NBC News: Trump Set To Sign Executive Order Shuttering The Education Department
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Thursday to close the Education Department, fulfilling a yearslong pledge to dismantle the federal agency, the White House confirmed. Trump will hold an event at the White House to sign the order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "return education authority to the States.” ... Formally closing the department requires an act of Congress. But even without formally shutting it down, the Trump administration could effectively make it nearly impossible for employees to carry out their work, as it has done with the U.S. Agency for International Development. (Haake, Egwuonwu and Kingkade, 3/19)

Vox: What Dismantling The Education Department Means For Kids With Disabilities
Amid the upheaval, one thing is clear: Any plan to shut down the Education Department — and, indeed, the cuts and layoffs that have already happened — will disproportionately hurt students with disabilities. That includes kids who receive special education, but also those in general education classrooms who get supports or accommodations to learn, from speech therapy to sign language interpreters to counseling. Any kid who has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 plan through their school could be affected by what’s going on at the Education Department. That’s a huge group of kids. As of 2022–2023, 7.5 million students — 15 percent of all those enrolled in public school — received special education or related services (like speech therapy) under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. The most common reasons were specific learning disabilities like dyslexia. (North, 3/13)

More on the budget cuts and funding freeze —

Politico: Trump Aides Circulate Plan For Complete Revamp Of Foreign Aid Programs 
Some Trump administration officials have crafted a proposal to restructure the U.S. international aid and development architecture, making it leaner, more focused and better positioned to take on China. ...The proposal says existing U.S. aid and development programming is “inefficient and fragmented.” ... A better approach, the plan says, would be to “foster peace and stability in regions critical to U.S. interests, catalyze economic opportunities that support American businesses and consumers, and mitigate global threats such as pandemic diseases.” (Toosi and Lippman, 3/19)

Politico: Trump Drastically Cutting Back Annual Human Rights Report
The Trump administration is slashing the State Department’s annual human rights report — cutting sections about the rights of women, the disabled, the LGBTQ+ community and more. The goal appears to be a far thinner report that meets the minimum standards required by the law, according to documents obtained by POLITICO, as well as a current and a former State Department official who were familiar with the plan. (Toosi, 3/19)

Stat: AHRQ, A Small HHS Agency, Likely Target For DOGE Cuts 
A small government agency responsible for putting medical products and services to practical use and making health care safe is feared to be the latest target for mass layoffs by the Trump administration. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, has about 300 employees and a budget of $369 million, which is about 0.02% of what the government spends on health care. But AHRQ hasn’t escaped the notice of the DOGE Service, which has been slashing agency payrolls and budgets across the government. (Wilkerson, 3/20)

Stat: ME/CFS Research Program Shuts Down At Columbia Over Trump Cuts
A large research program into myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS, has been forced to shut down because of Trump administration cuts earlier this month to Columbia University’s funding, one of its top researchers said. (Cueto, 3/19)

KFF Health News: Amid Plummeting Diversity At Medical Schools, A Warning Of DEI Crackdown’s ‘Chilling Effect’
The Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI programs could exacerbate an unexpectedly steep drop in diversity among medical school students, even in states like California, where public universities have been navigating bans on affirmative action for decades. Education and health experts warn that, ultimately, this could harm patient care. Since taking office, President Donald Trump has issued a handful of executive orders aimed at terminating all diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives in federally funded programs. (Sciacca, 3/20)

On food safety —

The New York Times: Food Safety Jeopardized By Onslaught Of Funding And Staff Cuts
In the last few years, foodborne pathogens have had devastating consequences that alarmed the public. ... In each outbreak, state and federal officials connected the dots from each sick person to a tainted product and ensured the recalled food was pulled off the shelves. Some of those employees and their specific roles in ending outbreaks are now threatened by Trump administration measures to increase government efficiency, which come on top of cuts already being made by the Food and Drug Administration’s chronically underfunded food division. (Jewett, 3/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Drug Overdoses, Including Fentanyl, On The Decline
The U.S. is making progress against one of its most devastating public health threats: drug overdoses. Over the 12 months ending in October 2024, the country saw a 25% decline in overdose deaths compared with the same period the year prior, according to the latest preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 82,000 overdose deaths were reported. (Wernau, Abbott and Ulick, 3/20)

