Politico: How Hospitals Could Still Escape The Megabill’s Medicaid Cuts
Hospitals lost big in President Donald Trump’s megabill, but they still have plenty of time to fight back. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed on the 4th of July will take a $340 billion bite out of hospital budgets over a decade to pay for tax cuts and other Trump priorities. Then again, maybe it won’t. That’s because Congress delayed implementation of the most devastating of those cuts till 2028, and hospitals, their armies of lobbyists and many allies on Capitol Hill are already gearing up to use the next two and a half years to persuade lawmakers to rescind them. (King, Chu and Lim, 7/14)

The Hill: Hospitals Across Nation Brace For Medicaid Cuts Under ‘Big, Beautiful’ Law
Hospitals are bracing for the impact from the Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s sweeping spending and tax cut law.  While most of the cuts won’t happen immediately, rural facilities in particular say they likely will have to make difficult financial decisions about which services they can afford to keep and which may need to be cut. Hospitals loudly raised alarms about the legislation, but their warnings went unheeded, and now they say they will bear the brunt of the changes. (Weixel, 7/13)

Chicago Tribune: Safety Net Hospitals Face Potential Service Cuts, Layoffs
Christine Mertzelos is trying to avoid having her leg amputated. Twice a week, a hospital van carries her from her home in Wrigleyville to the wound clinic at Humboldt Park Health, where a diabetic ulcer on her ankle is cleaned, treated and dressed. At one point, the ulcer wrapped nearly all the way around her lower leg — a situation that can lead to amputation if not controlled. The ulcer, however, has shrunk significantly. (Schencker, 7/13)

Reuters: Trump's Spending Bill Will Likely Boost Costs For Insurers, Shrink Medicaid Coverage
President Donald Trump's spending bill is set to raise administrative costs and make managing costs more difficult for insurers like UnitedHealthcare and CVS Health's Aetna that operate Medicaid health plans, experts say. As a result, those insurers will likely pull back their Medicaid coverage and invest more in existing markets to retain their healthier members, experts said. (Niasse, 7/14)

KFF Health News: In Rush To Satisfy Trump, GOP Delivers Blow To Health Industry
Doctors, hospitals, and health insurers for weeks issued dire warnings to Republican lawmakers that millions of people would lose health coverage and hospitals would close if they cut Medicaid funding to help pay for President Donald Trump’s big tax and spending bill. But Republicans ignored those pleas, made even deeper cuts, and sent the legislation on July 3 to the White House, where Trump signed it the next day. (Galewitz and Armour, 7/14)

MedPage Today: 'Big Beautiful Bill' Has Health Provisions That Flew Under The Radar
When President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law on the Fourth of July, many people heard about the major provisions that affected healthcare, such as hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid and a 1-year, 2.5% increase in payments under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. But what about some of the lesser-known health provisions? (Frieden, 7/11)

Also —

Axios: New Medicaid Work Rules Put States In A Bind
The new Medicaid work rules in President Trump's tax-and-spending law put states on a tight timetable for setting up systems to notify millions of recipients about the requirements — and to track if they're complying. Previous efforts to set work rules in Georgia and Arkansas showed it could be a messy and expensive process that generally relies on outside vendors to set up the necessary infrastructure. (Reed, 7/14)

The CT Mirror: Many More People Are On Medicaid In CT Than A Decade Ago
The number of people receiving Medicaid in Connecticut has grown sharply over the last decade. In Connecticut, Medicaid operates under the name HUSKY and insures about one-quarter of the state’s population. The number of people served through any Medicaid-funded coverage steadily grew over the last decade, rising 61% from 2012 to 2023. (Daou, 7/11)

AP: Hakeem Jeffries' Town Hall In Louisiana To Focus On Trump's Tax Law
Democrats used a Louisiana town hall Thursday night to preview one of their main strategies for attempting to retake the U.S. House next year, ripping into the health care changes in the just-passed Republican tax and spending bill. The top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, said the event in the home state of House Speaker Mike Johnson was the first stop on a nationwide tour to educate voters about the bill, which he called “an all-out assault against the American people.” (Brook, 7/11)

The Hill: Judge Reverses CFPB Rule Erasing Medical Debt From Credit Reports
A federal judge in Texas reversed a Biden-era rule on Friday that permitted medical debt to be wiped from credit reports, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan, a 2019 appointee of President Trump, said the rule by the previous administration exceeds the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). ... The Biden administration estimated that the action would remove nearly $50 billion of medical debt from the credit reports of roughly 15 million Americans. (Fields, 7/12)

