CBS News: FDA Planning For Fewer Food And Drug Inspections Due To Layoffs, Officials Say
Senior Food and Drug Administration leaders are planning for cutbacks to the number of routine food and drug inspections conducted by the agency, multiple officials say, due to steep layoffs this week in support staff. Around 170 workers were cut from the FDA's Office of Inspections and Investigations, according to two federal health officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. (Tin, 4/2)

The Washington Post: FDA Cuts Senior Veterinarians Working On Bird Flu
Nearly half a dozen senior veterinarians at the Food and Drug Administration were laid off in a sweeping purge, including employees in a center that has played a key role in the recent bird flu outbreak that began rampaging through dairy herds for the first time last spring, according to three FDA staffers. Some of the veterinarians laid off this week had helped design studies last year showing pasteurization kills the virus in milk found on store shelves, according to the three staffers who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. (Roubein and Sun, 4/2)

Axios: Drug Industry Worries About FDA Delays
Pharmaceutical companies are growing increasingly concerned widespread cuts at the Food and Drug Administration could set the agency back as crucial review deadlines loom. Health industries pay billions developing and shepherding drugs through the regulatory process, including user fees that help ensure there are enough staff to evaluate products on a predictable timeline. (Reed, 4/3)

Stat: FDA's Marty Makary Focuses On MAHA, Not Agency Plans In Speech
Marty Makary’s first address to staff as FDA commissioner on Wednesday afternoon sounded a bit like an introduction to one of his books. It included sweeping declarations about the need to challenge scientific norms, and to identify the root causes of chronic disease. Makary sprinkled in anecdotes intended to stir emotion, recounting the time when his father gave a cancer patient a hug at the grocery store. (Lawrence, 4/2)

On President Trump's tariffs —

Fierce Healthcare: Trump's New Tariffs Include Pharma Exemption
President Donald Trump made good on his threat of announcing new and steeper tariffs during a Wednesday afternoon White House event, setting the stage for higher prices and supply chain uncertainty for numerous industries including healthcare. The tariffs, set to go into effect at midnight, are the largest trade policy shift for the U.S. in decades and an end to the so-called free-trade era. They include a minimum 10% tariff that affects "all countries," according to the White House. (Muoio, 4/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Tariffs Could Blow Up Big Pharma’s Tax Shelter
Pfizer in 2019 sold $20 billion of drugs in the U.S. Its federal tax bill? Zero. That revelation was part of a Senate Finance Committee investigation done by Democratic staff, released in March, that examined how U.S. pharmaceutical giants exploit a loophole created by the 2017 Trump tax overhaul to shift profits offshore. (Wainer, 4/2)

Axios: Drug And Device Makers Confront Trump Tariffs
A day after deep Food and Drug Administration cuts rocked their world, drug and med tech companies faced another potentially big hit when President Trump announced a baseline 10% tariff on U.S. imports. (Bettelheim, 4/3)

Also —

The Wall Street Journal: FTC’s Case Against Drug Managers On Hold After Commissioners Fired
The Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against three large pharmacy-benefit managers over insulin prices is on hold after President Trump fired two of the agency’s commissioners. The FTC this week halted a lawsuit against the country’s largest drug middlemen, which negotiate drug prices for employers and insurers. The FTC said it needs to pause the litigation because its two remaining commissioners, both Republicans, are recused from the case, leaving none to oversee it. (Michaels and Walker, 4/2)

The New York Times: Trump Administration Demands Additional Cuts At C.D.C.
Alongside extensive reductions to the staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Trump administration has asked the agency to cut $2.9 billion of its spending on contracts, according to three federal officials with knowledge of the matter. The administration’s cost-cutting program, called the Department of Government Efficiency, asked the public health agency to sever roughly 35 percent of its spending on contracts about two weeks ago. The C.D.C. was told to comply by April 18, according to the officials. (Mandavilli, 4/2)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Cuts Threaten To Set Back The Nation’s Health, Critics Say
The reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services shrinks the C.D.C. by 2,400 employees, or roughly 18 percent of its work force, and strips away some of its core functions. Some Democrats in Congress described the reorganization throughout H.H.S. as flatly illegal. “You cannot decimate and restructure H.H.S. without Congress,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and a member of the Senate health committee. (Mandavilli and Caryn Rabin, 4/2)

