Fox5 New York: 24 Years Later, 9/11 Continues To Claim Lives
Today marks 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, and the toll from illnesses linked to Ground Zero continues to grow. The FDNY this week added 39 names to its World Trade Center memorial wall in Brooklyn, honoring firefighters who died in the past year from diseases tied to rescue and recovery work after the attacks. (Shivonne, 9/11)

ABC News: 3 Additional 9/11 Victims Have Been Identified, According To The New York City Chief Medical Examiner's Office
Twenty-four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) announced in August three new identifications of World Trade Center victims. Ryan Fitzgerald of Floral Park, N.Y., Barbara Keating of Palm Springs, Calif., and an adult woman whose name is being withheld at the request of her family are the 1,651st, 1,652nd and 1,653rd victims positively identified through DNA analysis, OCME said in their announcement. ... Some 1,100 victims of the 9/11 attacks, representing roughly 40% of those who died that day, remain unidentified, according to OCME. (Katersky, 8/7)

NPR: Inside The Lab Working To Identify The Remains Of 9/11 Victims
Last month, New York City officials announced they had identified the remains of another three victims who died in the Sept. 11 attacks at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. It was the latest update to come out of the missing persons unit of the New York City medical examiner's office, which since 2001 has been running the forensic investigation into the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history. But the news may have surprised those who didn't know that many 9/11 victims still haven't had any of their remains identified — and that city officials are still trying, 24 years later. (Hernandez, 9/11)

On the World Trade Center Health Program —

NBC News: Democrats Demand Answers From Kennedy Over Delayed Actions Of 9/11 Health Program
Ahead of the 24th anniversary of 9/11, Democrats are demanding answers from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the future of the federal World Trade Center Health Program, which covers treatment for 9/11-related illnesses such as cancer and chronic coughs. In a letter to Kennedy on Wednesday, obtained exclusively by NBC News, six Democratic senators expressed concern that the program was not abiding by a mandate to evaluate whether additional health conditions should be eligible for the program’s medical coverage. (Bendix, 9/10)

NY1: HHS 'Chaos' Undermining WTC Health Program, Advocates Warn
Ahead of the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attack, advocates for victims and first responders warn that “chaos” at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is undermining the World Trade Center Health Program. Since President Donald Trump returned to office earlier this year, advocates say, the administration has shortchanged the health program by firing and then rehiring program staff and other HHS workers and slow-rolling grants for research. The impact, those who work with victims say, is tangible. “Recently, during one of the proposed cuts in which we became collateral damage, we had three members who actually were denied authorization for cancer treatment,” Jim Brosi, president of the NYC Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said. (Frey, 9/9)

Newsday: Group That Has Advised On Health Issues Since 9/11 No Longer Meets Under Trump Administration
For the past 24 years a panel of doctors, union leaders and advocates met monthly with federal health officials to address the mounting health concerns surrounding 9/11 first responders and survivors. The meetings of the World Trade Center Responder Steering Committee were described by attendees as collaborative and cordial — until they came to an abrupt stop this year. ... The group has been stymied for eight months by a Trump Administration policy that has kept administrators of the federal World Trade Center Health Program from meeting with the group, according to emails reviewed by Newsday. The committee has not met since January and its members, including representatives of New York City’s firefighter and police unions, have not been able to resume long-standing discussions with federal health officials about the tracking of rare diseases cropping up among some 9/11 survivors. (Hernandez, 9/6)

Also —

The Washington Post: 9/11 Survivor Fulfills Childhood Dream Of Becoming Nurse 
Jocelyn Brooks had escaped the World Trade Center — through 40 desperate stories of stairs, thick black smoke and dismembered body parts — when she looked toward the clear sky and realized she made it out alive. People trapped inside New York City’s twin towers after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were jumping from windows, trying to flee the greedy flames and instead falling to their deaths. In a clarifying moment, Brooks had two thoughts: She needed to watch her two children become adults, and she needed to pursue her childhood dream of working in medicine. (Melnick, 9/11)