NPR: Trump Administration Extends Opioid Emergency As Fentanyl Deaths Drop
The Trump administration is extending through mid-June an emergency declaration linked to the opioid overdose crisis that was set to expire on Friday. In a statement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged drug deaths in the U.S. "are starting to decline" but said the Trump administration will continue treating the opioid crisis as "the national security emergency that it is." (Mann, 3/19)

CBS News: More Egg Product Seizures Than Fentanyl Seizures At The Border So Far This Year
As the bird flu continues to wreak havoc on the U.S. egg supply, U.S. Customs and Border Protection data show there have been significantly more egg products seized at U.S. borders than the number of seizures of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl so far in fiscal year 2025. According to the CBP data, there have been 413 drug seizure events involving fentanyl in fiscal year 2025, with December, January and February all having fewer fentanyl seizures than in those months the year before. (Cohen, 3/19)

Also —

Axios: New Industrial Chemical Found In Philly's Fentanyl Supply 
An industrial chemical used to produce plastics has infiltrated Philadelphia's fentanyl supply, researchers say. Why it matters: Public health experts worry about the potential consequences for anybody ingesting BTMPS-cut fentanyl. While the chemical's health effects on humans aren't known, studies using rats have shown it can cause heart defects, lung damage, blurry vision and death. (Avilucea, 3/19)

NBC 6 South Florida: Miami Nurse Who Swapped Fentanyl Meds With Saline Gets Prison 
A former South Florida nurse who swapped out fentanyl medication meant for patients with saline has been sentenced to federal prison. Emmanuel Valentin, 40, was sentenced to more than two years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said Tuesday. Valentin, who'd worked at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, was arrested in 2023 and pleaded guilty to tampering with consumer products this past December. Authorities said Valentin, who worked in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab, used a syringe to extract liquid painkillers - medical-grade fentanyl and midazolam - from their vials for his personal use while on duty. (3/18)

Politico: Clashes Over Abortion Clinic Safety Intensify After Trump’s Pardons: ‘I Knew That Threats Would Increase’
Abortion rights supporters across the country are scrambling to strengthen protections for clinics in response to moves by the Trump administration that they believe will put providers and patients in danger. Democratic lawmakers have introduced bills in Illinois, Michigan, New York and elsewhere to restrict demonstrations outside of clinics, increase criminal penalties for people who harass doctors and patients, or allocate more funds for abortion providers to buy security cameras, bulletproof glass and other protections. (Ollstein and Friedman, 3/19)

The Hill: Hawley Expresses Skepticism Of Oz Over Abortion, Trans Rights
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) expressed skepticism about Dr. Mehmet Oz’s, President Trump’s pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, views on abortion and transgender rights. “I’ve been reading up on Dr. Oz – I see he’s praised trans surgeries for minors and supported hormone treatments & puberty blockers for kids in the past,” Hawley wrote on X. “And has also criticized state laws protecting life. I hope he’s changed his views to match President Trump!” (Irwin, 3/19)

More on transgender health —

The Hill: Hegseth Says Pentagon Appealing Block On Trump Transgender Military Ban
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he is appealing a block on an executive order from President Trump effectively preventing transgender people from serving openly in the military. “We are appealing this decision, and we will win,” Hegseth said in a Wednesday evening post on the social platform X. (Suter, 3/19)

Bloomberg: Trump Freezes $175 Million To University Of Pennsylvania Over Trans Athletes
The Trump administration has frozen $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania, citing policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports, according to the White House. The move follows a pattern of escalating federal scrutiny of elite universities as political pressure mounts over their handling of campus unrest and allegations of discrimination. (Cattan and Lowenkron, 3/19)

CNN: Anti-Amyloid Therapy May Keep Alzheimer’s Symptoms At Bay In Certain Patients, Study Suggests 
For the first time, scientists say, they have evidence that using a biologic drug to remove sticky beta amyloid plaques from the brains of people destined to develop Alzheimer’s dementia can delay the disease. The researchers have been testing amyloid-removing therapies in a group of people who have rare genetic mutations that make it almost certain they’ll develop Alzheimer’s. (Goodman, 3/19)