The New York Times: Inside The C.D.C., A Final ‘Love Letter’ Before Mass Layoffs
When every email inbox in the division pinged with a new message at 5:07 p.m. on Friday, the staff collectively held their breath. But it wasn’t the dismissal notification that these employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been waiting for. Quite the opposite: It was, the subject line said, a “love letter.” As I sit down to write this letter, I am not sure what the future holds. However, I do know how important it feels for me to send these words. So here goes…. (Baumgaertner Nunn, 4/2)

More on the HHS cuts —

The Washington Post: HHS Layoffs Include Head Of The World Trade Center Health Program
The Trump administration this week fired the longtime head of a federal program that provides medical benefits to first responders and survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, alarming advocates and lawmakers who said the move could disrupt care for the program’s more than 100,000 beneficiaries. John Howard, administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program, lost his job under the sweeping layoffs that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered across U.S. health agencies as the administration continues to slash the federal workforce. (Hawkins, 4/2)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Restructuring Hits PACE, Duals Offices
The Health and Human Services Department is reorganizing a handful of key programs for dually eligible enrollees and older adults, including laying off numerous staffers. HHS is shuffling how it manages care coordination for people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid under the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office and the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. (Early, 4/2)

Stat: Trump Administration Cuts Health Policy Researchers
The Trump administration has gutted two small federal agencies filled with researchers who study how the health care system functions and how to improve it. More than half of employees at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality — both part of the Department of Health and Human Services — have been laid off, according to several current and former employees. The two agencies operate on less than $600 million combined, or about 0.04% of what the federal government spends on health care. (Herman and Bannow, 4/2)

KFF Health News: What’s Lost: Trump Whacks Tiny Agency That Works To Make The Nation's Health Care Safer
Sue Sheridan’s baby boy, Cal, suffered brain damage from undetected jaundice in 1995. Helen Haskell’s 15-year-old son, Lewis, died after surgery in 2000 because weekend hospital staffers didn’t realize he was in shock. The episodes turned both women into advocates for patients and spurred research that made American health care safer. On April 1, the Trump administration slashed the organization that supported that research ... and fired roughly half of its remaining employees as part of a perplexing reorganization of the federal Health and Human Services Department. (Allen, 4/3)

NPR: Public Records Offices Gutted In HHS Layoffs
Teams that fulfilled requests for government documents lost their jobs on Tuesday as part of the Trump administration's 10,000-person staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services. Their work, mandated by Congress since the 1960s under the Freedom of Information Act or FOIA, gives the public a view of the inner workings of federal health agencies. Some public records teams were entirely cut at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies on Tuesday, according to multiple current and former staffers who did not want to be named because of fears of retribution. (Lupkin, 4/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump’s HHS Layoffs In S.F. Imperil Fight Against AIDS, Experts Say
Sweeping layoffs in the federal Health and Human Services department, including shuttering the entire San Francisco branch this week, could have catastrophic consequences for HIV/AIDS services and potentially put at risk longstanding efforts to end the epidemic, public health experts say. The job cuts began Tuesday, after the Trump administration announced plans last week to slash 10,000 positions across Health and Human Services; the San Francisco office employed 318 people. (Allday, 4/2)

CNN: A City Responding To A Lead Crisis In Local Schools Reached Out To The CDC For Help. Now They Won’t Get It. 
A few months ago, a test revealed that a child in Milwaukee had elevated levels of lead in their blood. The results triggered an investigation into the family’s home, then the child’s school and then dozens more aging school buildings still riddled with lead paint. (Goodman, 4/2)