Bloomberg: FDA Offers To Trade Faster Drug Reviews For Lower US Prices
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said his agency may fast-track new drugs from pharmaceutical companies that “equalize” the cost of their medicines between the US and other countries, an unusual proposition from the regulator that’s long avoided contentious pricing debates. ... Price adjustments may give companies another way to obtain “national priority vouchers,” the reward that comes as part of a new program the FDA announced last month that would slash review times for companies it says are backing national interests. (Cohrs Zhang and Hornblower, 7/11)

CBS News: HHS Facing Billion-Dollar Backlog Of Delayed Grants After DOGE
The Department of Health and Human Services has asked some laid-off staff if they could return to work temporarily, as the department grapples with a backlog of grants that has swelled to more than a billion dollars in the wake of hurdles set up by DOGE. Multiple HHS officials, who were not authorized to speak to the press, said the laid-off staff asked to return to work include a handful of employees who managed grants in the department's Administration for Children and Families, or ACF. (Tin, 7/11)

Regarding vaccines and MAHA —

Stat: Rise Of Vaccine Skeptics Inside HHS Alarms Public Health Experts 
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent much of his confirmation process before becoming the nation’s health secretary reassuring lawmakers that he would not undermine public confidence in vaccines and seeking to distance himself from the anti-vaccine group he founded, Children’s Health Defense. As health secretary, he has installed former prominent members of that group and other vaccine skeptics in positions at the department he runs or agencies it oversees. (Cirruzzo, 7/14)

Modern Healthcare: Wearable Health Devices Are Popular With RFK But Need Improvement
Wearable health devices no longer are just a fashion statement for the already-healthy consumer. Health systems and tech companies see wearables playing an important part in improving the health of all populations. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., last month suggested every American could use a wearable device to track their health metrics and said HHS would launch a marketing campaign to promote them as a key to preventative health. (Perna, 7/11)

KFF Health News: Vested Interests. Influence Muscle. At RFK Jr.’s HHS, It’s Not Pharma. It’s Wellness
On his way to an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped by the home of podcaster Gary Brecka. The two spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and tried some intravenous nutrition drips that Brecka, a self-avowed longevity and wellness maven, sells and promotes on his show, “The Ultimate Human.” Then the podcast taping started, and Kennedy — who was also on the mic — took aim at Big Pharma’s influence on federal health policy. (Armour, 7/14)

AP: Charges Dropped Against Utah Doctor Who Trashed COVID Vaccine Doses
The federal government on Saturday dismissed charges against a Utah plastic surgeon accused of throwing away COVID-19 vaccines, giving children saline shots instead of the vaccine and selling faked vaccination cards. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on the social media platform X that charges against Dr. Michael Kirk Moore, of Midvale, Utah, were dismissed at her direction. Moore and other defendants faced up to 35 years in prison after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the government; conspiracy to convert, sell, convey and dispose of government property; and aiding and abetting in those efforts. (Thiessen, 7/12)

Federal funding —

AP: US Aid Cuts Halt HIV Vaccine Research In South Africa
Just a week had remained before scientists in South Africa were to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine, and hopes were high for another step toward limiting one of history’s deadliest pandemics. Then the email arrived. Stop all work, it said. The United States under the Trump administration was withdrawing all its funding. The news devastated the researchers, who live and work in a region where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world. (Magome, 7/14)

The Hill: Senate Republicans Wary Of PEPFAR Funding Cuts
Senate Republicans remain wary of eliminating the popular and successful global HIV/AIDS program PEPFAR, as they face down a July 18 deadline to vote on President Trump’s first tranche of rescissions requests. In his rescissions request to Congress last month, Trump asked that $900 million budgeted for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) be cancelled. The House has already passed Trump’s rescissions, and now the Senate must make the final move. (Choi, 7/12)

Politico: FDA Funding Clash Looms Between Senate, House
Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the FDA, Senate appropriators unanimously advanced a funding bill Thursday that maintains the agency’s funding in fiscal 2026 at roughly the same level as in fiscal 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee bill, which advanced by a 27-0 vote, funds the agency at $7 billion, comprised of $3.6 billion in taxpayer funds and $3.4 billion in user fee revenues. (Gardner and Lim, 7/11)

