autism announcement. In August, Bauer and her colleagues published an analysis of 46 previous studies on Tylenol, autism, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Many found no link between the drug and the conditions, while some suggested Tylenol might occasionally exacerbate other potential causes of autism, such as genetics. (Maxmen, 9/22)

KFF Health News: As The Trump Administration And States Push Health Data Sharing, Familiar Challenges Surface
The Northeast Valley Health Corp. in Los Angeles County could be a poster child for the benefits of sharing health data electronically. Through a data network connecting its records system with other providers, the health center receives not just X-ray and lab results but real-time alerts when hospitals on the network admit or discharge its patients who have diabetes or asthma, enabling care teams to troubleshoot and significantly drive down emergency room visits. (Kwon, 9/23)

AUTISM

Roll Call: Trump, Officials Link Tylenol To Autism As Medical Community Balks
President Donald Trump and White House officials announced that the administration will advise against taking acetaminophen, the medicine in Tylenol, during pregnancy, citing widely discredited concerns that it could cause autism, in the latest effort rebuking long-standing public health guidance. Top medical organizations and lawmakers have widely panned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for promoting the theory as he looks to fulfill his promise to find the root causes of autism. (Cohen, 9/22)

The New York Times: For Trump, Who Has ‘Strong Feelings’ About Autism, The Issue Is Personal
Mr. Trump’s interest in autism dates at least to December 2007, when he hosted leaders of the advocacy group Autism Speaks at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. He theorized then that babies were getting too many shots at once; a few months later, he said that he and his wife, Melania, had slowed down the vaccine schedule for their son Barron, then about 2. “What we’ve done with Barron, we’ve taken him on a very slow process,” Mr. Trump said at the time. “He gets one shot at a time, then we wait a few months and give him another shot, the old-fashioned way.” (Stolberg, 9/22)

The New York Times: F.D.A. To Relabel Leucovorin For Autism Treatment 
Dr. Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, announced on Monday that the agency would be modifying the label of a relatively obscure medicine so that “it can be available for children with autism. ”He was referring to leucovorin, or folinic acid, a modified version of vitamin B9, also known as folate — which is naturally found in beans, leafy greens, eggs, beets and citrus. (Caron, 9/22)

Politico: Co-Author Of Study Linking Tylenol To Autism Says Pain Reliever Still An Option
A researcher whose work linking Tylenol to autism was cited by the Trump administration in cautioning pregnant women against taking acetaminophen says the drug still can be used for treating maternal pain and fevers. University of Massachusetts epidemiologist Ann Bauer reviewed existing research in a paper published last month in the journal Environmental Health with Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, the dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. She told POLITICO that while pregnant women should be informed that high-quality studies show a correlation between acetaminophen use and autism, Tylenol and generic versions should remain a pain relief and fever-reduction option for them. (Gardner, 9/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Kenvue Braces For Wave Of New Lawsuits Over Tylenol’s Potential Link To Autism
Kenvue is preparing for an explosion of litigation over its popular pain reliever Tylenol after the Trump administration warned that the drug’s active ingredient is a potential cause of autism. The finding by President Trump’s health officials, which Kenvue and some medical societies dispute, could provide ammunition to plaintiffs’ attorneys who are seeking to reverse losses in older lawsuits alleging the medicine caused the neurodevelopmental disorders. And it could unleash thousands of new lawsuits in the coming years, people familiar with the matter say. (Loftus, 9/22)

VACCINES

Stat: Trump Questions Vaccine Safety, Urges Changes To Timing
President Trump on Monday suggested an overhaul to how children get vaccinated after claiming, without evidence, that many vaccines are unsafe as currently given. The president said he has talked with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about his proposed changes.... The extraordinary remarks included Trump suggesting changes to how many shots children get and the time periods over which they get them. The president did not provide any evidence to support changes — instead, he shared personal feelings of revulsion at the number of shots that babies receive, and recounted an anecdote of a child he said was injured by a vaccine. (Payne, Oza and Cirruzzo, 9/22)

Chicago Tribune: Committee Recommends State Part Ways With Feds On Vaccines
Illinois health leaders should part ways with the federal government when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines and recommend the shots for all adults and many children, an influential state committee voted Monday. The Illinois Department of Public Health Immunization Advisory Committee voted unanimously Monday to recommend updated COVID-19 vaccines for all Illinois residents ages 18 and older. And they voted to recommend the shots for all children ages 6 to 23 months old. (Schencker, 9/22)