What people are saying —

Politico: Means Defends HHS Cuts, Calls Bureaucracy An ‘Utter Failure’
A top adviser to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday defended deep job cuts at federal agencies and attacked the medical establishment, which he said is controlled by industry lobbyists in a conspiracy to keep Americans sick. Calley Means, a fixture in Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again movement and co-founder of TrueMed, said at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit that the federal health department has been an “utter failure,” pointing to rising rates of chronic disease, lower life expectancy and a culture that is too quick to medicate patients for life without addressing the underlying causes of disease. (Hooper, 4/2)

The Hill: Sen. Jim Banks Says He 'Won't Apologize' After Telling Fired HHS Employee He ‘Probably Deserved It’
Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Wednesday said he “won’t apologize” for telling a fired Health and Human Services (HHS) employee that he “probably deserved it,” after video footage of the exchange was widely circulated on social media.  The viral video showed former HHS employee Mack Schroeder approaching Banks in a Senate office building on Tuesday and asking him about the mass layoffs at HHS. Schroeder, who noted that he personally was among the fired HHS employees, asked the senator how he would ensure residents in his state got the services they needed. (Fortinsky, 4/2)

Also —

Stat: After Trump NIH Cuts, What's Next? A New Paper May Provide Clues 
Normally, a perspective piece in a small, two-month old journal would not garner much attention. But, a paper published last week, called “A Blueprint for NIH Reform,” is circulating in academic circles as well as within the National Institutes of Health, as scientists search for hints of where the agency may go in the coming months and years. (Oza, 4/3)

AP: Scientists Sue NIH, Saying Politics Cut Their Research Funding
A group of scientists and health groups sued the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday, arguing that an “ideological purge” of research funding is illegal and threatens medical cures. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, hundreds of NIH research grants have been abruptly canceled for science that mentions the words diversity, gender and vaccine hesitancy, as well as other politically charged topics. The suit was filed by the American Public Health Association, unions representing scientists and some researchers who were stripped of grants. (4/2)

NBC News: ACLU Sues National Institutes Of Health For ‘Ideological Purge’ Of Research Projects
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the National Institutes of Health has conducted an “ongoing ideological purge of critical research projects” that violates federal law and is unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts district court on behalf of four researchers and three unions with members who rely on NIH funding, says that the federal science agency “abruptly cancelled” hundreds of research projects “without scientifically-valid explanation or cause.” (Bush, 4/2)

More on the 'DEI' purge —

NBC News: Transgender Patients And Their Health Providers Fear Worsening Discrimination
Kelly Houske was walking her dogs one morning when she developed stabbing pain in her back that brought her to her knees. Houske, who had survived her first heart attack only a year earlier, was worried she was experiencing a second. When Houske arrived at a local emergency room by ambulance, she hoped for compassionate treatment. Instead, her doctor appeared cold and kept his distance, standing in the doorway without ever entering her room, Houske said. (Szabo, 4/1)

KFF Health News: Trump’s DEI Undoing Undermines Hard-Won Accommodations For Disabled People
For years, White House press conferences included sign language interpreters for the deaf. No longer. Interpreters have been noticeably absent from Trump administration press briefings, advocacy groups say. Gone, too, are the American Sign Language interpretations that used to appear on the White House’s YouTube channel. A White House webpage on accessibility, whitehouse.gov/accessibility, has also ceased working. (Armour, 4/3)

More on funding and research cuts —

CBS News: NIH Is The Largest Funder Of Cancer Research. Here's How The Trump Administration Cuts Could Impact Patients
As the Trump administration makes major cuts to federal health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, cancer patients and doctors are worried about stalls in research and medicine that could affect treatments. The NIH is the world's leading medical research agency and largest funder of cancer research, providing about $8 billion in cancer science funding annually. (Moniuszko, 4/2)

Stat: NYC Just Lost $100 Million In Federal Health Funds. That Has Consequences
If a child in New York City showed up with a fever and a rash that might be measles, it should be simple to have a blood test quickly confirm one way or the other. But  $100 million in federal funding  was just cut from New York City’s health budget, and that included money for staff and supplies at its public health labs. (Cooney, 4/2)

