CBS News: FDA Chief Says They're Looking At Whether To Approve COVID Shots For Next Winter
The head of the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that the agency is now looking at whether it will still approve COVID-19 vaccines for next winter, citing a lack of data on booster shots. "We're taking a look. I can't comment on any particular application. As you know, we have a bunch of applications for those booster shots," FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett. Makary said many health care workers did not get the last round of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, calling it "a bit of a public trust problem." (Tin, 4/29)

The New York Times: Kennedy Advises New Parents To ‘Do Your Own Research’ On Vaccines
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. advised parents of newborns to “do your own research” before vaccinating their infants during a televised interview in which he also suggested the measles shot was unsafe and repeatedly made false statements that cast doubt on the benefits of vaccination and the independence of the Food and Drug Administration. Mr. Kennedy made the remarks to the talk show host Dr. Phil in an interview that aired Monday on MeritTV to mark the 100th day of the Trump administration. (Gay Stolberg and Jewett, 4/29)

On bird flu —

Reuters: US CDC Cancels Science Group Workshop On Preventing Human Bird Flu Infections 
The National Academy of Sciences has canceled a workshop on preventing human bird flu infections after being told to stop work on the event by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an email sent to one of the workshop presenters and seen by Reuters. (Douglas, 4/29)

CIDRAP: Top Virologists Urge World Leaders To Act On Rising Avian Flu Threat
In a commentary in The Lancet Regional Health–Americas, leading virologists from more than 40 countries are exhorting global leaders to address the increasing threat of H5N1 avian flu by boosting surveillance, enhancing biosecurity, and preparing for potential human-to-human viral transmission. The Global Virus Network (GVN) scientists review the US outbreak status, discuss the importance of robust surveillance systems to detect emerging strains with pandemic potential, spotlight the risks facing the dairy and poultry industries, and recommend risk mitigation strategies. (Van Beusekom, 4/29)

Roll Call: Supreme Court Decides Medicare Reimbursement Calculation 
The Supreme Court sided on Tuesday with the Department of Health and Human Services in a dispute over the rate under Medicare the government pays to hospitals that serve low-income patients. The 7-2 decision rejected an attempt from a group of more than 200 hospitals across 30 states to change the formula the government uses to calculate reimbursement for hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients. (Macagnone, 4/29)

Bloomberg: Medicare Administrator Explores Cutting Red Tape For Health Insurance Approvals
Leaders at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are exploring proposals to limit health insurers’ use of tactics that can delay medical care, people familiar with the discussions said. The aim of the proposals would be to cut the number of medical procedures subject to “prior authorization,” meaning ones in which doctors have to fill out additional paperwork for ultimate approval. CMS is exploring making policies more uniform across different health insurance plans. (Cohrs Zhang, 4/29)

Bloomberg: Elevance Curbs Online Medicare Sign-Ups As Expenses Rise
Elevance Health Inc. is halting digital enrollment in most of its Medicare health insurance plans, making it harder for brokers to sign up new members after rival UnitedHealth Group Inc. reported a surprise jump in expenses in those programs. The pullback could curb growth in plans that may be losing money for the company, according to industry analysts. Elevance, the second-largest US health insurer, is removing Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly from online platforms that insurance brokers use to sign up members, according to a statement last week from a national group representing health insurance brokers. (Tozzi and Swetlitz, 4/29)

On Medicaid cuts —

Politico: House Republicans Raise New Medicaid Proposal To Offset Trump's Megabill
House Republicans discussed a new, controversial proposal to cut federal spending for Medicaid in a closed-door meeting late Monday night, as lawmakers even beyond the moderate bloc are warning GOP leaders they will not swallow another alternative. According to four Republicans who were present for the meeting of GOP members of Energy and Commerce — convened to finalize their panel’s portion of the party’s megabill — lawmakers discussed at length a new version of a plan to place so-called “per capita caps” on Medicaid funding to certain beneficiaries in states that have expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act. (Hill and Leonard, 4/29)

Politico: Don Bacon Sets $500B Red Line On Medicaid
Rep. Don Bacon, a key GOP moderate, is drawing a red line on Medicaid cuts. The Nebraska Republican has privately told the White House he won’t accept more than $500 billion in reductions to the program, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. That could complicate the GOP’s effort to pass a domestic policy bill that is set to include an extension of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. (Leonard and Lee Hill, 4/29)