AP: Researchers Find A Hint At How To Delay Alzheimer's Symptoms. Now They Have To Prove It
An experimental treatment appears to delay Alzheimer’s symptoms in some people genetically destined to get the disease in their 40s or 50s, according to new findings from ongoing research now caught up in Trump administration funding delays. The early results — a scientific first — were published Wednesday even as study participants worried that politics could cut their access to a possible lifeline. (Neergaard and Lum, 3/19)

More pharmaceutical and tech news —

NBC News: Experimental Treatment Borrowed From Blood Cancer Shows Promise For Pediatric Brain Tumors
Gavin Nielsen was 2 years old when he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive brain cancer. The smiley toddler had diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG, a cancer that occurs in the part of the brain stem that controls vital functions including breathing, blood pressure and heart rate. Very few treatment options exist, and the prognosis for children diagnosed with the disease is, on average, less than one year. (Sullivan, Syal and Martin, 3/19)

AP: This Cutting Edge Hair Loss Treatment Is A Repurposed Drug From The 1990s
The latest trend in treating hair loss may sound familiar — essentially, it’s a repurposed drug first popularized in the 1990s. Back then, TV viewers were inundated with ads for Rogaine, a sticky topical solution that could help treat thinning hair when applied to the scalp. Now dermatologists are increasingly prescribing the drug, known generically as minoxidil, in low-dose pills to help men and women maintain or regrow hair. (Perrone, 3/19)

MedPage Today: Type 2 Diabetes Patients Also Reap Benefits Of Automated Insulin Delivery
An automated insulin delivery (AID) system boosted glycemic control in insulin-treated adults with type 2 diabetes using continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), a randomized trial showed. (Monaco, 3/19)

NBC News: Adult ADHD Prescriptions Still On The Rise, Especially Among Women Over 35
Prescriptions for ADHD medications have been spiking in recent years, with the sharpest increase among middle-aged and older women. They’re also the least likely to misuse the prescription stimulants, a new study found. The rise among women ages 35 to 64 has been substantial. At the end of 2022, 1.7 million women in this age group were prescribed stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin for ADHD, compared to 1.2 million prescriptions in 2019. (Carroll, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: FDA Deems Medtronic’s Pipeline Vantage Recall ‘Most Serious’
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday classified Medtronic’s recall of its Pipeline Vantage embolization devices as the most serious type of recall. The recall removed Pipeline Vantage 027 models from the market, which have been linked to 13 reported injuries and four deaths. The action also updated instructions for Pipeline Vantage 021 models, which have been tied to four reported injuries. (Dubinsky, 3/19)

Chicago Tribune: Northwestern Medicine To Try Robotic Device To Draw Blood
The practice of drawing blood has changed very little over the decades. It looks about the same now as it did 50 years ago. That process, however, may be about to get a modern makeover. Several health systems across the U.S. — including Northwestern Medicine — are gearing up to try a new way of drawing blood: using a robot. (Schencker, 3/19)