The New York Times: Arizona Resident Dies From Plague, Officials Say
A resident of Coconino County, Ariz., died from pneumonic plague, the first such death in the county in almost two decades, officials announced on Friday. The resident went to Flagstaff Medical Center recently and died the same day despite attempts to provide “lifesaving resuscitation,” according to a statement on Friday from Northern Arizona Healthcare, which runs the hospital. (Fahy, 7/12)

The Washington Post: What To Know About The Pneumonic Plague After Death In Arizona
Pneumonic plague is the only form that can be spread from person to person, rather than animal to person, through airborne droplets, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But this has not been documented in the United States since 1924. Slightly more common is airborne infection from sick animals. The pneumonic form is also the deadliest: It is always fatal when left untreated, according to the World Health Organization. The bubonic plague, the most common type, has a fatality rate of 30 to 60 percent. (Vinall, 7/12)

Measles updates —

Wyoming Public Radio: Second Measles Case Confirmed In Wyoming, This Time In Niobrara County 
A second case of measles has been confirmed in Wyoming. The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) said the source of exposure for the unvaccinated child in Niobrara County is unknown. There’s no known connection to the case in Natrona County reported earlier this month. (Ouellet, 7/11)

CIDRAP: Kansas, North Dakota, New Jersey Record More Measles Cases
Three states have reported new measles cases over the past few days, including Kansas, with four more cases, all linked to an outbreak in the southwestern part of the state. (Schnirring, 7/11)

Chicago Tribune: Measles Outbreak In Southern Illinois Declared Over
As national cases of measles soar and federal health officials engage in vaccine skepticism, Illinois so far this year has seen only one small outbreak of the highly infectious disease that health officials say was quickly brought under control. (Olander, 7/13)

The Hill: Chuck Schumer Presses RFK Jr. To Declare Measles Emergency
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately declare a public health emergency for measles, blaming the senior Trump administration official for failing to respond to the rapid resurgence of the disease. Schumer accused Kennedy in a bluntly worded letter Friday of walking “our country into the nation’s largest measles outbreak in 33 years, leading cases to hit a record high a full 25 years after this country eliminated the disease.” (Bolton, 7/11)

KFF Health News: Journalists Tally State And Local Health Care Implications Of GOP Megabill
Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed measles cases on CBS News’ “CBS News 24/7” on July 9. Gounder also discussed the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in medical facilities on CBS News’ “CBS Mornings Plus” on July 8. (7/12)

Regarding covid, flu, RSV, and HIV —

CBS News: COVID Cases Likely Rising In Half Of States, CDC Estimates
Cases of COVID-19 are now likely growing in 25 states, according to estimates published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, as this year's summer wave of the virus appears to be getting underway. The agency's modeling suggests that the uptick is in "many" Southeast, Southern and West Coast states, the CDC said in its weekly update. COVID-19 activity nationwide, however, is still considered "low," based on data from wastewater samples, although that is up from "very low" the week before. (Tin, 7/11)

CIDRAP: Companies Start Flu Vaccine Shipments Ahead Of 2025-26 Season
Amid the sultry summer months, a few signs of fall become apparent, such as the appearance of school supplies on stores shelves after the Fourth of July. Another is doses of flu vaccine on the move, and three of the companies that supply doses for the US market announced this week that shipments have begun. Meanwhile, the 2024-25 season is still in the rearview mirror, a period that marked the first high-severity season since 2017-18. Hospitalizations for flu were the highest since the 2010-11 season, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Schnirring, 7/11)

CIDRAP: New Data Reveal Impact Of RSV On Kids With Chronic Conditions, Plus High Adult Exposure
Two new studies demonstrate the impact of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in different populations, with one showing that children with chronic medical conditions (CMCs) affecting multiple body systems have the highest rate of RSV hospitalization, and a second showing that more than 8 in 10 adults have had RSV exposure. (Wappes, 7/11)

CNN: WHO Recommends Twice-A-Year HIV Prevention Shot As Concern Looms Over Funding For Global HIV Fight 
The World Health Organization is now recommending that countries include an HIV drug newly approved for prevention, lenacapavir, as a tool in their efforts to fight HIV infections – especially for groups most at risk and in areas where the burden of HIV remains high. (Howard, 7/14)

