The New York Times: Trump Picks Stanford Doctor Who Opposed Lockdowns to Head N.I.H.
President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Tuesday evening that he had selected Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford physician and economist whose authorship of an anti-lockdown treatise during the coronavirus pandemic made him a central figure in a bitter public health debate, to be the director of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bhattacharya is one of three lead authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a manifesto issued in 2020 that contended that the virus should be allowed to spread among young healthy people who were “at minimal risk of death” and could thus develop natural immunity, while prevention efforts were targeted to older people and the vulnerable. (Stolberg, 11/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-Lockdown Critic Jay Bhattacharya Chosen To Lead NIH 
Some public-health leaders expressed hope that Bhattacharya could strengthen the agency he once criticized. “Dr. Bhattacharya is a strong choice to lead the NIH,” said Dr. Ned Sharpless, a former National Cancer Institute director. “The support of moderate Senate Republicans will be critical to NIH funding, and Dr. Bhattacharya’s Covid work will give him credibility with this constituency.” (Whyte, 11/26)

Newsweek: What Jay Bhattacharya, Trump's NIH Pick, Has Said About Anthony Fauci 
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the National Institutes of Health, remains a vocal critic of Dr. Anthony Fauci and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bhattacharya has accused Fauci and other leaders of suppressing scientific research and debate during the pandemic. "The rot, having accumulated over decades, was plain for all to see," he wrote in an opinion piece published on UnHerd, a British news and opinion site, earlier in November. [Scroll down to our op-ed section to read the story.] (Rahman, 11/27)

Jim O'Neill is nominated for HHS deputy chief —

Politico: Trump Picks Jim O’Neill For No. 2 Spot At HHS 
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Jim O’Neill, a close associate of early Trump backer Peter Thiel, for HHS deputy secretary. The rise of the former CEO of the Thiel Foundation comes years after O’Neill was in the mix to be Trump’s first FDA commissioner in his first term. O’Neill has ties across Silicon Valley and previously served as HHS principal associate deputy secretary during the George W. Bush administration. (Lim, 11/26)

On CMS and the FDA —

Axios: A Medicare Minefield Awaits Oz
Mehmet Oz, President-elect Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is about to land in the middle of brewing tensions among Republicans over how the Medicare Advantage program works. Privately run Medicare Advantage plans now enroll more than half of America's seniors, costing the federal government an estimated $83 billion more per year than the traditional Medicare program would for the same enrollees. (Goldman, 11/27)

Bloomberg: Hims & Hers Shares Rally As FDA Pick Marty Makary Seen As Major Ally
Hims & Hers Health Inc. shares surged 24% to close at fresh record after Hunterbrook Media said the company is poised to be a major beneficiary of President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration. Hunterbrook said in a Monday report that Hims & Hers may have “a key ally” in Makary, who is an executive at Sesame Inc., a startup that also sells compounded GLP-1 weight loss drugs. (Reinicke, 11/25)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Cabinet: Loyalists, Competing Ideologies And Government Skeptics
Donald Trump entered the White House eight years ago with a Cabinet full of traditional conservative credentials, tapping some people he barely knew to help him learn his way around Washington. Now the president-elect has rapidly assembled a different kind of team for his second term — enlisting people deeply critical of the agencies they will lead, bucking conservative orthodoxy with some of his picks and, above all, rewarding his most loyal allies. (Knowles, LeVine and Zakrzewski, 11/26)

CNN: One Major Challenge Facing Trump’s Chosen Health Leaders: Keeping Politics Separate From Science 
“It’s very hard to defy your boss,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health and former White House Covid-19 response coordinator under President Joe Biden. “There’s going to be an immense pressure on the CDC director, on the FDA commissioner, on all of these people. It’ll be very difficult for them to just make the decisions that are right for the health of the American people and not get swayed by someone who doesn’t understand evidence and data but has strongly held views.” (McPhillips, 11/26)

The New York Times: On Big Pharma, Food and Agriculture, These Are Kennedy’s Unexpected Bedfellows
When it comes to tearing down corporate capture among the giants — Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Food, among others — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ideas echo those of some of the incoming Trump administration’s loudest critics. (Baumgaertner, 11/27)

