CNBC: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Fatally Shot In New York
Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group’s insurance unit, was fatally shot outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan Wednesday morning, in what is believed to be a targeted attack, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. UnitedHealth Group canceled its investor day after reports emerged of the shooting. Thompson led UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S. (Constantino and Fonrouge, 12/4)

Stat: UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Is Reportedly Killed In Shooting
UnitedHealth Group executives were in New York City on Wednesday for their annual investor conference, which began at 8 a.m. ET. UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty came on stage after an hour and canceled the rest of the conference amid the reports. A spokesperson from the New York Police Department confirmed there was a shooting at 6:45 a.m. ET Wednesday at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel. Police officers responded to a 911 call and found a 50-year-old male with gunshot wounds to the chest and leg. The man was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead. (Herman and Bannow, 12/4)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth Executive Brian Thompson Shot Dead Outside Manhattan Hilton Hotel
The company abruptly cut off its investor event due to the tragedy. Andrew Witty, chief executive of the parent company, came onstage around 9 a.m. to say that the company was “dealing with a very serious medical situation with one of our team members” and would end its live presentation. Thompson, a longtime UnitedHealth veteran, took over as leader of the insurance unit in 2021. Before that, he oversaw the insurer’s Medicare and Medicaid businesses. He began working at the company in 2004. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1997 with a business degree, according to his LinkedIn page. (Lukpat and Wilde Mathews, 12/4)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Pick To Head DEA Withdraws After GOP Criticism Of His Covid Policies 
Chad Chronister, the Florida sheriff tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Tuesday he would not seek the post, the second Trump pick to abandon his bid to serve in the Republican administration. Chronister, a career law enforcement officer who has spent little time on the national stage, announced his withdrawal from consideration on social media early Tuesday evening, just three days after Trump’s selection. Chronister said he planned to continue serving as the sheriff in Hillsborough County. (McDaniel, Ovalle and LeVine, 12/3)

In other Trump administration news —

Axios: Trump's Immigration Crackdown Could Reduce Caregiving Workforce
Some of the earliest and lasting effects from President-elect Trump's promised immigration crackdowns would be in home health and long-term care, both of which rely on a substantial number of immigrants and undocumented workers. (Reed, 12/4)

KFF Health News: 9 States Poised To End Coverage For Millions If Trump Cuts Medicaid Funding
With Donald Trump’s return to the White House and Republicans taking full control of Congress in 2025, the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is back on the chopping block. More than 3 million adults in nine states would be at immediate risk of losing their health coverage should the GOP reduce the extra federal Medicaid funding that’s enabled states to widen eligibility, according to KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News, and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. (Galewitz, 12/4)

MedPage Today: Long List Of Tasks Awaits New CDC Director, Experts Say 
Former representative Dave Weldon, MD (R-Fla.), President-elect Donald Trump's pick to run the CDC, will have his work cut out for him, one infectious disease expert says. Anne Schuchat, MD, former principal deputy director of the CDC, said that among the critical duties for Weldon, should he be confirmed by the Senate, will be: Assuring high-quality, nimble, and expert support to state and local public health authorities; Protecting Americans from new and re-emerging threats (both infectious and noninfectious, natural and man-made, arising at home or abroad); Modernizing data systems and capacities for public health; sustaining or where needed improving high-quality scientific expertise, in-house and through partnerships; and Assuring laboratory excellence (quality and safety). (Frieden, 12/2)

On RFK Jr., vaccines, and nutrition —

Stat: Nonprofit Paid RFK Jr. $20,000 A Week Before His Leave Last Year
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made over $20,000 per week as chairman of Children’s Health Defense before stepping away from the nonprofit in 2023 to run for president, new tax filings show. (Cueto, 12/3)

NPR: How RFK Jr.’s Nonprofit Uses Legal Tools To Fight Vaccines
In November 2023, Robert F. Kennedy Jr took the stage at a conference put on by Children's Heath Defense, the anti-vaccination nonprofit he chairs and from which he's been on leave since announcing plans to run for president. "I feel like I've come home today to this organization," he told the cheering crowd. In a winding, nearly hour-long speech, Kennedy recounted his path to anti-vaccine advocacy and his vision for the government, including calling for a "break" in infectious disease research. (Bond, 12/4)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘Crunchy Moms’ Found A Hero In RFK Jr. 
When Tess Smith was 18 and pregnant with her first child, she started weighing the pros and cons of pretty much everything: Should she use disposable diapers or cloth ones? Should she breast-feed or buy formula? Should she vaccinate her baby boy, or not? Should she use fluoride-free toothpaste? And what about seed oils? Smith, who lives near Houston, was suddenly becoming a “crunchy mom.”  Once reserved for granola-loving hippies, the term has been embraced by a range of women who are pursuing a more natural way of life. Many of these women, who cut across partisan lines, say they’ve found a champion in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (O'Brien, 12/2)

