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Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, on Sunday told American parents that they should get their children vaccinated against measles, as the surge in infections has reached numbers not seen in the past 35 years. Kennedy, a leading vaccination skeptic who has spent years amplifying misinformation about vaccines, including the shot that protects against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), made his call in the course of a contentious interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday morning. (Pilkington, 8/2)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed 53 new US measles cases this week, bringing the total for the year to 2,371 cases. All but 16 of the cases were locally acquired in 45 US jurisdictions, with the rest tied to international travel, the CDC said in its weekly update. There have been 37 new measles outbreaks reported this year, with 94% of cases associated with outbreaks (defined as three or more cases). (Dall, 7/31)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. clashed with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, launching attacks against Anthony Fauci and arguing that protecting constitutional rights must take priority during future public health crises. During an appearance on “State of the Union” that Bash herself described as “contentious,” Kennedy argued that Fauci, who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the Covid-19 pandemic, was to blame for the millions of Americans who were sickened or killed by the respiratory virus. (Daniels, 8/2)

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday said President Trump “certainly” wants him to investigate perceived links between autism and vaccines. Kennedy made the remark during a heated interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union,” when Bash asked if the Wall Street Journal was accurate in reporting that Trump wants Kennedy to “probe the link.” “He certainly does,” Kennedy said. (Mancini, 8/2)

Over the past two months, the United States has made financial commitments that hint at a limited return to global health and humanitarian assistance partnerships, after the abrupt severing of many of those relationships a year and a half ago. Last week, the State Department notified Congress that it would send $600 million to Gavi, the organization that helps low-income countries buy essential childhood immunizations, a year after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew American support. It was the latest in a series of financial commitments from the U.S. government to international organizations, working on issues such as hunger and tuberculosis, totaling nearly $2 billion. (Nolen, 8/2)

The 85-year-old doctor, once the head of the government’s covid response, now faces mounting congressional threats and legal risks. (Diamond, 8/2)

Madison County Board Chairman Chris Slusser said Friday that a comment he made on Facebook calling for the “public hanging” of Dr. Anthony Fauci was “rhetorical hyperbole.” Slusser’s comments were posted in the replies to a post that appears to have since been deleted. Slusser, from his personal account, made the comment around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. (Bauer, 7/31)

51��Ƶ Health News: 51��Ƶ Health News’ ‘On Air’: Journalists Catch You Up On Fauci Hearing, Peptides, And Kids' Caffeine Consumption

Céline Gounder, 51��Ƶ Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed how children’s caffeine consumption is affecting their health on CBS News’ CBS Mornings on July 30. (8/1)

Senate leadership on Sunday released the text��of a bipartisan government funding stopgap measure that would block the White House’s proposal to give political appointees control over federal research grants. (Wilkerson, 8/2)

Key senators unveiled a short-term spending bill on Sunday that would keep federal agencies funded past the midterm elections and into early December as they look to avoid a government shutdown during the middle of campaign season. The Senate is likely to vote on the measure before leaving Washington at week’s end for its traditional August recess, a period that many lawmakers want to spend shoring up their reelection prospects rather than working in the nation’s capital. (Freking, 8/2)

Kay Granger, the first Republican woman from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and who served for nearly three decades, died Sunday at the age of 83, her son J.D. Granger said. House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X that throughout her career, Granger “broke barriers for women in public service.” He added that she “was a dear friend who will be greatly missed.” (Stengle, 8/3)

An outbreak of the disease-causing parasite cyclospora has infected thousands of Americans from coast to coast and has given rise to a dangerous trend called “cyclospora skinny.“ What began as a joke about the infection symptoms like weight loss and low appetite is now prompting warnings from health professionals. Dr. Dhaval Desai, pediatric physician and internal medicine doctor, joined NewsNation to talk about the trend. (Whiteside, 7/31)

The parasites go straight for the lining of the small intestine, where they burrow in, taking over the cells to make copies of themselves. (Huang, 8/2)