The New York Times: A New 9/11 Generation: These Children Promise To Never Forget
A generational shift has been taking place at the annual Sept. 11 remembrance ceremony in New York City. Those reading the names will also include children. About one-third of last year’s readers belong to this new generation in the Sept. 11 families, one with no memory of the attacks but increasingly shouldering the responsibility to never forget. (Rosenberg, 9/10)

The New York Times: House Moment of Silence for Kirk Descends Into Partisan Strife
The shooting that killed the political activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday drew expressions of sympathy and outrage from across the political spectrum. But on the floor of the House of Representatives, a request for a moment of silence to honor him quickly gave way to a moment of bitter partisanship, in a reminder of the polarization that has fueled political violence in recent years. ... As other Republicans began yelling at Democrats, calling on them to back down, one Democrat responded, “Pass some gun laws!” (Gold, 9/10)

AP: Charlie Kirk Shooting Brings Condemnation From Victims Of Political Violence
The fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah had particular resonance for public figures who have experienced political violence themselves. Kirk, who served as chief executive and cofounder of the youth organization Turning Point USA, made frequent appearances on college campuses and in other settings, engaging in political dialogue with students in public settings. Several leaders who have survived public attacks or had family members victimized joined in bipartisan condemnation of the attack on Kirk. (9/11)

Also Wednesday, a school shooting happened in Colorado —

AP: Authorities Say A Student Is Dead After Shooting 2 Peers And Then Himself At Colorado High School 
A student shot two of his peers Wednesday at a suburban Denver high school before shooting himself and later dying, authorities said. The handgun shooting was reported around 12:30 p.m. at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado, about 30 miles west of Denver in the Rocky Mountain foothills. The teens were originally listed in critical condition, St. Anthony Hospital CEO Kevin Cullinan said. Their ages were not released. By early evening, one teen was in stable condition with what Dr. Brian Blackwood, the hospital’s trauma director, described as non-life threatening injuries. He declined to provide more details. (Slevin and Brown, 9/10)

CNN: Since Columbine In 1999, Colorado Continues To Be Scarred By Gun Violence
Once again, a shooting with multiple victims has rocked Colorado – this time at a high school in Evergreen. At least two students were shot Wednesday at Evergreen High School, which is located roughly 28 miles southwest of Denver. The suspect, a student at the school, died from self-inflicted injuries, officials said. It is the 47th shooting at a school in the United States so far this year — 24 of which were on college campuses and 23 on K-12 school grounds. For nearly three decades, Colorado has experienced some of the highest-profile shootings in the nation. (Sanchez and Tucker, 9/11)

More on mental health and violence —

Newsweek: RFK Jr. Says Mass Shootings May Be Connected To Video Games—What Data Shows 
Violent video games are sold worldwide yet the U.S. "far and away, has the highest rate of mass shootings or school shootings," a researcher noted. (Mordowanec, 9/10)

AP: Charlotte Commuter Train Stabbing Suspect Had Long Criminal History
After Decarlos Brown Jr. was arrested for the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee aboard a North Carolina commuter train, he was quickly sent to a state mental hospital for an evaluation. It was a sharp contrast from a January misdemeanor arrest, where it took more than six months for a court to order a mental evaluation after Brown told officers that he had been given a human-made substance that controlled when he ate, talked or walked. (Lauer, 9/10)

Bloomberg: US Government Shutdown Threatened By Democrats Over Obamacare
Democrats are threatening to block a bill needed to avert an Oct. 1 US government shutdown unless Republicans agree to stop a sharp spike in Obamacare health insurance premiums or meet other demands by the minority party. Obamacare insurance subsidies, which have slashed premiums for millions of Americans, will expire Jan. 1, and out-of-power Democrats said they view the stopgap funding bill as their best legislative chance. Republicans need at least seven Democratic votes in the Senate to pass the bill. (Wasson and Dennis, 9/10)

Stat: Lawmakers Snub Kennedy, Include MRNA Vaccine Funding In Spending Bill
House appropriators have snubbed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by including an amendment in their 2026 spending bill that specifically funds continued messenger RNA vaccine research, despite his effort to roll it back. (Cirruzzo, 9/10)