The Atlantic: America Stopped Cooking With Tallow For A Reason
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s latest spin on MAGA, “Make frying oil tallow again,” is surprisingly straightforward for a man who has spent decades downplaying his most controversial opinions. ... Cardiologists shuddered at the thought. Conventional medical guidance has long recommended the reverse: less solid fat, more plant oils. But in recent years, a fringe theory has gained prominence for arguing that seed oils are toxic, put into food by a nefarious elite—including Big Pharma, the FDA, and food manufacturers—to keep Americans unhealthy and dependent. (Tayag, 12/2)

Los Angeles Times: How The FDA Allows Secret Ingredients Into Our Food Supply
It’s a U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule that most Americans know little about, yet gives corporations the license to add potentially harmful ingredients to foods without regulatory oversight or public notice. For decades, the FDA’s “generally recognized as safe,” or GRAS, designation has allowed food makers to decide for themselves whether certain novel ingredients are safe or not — even without providing evidence to agency scientists. (Kaplan, 12/4)

Politico: In Supreme Court Battle Over Transgender Rights, Conservatives Look To An Unlikely Ally: Europe 
When the Supreme Court hears oral arguments Wednesday in a major fight over Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, conservatives defending the law plan to point to an unexpected place as a model: Europe. Two decades ago, Republicans appeared allergic to foreign influence on the U.S. legal system, decrying Supreme Court decisions that looked abroad — often to Europe — for guidance on culture-war issues like gay rights and the death penalty. (Gerstein, 12/3)

The New York Times: For Families Of Transgender Children, Tennessee’s Ban Forces Hard Choices 
The first families left as soon as they could, emptying homes and pulling out of school after Tennessee banned gender-transition care for their children. Others chose to remain, cutting back on vacations and Christmas spending to make it to doctor appointments out of state. Even some who have stayed say they have not ruled out the possibility of leaving Tennessee in the future. This is why the stakes for families feel impossibly high as the Supreme Court hears arguments on Wednesday in a challenge to the Tennessee law. They fear a ruling in favor of the ban, which passed last year, could further jeopardize care for their children at a moment when the incoming Trump administration has pledged to impose restrictions on life for transgender people. (Cochrane, 12/4)

The Texas Tribune: The Far-Right’s Plan To Restrict Trans Texans’ Lives In 2025
Eight years ago, when conservative state lawmakers tried to restrict what bathrooms trans people could use, moderate Republicans quietly killed the bill in a special session. Less than a decade later, that seems like a distant memory. The far-right now has the Legislature firmly in its grip and, emboldened by the recent election, they’re gearing up to make growing trans animus the social issue of the session. (Klibanoff, 12/4)

Also —

The New York Times: Montana Lawmakers Reject Bid To Restrict Bathroom Use For Trans Legislators
State lawmakers in Montana on Tuesday rejected a proposal that could have restricted bathroom access for transgender lawmakers at the State Capitol in Helena. The decision came down to a narrow vote in the Legislature’s joint rules committee. All Democrats opposed the measure. Several Republicans argued against it, too. The debate over the measure came about a month after the re-election of Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat from Missoula and a transgender woman who is now beginning her second term in the State House. (Fortin, 12/3)

AP: Nearly 30% Of US Drugstores Closed In One Decade, Study Shows 
Nearly three out of 10 U.S. drugstores that were open during the previous decade had closed by 2021, new research shows. Black and Latino neighborhoods were most vulnerable to the retail pharmacy closures, which can chip away at already-limited care options in those communities, researchers said in a study published Tuesday in Health Affairs. (Murphy, 12/3)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Lobbying Targeted PBM Bills In 2024
Spending on healthcare lobbying has ticked up in 2024, with companies and associations in the healthcare sector again spending hundreds of millions and again putting the greatest attention on bills that involve pharmacy benefit managers. According to federal data compiled by OpenSecrets and analyzed by Modern Healthcare, lobbyist spending for the first three quarters of 2024 hit $562 million, up from $553 million in the same period last year. (McAuliff, 12/3)