AP: Amid HHS Layoffs, Data On Drug Use And Mental Health Could Sit Unused
Most teenagers don’t use drugs. There’s data to show that because of a 50-year-old government survey that may now be in jeopardy. The entire 17-member U.S. government team responsible for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health received layoff notices Tuesday, as part of the overhaul of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It’s not clear whether there is an alternative plan to analyze the data, which local and state governments use to develop prevention measures and treatment services. (Johnson, 4/2)

Politico: One Takeaway From POLITICO’s Health Care Summit: Trump Has Broken Open America’s Partisan Divide On Health
President Donald Trump’s allies and adversaries battled over the best ways to improve the U.S. health care system at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit on Wednesday, highlighting deep divides over the upheaval the administration has unleashed. The partisans sparred after Trump dismissed thousands of health agency employees, launched a massive restructuring of the nation’s health agencies, and proposed stripping billions from university research budgets. (Hooper and Paun, 4/2)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Budget Resolution Could Soften Medicaid, Healthcare Cuts
The Senate Budget Committee unveiled a budget resolution Wednesday that could pave the way to less draconian cuts in health programs than House lawmakers previously proposed. The Senate proposal includes the House's earlier recommendations that could lead to billions in health program cuts — but it also includes instructions for the Senate to go a different route while renewing tax cuts passed during President Donald Trump's first term. (McAuliff, 4/2)

Politico: Republicans Say Efficiencies Will Save Medicaid. Dems Say 'Not Possible'
The Trump administration and Republicans broadly have said they can cut Medicaid’s budget without hurting patient care by finding efficiencies. Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, the top Democrat on a key health care panel, says that’s not so. “We just simply don’t have that much money,” DeGette said at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit Wednesday. (Reader, 4/2)

KFF Health News: ‘If They Cut Too Much, People Will Die’: Health Coalition Pushes GOP On Medicaid Funding
Tina Ewing-Wilson remembers the last time major Medicaid cuts slashed her budget. In the late 2000s, during the Great Recession, the pot of money she and other Medi-Cal recipients depend on to keep them out of costly residential care homes shrank. The only way she could afford help was to offer room and board to a series of live-in caregivers who she said abused alcohol and drugs and eventually subjected her to financial abuse. She vowed to never rely on live-in care again. (Mai-Duc, 4/3)

On school lunches —

The Hill: Bipartisan Senators Unveil Measure Providing Flexibility In School Lunch Milk Options
A bipartisan trio in the Senate unveiled a proposal Wednesday to require schools to offer nondairy milk options at lunch to accommodate students who are lactose intolerant or have other dietary restrictions. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) has long required school lunches to include milk on all trays in order for schools to be reimbursed for the meals. (Fortinsky, 4/2)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Punts On Major Covid-19 Vaccine Decision After Ouster Of Top Official  
Federal drug regulators have missed the deadline for making a key decision regarding a Covid-19 vaccine from Novavax, days after the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief was pushed out. The agency was set to give full approval to Novavax’s shot, but senior leaders at the agency are now sitting on the decision and have said the Novavax application needed more data and was unlikely to be approved soon, people familiar with the matter said.  (Whyte, 4/2)

Bloomberg: RFK Jr. Lays Off Staffers Who Run FDA’s Vaccine Expert Panel
The Food and Drug Administration laid off staffers who run an expert panel that advises the agency on vaccines, according to people familiar with the situation. The responsibilities of the four employees included monitoring conflicts of interest and overseeing meetings, according to the people who asked not to be named because the moves aren’t public. (Cohrs Zhang, 4/2)

Reuters: US FDA Insider Steele Replaces Marks As Top Vaccine Official, For Now
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it had named Scott Steele as acting director of its Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), following the exit of top vaccine scientist Peter Marks. An FDA insider for the past five years, Steele has advised on medical policy and served as senior adviser at CBER. He was an adviser on science and technology at the White House during George W. Bush's administration. (4/1)