MORE ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The New York Times: Trump To Address U.N. As He Jettisons Aid And Recasts U.S. Role 
President Trump plans to address the 80th session of the United Nations’ General Assembly Tuesday morning, laying out his vision for how America should wield — or decline to wield — its power abroad. In the speech, Mr. Trump plans to target “globalist institutions” that have “significantly decayed the world order,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. “He will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” she said. (Broadwater, 9/23)

The New York Times: Defense Department Delays Cleanup Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Nationwide 
The Department of Defense has quietly delayed its cleanup of harmful “forever chemicals” at nearly 140 military installations across the country, according to a list of sites analyzed by The New York Times. The Pentagon has been one of the most intensive users of these chemicals, which are also known as PFAS and are a key ingredient in firefighting foam. For decades, crews at U.S. military bases would train to battle flames by lighting jet-fuel fires, then putting them out with large amounts of foam, which would leach into the soil and groundwater. (Tabuchi, 9/23)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Allows Trump To Fire Democratic Member Of Trade Commission 
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to fire the sole remaining Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission, the latest victory in his aggressive push to exert greater control over the federal bureaucracy. The justices overturned a lower-court injunction that reinstated Rebecca Slaughter to her position with the agency that oversees antitrust and consumer protection issues while litigation over her removal works its way through the courts. (Jouvenal, 9/23)

HEALTH CARE WORKERS

Bloomberg Law: White House Says Doctors May Win Reprieve From H-1B Visa Fee
Doctors could qualify for exemptions from the Trump administration’s new $100,000 fee for high-skilled H-1B visa applications, the White House said Monday, after some of the biggest medical bodies called out the risk to rural America where there’s already a dearth of providers. ... “The Proclamation allows for potential exemptions, which can include physicians and medical residents,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email Monday to Bloomberg News. “Ultimately, the Trump Administration defers to the language in the proclamation.” (Zhang, Tozzi and Nix, 9/22)

Bloomberg: Trump’s $100,000 Visa Fee Threatens To Worsen Doctor Shortages
The Trump administration’s $100,000 fee for high-skilled visa applicants threatens to worsen a shortage of US doctors and make it harder for rural hospitals to operate, medical groups warned. The fee for H-1B visas “risks shutting off the pipeline of highly trained physicians that patients depend on, especially in rural and underserved communities,” said American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala, a Michigan head and neck surgeon. (Tozzi, Porzecanski, Kang and Zhang, 9/22)

Modern Healthcare: Urban Hospital Closures Fueled By Staffing Shortages, Costs: GAO 
Aging hospital infrastructure, staffing shortages and expanding competitors contributed to the shuttering of some urban hospitals. The Government Accountability Office in a Friday report outlined a range of factors that brought about the financial decline of five unnamed hospitals that closed in 2022 and 2023. The analysis included for-profit and nonprofit hospitals, with independent and system-owned locations represented. (Kacik, 9/22)

HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

Newsweek: ER Deaths Surged In US Hospitals Taken Over By Private Equity
Patient deaths have been found to increase in U.S. hospitals after being acquired by private equity firms, according to one study. The death rates rose in the emergency departments of these hospitals, in comparison to similar hospitals not acquired by private equity, the study says. This nationwide study of hundreds of hospitals by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Chicago builds on previous evidence demonstrating the link. (Millington, 9/22)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Release Hospital Readmission Penalties For Fiscal 2026 
The number of hospitals faced with readmissions penalties of at least 1% come Oct. 1 is set to rise to the highest number since fiscal 2022. Prior to fiscal 2026, the number of hospitals facing readmissions penalties of 1% or more had dropped for five consecutive years. But preliminary data released Friday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services showed the number of hospitals set to pay penalties of 1% or more under the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program will increase to 8.1%, or 240 hospitals, in fiscal 2026 compared to 7%, or 208 hospitals, in fiscal 2025. (Eastabrook, 9/22)

Fierce Healthcare: Premier, Inc. To Go Private In $2.6B Purchase Deal
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Premier Inc. has agreed to a $2.6 billion acquisition that will take the healthcare group purchasing, technology and intelligence organization private under an affiliate of healthcare investment firm Patient Square Capital. The definitive agreement, announced Monday morning, is subject to regulatory approvals as well as shareholder sign-offs but is expected to close by the first quarter of 2026. (Muoio, 9/22)