On children's nutrition —

MedPage Today: House Hearing On Kids' Nutrition Veers Off In Many Directions
A House hearing on Tuesday aimed at discussing ways to improve children's diets -- but also veered off into many other directions. At the House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services hearing on "Better Meals, Fewer Pills: Making Our Children Healthy Again," Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) said, "The health of the American people, especially our children, face significant risk when the most pressing threat is the growing anti-vaccine rhetoric that undermines decades of scientific consensus and life-saving health policy." (Frieden, 9/10)

CNN: More Of The World’s Children Are Now Obese Than Underweight, UNICEF Warns 
More school-age children and adolescents are now obese than underweight, a new report from the United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, has revealed, with 188 million young people affected. (Woodyatt, 9/10)

More on federal funding cuts and DEI —

AP: Judge Blocks Trump Policy Ending Social Services For Immigrants
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Trump administration restrictions on services for immigrants in the country illegally, including the federal preschool program Head Start, health clinics and adult education. The order from the judge in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island applies to 20 states and the District of Columbia, whose attorneys general, all Democrats, sued the administration. It puts the administration’s reinterpretation of a Clinton-era federal policy on hold while the case is decided. (Seminera, 9/10)

The Washington Post: Education Department Ends Grants For Some Minority College Students
The Trump administration said Wednesday that it will withhold $350 million in grants to hundreds of colleges that serve large populations of minority students, calling the decades-old programs discriminatory. The Education Department said it would cease funding eight discretionary grant programs that individually support Black, Native, Hispanic and Asian American students across the country. The agency said it will reallocate funding for fiscal 2025 to other priorities. (Douglas-Gabriel and Rosenzweig-Ziff, 9/10)

Bloomberg: Harvard Says US To Restore Some Research Funds After Freeze
Harvard University said it has received notice that some of the federal research funding frozen by the Trump administration is being restarted, although the money hasn’t started flowing yet. The notification followed a court victory for Harvard last week in which a federal judge ruled that the US illegally froze more than $2 billion in research dollars for the school. It can take several days for the university to receive authorized funding after submitting a request. (Lorin and Ryan, 9/10)

KFF Health News: Watch: Patient Numbers At NIH Hospital Tumble After Trump Cuts
Government documents viewed by KFF Health News show a drop in patients receiving care this year at the National Institutes of Health’s renowned research hospital, a 200-bed facility at NIH headquarters in Maryland. We previously reported a decrease in the number of patients being treated at the NIH Clinical Center from February through April. Since then, we’ve obtained newer data showing the drop has continued. (Pradhan, 9/11)

Virginia Mercury: Va. Department Of Health Issues Order To Ease COVID-19 Vaccine Access, As Federal Guidance Shifts 
An order the Virginia Department of Health issued Wednesday now makes it easier for eligible Virginians to get vaccines in the weeks ahead. (Woods, 9/10)

6ABC Philadelphia: New Jersey And Pennsylvania Expand COVID-19 Vaccine Access Amid Federal Confusion
An executive directive issued this week by the New Jersey Department of Health allows anyone six months or older to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. A standing order also authorizes pharmacists to administer the shot without a prescription to individuals ages three and older. ... And in Pennsylvania, pharmacists are now allowed to follow vaccine recommendations from trusted authorities, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, instead of waiting for guidance from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which was not scheduled to meet until October. (Staff and Pinder, 9/11)

The CT Mirror: Conn. Gov. Lamont Issues Orders Aimed At COVID Vaccine Access
Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday issued a slew of executive actions seeking to protect COVID-19 vaccine access in Connecticut amid recent federal changes that are causing confusion over who’s eligible for shots, where people can get them and how much they’re going to cost. (Golvala, 9/10)

OPB: CVS Reverses Course, Won’t Give COVID Vaccines To Oregonians Without Prescriptions
One of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical chains has walked back its offering of the COVID-19 vaccine to Oregonians without a prescription as pharmacies and the state government await clarity from a federal public health agency in the midst of political upheaval. Patients in Oregon and nationwide have struggled to make appointments for COVID boosters, which in recent years have been a routine fall offering alongside flu shots, after the federal Food and Drug Administration tried to limit who can get the shots. (Nanguneri, 9/9)