Health threats —

AP: Walmart Recalls 850,000 Water Bottles After Two Consumers Suffer Vision Loss From Ejecting Caps
Walmart is recalling about 850,000 stainless steel water bottles because the lid can “forcefully eject” and unexpectedly strike consumers — resulting in permanent vision loss for two people to date. The recall covers Walmart’s “Ozark Trail 64 oz Stainless Steel Insulated Water Bottles,” which have been sold at the chain’s stores across the country since 2017. According to a notice published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday, these products pose “serious impact and laceration hazards.” (7/11)

Stat: Reports Of Young Children Accidentally Eating Nicotine Pouches Rose Dramatically
Nicotine pouches like Zyn have exploded in popularity in the U.S. With that growth comes a steep increase in the risk of young children accidentally eating the pouches, with potentially serious consequences, according to a new study. (Todd, 7/14)

CIDRAP: Probe Into Deadly Egg-Related Salmonella Outbreak Ends After 134 Cases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday declared its investigation into a multistate Salmonella outbreak tied to organic and cage-free brown eggs over after 134 people fell ill and 1 died. The outbreak has grown by 55 cases and three affected states since the CDC first reported the event on June 6. Ten states have confirmed cases. The death, in a patient from California, is also new. (Wappes, 7/11)

The Washington Post: Researchers Link Severe Disasters And Loss Of Health Care Facilities
Counties that undergo severe climate-related disasters often suffer reduced access to critical health care infrastructure in the years that follow, a study suggests. The analysis, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, looked at what happened to hospitals, pharmacies and ambulatory — or outpatient — care facilities after climate-related disasters. (Blakemore, 7/13)

Politico: Brain-Repair Research 2.0
The Department of Health and Human Services unveiled a program Thursday to advance brain-repair research and develop treatments for brain injuries and devastating neurological diseases like stroke and Alzheimer’s. Why it matters: The program, called the Functional Repair of Neocortical Tissue, or FRONT, aims to find cures for these neurodegenerative and other traumatic diseases long regarded as irreversible by leveraging stem-cell technology to regenerate brain tissue and restore brain function. (Nguyen, 7/11)

Fox News: Sacrificing Sleep To Binge-Watch TV Can Impair Brain Health, Doctor Warns
Staying awake to watch "just one more episode" is a classic excuse for delaying bedtime. And with popular shows like Peacock's "Love Island" airing almost every night as the drama unfolds live, there’s more pressure to finish the latest episode and to engage in conversation with others the next day. In addition to making us sleepier in the morning, staying awake to watch TV is not good for the brain, according to Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist, brain imaging doctor and founder of Amen Clinics in California. (Stabile, 7/13)

Regarding weight loss drugs —

Stat: GLP-1 Drugs For Addiction: Confidence Grows In New Treatment Option 
To make sense of the reds and greens dancing across a computer monitor displaying a scale image of a human brain, one requires a vivid vocabulary. At this upscale addiction treatment facility, “neurofeedback therapy” and “quantitative electroencephalogram” are part of the holistic, no-expenses-spared treatment philosophy on offer. (Facher, 7/14)

MedPage Today: GLP-1 Therapy Helps Amplify Bariatric Surgery Weight Loss, But Timing Matters
In order to maximize weight loss, a GLP-1 receptor agonist may be needed both before and after bariatric surgery, a retrospective analysis found. In 568 patients who underwent bariatric surgery, those who also used a GLP-1 receptor agonist during the preoperative and postoperative period experienced significantly greater weight loss -- a 33% total weight loss and 17.9-point change in BMI -- compared with surgery alone, reported Angela Rao, MD, of Stanford Health Care in California. (Monaco, 7/13)

MedPage Today: More Protein May Help Stave Off Muscle Loss From GLP-1 Treatment
Eating more protein may help offset some of the loss of lean mass during semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) treatment, an observational prospective study suggested. After 3 months of treatment, 47.5% of weight lost by adults with obesity taking the GLP-1 receptor agonist semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) was lean mass compared with 35.7% treated with diet and lifestyle intervention as measured by dual emission x-ray absorptiometry (P=0.39), reported Melanie Haines, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. (Monaco, 7/13)