On measles vaccination —

CPR News: Colorado’s Measles Vaccination Rate Is Just A Bit Too Low For Herd Immunity
Colorado’s vaccination rate for measles is one percentage point lower than needed to reach herd immunity, according to the state epidemiologist with the health department. “What we call the community immunity or herd immunity threshold for measles is about 95 percent. So statewide we are falling short of that. So that does mean that Colorado is potentially at risk for outbreaks,” said the state epidemiologist, Rachel Herlihy. (Borden and Daley, 4/1)

CBS News: Denver Health Teams Up With Denver Public Schools For Measles Vaccine Clinic
Health officials in Colorado are addressing the one measles case in the state in hopes of preventing an outbreak. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment led the meeting on Tuesday, emphasizing the importance of early treatment and vaccination to prevent further spread. ... The state's vaccination rate stands at 88% for kindergarteners and 94% for older children, but areas with lower rates pose a risk. (Arenas, 4/2)

NBC News: Dozens Of Free Measles Vaccine Clinics Close In Texas As Federal Funding Is Cut
Steep federal funding cuts have forced public health officials in one of Texas’ most populous counties — Dallas — to cancel dozens of vaccination clinics and lay off 21 workers on the front lines of combatting the state’s growing measles outbreak. “I just had to tell our commissioners this morning that we’ve had to cancel over 50 different clinics in our community,” said Dr. Philip Huang, director and health authority for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department. Many of the clinics had been planned for schools in areas with low vaccination rates, he said. (Edwards, 4/1)

On the shingles vaccine —

San Francisco Chronicle: Shingles Vaccine Can Cut Risk Of Dementia, Stanford-Led Study Says
Getting vaccinated against shingles can reduce the risk of dementia, according to a new study led by Stanford researchers. The study, published in Nature on Wednesday, found that older adults who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia in the subsequent seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine. (Ho, 4/2)

AP: Police Say The 2023 Nashville School Shooter Hid Mental Health Issues From Doctors And Family
The shooter behind the 2023 Nashville elementary school attack that killed six people, including three children, had been obsessively planning it for years while hiding mental health issues from family and doctors, a police report released Wednesday reveals. (Mattise, Kruesi and Loller, 4/2)

ABC News: More Cities, Counties Start To Remove Fluoride From Public Drinking Water
More cities and counties across the U.S. are moving to ban fluoride in public drinking water after Utah became the first state in the country to do so. The Miami-Dade County commissioners voted 8-2 on Tuesday to stop adding fluoride to the public water supply. Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez, who sponsored the legislation, referred to fluoride as a "neurotoxin" and that studies show it "should not be in the water." (Kekatos, 4/2)

Post-Tribune: Indiana Medicaid Bill Amended, Passed House Committee
A major Indiana Senate Medicaid bill has been amended and passed the House Ways and Means committee. Senate Bill 2 — authored by Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka — places restrictions on Medicaid, including work requirements on an insurance program for Hoosiers with a medium income and between ages 19 to 64, according to Post-Tribune archives. (Wilkins, 4/2)

North Carolina Health News: Three Rural NC Counties Map Out Paths To Reducing Opioid Deaths
Across rural North Carolina, the opioid epidemic has left a devastating mark — overdose deaths have surged, families have been shattered and communities have struggled to find resources to fight the crisis. More than 4,440 overdose-related deaths were reported across the state in 2023, with rural counties accounting for about 41 percent of the toll. (Baxley, 4/3)

In news from California —

San Francisco Chronicle: Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Announces Run For Governor
Xavier Becerra, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under President Joe Biden, will run for California governor in 2026, he announced Wednesday. Becerra faced a tough first two years as HHS secretary, a post he took over during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Stein and Burke, 4/2)

CBS News: San Francisco Ends Policy Of Providing Drug Paraphernalia Without Treatment
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie on Wednesday announced that the city would no longer give users free paraphernalia to consume drugs without providing treatment counseling. The move marks a shift away from the standing policy of providing supplies for people to use drugs in a safer manner, including clean foil and needles. San Francisco has long been criticized for its lax views on public drug use. (Ramos and Pehling, 4/2)