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?' Podcast: Public Health And The Dairy Cow In The Room
Public health, one of the more misunderstood concepts in the health world, is about the health of entire populations, rather than individuals. As a result, public health is closely tied to things like the environment, nutrition, and safety. With major concerns such as bird flu looming, President-elect Donald Trump’s priorities could translate into efforts that undermine those of public health workers. (Rovner, 11/26)

On support for vaccines and the WHO —

Bloomberg: Vaccine Head Sees Scope For Support Despite Trump’s RFK Jr. Pick
Donald Trump’s administration will likely support global immunization efforts, even though his proposed secretary of health and human services has voiced skepticism about such initiatives, according to the head of an organization that helps to vaccinate more than half of the world’s children. Sania Nishtar, chief executive officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said she’s hopeful that the bipartisan support the group received during Trump’s previous term as US president will carry through to his next four years. (Furlong and Lacqua, 11/26)

Politico: US Membership In The World Health Organization Is On The Line With Trump’s Return 
The United States’ future in the World Health Organization is again in flux with President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House. If the U.S. withdraws from the global health body, as Trump attempted to do in his first term, the WHO could lose its top government donor and hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions. In exchange, America could lose access to the global network that sets the flu vaccine’s composition every year, and U.S. drugmakers could lose the WHO’s help in selling their products, current and former U.S. government officials say. (Paun, 11/26)

On abortion —

KFF Health News: Trump Doesn’t Need Congress To Make Abortion Effectively Unavailable
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump tried mightily to reassure abortion rights supporters, vowing he would not sign into law a nationwide abortion ban even if Congress sent him one. But once he returns to the White House in January, Trump can make abortions difficult — or illegal —across the United States without Congress taking action at all. (Rovner, 11/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Fentanyl Pledge Threatens To Sour Bright Spot In China Relations 
Two weeks ago, counternarcotics officials from the U.S. and Mexico flew to Shanghai to meet with their Chinese counterparts. The gathering was a rare opportunity for officials from three countries on the front lines of the fentanyl crisis to swap intelligence on the flows of fentanyl and the drug money financing it. It was the sort of meeting of cops and prosecutors that U.S. officials have long been pushing for, but that until recently China had resisted.  (Spegele, 11/27)

The New York Times: Fentanyl Rises Again, This Time As Trump’s Diplomatic Weapon Against China 
Experts at the Council on Foreign Relations say that Chinese and U.S. law enforcement officials need to work together more closely, and that China needs to provide the United States with more support in anti-money laundering efforts to block the flow of illicit money funding the trade. Some analysts were concerned that tariffs might hurt that effort more than help it. “An imposition of tariffs is not going to do anything regarding the flow of fentanyl,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on global drug policy. (Pierson, 11/26)

The Guardian: Is The China-US Fentanyl Pipeline Really Responsible For The US Opioid Crisis? 
Fentanyl started arriving in the US from China about 10 years ago. In 2020, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said that China was the “primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail”. As authorities in the US and China have cracked down on traffickers and criminal gangs, much of that flow has been re-routed through cartels in Mexico. Rather than sending shipments of finished illicit fentanyl directly to the US, drug traffickers and exporters in China send precursor chemicals to Mexico, where they can be turned into fentanyl and sent on to the US. (Hawkins, 11/26)

Reuters: China State Media Warn Trump Against Mutually Destructive Tariff War 
China's state media warned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump his pledge to slap additional tariffs on Chinese goods over fentanyl flows could drag the world's top two economies into a mutually destructive tariff war. Editorials in Chinese communist party mouthpieces China Daily and the Global Times late on Tuesday warned the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to not make China a "scapegoat" for the U.S.' fentanyl crisis or "take China's goodwill for granted regarding anti-drug cooperation". (Cash, 11/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Mexico Will Find It Tough To Heed Trump’s Calls To Tame The Cartels 
President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to slap a 25% tariff on Mexico’s goods unless it stops fentanyl trafficking and illegal migration risks setting the trade partners on a collision course over an intractable challenge for both countries. Ahead of the new trade negotiations, Mexico’s greatest weakness has been its historic inability to confront the powerful drug gangs that control about a third of the country. Mexico has had success stopping immigration over the past year, but ending drug smuggling might be an impossible ask, in part because of strong demand in the U.S. (Cordoba and Bergengruen, 11/26)