MedPage Today: Menopause Hormone Therapy Users May Lose More On Weight Loss Injectable
Menopause hormone therapy (MHT) was tied to a weight-loss boost in postmenopausal women taking a weight loss agent, a real-world study found. Among 120 women with overweight or obesity, MHT users lost 19.18% of their total body weight with tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) compared with a 13.96% loss in women not on such therapy after an average of 18 months (P=0.002), said Regina Castaneda, MD, of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. (Monaco, 7/13)

On PMS, gonorrhea, and vaccines —

NBC News: Premenstrual Disorders Linked To Higher Risk For Heart Disease, Study Finds
Premenstrual disorders are associated with a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, a large, long-term study has found. New research analyzing patient health data from more than 3 million women in Sweden over a 20-year period found that those who were diagnosed with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) had an 11% higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease at some point, compared to women who did not have a diagnosis. (Srinivasan, 7/11)

CIDRAP: Study Hints DoxyPEP Use Coincides With Rise In Tetracycline-Resistant Gonorrhea In US
A genomic analysis of US gonorrhea isolates shows a dramatic increase in tetracycline resistance. In a letter published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the University of Georgia reported that their analysis ... show that the percentage of isolates carrying the tetM resistance gene rose from 10% in 2020 to more than 30% in 2024. The tetM gene confers high-level resistance to tetracycline antibiotics. (Dall, 7/11)

CIDRAP: Increased Vaccine Uptake In US Kids Linked To Reduced Antibiotic Prescriptions
An increase in uptake of routine childhood vaccines among US children over 15 years was associated with a decrease in antibiotic prescriptions and antibiotic-treated sinus infections, according to an ecological study published today in Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology. (Dall, 7/11)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Data Breaches In 2025 Lower Than 2024 But Still High
A record-high number of organizations reported healthcare data breaches in 2024 — and the first half of 2025 forecasts another challenging year for cyberattacks. As of Friday, the Health and Human Services Department’s Office for Civil Rights has listed 378 breaches affecting 500 or more individuals in the first six months of 2025. That’s fewer than the 408 reported through June in 2024, but more than all years previous. (Broderick, 7/11)

AP: Nursing Homes Face Staffing Crunch As Trump's Immigration Policies Disrupt Workforce
Nursing homes already struggling to recruit staff are now grappling with President Donald Trump’s attack on one of their few reliable sources of workers: immigration. Facilities for older adults and disabled people are reporting the sporadic loss of employees who have had their legal status revoked by Trump. But they fear even more dramatic impacts are ahead as pipelines of potential workers slow to a trickle with an overall downturn in legal immigration. (Sedensky, 7/13)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Patients Worry As St. Louis’ Long COVID Clinic Set To Close
They face different symptoms of Long COVID, but they all share one common experience — finding answers at a clinic run by Washington University School of Medicine. For three years, Emily, 34, from St. Louis, said she suffered with crushing fatigue, nausea, a racing heart rate and difficulty breathing after getting COVID-19 in August 2020. Her first appointment with a nurse at the Care and Recovery After COVID-19 (CARE) Clinic was life changing. (Munz, 7/13)

Crains Chicago Business: Walgreens, Sycamore Partners Deal Approved By Shareholders
Walgreens Boots Alliance shareholders gave the thumbs-up to the company’s private-equity buyout by Sycamore Partners, with about 96% of votes cast approving the sale, the Deerfield-based retail pharmacy giant announced this morning. Under the terms of the roughly $10 billion merger agreement, Walgreens shareholders will receive $11.45 per share in cash at closing. (Asplund, 7/11)

Modern Healthcare: CenterWell's Sanjay Shetty Takes Cautious Approach To Growth
CenterWell’s efforts to buy The Villages Health is the latest step in its cautiously optimistic growth plan amid economic uncertainty. The Humana subsidiary’s recent stalking horse bid to buy The Villages Health System as it restructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection would add 10 senior primary care and specialty offices to the company’s portfolio. A stalking horse bid is the initial bid on a bankrupt company’s assets that sets the floor price for other potential buyers. (Eastabrook, 7/11)

Bloomberg: China Drugmakers Catching Up To US Big Pharma With New Medicine Innovation
The biotechnology industry is experiencing a tectonic shift, driven by Chinese drugmakers who have come a long way from their copycat days to challenge Western dominance on innovation. The number of novel drugs in China — for cancer, weight-loss and more — entering into development ballooned to over 1,250 last year, far surpassing the European Union and nearly catching up to the US’s count of about 1,440, an exclusive Bloomberg News analysis showed. (Tong, Hong, and Chen, 7/13)