Los Angeles Times: A Federal Judge Is Demanding A Fix For L.A.'s Broken Homelessness System. Is Receivership His Next Step?
With the top city and county elected officials sitting in his jury box, the judge lectured for more than an hour, excoriating what he called the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” of homeless services in Los Angeles. But when it came time to reveal the drastic remedy anticipated by a courtroom full of spectators, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter hit pause at a hearing last week. (Smith, 4/2)

Redlands Daily Facts: Death Of Veteran Found In Car At California VA Latest In String Of Suicides 
A military veteran wanted by police was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a parked vehicle this week at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans' Hospital in the latest of a string of suicides connected to the VA Loma Linda Health Care System in California. (Schwebke, 4/2)

The Boston Globe: Mass General Brigham Layoffs Are Affecting Patients, Some Say
When Mass General Brigham announced the most layoffs in its history in February, the health system’s chief executive said the hundreds of job cuts would focus on managers and administrators, not employees who dealt directly with patients. But Dr. Anne Klibanski’s assurance to staff in a Feb. 10 email didn’t prevent layoffs of some employees who worked closely with patients, often under trying circumstances. (Saltzman and Bartlett, 4/2)

Health News Florida: UF Health St. Johns, Aetna Settle On Insurance Reimbursements After Eight-Month Impasse
Nearly 10,000 people across St. Johns and Flagler counties will have reduced health care costs now that UF Health Flagler has reached a hospital-insurer agreement with Aetna Inc. (Brown, 4/2)

Modern Healthcare: The Ensign Group Expands In California, Washington
The Ensign Group said Wednesday it has expanded its footprint across California and Washington with acquisitions involving three skilled nursing facilities. The San Juan Capistrano, California-based company said in a news release it acquired the real estate and operations of Pacific Haven Subacute and Healthcare Center, a 99-bed skilled nursing facility in Garden Grove, California. Standard Bearer Healthcare REIT, The Ensign Group’s real estate unit, acquired the property, which will be operated by an Ensign-affiliated tenant, the release said. (Eastabrook, 4/2)

Fierce Healthcare: Hospitals' Excessive Use Of Agency Nurses, Overtime Risks Safety
Hospitals’ increased reliance on agency nurses and overtime shifts for in-house nurses appears to have implications for patient safety, a study published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open suggests. Among a sample of 70 hospitals, researchers from George Washington University (GWU) and Premier Inc. found breakpoint thresholds at which increasing these nurse staffing approaches was associated with higher risk of pressure ulcers—an Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) patient safety indicator long tied to nursing care and staffing. (Muoio, 4/2)

The Guardian: John Oliver Faces Defamation Lawsuit From US Healthcare Executive
A US healthcare executive has sued John Oliver for defamation following a Last Week Tonight episode on Medicaid, in which the British-American comedian quoted the doctor as saying it was okay for a patient with bowel issues to be “a little dirty for a couple of days”. Dr Brian Morley, the ex-medical director of AmeriHealth Caritas, argues that Oliver – an outspoken comic whose show has not only addressed muzzling lawsuits but been subject to them – took the quote out of context in an April 2024 episode on Medicaid. (Horton, 4/2)

Also —

Becker's Hospital Review: Nonradiologists Interpret Nearly 44% Of Imaging Studies, Researchers Find
Nonradiologists interpreted 43.6% of office-based imaging studies in 2022, according to a study published April 2 in the American Journal of Roentgenology. Researchers from the Harvey L. Neiman Health Policy Institute analyzed more than 1.6 million Medicare physician office-based imaging claims ordered by nonradiologists. They found that just 36.4% of the studies were interpreted by a radiologist. (Twenter, 4/2)

MedPage Today: Lung Cancer Screening Rates Nearly 4 Times Lower Than Breast, Colon Cancers
Americans eligible for lung cancer screening are about four times less likely to undergo screening for the disease than for breast cancer or colorectal cancer (CRC), an analysis of CDC survey data found. Population-weighted estimates showed that fewer than 18% of eligible patients actually got a low-dose CT scan for lung cancer screening, yet about 65% of those same patients received screenings for breast cancer or CRC, reported Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues. (Bassett, 4/2)