The Hill: House Republicans Disagree On Medicaid Cuts For Expansion States
A key House committee is pushing forward with trying to advance its portion of President Trump’s legislative agenda next week, even as Republicans disagree over how deeply to cut Medicaid. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is planning a May 7 meeting to finalize and advance its portion of the bill, leaving little time for members to iron out differences. The legislation calls for the committee to find $880 billion in savings over a decade, with most of it expected to come from health programs. (Weixel, 4/29)

Politico: DOGE Has Made A Big Impact On Washington. But Government Spending Is Up
DOGE has cut a wide swath — shrinking the federal workforce to 1960s levels. But its impact in other ways has been more narrow than both supporters and detractors might realize. Government spending is actually increasing amid all the DOGE cuts, with notable exceptions including foreign aid and education. ... DOGE, after promising $2 trillion in savings, now says it has saved the government $160 billion. ... In fact, the government has actually been spending more compared to this time last year, the model found. (Cai and Sentner, 4/29)

The New York Times: Trump’s Cuts To Science Funding Could Hurt U.S. Economy, Study Shows 
Cutting federal funding for scientific research could cause long-run economic damage equivalent to a major recession, according to a new study from researchers at American University. In recent months, the Trump administration has sought to cancel or freeze billions of dollars in grants to scientists at Columbia, Harvard and other universities, and has moved to sharply curtail funding for academic medical centers and other institutions. Deeper cuts could be on the way. As soon as this week, the White House is expected to propose sharp reductions in discretionary spending, including on research and development, as part of the annual budget process. (Casselman, 4/30)

More updates from the Trump administration —

The Washington Post: CDC Reinstates Workers Who Screen Coal Miners For Black Lung Disease
The Trump administration on Tuesday temporarily reinstated dozens of fired federal workers who help screen coal miners for black lung, a deadly and incurable disease caused by inhaling toxic coal dust. The unusual move comes after The Washington Post reported that the layoffs had forced the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to suspend the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program for the first time in a half-century. (Joselow, 4/29)

MedPage Today: CDC Advisory Committee's Days Are Numbered
With several members receiving termination letters and its webpage archived, public health experts believe the days are numbered for CDC's Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). HICPAC develops guidance for preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections. While the committee operates with less attention than CDC's well-known Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), it made headlines in recent years after some groups pushed back on revisions to one of its infection control guidances. (Fiore, 4/29)

Stat: Women's Health Initiative In Limbo Despite RFK Jr.'s Promised Support
The word came down at 9 a.m. Pacific on April 14 that they were done. Marcia Stefanick of Stanford and three other leaders of regional centers that for decades have researched women’s health heard from their study’s national leaders that their funding would end with the fiscal year. (Cooney, 4/29)

The New York Times: Citing N.I.H. Cuts, A Top Science Journal Stops Accepting Submissions
Environmental Health Perspectives, widely considered the premier environmental health journal, has announced that it would pause acceptance of new studies for publication, as federal cuts have left its future uncertain. For more than 50 years, the journal has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to review studies on the health effects of environmental toxins — from “forever chemicals” to air pollution — and publish the research free of charge. (Rosenbluth and Mandavilli, 4/29)

Also —

NBC News: Kennedy Planning $20 Million HHS 'Take Back Your Health' Ad Campaign
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to launch a sweeping, four-year public relations campaign called “Take Back Your Health” that could cost tens of millions of dollars, according to a document obtained by NBC News. ... The document, a request for proposals, calls for public relations firms to bid to run the campaign. The winning firm would employ up to 30 people to manage the campaign and oversee the purchase of up to three ads a day on five major television networks. (Strickler, 4/29)

NBC News: Pfizer CEO Says Tariff Uncertainty Is Deterring Further U.S. Investment In Manufacturing, R&D
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Tuesday said uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s planned pharmaceutical tariffs is deterring the company from further investing in U.S. manufacturing and research and development. Bourla’s remarks on the company’s first-quarter earnings call came in response to a question about what Pfizer wants to see from tariff negotiations that would push the company to increase investments in the U.S. It comes as drugmakers brace for Trump’s levies on pharmaceuticals imported into the country — his administration’s bid to boost domestic manufacturing. (Constantino, 4/29)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
Zach Dyer reads this week’s news: Concierge medicine could worsen the physician shortage in rural areas, and the Trump administration has canceled medical research grants that it says aren’t in line with its priorities. Sam Whitehead reads this week’s news: Families that rely on home health aides could pay the price for the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies, and some local health departments are canceling scheduled services because the federal government is trying to take back health grants. (4/29)