Stat: Why Orexo Is Abandoning A Digital Therapeutic For Depression
Swedish pharmaceutical company Orexo will no longer pursue an app for treating depression after many years of struggling to sell it. Orexo announced this week that it will no longer license the product, called Deprexis, from German manufacturer GAIA. (Aguilar, 12/3)

Stat: Companies Using AI To Develop New Small Molecule Based Drugs
Ian Quigley was employee #13 at AI drug company Recursion until 2021, when he quit and turned the basement of his Utah home into a lab to develop AI models for predicting which proteins small molecule drugs might target — a tool he and co-founder Andrew Blevins found was missing during their time at Recursion. (Trang, 12/3)

CNN: These Scientists Want To Give Patients Medicines Wrapped In Silk 
For centuries, Thailand has produced premium silk fabrics. Now, researchers at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok have found another use for the fiber: to deliver medicines into the body. (Cairns, 12/2)

American Heart Association News: First-Aid Guidelines Expanded To Include Opioid Overdoses, Seizures, Other Emergencies
First-aid guidelines for bystanders and emergency responders have long focused on issues like chest pain, bleeding and recognizing a stroke. Now, they have been updated and expanded to include recommendations for managing opioid overdoses, open chest wounds and other emergencies. The revised guidelines, developed by the American Heart Association and the American Red Cross, were published in the journal Circulation. It is the first comprehensive update since 2010. (12/3)

In other health industry developments —

CBS News: Emergency Rooms At Crozer Chester Medical Center, Taylor Hospital Reopen After Temporarily Closing
The emergency rooms at two Delaware County hospitals have reopened after temporarily shutting down due to issues with their radiology systems, Delaware County officials told CBS News Philadelphia. The ERs at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, which are owned by Prospect Medical Holdings, reopened just before 1:45 p.m. after closing around 10 a.m. Tuesday, Delaware County officials confirmed to CBS News Philadelphia. (Holden and Simon, 12/3)

The Washington Post: GW Resident Doctors Plan To Strike, Citing Mental Health Needs 
More than 450 resident doctors at George Washington University Hospital on Tuesday announced plans to strike, barring last-minute concessions from the medical school, potentially disrupting patient care at one of the D.C. region’s biggest hospitals. The residents — medical school graduates who are training in their specialty under the supervision of attending physicians — and fellows are demanding cost-of-living pay increases and more robust mental health benefits. (Portnoy, 12/3)

Modern Healthcare: Humana CFO Susan Diamond To Step Down In 2025
Humana Chief Financial Officer Susan Diamond will depart the health insurer after 18 years, the company announced Tuesday. On Jan. 11, investment firm executive Celeste Mellet will succeed Diamond, according to a news release. Mellet is CFO of Global Infrastructure Partners, the same job she previously held at the investment bank Evercore and the mortgage financing company Fannie Mae following 18 years at Morgan Stanley. (Berryman, 12/3)

Modern Healthcare: Addus HomeCare Acquires Gentiva’s Home Care Business
Addus HomeCare closed its $350 million acquisition of Gentiva’s home care business, the company announced late Monday. The addition of Gentiva’s non-medical personal care business will add 16,000 customers a day across Arizona, Arkansas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, the company said in a news release. Addus also said it expects the new business to add approximately $280 million in annual revenue. (Eastabrook, 12/3)

On Medicare Advantage —

The Conversation: Taxpayers Spend 22% More Per Patient To Support Medicare Advantage
Medicare Advantage — the commercial alternative to traditional Medicare — is drawing down federal health care funds, costing taxpayers an extra 22% per enrollee to the tune of $83 billion a year. (McCormack and Duffy, 12/3)

Modern Healthcare: Soda Health Lands $50M For Managing Medicare Advantage Benefits
Soda Health, which helps health plans administer their supplemental benefits, received $50 million in a Series B funding round, the company said Tuesday. The round was led by venture capital firm General Catalyst. Former Humana CEO Bruce Broussard also invested along with venture capital firms Lightspeed Venture Partners, Define Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners USA and SVB Capital. (Perna, 12/3)

USA Today: People With Disabilities Make Less Than Minimum Wage. The Biden Administration Wants To Change It.
The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed abolishing a sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities, a long-sought move by the disability community that will require the support of President-elect Donald Trump. The change could dramatically increase pay rates among about 38,000 workers with disabilities nationwide. But critics warn it also potentially lead to fewer jobs. (Jansen, 12/3)