The Boston Globe: Commonwealth Care Alliance: State Preps In Case Of Insurer Collapse
State officials said this week they are preparing in case Commonwealth Care Alliance collapses, in an effort to protect the health care of the struggling insurer’s nearly 50,000 elderly, disabled, and low-income members. In case members must transfer to a more basic version of the state’s Medicaid program, MassHealth, the state has sought proposals from vendors who could take over the intensive work of coordinating patients’ care, a service that Commonwealth Care provided but MassHealth‘s basic platform typically does not. (Bartlett, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Veradigm Overstated Revenue In Financial Statements, Company Says
Veradigm, a healthcare data company, confirmed on Tuesday it overstated its revenue in prior year-end financial statements. The company found discrepancies in its financial statements from 2020-2022, overstating revenue in 2020 and 2022 while understating revenue in 2021. It blamed the errors on “internal control failures." (Turner, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna, HCSC Close $3.3B Medicare Deal
Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee Health Care Service Corp. has closed its $3.3 billion purchase of Cigna’s Medicare operations, the companies announced Wednesday. The deal, which includes Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D and Medicare supplement assets along with the CareAllies consulting unit, quadruples Health Care Service Corp.'s Medicare Advantage membership to about 800,000 and closes the book on Cigna's Medicare plan business. (Berryman, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Cone Health's Mary Jo Cagle To Step Down
Cone Health President and CEO Dr. Mary Jo Cagle is stepping down May 31 due to a family health matter. Interim Chief Operating Officer Bernard “Bernie” Sherry will serve as interim CEO starting June 1, and a new COO will be named in the coming weeks, according to a Wednesday news release. The health system is conducting a nationwide search for a permanent CEO, the release said. (Hudson, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Jefferson Health's Baligh Yehia To Oversee Lehigh Valley Health
Jefferson Health is making changes to its leadership team's responsibilities as the system integrates with Lehigh Valley Health Network. Jefferson President Dr. Baligh Yehia is expanding his role to oversee the combined system's growth and clinical integration across three legacy Jefferson regions and two legacy Lehigh Valley regions. Dr. Brian Nester, chief operating officer at Jefferson and former president and CEO at Lehigh Valley, is COO of the enterprise. (Hudson, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: Hippocratic AI To Launch AI Agent Upgrades In April
Hippocratic AI is launching its next generation of artificial intelligence models as it aims to stand out in an increasingly competitive space. The generative AI company said Wednesday it's planning to add multiple features focused on customer service to its suite of AI tools for health systems, payers and pharmaceutical companies. The models will triple-check patients' labs and medications as well as help route patients to a human when needed. (Turner, 3/19)

North Carolina Health News: N.C. House And Senate Bills Would Raise Tobacco Sales Age To 21
Rob Crane watched his father struggle with lung cancer for months before he died in his mid-60s. It was “really horrendous,” Crane said. As a doctor specializing in family medicine, Crane was inspired by that experience to start raising awareness about the effects of tobacco addiction. He founded the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation in 1996 and began to push for state legislatures to raise the tobacco sales age. (Vitaglione, 3/20)

MedPage Today: West Virginia On The Verge Of Banning Certain Food Dyes
West Virginia is on track to become one of the first states to outlaw food dyes in school meals -- and eventually across the state. Under the legislation, known as HB 2354, starting on Aug. 1, the following additives will be banned from any meals served at West Virginia public schools as part of a school nutrition program: Red Dye No. 3, Red Dye No. 40, Yellow Dye No. 5, Yellow Dye No. 6, Blue Dye No. 1, Blue Dye No. 2, and Green Dye No. 3. (Frieden, 3/19)

WFSU: Bill Would Allow Caregivers To Give Insulin To A Disabled Client At APD-Licensed Group Homes
Two aging Florida parents are fighting for their diabetic son to be able to get his insulin shots administered by the caregivers in a group home. A bill (SB 1736) under consideration in the Legislature could help make that happen. (Menzel, 3/19)

The CT Mirror: CT Bill With Long-Term Care Insurance Reforms Passes Committee
A third legislative committee has advanced a broad bill that would add protections for purchasers of long-term care insurance and boost transparency around rate hike requests. (Carlesso, 3/19)

Chicago Tribune: Lawmakers Back Bill Tackling Sexual Misconduct In Health Care
A sweeping bill that would expand reporting requirements related to sexual misconduct allegations against health care workers and impose fines for failure to report serious incidents gained initial approval from a House committee Wednesday. The bill follows a Tribune investigation last year that exposed how Illinois health care systems failed to protect patients from sexual abuse and how state government failed to hold them accountable. (Hoerner and Schencker, 3/19)

KFF Health News: In New York, Providers Must Put Patient Costs On The Table
The routine is familiar for most people: When checking in for an appointment with a doctor or other health care provider, patients typically complete and sign a pile of paperwork, including a form that contains some version of the statement, “I agree to pay for all charges not covered by my insurance company.” Patients may not feel comfortable making that financial promise, often before they have any idea what the charges will be. But they generally sign the form anyway, because the alternative is often not to get the services they’re seeking. (Andrews, 3/20)