The Washington Post: Trump Tied Tariffs To Migrants And Fentanyl. Here Are The Facts. 
Donald Trump’s claim that illegal border crossings are out of control — which was among the reasons he cited for the tariffs he said Monday he plans to enact against Mexico, Canada and China — is contradicted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection data showing lower levels of crossings this fall than during the final months of Trump’s first term. Neither his claim that border crossings constitute an unchecked “invasion” nor his depiction of drugs pouring across an “open” and unguarded border has any basis in federal data. (McDaniel and Miroff, 11/26)

The Washington Post: U.S. Okays Organ Transplants Between People With HIV, Expanding Donor Pool
People with HIV will be able to receive kidney or liver transplants from donors who also have HIV, federal health officials announced Tuesday. Until now, such transplants were only allowed as part of research studies. Otherwise, people with HIV could not donate their kidneys or livers. The landmark move, which takes effect Wednesday, is expected to shorten wait times for organs for all patients and reduce hurdles to lifesaving care for those with HIV. It’s also a testament to medical progress in treating HIV and bolsters efforts to lessen stigma around the disease, experts say. (Kaur, 11/27)

ScienceAlert and AFP: HIV Cases Reach Lowest Point Since Rise Of Disease In 1980s
Fewer people contracted HIV last year than at any point since the rise of the disease in the late 1980s, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that this decline was still far too slow. Around 1.3 million people contracted the disease in 2023, according to the new report from the UNAIDS agency. Around 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses last year, the lowest level since a peak of 2.1 million in 2004, the report said ahead of World AIDS Day on Sunday. (Lawler and Dury, 11/27)

In other news about organ transplants —

The Wall Street Journal: Transplant Charity Used Organ-Transport Jet For Personal Trips 
A nonprofit that collects donated organs and transports them to transplant patients around the U.S. used its airplanes for other purposes, including travel for employees and for fundraisers. Indiana Donor Network operates a fleet of small jets that fly kidneys and other vital organs to desperate patients across the U.S. The mission, the fleet says, is to ensure “that each donor’s gift of life is transported to transplant recipients quickly and safely.” (Walker, Bernstein and McGinty, 11/27)

Cedars-Sinai Discoveries Magazine: Perfect Match: Woman Donates Lifesaving Kidney to Her Identical Twin
Identical twins Linda Thomas and Karen Rodman, 56, have shared everything from the moment they were born. The Las Vegas residents live less than five miles from each other. They work together, carpool together, shop together. Their phone numbers would be identical, save for the last digit. Now, the sisters share more than just their DNA—they share a kidney. They also share an uncommon transplant experience, said Irene Kim, MD, the Esther and Mark Schulman Chair in Surgery and Transplantation Medicine and director of the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center. “It’s a rare event to transplant a patient with a genetically identical organ because it requires having an identical twin,” Kim said. “This is only the second time in my career that this has happened.” (11/26)

The Washington Post: Americans Are Not Getting Seasonal Vaccines Ahead Of The Holidays 
As the holiday season approaches, public health experts are sounding the alarm about low vaccination rates against the coronavirus, flu and RSV. With gatherings and travel on the rise, many people are heading into the next few months unprotected against these respiratory illnesses, which typically peak from December to February. As of this month, about 37 percent of adults 18 and older had received a seasonal flu shot, while 19 percent had received updated coronavirus vaccines and 40 percent of adults 75 and older — the group at greatest risk — got an RSV vaccine. (Malhi, 11/27)

The Mercury News: Few Californians Have Gotten Updated COVID, Flu Vaccines As Thanksgiving Nears
While the chance of a heated political discussion at your Thanksgiving table might be extra high this year, the chance of getting COVID at your family gathering is lower than it has been in the past several years. That’s even with millions of Californians expected to travel for the holiday. “The bottom line is that we’re in a very, very good place at this moment,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at UC Berkeley. (Blair Rowan, 11/26)