NBC News: Florida Set To Become Second State To Ban Fluoride In Public Water
Lawmakers in Florida gave final passage to a bill to ban fluoride in public water systems Tuesday, with the state House voting 88-27. SB 700, also known as the Florida Farm Bill, doesn't mention the word "fluoride," but it would effectively ban the chemical compound by preventing "the use of certain additives in a water system." The bill awaits Gov. Ron DeSantis’ signature. If DeSantis, a Republican, signs the bill, Florida will become the second state to ban fluoride from water supplies. (Alsharif, 4/29)

In other health news from Florida —

Health News Florida: A Tuberculosis Case Was Identified At A Fort Lauderdale School, Health Officials Report 
A person with tuberculosis was identified on a school campus in Fort Lauderdale, the Florida Department of Health in Broward County said Tuesday. The active TB case was reported at Dillard High School, a magnet school for computer technology and performing arts with students in Grades 6-12. (Mayer, 4/29)

More health news from across the U.S. —

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Bill Regulating Pharmacy Benefit Managers Passes Iowa Senate 
The Iowa Senate passed a bill setting new standards for pharmacy benefit managers that lawmakers said will help keep rural pharmacies in business and lower the cost of prescription drugs. The legislation would set new regulations for PBMs, including requiring pharmacies to be reimbursed for the national or state average acquisition cost of a drug — a higher reimbursement rate than many pharmacies are currently receiving, according to several workers and owners of current rural pharmacies. (Opsahl, 4/28)

AP: Lawmakers Seeking To Revise New Sick Leave Laws
Voters in Alaska, Missouri and Nebraska were asked last year whether they wanted to require employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. They overwhelmingly said yes. Now some lawmakers in each of those states are trying to roll back the benefits, citing concerns from businesses about costs. The efforts mark the latest attempt by legislators to alter laws backed by the voters they represent. (Lieb, Beck and Bohrer, 4/30)

On nursing homes and aging —

Nj.Com: Many Nursing Homes Feed Residents On Less Than $10 A Day: ‘That’s Appallingly Low.’ 
The plan was simple: acquire 18 nursing homes in Ohio. The private equity firm put together a 56-page proposal with bullish projections and minimal costs, including spending just $6 per day for food for each resident. The figure astounded Sam Brooks. “They were talking about cutting costs and saying, ‘We’ll feed them on $6 a day,’ if you can imagine that,” said Brooks, a national advocate for residents in long-term care. (Sherman, Livio and Miller, 4/30)

Nj.Com: Inside The ‘Multibillion-Dollar Game’ To Funnel Cash From Nursing Homes To Sister Companies 
It’s been called one of the worst nursing homes in New Jersey. For years it “siphoned” millions of dollars of Medicaid funds out of the home and to various side businesses, a state watchdog found, “leaving residents to live in a dismal, understaffed, and under-resourced facility.” And in December, acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh moved to kick South Jersey Extended Care, its owner and those associated with its operations from the state’s Medicaid program. (Sherman, Livio and Miller, 4/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: A Pioneering S.F. Program Seeks To Keep These Elders At Home
When Jennifer Lai’s mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2021, she scrambled to find a residential care facility where the Cantonese-speaking 88-year-old could live. Lai retired early to care for her mom, but she knew she’d eventually need around-the-clock help. Her mom had lost her English-speaking ability by then, a common effect of dementia. The pair visited one facility after another that only had English- or Spanish-speaking staff. “How could I put her there?” Lai said she thought to herself. “Without language, she cannot communicate. How could people help her?” (Lyn Cheang, 4/29)

CBS News: Life Expectancy In Southern States Changed Little For Americans Born From 1900 To 2000, Study Finds
Comparing the life expectancy of people born from 1900 to 2000, a study published Monday found that in many southern states, life expectancy changed very little, especially for women. But in several states in the Northeast and West, as well as in Washington, D.C., it improved significantly. Ranked among the worst states for longevity improvements over the last century, West Virginia's life expectancy for women born in 2000 rose to just 75.3 years, one year longer than its life expectancy for women born in 1900, according to the study. The state's life expectancy for men born in 2000 increased by about 9 years compared to those born in 1900. (Czachor, 4/29)

AP: Texas Senate OKs Effort To Clarify Medical Exceptions Under State's Abortion Ban
The Texas Senate approved changes Tuesday to the state’s strict abortion ban that both Republicans and Democrats say would clarify medical exceptions and has drawn support from women who were told they could not end their pregnancies despite life-threatening complications. The unanimous passage of the bill in the GOP-controlled Senate — by a 31-0 vote — marked a rare moment of bipartisanship on an issue that for years has roiled the state Capitol as Texas Republicans have defended one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans and launched criminal investigations into alleged violations. (Lathan, 4/29)