From California —

Politico: What The New AI Report Could Mean For Health Care
Assembly Health Chair Mia Bonta sees an opportunity to make California healthier with the new AI report commissioned by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. ... Bonta introduced a bill last month, AB 489, that would ban companies from marketing AI chatbots as licensed health professionals like nurses and psychologists. Her committee may soon take up another bill that would outlaw chatbots from luring in kids with addictive reward structures. (Katzenberger and DiFeliciantonio,3/19)

CBS News: Possible Measles Exposure Reported At Tuolumne County School And Emergency Room
Tuolumne County Public Health officials on Tuesday warned about possible measles exposure at a high school and an emergency room. ... In an update Wednesday, health officials confirmed the two suspected cases were confirmed positive for measles. Their vaccination status at this time is not known. Health officials said the two cases are from the same household and stem from traveling internationally. (Fabian, 3/19)

Fox News: Marijuana Use Increases Heart Attack Risk In Young, Healthy Adults
While marijuana has been legalized in many states, research has shown that it could have detrimental health impacts for some — including a higher risk of heart attacks. Two recent studies have linked cannabis use to cardiac events, particularly among young, healthier people, according to a release from the American College of Cardiology (ACC). (Rudy, 3/18)

CBS News: Smartphone Addiction Is Leading To "Brain Rot," Doctors Say
Katy Paige Rosenberg, a freshman at the University of North Carolina Asheville, recently realized what too much scrolling on her phone was doing to her. She estimates she was probably spending about nine hours a day on her phone. ... Stories like hers are familiar, but now it is possible to see the science behind it, according to Dr. Brent Nelson, a psychiatrist and the chief medical information officer for Southern California-based Newport Healthcare, which operates mental health treatment centers for teens nationwide. (Oliver, 3/19)

AP: Lean Cuisine And Stouffer's Meals Recalled For 'Wood-Like Material' Linked To Choking
Nestle USA is recalling certain batches of its Lean Cuisine and Stouffer’s frozen meals for possible contamination with “wood-like material” after a report of potential choking. The recall applies to limited quantities of meals with best-before dates between September 2025 and April 2026. They include Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli, Lean Cuisine Spinach Artichoke Ravioli, Lean Cuisine Lemon Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry and Stouffer’s Party Size Chicken Lasagna. (Aleccia, 3/19)

CBS News: U.S. Falls To Lowest-Ever Ranking On 2025 World Happiness Report
The United States this year fell to its lowest-ever place on the World Happiness Report, which highlights the positive effects benevolence and social connections have on people's life satisfaction. Finland remained the happiest nation for the eighth year in a row, while Mexico and Costa Rico ranked among the top 10 for the first time since the report was first published in 2012. (Brown Chau, 3/19)

On bird flu —

CIDRAP: USDA Launches Biosecurity Steps For Poultry Producers, Adds Details On H7N9 Avian Flu Detection
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced the rollout of two biosecurity assessment programs available for commercial poultry farms, one targeting wildlife hazards and the other reviewing biosecurity plans and measures. The programs are part of plans to prevent the introduction and spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza and dovetail with up to $1 billion in emergency funding announced last month by USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins. (Schnirring, 3/19)

MedPage Today: Here's What RFK Jr. Got Wrong About H5N1 Bird Flu 
In two recent interviews on Fox News, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed concerns about H5N1 avian influenza in the U.S., raising alarm among public health and infectious disease experts. Chief among those concerns is that Kennedy said the genotype B3.13 -- the one currently circulating in U.S. dairy cattle and most poultry -- "is not dangerous to humans" because it causes only conjunctivitis and mild flu symptoms. But that's missing the bigger picture, experts told MedPage Today. (Fiore, 3/19)

CIDRAP: Antiviral Drug Ensitrelvir Shows Promise In Preventing Household COVID Spread 
People who started taking the antiviral drug ensitrelvir within 72 hours after a household member tested positive for COVID-19 were significantly less likely to be infected, according to results from an international phase 3 clinical trial presented last week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in San Francisco. (Van Beusekom, 3/19)

CIDRAP: Pulmonary Therapy Shows Promise For Long-COVID Patients 
Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), including breath control exercises, can improve lung function in long COVID patients after only 4 to 8 weeks, according to a study in Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease. (Soucheray, 3/19)