On race, aging, and dementia —

The Boston Globe: Older Black People Are More Likely Than Others To Live To 100
Imagine two neighbors, both in their mid-to-late 80s. One is Black and the other is white. Which one might have a better chance of reaching 100 years old? Conventional wisdom would suggest the white octogenarian would have a leg up on that climb to 100, because of the mountains of research showing better access to health care and other opportunities for white Americans. ... But a novel new study from Boston and Canadian researchers adds important depth to an unusual reversal of that death equation. (Lazar, 12/4)

ABC News: Lifestyle Choices At 60 Linked To Dementia Risk Decades Later, Study Shows
Early predictors of dementia are emerging as critical tools for guiding health and lifestyle decisions long before symptoms appear. The Health and Retirement Study, which looked at more than two decades of data from over 45,000 older adults in the United States, suggested that lifestyle, genetics and other factors at 60 years old can help predict brain health at 80. (Bhavsar, 12/3)

The Washington Post: With More Active Lifestyle, Average Adult Could Live 5.3 Years Longer 
Americans over age 40 could live an extra 5.3 years if they were as active as the top 25 percent of the population, according to just-published research in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. To calculate life expectancy tied to physical activity levels, researchers used a multipart analysis of existing data. They created a demographic tool using 2017 mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics and plotted life expectancy tied to activity level. (McMahan, 12/2)

The Guardian: Most Teenagers Recover From Long Covid After Two Years, Study Shows
Most teenagers who have suffered from long Covid recover within two years, according to the largest study of its kind. But the researchers said more work was needed to understand why some children still had ongoing health problems two years after infection. (12/4)

KFF Health News: Nursing Homes Fell Behind On Vaccinating Patients For Covid
It seems no one is taking covid-19 seriously anymore, said Mollee Loveland, a nursing home aide who lives outside Pittsburgh. ... Between her patients’ complex medical needs and their close proximity to one another, covid continues to pose a grave threat to Loveland’s nursing home — and to the 15,000 other certified nursing homes in the U.S. where some 1.2 million people live. Despite this risk, a CDC report published in April found that just 4 in 10 nursing home residents in the U.S. received an updated covid vaccine in the winter of 2023-24. (Boden, 12/4)

The debate continues over how covid started —

Nature: Sick Animals Suggest COVID Pandemic Started In Wuhan Market
A preliminary analysis takes a closer look at genomic data collected at the market. A preliminary analysis takes a closer look at genomic data collected at the market. (Mallapaty, 12/4)

Fox News: COVID 'Most Likely' Leaked From Wuhan Lab, Select Committee Finds 
A congressional subcommittee concluded its two-year investigation on the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, finding that COVID-19 likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and that social distancing and masking were not backed with scientific data. (Sorace, 12/2)

On RSV and flu —

ABC News: Cases Of RSV, Flu Ticking Up Among Young Children In US As Respiratory Virus Season Begins
Cases of flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are ticking up across the United States even as overall respiratory virus activity remains low. Flu activity is increasing slightly among children while RSV activity is elevated in the southern, central and eastern U.S., according to data updated Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of the week ending Nov. 23, the latest date for which data is available, 0.6% of emergency department visits were for flu and 0.4% were for RSV. (Kekatos and Benadjaoud, 12/3)

The Atlantic: Out-Of-State Travel Is The Next Abortion Battlefront
Abortion policy in America is at a stalemate. Republicans will take control of Congress in January, ready to block any national protections—but with a slim majority, making a national ban unlikely. At the state level, pro-choice advocates have focused for the past two years on ballot measures to protect abortion rights. Most of those measures have passed; now there are only two states left that have severe restrictions, allow constitutional amendments, and haven’t already failed to pass constitutional protections. (Brown, 12/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Can California Protect Against Idaho’s ‘Abortion Trafficking’ Law?
Less than an hour after California’s attorney general announced new plans to bolster the state’s protections for people seeking abortions, a federal appeals court reinstated part of an Idaho law that criminalizes efforts to help a minor obtain an abortion in another state without her parents’ consent. The dueling actions highlight the divergence between states seeking to protect reproductive freedoms and those clamping down on them. They also illustrate that laws like California’s, while shielding their residents from most legal actions by other states, cannot offer complete protection. (Egelko, 12/3)