More on vaccines —

CIDRAP: US Government Signs $56 Million Deal For Smallpox/Mpox Vaccine
Emergent BioSolutions announced yesterday that it has received a $56 million contract extension to supply the US government with doses of a combined smallpox/mpox vaccine. The single-dose vaccine, ACAM2000, was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007 for active immunization against smallpox in people considered to be at high risk of infection, then for active immunization against mpox in high-risk individuals in 2024. It's one of two FDA-approved smallpox and mpox vaccines, along with Bavarian Nordic's Jynneos vaccine. (Dall, 9/10)

ABC News: RFK Jr. Said US Children Receive Up To 92 Vaccine Doses. How Many Shots Do Kids Really Get?
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a Senate hearing on Thursday that children receive up to 92 vaccine doses in early childhood "in order to be fully compliant between maternity and 18 years." But doctors tell ABC News that that number isn't accurate. Excluding annual flu and COVID-19 shots, children generally receive roughly 30 vaccine doses – many in combined injections – before the age of 18. (Cobern, 9/10)

Also —

CIDRAP: Kids With COVID Had A 50% To 60% Higher Risk Of Depression, Anxiety In 2021, Researchers Say
Relative to uninfected children, COVID-19 patients aged 8 to 17 years were at a 49% higher risk for new-onset depression or anxiety in 2021, rising to 59% in those with severe illness, according to a University of Utah study published this week in PLOS One. (Van Beusekom, 9/10)

Fierce Healthcare: FTC Warns Healthcare Employers, Staffers To Review Noncompetes
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent letters to "several large healthcare employers and staffing firms" Wednesday suggesting they review their employment contracts for any noncompete agreements that are overly broad or anticompetitive. The letters were sent to an undisclosed number of unnamed companies, and were intended as a broad warning rather than a suggestion that the recipients had engaged in illegal conduct. (Muoio, 9/10)

More health care industry updates —

Phys.org: Doctors Are Joining Unions In A Bid To Improve Working Conditions And Raise Wages In A Stressful Health Care System
The share of doctors who belong to unions is rising quickly at a time when organized labor is losing ground with other professions. The Conversation U.S. asked Patrick Aguilar, a Washington University in St. Louis pulmonologist and management professor, to explain why the number of physicians joining unions is growing—a trend that appears likely to continue. (Aguilar, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Compensation Is Up In 2025. Here’s What To Know
Hospitals and health systems are rethinking compensation and staffing as they navigate financial challenges, and it’s not nurses but other employees who are seeing sizable pay bumps. The median national wage increase across all healthcare jobs for 2025 is 4.3%, up significantly from 2.7% in 2024, according to a recent survey by healthcare consultant SullivanCotter. (DeSilva, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: CMS' Medicare Plan Finder Updates Push Insurers To Revise Plans
A little over a month before the annual enrollment period, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is urging Medicare Advantage insurers to make significant changes to how they present their offerings to beneficiaries. Perhaps most notably, CMS will incorporate provider network lists into the Medicare Plan Finder tool enrollees use to select plans, it notified insurers last month. The agency is simultaneously developing a national provider directory that will not be ready in time for the 2026 Medicare Advantage and Part D sign-up campaign, which runs Oct. 15-Dec. 7. (Tepper, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente, Renown Health Form Joint Venture
Kaiser Permanente and Renown Health signed an agreement to form a joint venture to operate a health plan and ambulatory care services in Nevada. As part of the deal, Kaiser would acquire a majority stake in Renown’s insurance arm, Hometown Health, which has more than 73,000 members. Kaiser plans to start offering health plan coverage in northern Nevada as Kaiser Permanente Nevada with an open enrollment period late next year, according to a Wednesday news release. (Hudson, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: Oracle Highlights New AI Tools For Hospitals, Take Aim At Epic
Oracle unveiled new artificial intelligence tools for hospitals on Wednesday, capping a memorable month for the company that included layoffs and a strong earnings report. The company announced an AI-enabled patient portal to kick off its annual healthcare-focused event, held this year in Orlando. A keynote address by OpenAI’s Dr. Nate Gross, who joined the AI company in August, highlighted how the two companies are strategizing around AI in healthcare. (Perna, 9/10)