KGW.com: Vaccine Hesitancy Continues To Rise In Oregon And Washington, Concerning Health Care Providers
Dr. Ben Hoffman is a pediatrician with Doernbecher Children's Hospital at OHSU and the director of two hospital programs focused on children. He's currently the national president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. We asked him why those numbers had been growing, and in Oregon especially."I think there are a lot of reasons," Hoffman began. "So first of all, there has always been an undercurrent of vaccine hesitancy in Oregon that's different than in a lot of other places. I practiced in New Mexico for 15 years before I moved to Oregon in 2011, and the concerns about vaccines and some of the beliefs about vaccines, they're very different in Oregon. I think some of it comes from the history of libertarian ideals; what I've learned to appreciate as the Oregon frontier spirit." (Dooris and Parfitt, 11/25)

CIDRAP: Survey: Doctors Rank Pertussis Vaccine Less Important Than Those For Other Respiratory Diseases 
An online survey of physicians in the United States, France, and Germany reveals that they consider pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines less important than those against COVID-19, influenza, and pneumococcal disease, although they recognize that adults with weakened immune systems and chronic respiratory illnesses are at elevated risk. (Van Beusekom, 11/26)

CIDRAP: Sluggish Gas Exchange In The Lungs May Be Involved In Long-COVID Brain Fog 
Lower rates of gas exchange in the lungs may contribute to impaired cognitive function ("brain fog") tied to long COVID, according to a small study to be presented at next week's Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA's) annual meeting in Chicago. Pulmonary gas exchange is the movement of oxygen from the lungs to the bloodstream and carbon dioxide from the bloodstream to the lungs. (Van Beusekom, 11/26)

On bird flu —

CIDRAP: Canadian Probe Into Teen's Critical H5N1 Infection Finds No Clear Source 
As a Canadian teen remains in critical care with an H5N1 avian flu infection in a British Columbia hospital, health investigators said today they haven't identified the source, but have found other clues such as virus changes that may have led to a more severe lower respiratory infection. ... Bonnie Henry, British Columbia's health officer, said the teen, sick since November 2 and hospitalized since November 8, remains seriously ill and requires breathing assistance, but is stable and has shown progress over the past few days. (Schnirring, 11/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bird Flu Is Up In California, But Eating Thanksgiving Turkey Is Safe
The spread of H5N1 avian flu — which has killed millions of chickens, sickened hundreds of herds of dairy cows and infected dozens of people in the United States — has prompted some to wonder whether eating turkey, the quintessential Thanksgiving staple, is safe or advisable. The short answer is yes, according to food safety regulators and infectious disease experts. Despite avian flu having infected many turkey flocks since the virus began circulating in the U.S. in 2022, consuming cooked turkey should be safe. (Ho, 11/26)

On mpox and Ebola —

Reuters: New Mpox Vaccines For Congo's Children Held Up By Old Problem 
Adults started getting vaccinations against mpox in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital this week. But there were no shots available for children, the most vulnerable group, after a key dose donation was held back by an old legal hurdle: who pays if there are unexpected side effects caused by the vaccine. (Rigby, Kasongo and Rolley, 11/26)

The Guardian: Ten Years Ago Ebola Tore Through Sierra Leone. Can A Vaccine Drive Stop History Repeating Itself?
Ten years ago, the Ebola virus tore through west Africa, killing more than 11,000 people, including nearly 4,000 in Sierra Leone – around 40% of those infected in the country. When the outbreak began, there was no vaccine. Today, the world has a stockpile of half a million doses. This is sufficient for use in preventive vaccination programmes for frontline workers in countries with a history of Ebola, with some kept in reserve as emergency jabs in case of an outbreak. Sierra Leone will this week become the first country to launch a nationwide preventive Ebola vaccination campaign for people at the highest risk. (Lay, 11/27)

MedPage Today: Another Emergency Medicine Staffing Firm Goes Under 
NES Health, the staffing firm that drew attention recently for not paying its doctors, says it will "wind down its operations and cease doing business," according to a company email shared on social media. Doctors who worked for the company may be out several months of pay, and NES said it won't provide malpractice tail coverage either, according to the email. ... NES Health is the third physician staffing firm in recent years to shutter. (Fiore, 11/26)