Abortion news from Missouri, Arizona, and Wyoming —

AP: Judge To Consider First Lawsuit To Overturn Missouri's Near-Total Abortion Ban 
Abortion-rights advocates are asking a judge Wednesday to overturn Missouri’s near-total ban on the procedure, less than a month after voters backed an abortion-rights constitutional amendment. Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang was set to hear arguments from Planned Parenthood and the state’s Republican Attorney General’s Office over whether to issue a temporary order blocking enforcement of Missouri’s numerous abortion laws. (Ballentine and Hollingsworth, 12/4)

St. Louis Public Radio: Anti-Abortion Rights Activists Hope Amendment 3 Isn’t Expansive
When Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was campaigning for a full four-year term, he claimed, like many Republicans at the time, that a proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion could do profound damage to the state’s other abortion restrictions. During a stop in Chesterfield on the day before the November general election, Bailey said Amendment 3 was a “legal monstrosity” that could open the door to a “parade of horribles.” (Rosenbaum, 12/3)

AP: Lawsuit Seeks To Undo 15-Week Abortion Ban That Conflicts With Expanded Access In Arizona 
Reproductive rights advocates sued Arizona on Tuesday to undo a 15-week abortion ban that conflicts with a constitutional amendment recently approved by voters to expand access up to fetal viability. The American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed the lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court on behalf of the local chapter of Planned Parenthood and two physicians, arguing the law interferes with pregnant Arizonans’ fundamental right to abortion and individual autonomy. It’s the first step in efforts to dismantle existing laws they say are too restrictive. (Govindarao, 12/3)

WyoFile: Casper Abortion Clinic Buoyed By Court Victory, But Battle Isn’t Over 
Court rulings have given Wellspring Health Access the right to continue providing abortion services in the face of laws banning the practice. Now it awaits a final ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court. (Klingsporn, 12/4)

Other reproductive health news —

CBS News: Cook County Health Expands Access To Doulas For Pregnant Patients Who Need It Most
Birth assistant, advocate, companion—these are all roles a doula can play for a woman who is pregnant. Now, a new program from Cook County is expanding access for people who need it most. "We usually hear that people want to hire a doula because they don't want to die," said Tayo Mbande, a doula and the cofounder of Chicago Birthworks Collective, "and it's terrible to start your conversation off with somebody trying to avoid death." (Machi, 12/3)

MLK50: Justice Through Journalism: Doulas Test Ways To Curb Memphis’ Black Maternal, Infant Deaths 
When Shanille Bowens was in grade school, she started listening to her grandmother Bernice replay the sight and sound of her neighbors springing into action each time her body was ready to bear a baby. “She had to call people to go up the hill: ‘Get the midwife,’” said Bowens, 41, a certified birth doula and midwifery student in Memphis. (Gray, 12/3)

CBS News: New Boston Program Aims To Improve Labor And Delivery For Black Women, Who Often Face Challenges
"We know that there are inequities or differences in the way that Black individuals or individuals of many different backgrounds either experience their labor and delivery care or their ultimate outcomes," said Dr. Allison Bryant, the Associate Chief Health Equity Officer for Mass General Brigham. Bryant said having a doula or a professional support person can help decrease c-section rates, improve the patient experience and promote breastfeeding but they can be expensive. So Mass General Brigham started a program called Birth Partners, which pairs a doula with an expectant parent of color free of charge. (Marshall, 12/3)

Stat: Effective Therapies For Menopause Symptoms Go Largely Unused
At the annual meeting of the Menopause Society earlier this fall, researchers presented new evidence that hormone therapy can be beneficial to menopausal women’s heart health, reducing insulin resistance and other cardiovascular biomarkers. It was the latest in a long line of research showing the benefits of hormone therapy for women in menopause, which also includes alleviating symptoms like hot flashes, sleep disturbances, vaginal dryness, and pain during sex. (Gaffney, 12/3)

The Boston Globe: Health Agency ARPA-H Brings $276 Million To Mass. In First Year
When state officials celebrated the announcement that a new federal health agency would be coming to Cambridge, they boasted that it could bring an influx of research dollars for the state’s life sciences sector. After a year in operation, we now have an idea of just how much money has come this way. A tally by ARPA-H for The Boston Globe shows that various companies and nonprofits in the state have collectively received $276 million in federal funds, out of more than $2 billion in allocations, since September 2023 — essentially ARPA-H’s first year. (Chesto, 12/3)