Roll Call: Supreme Court Sounds Conflicted On Medicaid Cut For Planned Parenthood 
Some Supreme Court justices appeared open Wednesday to allowing South Carolina to deny federal funding for Planned Parenthood, during oral arguments in a dispute over the state disqualifying the health care provider from Medicaid for providing abortions. But key justices also aired concerns that such a decision would leave no way for recipients to challenge state decisions about what providers qualify. The central question for the justices is whether Congress created a right for Planned Parenthood or other groups to file such a lawsuit, which involves how explicit Congress must be if it wants to allow such a right. (Macagnone, 4/2)

NBC News: CDC's IVF Team Gutted Even As Trump Calls Himself The 'Fertilization President'
A team that tracked how well in vitro fertilization worked across the U.S. was abruptly cut Tuesday as part of the sweeping layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services. The elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance team — a group of six epidemiologists, data analysts and researchers — shocked public health experts and IVF advocates who said they had felt encouraged by President Donald Trump’s comments supporting access to the infertility treatment. (Lovelace Jr. and Brooks, 4/2)

The Hill: Trump Restoring Millions In Family Planning Funds To Oklahoma And Tennessee
The Trump administration is restoring millions of dollars in Title X funds to Oklahoma and Tennessee after the Biden administration chose to withhold those funds because both states failed to comply with program rules. The news was first reported by Politico, but the Oklahoma State Department of Health confirmed to The Hill that the Trump administration has awarded it $1.96 million under the Title X family planning program. The total award amount could be more, though, according to a department spokesperson. (O’Connell-Domenech, 4/2) 

Also —

The Guardian: Three Critically Ill Patients In US Could Have Survived With Abortions, Study Shows
Doctors who practice medicine in states with abortion bans have described in a new study how three of their pregnant patients died, but likely could have been saved, if they had been able to receive abortion care. The doctors, who treat lung, respiratory and other critical illnesses, never raised abortion, including the option of traveling out of state for the procedure, out of fear of legal repercussions, according to interviews with the doctors in the study, which was published in Chest Pulmonary, a medical journal. No other information about the patients who died was published. (Kirchgaessner, 4/3)

Newsweek: Supreme Court Rebukes Flavored Vape Makers In Unanimous Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned a lower-court ruling that had found the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acted unlawfully in denying two electronic cigarette companies permission to sell flavored vaping products, which regulators view as a health risk to young people. Newsweek reached out to the FDA by submission form on Wednesday for comment. (Whisnant and Aitken, 4/2)

On CBD and tobacco use —

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Sides With Truck Driver Who Was Fired Over CBD Product
The Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for a truck driver to sue the company that sold him a cannabidiol, or CBD, product that he says led to him getting fired after testing positive for THC. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices upheld an appeals court decision that allowed Douglas Horn to take legal action against Medical Marijuana Inc., under a landmark federal law that is better known as a tool used by prosecutors to target organized crime. (Jouvenal, 4/2)

Stat: FDA Cuts In Tobacco Control May Worsen Chronic Disease, Experts Say
The tobacco center at the Food and Drug Administration has drawn criticism from all sides in recent years. Tobacco opponents said it wasn’t doing enough to crack down on sales of illegal e-cigarettes and stop young people from vaping. Harm-reduction groups saw top tobacco regulator Brian King as a stubborn foe of products that could help people quit smoking. And the vaping industry itself complained the FDA had rejected 99% of the more than 27 million applications it had received without providing detailed product standards. (Todd, 4/3)

In other health and wellness news —

NBC News: Not Even Wealth Is Saving Americans From Dying At Rates Seen Among Some Of The Poorest Europeans
Fifty years ago, life expectancy in the U.S. and wealthy European countries was relatively similar. That began to change around 1980. As European life expectancy steadily increased, the U.S. struggled to keep pace — and its life expectancy even began declining in 2014. Today, the wealthiest middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. have roughly the same likelihood of dying over a 12-year period as the poorest adults in northern and western Europe, according to a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. (Bendix, 4/2)

