Latest Morning Briefing Stories

CDC Staffing Upheaval Disrupts HIV Projects and Wastes Money, Researchers Say

KFF Health News Original

Researchers laid off in April were putting the finishing touches on in-depth HIV surveys that guide treatment and prevention. Some staff have been reinstated, but data remains in limbo.

What the Health? From KFF Health News: RFK Jr. Upends Vaccine Policy, After Promising He Wouldn’t

Podcast

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this week did something he had promised not to do: He fired every member of the scientific advisory committee that recommends which vaccines should be given to whom. And he replaced them, in some cases, with vaccine skeptics. Meanwhile, hundreds of employees of the National Institutes of Health sent an open letter to the agency’s director, accusing the Trump administration of policies that “undermine the NIH mission.” Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.

Echoing 2020, Police Use Rubber Bullets Against Protesters in Los Angeles

KFF Health News Original

“Less lethal” weapons are once again being used in Los Angeles — against people protesting the Trump administration’s immigration raids. With terms like “foam,” “sponge,” and “bean bag,” the projectiles may sound harmless. They’re not.

‘We Dissent’: NIH Workers Protest Trump Policies That ‘Harm the Health of Americans’

KFF Health News Original

A letter signed by more than 300 National Institutes of Health workers — some still working, others who were fired this year — is an extraordinary public rebuke of actions taken under Director Jay Bhattacharya and health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

El riesgo de consumir marihuana aumentaría en los adultos mayores

KFF Health News Original

Treinta y nueve estados y el Distrito de Columbia permiten ahora el consumo de cannabis con fines médicos, y en 24 de esos estados, y en el distrito, el consumo recreativo también es legal.

In Axing mRNA Contract, Trump Delivers Another Blow to US Biosecurity, Former Officials Say

KFF Health News Original

The Trump administration is eroding national pandemic flu defenses as it guts health agencies, cuts research and health budgets, and withdraws funding for bird flu vaccines, health security experts said.

In a Dusty Corner of California, Trump’s Threatened Cuts to Asthma Care Raise Fears

KFF Health News Original

The Trump administration wants to shutter the CDC’s National Asthma Control Program, which provides millions in funding to state-administered initiatives aimed at fighting the disease. The program’s closure, combined with massive cuts to environmental programs, could put the 28 million Americans with asthma at increased risk.

What the Health? From KFF Health News: Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Lands in Senate. Our 400th Episode!

Podcast

The House’s gigantic tax-and-spending budget reconciliation bill has landed with a thud in the Senate, where lawmakers are divided in their criticism over whether it increases the deficit too much or cuts Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act too deeply. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that the bill, if enacted, could increase the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 11 million people over a decade won’t make it an easy sell. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Arielle Zionts, who reported and wrote the latest “Bill of the Month” feature, about a Medicaid patient who had an out-of-state emergency.

Trump Decried Crime in America, Then Gutted Funding for Gun Violence Prevention

KFF Health News Original

The U.S. Department of Justice canceled $500 million in grants to public safety organizations nationwide, including some that address gun violence. A clinic in St. Louis lost a $2 million award to develop a mobile clinic, increase mental health services, and engage the community.

Native Americans Hurt by Federal Health Cuts, Despite RFK Jr.’s Promises of Protection

KFF Health News Original

The Indian Health Service was mostly spared in the federal government’s widespread staffing cuts, but tribal governments and organizations have lost funding elsewhere in the melee of federal health agency cuts.

Trump Administration Is Ending Multiple HIV Vaccine Studies, Scientists and Officials Say

KFF Health News Original

The cuts will shutter two major HIV vaccine research efforts, and a National Institutes of Health senior official said the agency has been instructed not to issue any more HIV vaccine research funding in the next fiscal year, with few exceptions.

What the Health? From KFF Health News: Live From AHCJ: Shock and Awe in Federal Health Policy

Podcast

This episode was taped live on Friday, May 30, at the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists in Los Angeles. Host Julie Rovner moderated a panel featuring Rachel Nuzum, senior vice president for policy at The Commonwealth Fund; Berenice Núñez Constant, senior vice president of government relations and civic engagement at AltaMed Health Services; and Anish Mahajan, chief deputy director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The panelists discussed the national, state, and local implications of funding cuts made over the first 100 days of the second Trump administration and the potential fallout of reductions that have been proposed but not yet implemented. The panelists also took questions from health reporters in the audience.