AP: Are You A Former SmileDirectClub Customer? You Might Be Eligible For A Refund
When SmileDirectClub shut down a year ago, scores of existing customers of the teeth-straightening company were left in limbo. Now, tens of thousands are set to get some relief. New York Attorney General Letitia James has announced that her office recovered $4.8 million to distribute nationwide to more than 28,000 consumers. SmileDirectClub illegally charged those customers after it ceased operations, James said. (Grantham-Philips, 12/3)

Orange County Register: Embattled California Addiction Treatment Empire Countersues Aetna In $40 Million Tug-Of-War
Nathan Young and his addiction treatment empire have mounted a full-throated defense of how they do business, turning the tables on Aetna — their accuser — by asserting that the insurance giant greedily endangers addicts’ lives by cutting treatment short. “In addiction treatment, more is generally better,” the counterclaim by Young and associates filed on Thanksgiving eve said. “Decades of research point to longer treatment as the number one predictor of a successful addiction treatment outcome. (Sforza, 12/3)

CBS News: Colorado Mental Health Program Gives New Option For Outpatient Suicide Prevention
A new mental health treatment option in Boulder is working to lower suicide rates. The Hope Institute has already helped people stay out of the hospital for mental health crisis in other parts of the country and now the organization is aiming to do the same in Colorado. (Horbacewicz, 12/3)

The Hechinger Report: School Buses Came To The Rescue For A Hurricane-Battered Health Company And The Parents Who Work There
It was 5:45 a.m. when three buses with “McDowell County Schools” painted on their sides rumbled through the mist into the gravel lot at Sandy Andrews Park. Starlight revealed the silhouettes of large oak trees lying on their sides, ripped from the earth by a storm that had dropped 40 trillion gallons of water across the Southeast just five weeks earlier. When the buses filled up over the course of an hour, it wasn’t with students. Instead, adults who work at the local plant of Baxter International, a medical supply company that produces 60 percent of the United States’ bags of intravenous fluid, filed in to get dropped off at the factory, whose parking lot had been destroyed by flooding. (Gilreath, 11/28)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: Some hospitals are rethinking IV hydration amid a nationwide IV fluid shortage, and rattlesnake antivenom is cheap to make but expensive to receive. (12/3)

Also —

CNBC: CDC Says McDonald's E. Coli Outbreak Is Over 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said the deadly E. coli outbreak linked to slivered onions served at McDonald’s is over, more than a month after the agency began its probe of the spread. The CDC said 104 people in 14 states were infected in the outbreak. It led to 27 hospitalizations and one previously reported death of an older adult in Colorado. (Constantino and Lucas, 12/3)

Bloomberg: The HPV Vaccine Saves Lives. RFK Jr. Shouldn't Mess With That
New research has again demonstrated the enormous value of the HPV vaccine, which protects against the virus responsible for more than 90% of cervical cancer cases. (Lisa Jarvis, 12/4)

Bloomberg: Trump Can Make Weight-Loss Drugs More Affordable 
President Joe Biden wants Medicare and Medicaid to cover weight-loss drugs, a proposal that would expand access to the costly but life-changing medications for millions of people who struggle with obesity. It’s a good idea that Donald Trump should pursue when he’s in office. (12/4)

The New York Times: The Supreme Court’s Trans Health Care Case Is About Normal Things That Make A Big Difference 
On Wednesday I will present oral argument before the Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti, a challenge to Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents. (Chase Strangio, 12/3)

Bloomberg: Health-Care Spending Is Sinking The Federal Budget 
The $1.8 trillion federal budget deficit in the fiscal year that ended in September was the third biggest ever in dollar terms, trailing only the pandemic deficits of the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years. As a share of gross domestic product, a better gauge for historical comparisons, it was, at 6.4%, the biggest ever outside of a large war or global crisis. (Justin Fox, 12/4)

Health Affairs: The FDA Should Reduce Nicotine In Cigarettes—And Use A Better Test To Ensure It Happens 
Eons before Europeans arrived in North America, Native Americans cultivated the tobacco leaf for ceremonial activities and medicinal purposes for use during prayers and rituals. They presented the tobacco leaf as a gift to early explorers including Christopher Columbus, who carried it back to Europe. Over the centuries, the tobacco industry mastered blending additives, cigarette design, and nicotine delivery to craft one of the most highly addictive products sold worldwide, which kills half of users when consumed as directed. But what if we could return modern cigarettes to the original nicotine levels used by the Native Americans, which were non-addicting? (John Maa and Michelle Zhang, 12/2)