Fierce Healthcare: Aetna Expands Partnerships Under Clinical Collaboration Program
Aetna unveiled plans to further expand a key program in working with hospitals. The Aetna Clinical Collaboration Program aims to improve outcomes for members in Medicare Advantage plans by reducing hospital readmissions and unnecessary emergency room visits. Through the program, Aetna places nurses on-site to assist hospital staff with care transitions. (Minemyer, 9/22)

PHARMA AND TECH

Fierce Healthcare: CVS' Omnicare Unit Files For Bankruptcy Amid Legal Fallout
CVS Health's Omnicare unit has started voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as it navigates a series of legal challenges. Earlier this year, a federal jury determined that Omnicare, which provides pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, submitted more than 3.3 million fraudulent prescription claims between 2010 and 2018. These claims filings garnered $135.6 million in federal overpayments. (Minemyer, 9/22)

Colorado Sun: UCHealth's Biobank Aims To Find When Genes And Drugs Don't Mix
Way back in 1994, Jim Jensen went to his doctor to try a new drug called Imitrex to treat his migraine headaches. Within minutes, he knew something was wrong. “They asked me how it was going, and I said, ‘I have pain between my shoulder blades, maybe you should check my heart,’” Jensen recalled recently. (Ingold, 9/23)

The Washington Post: Wegovy And Zepound Can Cut Future Health Costs. The Fight Is Over Who Pays Now. 
Millions of Americans who could benefit from GLP-1 weight-loss drugs are caught in the middle of a battle between drug companies and insurers over their costs, leaving them without coverage even as evidence mounts that the drugs could stave off expensive health complications in the future. Insurance coverage for the drugs has barely budged in the last year. Eli Lilly said in August that around 50 percent of employers had chosen to cover its weight-loss drug, Zepbound, little changed from a year earlier. Novo Nordisk said last month that about 40 million people have access to anti-obesity drug Wegovy through commercial insurance, roughly the same as at the end of 2023. (Gilbert, 9/22)

NPR: Rheumatoid Arthritis Filled Her Life With Pain. This Implant Set Her Free
For more than four years, Lynn Milam's life was bound by the pain that radiated from her swollen joints. "My children could not hug me," she says. "I couldn't hold my husband's hand." Milam also couldn't climb stairs or help raise her teenage son. She spent most days on the couch. The reason was rheumatoid arthritis, which occurs when the immune system starts attacking the lining of joints. (Hamilton, 9/22)

Stat: Few AI Device Manufacturers Disclose Payments To Physicians 
Artificial intelligence has danced around the fringes of prostate cancer for years, but in 2024, it got a profile-raising boost: An AI tool that could use biopsy images and clinical data to predict therapy benefits and a patient’s prognosis was recommended in a set of widely used guidelines for oncology care. “I remember being so impressed,” said David-Dan Nguyen, a urology resident at the University of Toronto who focuses on prostate cancer. But he was also curious: How exactly does a new device make it into clinical standards? He started to look into whether its manufacturer had made any payments to hospitals or doctors in the leadup to its guideline inclusion — to support research, perhaps, or to cover fees for consulting or marketing. (Palmer, 9/22)

CBS News and the Post and Courier: White House Slashes Medical Research On Monkeys And Other Animal Testing, Sparking Fierce New Debate 
The Trump administration has canceled nearly $28 million of federal grants for animal testing as major federal health agencies are phasing out research on live animals in favor of new alternatives, a joint investigation by CBS News and The Post and Courier of Charleston, South Carolina, has found. "We're witnessing a watershed moment right now," said Justin Goodman, the senior vice president of White Coat Waste, an animal rights nonprofit. "We have an administration that's skeptical of spending, skeptical of establishment science. … We are trying to slash and burn as much animal testing funding as possible." (May, Axelrod and Thompson, 9/22)

Stat: Apple Watch’s Hypertension Alert Misses Half Of Cases. Experts Still Think It Will Boost Treatment
Experts say sensitivity rate may be low, just 41%, but that any feature that nudges people toward blood pressure care is a good thing. (Aguilar, 9/23)

STATE WATCH

NBC News: Girl Shot In Head During Minneapolis Annunciation Catholic School Shooting Making 'Miraculous' Recovery
A girl who had a bullet lodged in her brain after the Annunciation Catholic School shooting last month is making what her family has called a "miraculous" recovery and will this week leave an acute care ward and join an inpatient rehab program. Seventh grader Sophia Forchas, 12, was shot in the head when a gunman opened fire during a school-wide mass at the Annunciation Catholic Church on the morning of Aug. 27. Surgeons performed a decompressive craniectomy, essentially removing the left half of her skull so her brain could swell. (Smith, 9/23)