Stat: GAO: Evidence 'Inconclusive' For Involuntary Mental Health Treatment
In the last decade, the federal government has provided $146 million to organizations that provide outpatient care to people with serious mental health conditions like psychosis. The people were ordered to undergo treatment so they wouldn’t be a threat to themselves or society. Did it work? (Broderick, 7/14)

The Hill: Here Are The Most And Least Stressed Cities In The US: Study
A recently published study from finance site WalletHub ranked 182 U.S. cities from most to least stressed, with Detroit taking the crown for most and South Burlington, Vt., winning in the least stressed category. The study determined its rankings through five different dimensions — work, financial, family, and health/safety stress. A higher number denotes a lower level of stress. (Sanders and Tanner, 7/12)

Minnesota Public Radio: Minnesota Law To Require Mental Health Warnings On Social Media 
Beginning next summer, Minnesotans scrolling social media sites will get a pop up warning. Before they can proceed to photos, articles or posts, they’ll have to click through the warning, acknowledging the site could pose a hazard to their mental health. (Ferguson, 7/14)

In public health news —

Newsweek: Children Consuming Common Sweeteners Face Higher Early Puberty Risk
Common sweeteners found in foods and drinks may significantly increase the risk of early puberty in children, new research shows. The findings come from a large-scale study that was presented on today at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting in San Francisco. (Gray, 7/13)

CNN: Cell Phone Use Affects Parent-Child Interactions, Even When Adults Aren’t Online 
Many people try to limit the time they spend on social media when they’re with their kids. But new research suggests social media use has a significant effect on interactions with children — even when adults aren’t looking at their screens. Mothers who were in the habit of spending more time on social media talked much less to their kids when they played with them than did moms who spent less time on social networks, and that difference carried over when they weren’t using their devices, according to a study to be presented Tuesday at the Digital Media and Developing Minds International Scientific Congress in Washington, DC. (Alaimo, 7/13)

NPR: Doctors Give 'Social Prescriptions' For Fitness, Arts And Socializing
For more than 30 years, Frank Frost, worked as a long-distance truck driver, ferrying industrial chemicals across the U.K. "I worked away from home six days a week, working up to 12-15 hours a day," says Frost, now 76. "My only exercise was looking for a fast food outlet in the evening when I'd parked up," he says. He gained weight and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in his 50s. His doctors put him on insulin injections and told him to lose weight and move more. (Chatterjee, 7/14)

The New York Times: Hair Loss Medication Finasteride Comes With Fertility Issues For Some
Finasteride, sometimes sold as Propecia, is the most widely used prescription medicine for male-pattern baldness. Prescriptions have reportedly tripled in recent years alongside the rise of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies popular among young men. For many, the medication comes with no issues and can provide newfound confidence, but it does carry side effects. ... Finasteride is prescribed at higher doses to treat enlarged prostates and has been known to mildly affect sperm counts. (Brown, 7/11)

AP: North Carolina's First Standalone Children's Hospital To Be Built In A Raleigh Suburb
North Carolina’s first standalone children’s hospital will be built in a bedroom community near the state capital, the project’s health systems announced Thursday, creating a campus estimated to bring 8,000 jobs to the area. UNC Health and Duke Health announced in January an agreement to jointly build the proposed 500-bed pediatric hospital and linked facilities in the state’s Research Triangle region, which includes Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. (7/11)

North Carolina Health News: Abortion For Fetal Anomalies Is Legal In NC — But Access Can Be Out Of Reach
After several ultrasounds and consultations with specialists, J made the wrenching decision to terminate her pregnancy in February 2024. To do it, she had to leave her home in eastern North Carolina and travel four hours to Richmond, Virginia. (Crumpler, 7/14)

Inside Climate News: N.C. Has Allowed A Likely Carcinogen Into Three Rivers Serving 900,000 People
Boxy, gunmetal gray buildings loom over a labyrinth of ducts and tubes and catwalks, beyond which 100 train cars loll on their tracks. Smokestacks wait to exhale. This is StarPet, a mammoth factory in north Asheboro that manufactures PET polymers, derived from fossil fuels and used in polyester fibers and plastic bottles. (Sorg, 7/13)