CBS News: Pontiac General Hospital Files For Bankruptcy After Announcing Medicare Funding Loss, Layoffs 
Pontiac General Hospital has filed for bankruptcy days after announcing the loss of Medicare funding and announcing over 240 layoffs. According to a court document, the hospital, located on 461 W. Huron St., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Saturday. The document shows the hospital has between $1 million and $10 million in assets, owes somewhere between $1 million and $10 million and has between 50 and 99 creditors. (Lentz, 11/26)

Modern Healthcare: Private Equity Staffing Companies Losing Physicians To Providers
Health systems are hiring specialists from private equity-backed companies as hospitals look to reduce costs by cutting out staffing agencies while easing staff shortages. Higher pay and the prospect of less administrative work have allowed health systems to hire an increasing number of specialists from private equity-backed staffing firms and independent clinics, industry observers said. Health system executives said they plan to directly employ more physicians to combat persistent gaps in specialty care without relying on staffing agencies. (Kacik, 11/26)

Modern Healthcare: Prospect Medical Holdings Approved To Sell CharterCare Hospitals
Rhode Island's Director of Health Dr. Jerry Larkin signed off on Prospect Medical Holdings' pending sale of two CharterCare hospitals to the Centurion Foundation. On Monday, Larkin accepted the state Health Services Council's recommendation to approve the sale, which involves Providence-based Roger Williams Medical Center and North Providence-based Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, according to a news release from the Rhode Island Department of Health. (Hudson, 11/26)

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Systems, WoodBridge End $120M Deal
Community Health Systems scrapped a $120 million deal to sell three Pennsylvania hospitals and related facilities to WoodBridge Healthcare. CHS and WoodBridge mutually decided to dissolve the agreement Friday due to WoodBridge's inability to satisfy funding requirements, according to a Tuesday news release. Investment banking firm Zeigler was unable to sell the bonds needed to fund the acquisition, despite earlier indications of confidence in the bond sales, WoodBridge said in a separate release. (Hudson, 11/26)

On the high cost of health care —

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Proposal Targets Prior Authorization, GLP-1s
Medicare Advantage insurers would no longer be allowed to reconsider approved prior authorization requests for inpatient hospital admissions and face new limits on using artificial intelligence for precertifications under a proposed rule issued Tuesday. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services draft regulation also would introduce Medicare and Medicaid coverage of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s, such as Ozempic and Zepbound, to treat obesity as a chronic disease. (Early, 11/26)

KFF Health News: A Toddler Got A Nasal Swab Test But Left Before Seeing A Doctor. The Bill Was $445
Ryan Wettstein Nauman was inconsolable one evening last December. After being put down for bed, the 3-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, just kept crying and crying and crying, and nothing would calm her down. Her mother, Maggi Wettstein, remembered fearing it could be a yeast or urinary tract infection, something they had been dealing with during potty training. The urgent care centers around them were closed for the night, so around 10:30 p.m. she decided to take Ryan to the emergency room at Carle Health. (Sable-Smith, 11/27)

The New York Times: New Obesity Drug MariTide Helps Patients Lose Up To 20% Of Weight, Early Data Shows 
The pharmaceutical manufacturer Amgen announced on Tuesday that an experimental obesity drug helped patients lose up to 20 percent of their weight in a year. The drug, MariTide, is given by injection once a month, compared with once a week for other obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound that are already on the market. Those drugs have stunned longtime obesity researchers, who had all but given up on ever seeing safe and effective weight loss drugs. Now, dozens of similar drugs are in development, as companies try to improve on the current ones. Amgen’s is among the first to show what might be possible. (Kolata, 11/26)

MedPage Today: U.K. Data Tie Acetaminophen To Increased Ulcer Risk
Widespread belief holds that the popular over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen does not cause stomach ulcers, but a new study from Great Britain puts that in doubt. Acetaminophen use was also associated with increased rates of more general health problems including heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and hypertension, the group reported in Arthritis Care & Research. (Gever, 11/26)

The Wall Street Journal: A Scientist’s Final Quest Is To Find New Schizophrenia Drugs. Will He Live To See Them? 
Edward Scolnick led the development of dozens of medicines while at Merck; his current mission pits him against time and the mental illness of millions, including his son. (Marcus, 11/26)

