After a moderate influenza season last year, flu has returned with a vengeance this winter.
Category: Public Health
KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: Medicaid in the Crosshairs, Maybe
President Donald Trump has said he won’t support major cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program for people with low incomes, but he has endorsed a House budget plan that calls for major cuts, leaving the program’s future in doubt. Meanwhile, thousands of workers at the Department of Health and Human Services were fired over the holiday weekend, from the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with possibly more cuts to come.
Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more.
Fewer clinicians entering primary care: 5 report card findings
Investments in primary care are declining and fewer clinicians are entering the field at a time when chronic disease rates are rising, according to a new report from researchers at the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Hospitals and measles: What to know
As hospitals navigate a severe virus season, measles is emerging as another infectious disease threat.
1st Ohio human bird flu case detected: 4 updates
A farmer in Mercer County, Ohio, has tested positive for H5N1 influenza, marking the state’s first human case of bird flu.
Flu deaths surpass COVID-19 for 1st time since pandemic began: 5 updates
For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, more people in the U.S. died of influenza than from COVID-19, according to CDC data for the week ending Jan. 25.
Urgent CDC Data and Analyses on Influenza and Bird Flu Go Missing as Outbreaks Escalate
Delays in urgent CDC analyses of seasonal flu and bird flu, and the agency’s silence, will harm Americans as outbreaks escalate, doctors and public health experts warn.
Louisiana halts mass vaccination efforts: 5 notes
The Louisiana Department of Health has terminated mass vaccination campaigns and barred public health workers from recommending seasonal vaccines, The Times-Picayune reported Feb. 13.
KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: Courts Try To Curb Health Cuts
Some of the Trump administration’s dramatic funding and policy shifts are facing major pushback for the first time — not from Congress, but from the courts. Federal judges around the country are attempting to pump the brakes on efforts to freeze government spending, shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, eliminate access to health-related webpages and datasets, and limit grant funding provided by the National Institutes of Health. Meanwhile, Congress is off to a slow start in trying to turn President Donald Trump’s agenda into legislation, although Medicaid is clearly high on the list for potential funding cuts. Shefali Luthra of The 19th, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Maya Goldman of Axios News join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Mark McClellan, director of the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy and a former health official during the George W. Bush administration, about the impact of cutting funding to research universities.
Officials warn of growing measles outbreak in Texas
Nine people have been hospitalized amid a measles outbreak in Gaines County, Texas, The Washington Post reported Feb. 13.