News from Texas, New York, Arizona, and Maryland —

ABC News: Texas Floodwaters Can Increase Health Risks That Could Last For Months: Experts
Central Texas is continuing to recover from one of the deadliest floods in the state's history, which killed more than 120 people, many of whom were children. While there is an economic toll from floods due to the damage it causes to property, commerce and transportation, there is a risk to public health as well. Although rainwater is not harmful, flooding increases the risk of injury, illness and death. Heavy rainfall can cause waterways to overflow and overwhelm sewer and septic systems, environmental health experts told ABC News. (Kekatos, 7/11)

AP: DuPont Agrees To $27M Settlement In Polluted Water Lawsuit In New York
Chemical maker DuPont has agreed to a $27 million settlement to resolve a nearly decade-long lawsuit over the contamination of an upstate New York village’s water supply. The deal was announced Wednesday by lawyers representing residents of Hoosick Falls, located northwest of Albany, just as the case was headed to trial in federal court this week. The settlement brings the total recovered in the class action suit brought in 2016 to more than $90 million, lawyers for Rochester-based firm Faraci Lange said. (7/11)

NBC News: Arizona Man Is Killed While Inside A Hyperbaric Chamber That Caught Fire
A hyperbaric chamber caught fire in Arizona, leading to the gruesome death of a 43-year-old man inside the highly pressurized, oxygen-filled compartment, authorities said Thursday. Police officers and firefighters in the resort community of Lake Havasu City rushed to the 1800 block of Mesquite Avenue at about 10:50 p.m. MST on Wednesday answering calls for a "reported medical emergency for a burn patient," city officials said. (Li, 7/11)

The Baltimore Sun: Proposed Eating Disorder Treatment Facility In Anne Arundel Faces Hurdles 
Anne Arundel County could get an eating disorder treatment facility as a county council bill aims to spell out how the potential facility fits into zoning regulations and what its purpose within the county would be. (Matheson, 7/14)

The New York Times: Trump Canceled Their Salaries. These Health Workers In Uganda Showed Up Anyway.
Mr. Rubio has positioned himself as a champion of PEPFAR. And indeed, his waiver, PEPFAR’s operational structure (it has been housed in the State Department and implemented by multiple government agencies since it began) and the work of volunteers like those in Tororo have kept the program operational, even as U.S.A.I.D. formally shut down this month. (Emily Bass, 7/14)

Stat: Ending The Federal LGBTQ+ Suicide Prevention Line Is A Public Health Failure
Last month, the federal government announced it would eliminate the national suicide prevention hotline’s specialized services for LGBTQ+ callers — a decision that pulls vital support away from some of the most at-risk young people in America. The end of the service on July 17 is a crushing moment, but it should also be a wake-up call. This isn’t just a political decision. It’s a public health failure. (Jaymes Black and Christine Yu Moutier, 7/12)

Stat: Some Of The Most Annoying Parts Of A Hospital Visit Can Save Lives 
The first things I noticed when I woke up after my recent wrist operation at Mass General Hospital were the “YES” stenciled in purple ink on my right thumb, a marker that had given my surgeon the green light to operate on that hand, and an equally luminous “BLOCK” on the same arm, which was the anesthesiologist’s separate signpost for where to administer a nerve block. (Larry Tye, 7/14)

Stat: The FDA Commissioner Is A Gifted Talker — But The Job Is About More Than That
Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has marked his first 100 days in charge of the agency that regulates a quarter of the U.S. economy with a miniature media tour and a series of bold-sounding announcements. (Matthew Herper, 7/14)

The Washington Post: The GOP Scores A Win In Its Long War On Government Health Care
The One Big Beautiful Bill Trump signed on Independence Day will cut about $1 trillion from Medicaid over a decade — the largest ever pruning of the program — ultimately bumping nearly 12 million needy Americans off health insurance, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. It also reduced subsidies for health plans under the ACA. Sequestration rules will require additional cuts to Medicare, totaling more than $500 billion. (Eduardo Porter, 7/11)

Bloomberg: An AstraZeneca Exit To New York Wouldn't Doom London 
AstraZeneca has the largest market value on the London Stock Exchange, exceeding £160 billion ($216 billon). It delivered a British Covid vaccine in partnership with Oxford University and saw off an unwanted US takeover approach in 2014. A listing switch would provide the ultimate pretext for more FTSE-100 members to decamp too. Such a move could drag the headquarters, high-value jobs and tax revenue with it. (Chris Hughes, 7/14)