ProPublica: After Highmark BCBS Repeatedly Denied Their Claims, One Psychiatrist Was Their Last Hope
The email took Dr. Neal Goldenberg by surprise in a way that few things still do. As a psychiatrist, he had grown accustomed to seeing patients in their darkest moments. As someone who reviewed insurance denials, he was also well-versed in the arguments that hospitals make to try to overturn an insurer’s decision not to pay for treatment. (Eldeib, 9/10)

In pharma and tech developments —

Stat: Child Dies After Receiving New Experimental Gene Therapy 
The first child to receive a new experimental gene therapy for a rare neurological disorder died a few days after dosing, the company sponsoring that trial said Wednesday. The company, Capsida Biotherapeutics, is one of a group of companies and labs engineering new viruses potentially capable of safely ferrying genes deep into the brain. Its first effort was designed to treat STXBP1 encephalopathy, a condition that can cause seizures, developmental delays, and other symptoms. (Mast, 9/10)

FiercePharma: J&J's Intravesical Bladder Cancer Therapy Inlexzo Lands FDA Nod
The FDA has signed off on Johnson & Johnson’s highly anticipated bladder cancer drug Inlexzo, marking an advance in the ability to care for patients who otherwise face bladder removal and limited treatment options. Inlexzo, previously called TAR-200, can now treat patients with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)-unresponsive high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ (CIS), with or without papillary tumors. (Becker, 9/10)

Stat: Study: Robotic Device Could Make Intubation Faster In Emergencies 
It’s a long-standing challenge for first responders: Opening the airways of critically injured patients struggling to breathe often takes multiple attempts, costing crucial seconds. The problem caught David Haggerty’s attention when he was a graduate student, and he set out to see if he could make the rescue procedure, called intubation, easier. In a paper published Wednesday, Haggerty and a research team led by the University of California, Santa Barbara, described a robotic device they say has the potential to be faster and more reliable. (Wosen, 9/10)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Won’t Block Transgender Student’s Use Of School Bathroom
The Supreme Court on Wednesday left standing a lower court order allowing a 14-year-old transgender student to use a school bathroom that aligns with his gender identity, turning aside an emergency appeal from South Carolina to lift the ruling. The majority said the state had not met the bar to seek an emergency reversal of a preliminary injunction by a federal judge, who had permitted the teen to use the boys’ restroom while he sues over the state’s bathroom restrictions for transgender students. (Jouvenal, 9/10)

AP: Georgia County's Gender-Affirming Surgery Case Sees Federal Court Reversal
A federal appeals court has reversed previous court rulings that found a Georgia county illegally discriminated against a sheriff’s deputy by failing to pay for her gender-affirming surgery. In its ruling Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in an 8-5 decision that Houston County’s policy of denying coverage did not violate the civil rights of sheriff’s Sgt. Anna Lange. (Amy, 9/10)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County First In Ohio To Ban Conversion Therapy Targeting Gender Identity And Sexual Orientation 
Cuyahoga County, on Tuesday, became the first county in Ohio to ban the use of conversion therapy on minors and vulnerable adults. (Durbin, 9/10)

AP: Texas Drops Lawsuit Against Doctor Accused Of Violating Transgender Care Ban
One of the nation’s first doctors accused of illegally providing care to transgender youth under GOP-led bans was found to have not violated the law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office says, nearly a year after the state sued the physician. Dr. Hector Granados, a pediatric endocrinologist in El Paso, was called a “scofflaw” last year by Paxton’s office in a lawsuit that accused him of falsifying medical records and violating a Texas ban that took effect in 2023. (Stengle, 9/11)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