The Texas Tribune: Wide-Ranging Crackdown On Abortion Pills Passes Texas Senate
Anyone who manufactures, mails or delivers abortion pills to someone in Texas could be sued for $100,000 under a bill that preliminarily passed the Senate on Tuesday. The bill, considered the most wide-ranging crackdown on abortion-inducing drugs in the country, is expected to face a harder road in the House. The bill expands on the private enforcement mechanism Texas used to outlaw most abortions in 2021 by allowing private lawsuits against anyone who mails or delivers abortion pills, including medication manufacturers. It also expands when and how people can sue for wrongful death after an abortion, creates criminal and civil penalties for paying for an abortion, and goes after internet providers that host information on abortion pills and financial services that facilitate transactions. (Klibanoff, 4/29)

More abortion news from Tennessee, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and elsewhere —

KFF Health News: Trump Restores Title X Funding For Two Anti-Abortion States — While Wiping It Out Elsewhere
The Trump administration quietly restored federal family planning money to Tennessee and Oklahoma, despite court rulings that the states weren’t entitled to funds because they refused to provide women information about terminating pregnancies or abortion referrals on request. The decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to restore millions of dollars for the two states came as it simultaneously withheld nearly $66 million from clinics in the Title X program elsewhere. (Pradhan, 4/30)

North Carolina Health News: NC Emerges As Southern Hub For Abortion Access Amid New Regional Restrictions
North Carolina has emerged as a vital access point for abortion care in the South in the wake of a wave of restrictions in neighboring states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Nationwide, the Tar Heel state served the second highest number of out-of-state patients in 2024 — behind only Illinois — a new report on national abortion volumes found. (Crumpler, 4/30)

The Hill: Trump Administration's Abortion Restrictions: Key Moves In Second Term
President Trump steadily chipped away at abortion access during the first 100 days of his second term. Trump campaigned on leaving abortion decisions to the states, and has so far made no push to outlaw the procedure on a national level. But since he returned to office in January, he and his administration have taken steps to support anti-abortion activists and restrict access to abortion care not only in the United States, but around the world. (O’Connell-Domenech, 4/29)

In other reproductive health news —

Minnesota Now: M Health Fairview To Remove Race As A Factor In Pregnancy, Maternal Health Screenings
M Health Fairview says it’s found a way to help eliminate racial and ethnic bias in pregnancy and delivery care by removing race as a factor for various screenings and tests related to pregnancy. By July, all pregnant patients at M Health Fairview will be universally screened for various maternal and fetal conditions. That includes diseases that are usually prominent in a certain racial group, like sickle cell disease or spina bifida. (Moini and Roth, 4/29)

The 19th: Democratic Women Lawmakers Hit Back At White House Proposals To Raise Birth Rates
Democrats are slamming policy proposals the Trump administration is reportedly considering that aim to raise birth rates in the United States and encourage women to have children, arguing they should instead enact paid leave and expand the current child tax credit to better support mothers and families. (Panetta, 4/29)

Stat: Gilead Will Pay $202 M To Settle Charges Of Paying Doctors Kickbacks
Gilead Sciences agreed to pay $202 million to settle allegations of paying kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescribing several of its HIV medicines, the latest example of a controversial practice that has come back to haunt numerous drugmakers over the years. (Silverman, 4/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Have Spent Millions Targeting ‘Middlemen’—And It’s Paying Off
When President Trump signed an executive order this month to try to reduce drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry scored a big win. Within 90 days, the order said, Trump’s staff should put together a report “re-evaluating the role of middlemen,” who have been the target of one of the most sweeping and expensive lobbying campaigns in recent years. (Dawsey, Peterson and Severns, 4/30)

Bloomberg: Novo Nordisk Partners With Hims, Ro To Sell Cheaper Wegovy
Hims & Hers Health Inc. soared after Novo Nordisk A/S said it would sell its popular weight-loss drug Wegovy for a steeply reduced price on several telehealth platforms. The strategy comes as rival Eli Lilly & Co. is working with telehealth firms to distribute lower-cost vials of its own obesity medication, Zepbound, as competition heats up. Lilly and Novo have struggled to get widespread insurance coverage for their obesity medications and at first viewed telehealth companies, which started out by selling copycat versions of their drugs, as competitors. (Muller, 4/29)