CIDRAP: 3 Vaccine Doses Cut Long-COVID Risk By Over 60%, Analysis Suggests
In a Swedish cohort, the risk of long COVID was much lower for vaccinated than unvaccinated participants in the year after infection, even when restricting the analyses to subgroups based on variant, age, sex, and previous infection status, estimates a study published last week in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 3/17)

MedPage Today: Dementia Drug Doesn't Help Long COVID Fatigue, Psychological Symptoms 
Use of donepezil (Aricept), an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, for 3 weeks failed to demonstrate efficacy in treating fatigue and psychological symptoms of long COVID in a randomized trial from Japan. (Brunk, 3/17)

ScienceDaily: Latest Alzheimer's Drug Shown Less Effective In Females Than Males
A research team has found that lecanemab was probably less effective in females than males in its Phase 3 trial. However, there was insufficient evidence to say the drug was totally ineffective in females. (McGill University, 3/18)

CIDRAP: Estimates: Jynneos Mpox Vaccine 84% And 35% Effective In People Without, With HIV 
One dose of the Jynneos vaccine was 58% effective against mpox infection overall and 84% in people without HIV, but only 35% in those with HIV, according to an observational combined study published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 3/19)

CIDRAP: U Penn Survey Shows Only 56% Of Americans Understand Drinking Raw Milk Is Risky 
A new survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania shows that 56% of US adults know that drinking unpasteurized, or raw, milk is less safe than drinking pasteurized milk, but there have been no significant changes in public perceptions of raw milk in the past 6 month, despite detections of H5N1 avian flu virus in unpasteurized milk. (Soucheray, 3/17)

The New York Times: I Was Diagnosed With Autism At 53. I Know Why Rates Are Rising.
President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have vowed to tackle what they describe as a scourge threatening American children. The rise in autism has been precipitous: One in 36 children is affected today, up from four in 10,000 in the 1980s, the president warned in a recent executive order. Under Mr. Kennedy’s direction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to investigate whether vaccines are the cause — despite overwhelming evidence that they are not. (Holden Thorp, 3/20)

The New York Times: The Entire Future Of American Public Health Is At Risk
The scariest thing about measles is probably not the related deaths, of which there have been two already this winter, the first in the United States in a decade. It may not even be the one-in-10,000 risk of irreversible lifelong paralysis, known as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. Instead, it’s the much more common effect the virus can have on what’s called immunological memory — creating an immune amnesia that can devastate your ability to fight off future infections. (David Wallace-Wells, 3/19)

Bloomberg: The Anti-Vax Culture War On MRNA Just Got Worse
US health agency leadership and policymakers seem intent on undermining trust in mRNA, the technology that saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic and has shown promise in addressing a range of infectious diseases and even cancer. (Lisa Jarvis, 3/19)

The Boston Globe: Five Things Trump Must Do To Combat Bird Flu
For decades, scientists have worried about a human pandemic from bird flu, or H5N1, for one main reason: The virus is deadly. Historically, about half the people known to be infected globally have died. But the virus was limited to small subspecies of birds, would occasionally infect poultry, and rarely infected mammals of any kind, including humans. (Ashish K. Jha, 3/20)

The Baltimore Sun: When Patients Suffer Medical Hair Loss, Insurance Should Cover The Remedy
What does your hair mean to you? Is it a bold statement of self-expression, a perfect finishing touch to your look or just something you quickly style and move on with your day? For most, hair is a choice — a reflection of identity, mood or routine. But for those battling autoimmune diseases, that choice is taken away. (Aamir Hussain, Magdi Elghannam and Nathan Kattapuram, 3/19)

Stat: The U.S. Government Wants To Erase The Existence Of Intersex People Like Me
Like up to 1.7% of the worldwide population, I was born intersex — with physical variations of sex anatomy that don’t align with typical notions of a female or male body. In the United States, roughly 1-2 of every 100 babies are born with intersex traits, so we are as common as those born with red hair or green eyes and more common than identical twins. We have always been here. In fact, researchers announced in 2019 that U.S. Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski was likely intersex. (Kimberly Zieselman, 3/20)