AP: Federal Agents Seize 600,000 Illegal Vapes In Nationwide Raids
Federal agents seized hundreds of thousands of illegal vaping products in raids across the country on Wednesday as the Trump administration moved to crack down on devices that are regularly used by teens in the U.S. after being smuggled in from China. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top federal officials traveled to Illinois to tout the seizures, which included more than 600,000 illegal products taken from a distributor outside of Chicago, officials said. (Durkin Richer, 9/10)

The Hill: Abbott Issues Order To Ban THC Sales To Minors
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an executive order on Wednesday directing state agencies to ban the sale of THC products to minors, after state lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on restrictions this year. “Texas will not wait when it comes to protecting children and families,” Abbott said in a statement. (Crisp, 9/10)

NPR: California Considers Allowing Doctors To Prescribe Abortion Drugs Anonymously
A California bill that would allow health care providers to anonymously mail abortion drugs could soon become law, marking the latest effort by a blue state to safeguard access to medication abortion. The two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol is used in more than 60% of abortions in the U.S., and roughly a quarter of abortions are now done via telehealth, according to the Society of Family Planning. (Adams, 9/10)

KFF Health News: Affirmative Action Critics Refuse To Back Down In Fight Over Medical Bias Training
Critics of affirmative action have launched a long-shot appeal aimed at stopping California from requiring training on unconscious bias in every continuing medical education class. A July ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld California’s right to mandate that every course doctors take to remain licensed must address how bias contributes to poorer health outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities. (Cohen, 9/11)

The CT Mirror: CT Approves Double Digit Rate Hikes For 2026 Health Plans
Officials with the Connecticut Insurance Department announced Wednesday they have signed off on an average rate hike of 16.8% for 2026 state-regulated individual health plans. They also approved an average increase of 11% on small group policies. (Carlesso, 9/10)

CIDRAP: Utah Reports High School–Related Measles Outbreak; US Total Reaches 1,454
Utah's health department is reporting a measles outbreak linked to a high school cycling event held on August 16. The department didn't say how many illnesses have been identified in the outbreak, only that event attendance was 2,000. (Soucheray, 9/10)

CNN: Among High-Income Countries, US Shows Slowest Progress In Reducing Risk Of Chronic Disease Deaths, New Study Finds 
Among all high-income Western countries, the United States has shown the worst performance in reducing the probability of dying from chronic diseases, a new study finds. (Howard, 9/10)

The Washington Post: Chronic Insomnia Associated With 3.5 Additional Years Of Brain Aging, Study Suggests
Persistent sleeplessness may be far worse than a passing annoyance — gradually unraveling memory and mental sharpness, according to new research. A study published Wednesday in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, identifies a troubling link: Older people who have chronic insomnia appear more likely to experience accelerated aging of the brain. These changes are revealed in both cognitive tests and imaging scans showing the altered structure of the brain. (Eunjung Cha, 9/10)

The Wall Street Journal: More Pregnant Women Are Turning To Marijuana. Many Cite Health Issues Behind The Controversial Decision.
Pregnancy was a complicated time for Tasha Taylor. The 33-year-old was already managing her bipolar disorder with a psych medication when she got pregnant. Then Taylor learned the prescription drug could hurt her baby. She decided to get off the medication, which led to night terrors. She’d wake up shaking from nightmares of her abusive ex-partner. She struggled to eat. Taylor went on to get a medical marijuana card. The cannabis helped her sleep during her pregnancy and tamped down feelings of mania. (Wernau, 9/11)

AP: Unproven Lyme Disease Tests And Treatments Are Proliferating
Lyme disease can cause serious harm, but so can bogus tests and treatments. The complexity of diagnosing the tick-borne disease has given rise to an entire industry of unapproved tests and unproven alternative treatments that experts say should be avoided, including lasers, herbal remedies and electromagnets. “It really is a buyer-beware situation,” said Dr. Robert Smith, a Lyme specialist at MaineHealth Institute for Research. (Perrone, 9/10)

ScienceAlert: A Type Of Fiber May Have Weight Loss Benefits Similar To Ozempic
Research on the microbes living in our digestive tract has triggered a 'revolution' in nutritional science. In the last few years, dietary fiber has become the "new protein", added to foods in abundance to feed our gut's microbiome and boost our health. However, a study on mice published in 2024 suggests that not all fiber supplements are equally beneficial. (Cassella, 9/11)