CBS News: 241 Passengers, Crew Sickened With Norovirus On Luxury Cruise Ship
More than 200 luxury cruise ship passengers caught norovirus on a monthlong transatlantic voyage that won't officially end until Sunday, U.S. health officials said. A new outbreak report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention tracked 224 of 2,538 passengers who became ill from the virus while on board the Cunard cruise line ship Queen Mary 2, along with 17 crew members. The vessel carried 1,232 crew overall, according to the CDC. (Mae Czachor, 4/2)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Re-Infection Doubles Risk Of Long COVID In Kids, Young Adults, Data Reveal
The retrospective cohort study used data from the RECOVER consortium collected from 40 US children's hospitals from January 2022 through October 2023, when the Omicron variant was predominant. The study involved 465,717 patients 20 years old and younger with confirmed COVID-19 during the study period; the median age was 8 years. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed. (Wappes, 3/2)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 May Put Patients At Risk For Other Infections For At Least 1 Year
In a study yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, its authors describe how a positive test for COVID-19 is associated with increased rates of diagnosis of various non–SARS-CoV-2 infections in the 12 months following an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, even if the initial infection is mild to moderate. They also found that patients hospitalized for COIVD-19 infections were at greater risk for other infections in the year after illness, compared to patients who were hospitalized for influenza. (Soucheray, 4/2)

CIDRAP: RSV Vaccine Uptake In Adults Tied To Older Age, Pulmonary Disease
In a new cross-sectional analysis of 6,746 hospitalized adults aged 60 and older in 20 states, increased respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination was associated with being 75 years or older and having pulmonary disease. (Soucheray, 3/2)

MedPage Today: Prenatal Smoking Cessation Medication Did Not Increase Congenital Malformations 
Prenatal use of smoking cessation therapies was not linked to increased risks of major congenital malformations (MCMs) compared with smoking during the first trimester, a retrospective cohort study suggested. (Henderson, 3/31)

CNBC: Novo Nordisk's Diabetes Pill Rybelsus Slashes Cardiovascular Risk
Novo Nordisk on Saturday said its diabetes pill Rybelsus showed cardiovascular benefits in a late-stage trial, paving the way for it to become a new treatment option for people living with diabetes and heart disease. (Constantino, 3/29)

Stat: Cuts To HHS Comms, FOIA Personnel Could Hide Corruption 
The DOGE cuts to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday will make America less safe. Unless something is done soon to change course, they will also make it easier to hide corrupt behavior by the agency’s leadership. (Kevin Griffis, 4/2)

Bloomberg: This Isn't How You Make America Healthy Again
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s grand plan for Making America Healthy Again is taking shape. It centers on dismantling the public health systems that have kept Americans safe for decades. (Lisa Jarvis, 4/3)

The Washington Post: RFK Jr. Mimics AIDS Denier Thabo Mbeki
There’s historical precedent for how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is handling his ascension to high office. It’s an episode that didn’t end well. (Donald G. McNeil Jr., 4/3)

Stat: The EPO Drug Scandal That Explains RFK Jr.’s Appeal To Americans 
Erythropoietin — also known as EPO — is mostly remembered as the drug that cyclist Lance Armstrong dishonestly used to win seven Tours de France. The blood thickener’s role in a cancer drug disaster that, by one estimate, cost nearly 500,000 Americans their lives has been forgotten. (Gardiner Harris, 4/3)

Stat: Basic Science Makes U.S. Innovation Great 
In recent debates about government funding, certain quirky-sounding research projects — like studying shrimp on treadmills — have grabbed headlines and become easy targets for criticism. Politicians and the public alike ask: “Why should we pay for shrimp running on treadmills?” Questioning these seemingly odd experiments, out of context, poses a serious threat to support for curiosity-driven basic science — the very engine that drives transformative discoveries. (Carole LaBonne, 4/3)