NBC News: Family Of Boy Killed In Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber Fire Files Lawsuit
The parents of a boy killed in January in a fiery explosion inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber filed a lawsuit Monday, alleging the 5-year-old perished as a result of “corporate greed.” The suit filed in Oakland County circuit court in Michigan calls Thomas Cooper’s death the result of “callous indifference to human life” by the manufacturer of the oxygen chamber and the alternative medicine clinic that operated it. It said Thomas’ parents, who live in Royal Oak, Michigan, were not adequately warned that hyperbaric oxygen therapy could pose a serious risk of death should a fire break out, and said the hyperbaric chamber was designed without an effective way to extract someone during an emergency. (Chuck, 9/22)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego Navy Doctor Removed From Role Over Social Media Profile
A San Diego Navy doctor has been removed from her leadership role and is now under investigation after her social media profile caught the attention of a right-wing activist and the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. U.S. Navy Cmdr. Janelle Marra, who has served on active duty in the Navy for 17 years, was the medical services director of Expeditionary Medical Facility 150 Bravo, a Navy unit in San Diego trained to provide medical care to support military operations. (Fox, 9/22)

Iowa Public Radio: Iowa Health And Human Services Director Kelly Garcia To Step Down Next Month
Kelly Garcia, the director of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, will step down next month. Gov. Kim Reynolds made the announcement on Monday in a statement, saying after nearly six years of heading the state's largest agency, Garcia plans to leave the state at an unspecified day in October. (Krebs, 9/22)

WUSF: Hospitals Challenge Florida Proposal About Approving Organ Transplant Programs
Three major hospital systems have challenged a new state proposal about approving organ-transplant programs, alleging it does not include adequate safeguards for quality of care. Tampa General Hospital, UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami filed the challenges after the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration in August issued a proposed rule for transplant programs. The challenges, filed this month at the state Division of Administrative Hearings, came after years of debate and disputes about approving transplant programs. (Saunders, 9/23)

WUSF: Infant Mortality Efforts In Jacksonville Face Local Funding Cut, Federal Policy Changes
The challenges are the topics of a summit in downtown Jacksonville on the same day the city council is expected to eliminate funding for a program to reduce infant mortality. Duval County’s infant mortality rate is higher than average for Florida, especially among Black babies. (Brown, 9/23)

WUFT: Alachua County Experiencing Increase In Dementia Cases Due To Aging Population
Lakshmi Kunta was diagnosed about three years ago, and now at age 77, she is completely reliant on her husband and children to care for her. Lakshmi Kunta helped raise all six of her grandchildren when she immigrated from India to the U.S. She taught them Telugu, her native language, and took them to the temple, showing them how to honor their heritage. (Meretz, 9/22)

PUBLIC HEALTH

NBC News: Measles Outbreak Growing In Parts Of Arizona And Utah, Health Officials Say
One of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S. is now centered in bordering areas of southwestern Utah and Arizona. In Southwest Utah, all but one of the 23 confirmed cases are among unvaccinated, school-age kids, the Southwest Utah Public Health Department reported. In Mohave County, Arizona, which health officials believe is connected to the Utah outbreak, there have been 42 confirmed cases of the highly contagious virus. (Kopf, Fattah and Murphy, 9/22)

CIDRAP: New World Screwworm Confirmed In Cow Just 70 Miles South Of US-Mexico Border 
Yesterday, Mexico confirmed a case of New World screwworm (NWS) in Sabinas Hidalgo, in a cow in Nuevo Leon state, less than 70 miles from the US-Mexico border. The flesh-eating parasitic infection, carried by the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly, a type of blowfly, is causing a large outbreak in Central America. NWS can infect any warm-blooded animal, but human cases are rare. So far this year, US officials haven't confirmed any cases in animals. (Van Beusekom, 9/22)

Newsweek: Sugary Drinks May Fuel Colorectal Cancer Spread
Sugary drinks have been linked to health conditions including obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease—and they could also be fueling cancer spread in advanced colorectal cancer. Researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who found the glucose-fructose mix in most sugary drinks directly contributes to metastasis in preclinical models of the cancer. (Millington, 9/22)