The Hill: Recall Expands To Shampoo, Deodorant And More Over Bacteria That Can Cause Sepsis
A DermaRite Industries hand soap recall has been expanded to more than 30 products, including deodorant, lotions, shampoo, hand sanitizer and more. The recall was initiated in July and was expanded recently over concerns that more of its products may include Burkholderia cepacia complex. Exposure to the bacterium could “result in serious and life-threatening infections,” the company said in a release. (Kaplan, 9/10)

KFF Health News: Climate Activists Cite Health Hazards In Bid To Stop Trump From ‘Unleashing’ Fossil Fuels
In 2023, a group of 16 young Montanans won a much-heralded climate change case that said the state had deprived them of a “clean and healthful environment,” a right enshrined in Montana’s constitution. Their victory in Held v. Montana, later upheld by the state Supreme Court, resounded across the country, showing that young people have a stake in the issue of climate change, advocates say. Yet, state policies to address the causes of climate change in Montana — home to large coal, oil, and natural gas deposits — haven’t changed in the wake of the case. (Robbins, 9/11)

The CT Mirror: Vaccines Are Crucial To Maintaining Public Health
I will never forget when as a young physician doing a volunteer year in Haiti seeing a mother with her 6-month-old baby. The baby’s muscles were totally rigid so that it was impossible for him to lie flat. His jaw was clamped shut and when he attempted to cry, an eerie humming emanated from his clenched lips. It was an obvious case of tetanus. (Joe Bentivegna MD, 9/11)

The New York Times: Who Is MAHA Even For?
It’s been a destructive reign since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was narrowly confirmed as the secretary of health and human services in February — the proposal to cut some agency budgets by almost half, the thousands of layoffs and resignations, the mass firing of the country’s vaccine advisory panel and the weakening of programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes and other conditions. (David Wallace-Wells, 9/10)

Stat: Where Is MAHA On Sweeteners Like Aspartame And Stevia?
This week, the Make America Healthy Again Commission released its “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy” — a national plan to improve the diets and health of U.S. children. While the commission’s May report spotlighted the dangers of added sugars, the new strategy is virtually silent on them. That omission is striking given both a wealth of evidence on sugar’s harms as well as MAHA’s own efforts to curb added sugar consumption — including its support for state waivers to restrict soda and candy purchases using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. (Allison Sylvetsky and Priya Fielding-Singh, 9/11)

Newsweek: Republicans' MAHA Contradiction Hands Democrats An Opportunity
While the conventional wisdom is that MAHA is all about vaccine skepticism, much of the movement's energy and attention is focused on reining in toxic chemicals in industrial agriculture—an issue on which Democrats have a far stronger record and a far more credible policy program than Republicans. Many in the movement are also focused on progressive priorities like addressing the proliferation of microplastics, ensuring access to healthy school meals, and even reversing threats to public lands. (Tim Ryan and Justin Zorn, 9/8)

Chicago Tribune: How I Took Steps In My 20s As A 'Previvor' To Avoid Getting Cancer
I’ve never had cancer. But it has still shaped my entire life. I’m a BRCA1 “previvor.” You may never have heard that term before; it was coined by an organization called FORCE over 25 years ago. I carry a gene mutation that increases my risk for breast and ovarian cancer and other kinds, and that’s why, even though I’m in my late 20s, I’ve already undergone high-risk surveillance and a preventative mastectomy. (Maggie Wickman, 9/11)

Stat: Ebola Has Broken Out In The DRC Amid U.S. Global Health Retreat 
On Aug. 20, in Bulape, a small town in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasaï province, a 34-year-old pregnant woman was admitted to the local hospital with sudden fever, bloody vomiting, and profound weakness. Despite supportive care, her condition rapidly deteriorated, and five days later, she died. Her death was not just a personal tragedy. Laboratory testing confirmed she had Ebola. (Krutika Kuppalli, 9/11)