Bloomberg: Sanofi Boosts Preparedness With $600 Million Singapore Plant
Sanofi SA added a new plant in Singapore to make vaccines and other medicines, as the French pharmaceutical group seeks to bolster preparedness for emergencies, including potential pandemics. The facility, named Modulus, came up at investment of S$800 million (nearly $600 million) at Tuas Biomedical Park in the city-state, according to a statement. It can be adapted to manufacture up to four vaccines or biopharmaceuticals at the same time, and will be fully operational in mid-2026 and create 200 skilled jobs in Singapore. (Kan, 11/27)

In biotech developments —

Stat: BIOSECURE Act On Chinese Biotechs Is Harder To Pass Next Year 
Legislation targeting Chinese biotechnology companies caused a ruckus early this year. None of that may matter if Congress doesn’t pass it in December. The BIOSECURE Act would restrict U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies from doing business with certain Chinese companies, including WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics. The bill would increase costs for drugmakers. (Wilkerson, 11/27)

Stat: AI Biotech Recursion Cuts Jobs After Exscientia Merger 
Recursion Pharmaceuticals, one of the most advanced companies using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to expedite drug development, laid off employees after closing a merger last week. (DeAngelis, 11/26)

The Boston Globe: Tufts Is Developing A Tiny Wearable To Detect Cognitive Decline
From sleek wrist watches to gleaming rings, wearable sensors that track a growing array of your daily activities ... are getting smaller, more sophisticated, and pricier. But one large group of consumers that could greatly benefit from such precise trackers, older adults with chronic health problems, are the least likely to don them. Now a team at Tufts University is developing a tiny, gel-like patch that would detect both cognitive decline and a person’s risk for falling in real time and be unobtrusive and appealing to older adults, as well as affordable. (Lazar, 11/26)

Modern Healthcare: How GE HealthCare's AI-Enabled Devices Are Aiding Oncologists
GE HealthCare is betting big on artificial intelligence, with plans to ramp up development of AI-enabled devices by adding more than 120 new ones to its portfolio in the next three years. The company, which reported $1.2 billion in revenue from its digital platforms and software in 2023, told investors at an event last week it seeks to increase that revenue number by 50% by 2028. (Dubinsky, 11/26)

Stat: New Report Urges Guidelines For Stem Cell-Based Embryo Models
Policymakers and scientific groups need to specify guidelines for the burgeoning field that uses stem cells to mimic aspects of embryonic development, including by establishing certain red lines on research, an influential U.K. bioethics group said Wednesday in a new report. (Joseph, 11/26)

On health data and privacy —

Axios: HHS Enforcement Of Health Data Privacy Is Lacking: Report
The Health and Human Services Department is meeting a requirement for auditing health care organizations' data privacy standards but could be doing more to safeguard patient data, a federal watchdog found. Cyberattacks affecting health care providers and vendors have become more common in recent years, often exposing individuals' private health information. (Goldman, 11/26)

Modern Healthcare: Epic, Particle Health Propose Briefing Schedule For Lawsuit
Epic and Particle Health are briefly working together as their conflict continues to play out in court. On Monday, the two companies jointly filed a proposed briefing schedule for Epic's motion to dismiss Particle's antitrust suit against the electronic health record vendor. Particle Health, a startup that helps providers and health technology companies aggregate and share data, filed the suit in September. The startup alleges Epic is using its market power to prevent products that would compete with the EHR company's payer platform. (DeSilva, 11/26)

The Washington Post: Texas Committee Won’t Examine Maternal Deaths In First Years After Abortion Ban 
The Texas committee that examines all pregnancy-related deaths in the state will not review cases from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after Texas’s near-total abortion ban took effect, leaving any potential deaths related to abortion bans during those years uninvestigated by the 23 doctors, medical professionals and other specialists who make up the group. In a September meeting, leaders of the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee said the change was made to “be more contemporary” — allowing them to skip over a backlog of older cases and review deaths closer to the date when they occurred, and therefore offer more relevant recommendations to policymakers. (Kitchener, 11/26)