MedPage Today: FDA OKs New Gene Therapy For Debilitating Skin Condition
The FDA approved prademagene zamikeracel (Zevaskyn) for treating adults and children with the blistering wounds caused by recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), Abeona Therapeutics announced on Tuesday. Patients with the debilitating dermatologic condition are born with COL7A1 mutations in both gene copies, affecting the ability to produce functional type VII collagen and resulting in extremely fragile skin that is subject to chronic wounds that can remain open for years. (Ingram, 4/29)

Stat: Amid FDA Chaos, Approval Of A Rare Disease Drug Gets Delayed — Again
File this under “So close, yet so far.” After several years of struggling with regulatory hurdles to win approval for its rare disease drug, Stealth BioTherapeutics had expected the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to respond on Tuesday to its marketing application. (Silverman, 4/29)

Stat: Achieve Life Sciences To Seek FDA Approval For Chantix Competitor
Nearly 12% of Americans still smoke cigarettes, the leading cause of preventable death nationwide. Yet there are only two medications authorized by the Food and Drug Administration to help them quit — the more effective of which, varenicline, can come with unsavory side effects like nausea that make people less likely to stick with treatment. (Todd, 4/30)

And in health industry updates —

Modern Healthcare: Baystate Health To Lay Off More Staff, Cut Positions
Baystate Health plans to lay off 43 staff members in early May in its latest round of position eliminations as part of a six-year, $1.2 billion investment plan. The system has reduced its workforce by a total of 7% since late last year, according to a Tuesday news release. It previously cut 98 corporate roles in February and 134 leadership positions in November. In both previous rounds of reductions, some positions were vacant. The number of vacant positions in the latest cuts was not disclosed. (DeSilva, 4/29)

KFF Health News: The Patient Expected A Free Checkup. The Bill Was $1,430
Carmen Aiken of Chicago made an appointment for an annual physical exam in July 2023, planning to get checked out and complete some blood work. The appointment was at a family medicine practice run by University of Illinois Health. Aiken said the doctor recommended they undergo a Pap smear, which they hadn’t had in more than a year, and testing for sexually transmitted infections. Aiken, who works for a nonprofit and uses the pronoun they, said they were also encouraged to get the HPV vaccine. (Liss and Sausser, 4/30)

KFF Health News: Fast Action From Bystanders Can Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival. Many Don’t Know What To Do
When a woman collapsed on an escalator at the Buffalo, New York, airport last June, Phil Clough knew what to do. He and another bystander put her flat on her back and checked her pulse (faint) and her breathing (shallow and erratic). Then she stopped breathing altogether. Realizing that she might be having a cardiac arrest, Clough immediately started doing chest compressions, pressing hard and quickly on the center of her chest, while others nearby called 911 and ran to get an automated external defibrillator. (Andrews, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Rural America Is Hungry. Is Congress About To Make That Worse?
The dirty secret of our food economy is this: In many of the communities that grow and supply our food, far too many people can’t afford basic healthy meals. The government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — once known as food stamps — is a lifeline not just for North Carolinians still living in shelters, but for entire rural economies. (Jose Andres, 4/29)

Bloomberg: Parkinson's Disease Finally Finds A Source Of Hope
Two small studies published earlier this month in Nature offer early, but important validation that stem cell treatments for Parkinson’s disease are viable. (Lisa Jarvis, 4/29)

The Washington Post: What Kennedy Gets Wrong About Autism's Causes
Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, takes issue with calling ASD a disease because it “implies that something has gone wrong to make someone autistic.” Naming it an epidemic conjures up the mistaken notion that autism is contagious. Instead, Gross, who is autistic herself, refers to autism as a disability for which people need different levels of support throughout their lives. (Leana S. Wen, 4/29)

Stat: The Growing Threat Of Banning Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding 
Twenty years ago, the use of human embryonic stem cells in research was among the most fiercely debated topics at the always-crowded intersection of science and politics. As part of that, President George W. Bush restricted such research funding to existing hESC lines. President Barack Obama later relaxed those limits, but for a short period in 2010 hESC funding was blocked by a court injunction. Since then, even during President Trump’s first term, important hESC research funding has continued. (Paul Knoepfler, 4/30)

Dallas Morning News: AC In Texas Prisons At Last? State Bill Gains Traction
There is plenty of evidence that prison conditions are dangerous because of the heat. A 2022 Brown University study examined the relationship between mortality risks and heat exposure in Texas prisons, focusing on prisons with and without air conditioning. The research, published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, showed that 271 people died between 2001 and 2019 because of extreme heat exposure. (4/29)