MedPage Today: Texas Governor Scolds Hospital After Doctor Goes Viral On TikTok 
After a TikTok video in which a Texas physician informed the public of their right to not respond to a citizenship question on hospital intake forms went viral, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) fired back on social media. In a post on X on Monday, Abbott wrote, "Hey Texas Children's Hospital & Baylor College of Medicine, this doctor is putting your Medicaid and Medicare funding at risk. You better think twice & have crystal clear records. There will be consequences for failing to follow the law in the Executive Order." (Henderson, 11/26)

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

The Boston Globe: New Leadership At The Helm Of N.H.'s Largest United Way
New Hampshire’s largest United Way has a new president and CEO – a position with sway over the organization’s considerable philanthropic efforts around the state. Nichole Martin Reimer was named to the top position at the Manchester-based nonprofit that covers about 85 percent of New Hampshire. ... The top issues the Granite United Way is working on are likely familiar to most Granite Staters: early childhood learning, including child care, housing, financial stability, and work on mental health and substance use disorder. (Gokee, 11/26)

CBS News: Coal Dust Present On Schools, Homes In South Baltimore Neighborhood Bordered By Coal Plant, Study Finds
Measurable amounts of coal dust are present on schools, playgrounds and houses in South Baltimore's Curtis Bay neighborhood which is bordered by an open-air coal terminal, according to a new Johns Hopkins study. Curtis Bay borders an industrial area with multiple plants, terminals and port facilities, including an open-air coal export facility owned by CSX. (Thompson and Dingle, 11/26)

Military.com: For Soldiers At Fort Carson, Food Is Scarce 
As Americans gather for Thanksgiving feasts, soldiers at Fort Carson, Colorado, are contending with a far less festive reality -- months of insufficient meals, confusing schedules, and limited food options at the base's dining facilities that have ignited widespread frustration among the rank and file. Dining facilities -- critical for sustaining the health and readiness of troops -- are reportedly offering fewer options, with some meals falling short of basic nutritional standards. Earlier this month, the issue was exemplified by a meal in which soldiers were served a single piece of toast and a handful of lima beans for dinner, according to one soldier stationed there who shared imagery of the meal. (Beynon, 11/26)

KFF Health News: Listen To The Latest 'KFF Health News Minute'
This week on the KFF Health News Minute: In states without abortion bans, programs are trying to train more types of medical personnel to offer abortion care. Separately, some OB-GYNs are asking pregnant patients to pay for their deliveries in advance. (11/26)

The Boston Globe: What's Next For Public Health?
The hurricane of nominations by President-elect Donald Trump has the country reeling and trying to understand just how big a storm is coming and what it will bring. There are big winds blowing around the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, with related health care appointments feeding the storm. At this time of uncertainty for public health, it’s important to understand what these nominations mean for the health of the American people. (Ashish K. Jha, 11/25)

Bloomberg: The Case For Getting The Government To Pay For Wegovy
The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed expanding coverage of weight-loss drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly & Co.’s Zepbound to Medicare and Medicaid recipients. Finally. (Lisa Jarvis, 11/26)

Scientific American: Confronting The Dangers Of Silent Spread Is Necessary To Prevent Future Pandemics
COVID has shown that diseases can lead to catastrophic societal harm when they spread without symptoms. Hence, preventing future pandemics requires greater investment in targeted public health interventions to reduce transmission—including from infected individuals who feel fine. (Joshua S. Weitz, 11/25)

UnHerd: RFK Jr Will Disrupt The US Medical Establishment
The American public voted for disruptors like RFK Jr in 2024, and academic medicine now has an opportunity to atone for its Covid-era blunders. If it engages constructively, it can participate in crafting and implementing reforms that would, indeed, make America healthy again. (NIH nominee Jay Bhattacharya and Kevin Bardosh, 11/15)

Stat: Why It’s So Hard To Attract New Doctors To Pediatrics 
Two years ago, the RSV epidemic shook pediatric hospitals across the country along with the pediatric residents in them. One of us, Faith, was a resident at the time, and she and her colleagues refer to it as the dark ages: Whether they were arriving for their morning shifts or leaving their night shifts, the number of patients they took care of would not change for weeks at a time. Hospitals were completely filled, and resources were limited. (Jared E. Boyce and Faith Crittenden, 11/27)