Joshua Hargrove had sworn off leafy greens, berries and just about anything else that grew in the ground. The 24-year-old Howard University law student has spent weeks steering clear of produce, unnerved by cyclospora outbreaks that have made thousands of people sick this summer. (McKee and Davis, 8/2)

New York City health officials confirmed a seventh death in connection with the Legionnaires’ outbreak on the Upper East Side, matching the number of lives lost in a similar outbreak in Harlem in 2025. The seventh death was announced Thursday evening, one of the six people who were still hospitalized from the illness, according to the Health Department. The silver lining of good news: Officials have repeatedly said no new cases had been found since July 21. (Shea and Siff, 7/31)

The source of bacteria that caused a cluster of Legionnaires' disease on Manhattan's Upper East Side has been "eliminated," the New York City Health Department said on Friday. As of July 30, there were 92 cases and seven deaths, primarily affecting three ZIP codes, including the neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill and Yorkville. At least 79 people were hospitalized and five remain in the hospital, the department said. (Kekatos, 7/31)

The Maryland Department of Health announced Friday an individual living in Maryland tested positive for the West Nile virus. This is the first confirmed human case in the state this year, said MDH officials. (Whirley, 7/31)

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has expanded to become the country’s largest ever, with infections continuing to accelerate and the virus spreading across five provinces despite an extensive response by health authorities and international partners. As of July 30, a total of 3,605 cases and 1,587 deaths had been reported, the World Health Organization said on Saturday, with both climbing 13% from a week earlier. The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, has now surpassed the country’s devastating 2018-20 epidemic, which was previously its biggest outbreak, it said. (Kew, 8/1)

A plan to repurpose an existing Ebola vaccine to help protect frontline health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo is moving ahead as researchers seek ways to blunt a fast-spreading outbreak for which no approved shot exists. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention plans to present evidence to the World Health Organization’s vaccine advisers next week as it seeks to test whether Merck & Co.’s Ebola vaccine, Ervebo, can provide at least partial protection against the Bundibugyo virus driving the outbreak. (Kew and Gale, 7/31)

Esther Lutula stopped going for prenatal checkups shortly after the current Ebola outbreak was declared in eastern Congo. Midway into her pregnancy, the 26-year-old feared being put into isolation simply for having a fever, a common misconception. “That’s why I’m waiting until the disease is no longer widespread,” she told The Associated Press from her home in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province and epicenter of the outbreak declared on May 15. But that could be a deadly mistake. (Kabumba and Asadu, 8/3)

It’s been three years since the World Health Organization declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency, but COVID still circulates worldwide. Does that mean the pandemic is still going on, just in a non-emergency phase? Or has COVID become an endemic virus, like the flu? CIDRAP News talked with Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) Director Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, to understand what defines a pandemic, if we’re still in one, and what gives a pathogen pandemic potential. (Bergeson, 7/31)

Air purifiers had a moment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Interest in the devices spiked when research found that high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters could reduce levels of the virus that causes COVID-19 up to 99%. Many schools, medical facilities, and businesses installed air purifiers to reduce the risk of illness. Studies of air filters in the real world, however, have been less promising. A new study from the United Kingdom found that portable air purifiers didn’t prevent respiratory infections in nursing home residents. (Szabo, 7/31)

Marijuana is officially leading the pack for the most-used daily drug among Americans. New data from the 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), reveals that there are 21.4 million daily or near-daily marijuana users in the U.S. (Stabile, 8/2)

The gunman who fired into a busy In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, on Saturday, sending customers scurrying for cover in the restaurant and behind cars in the parking lot, was a 24-year-old man who acted alone, the authorities said on Sunday. At least three people were killed and seven others wounded. The afternoon rampage, the authorities said, might have been worse if not for the “heroic action” of an off-duty state trooper and a private citizen who returned fire and slowed the gunman. (Burch and Mokam, 8/2)

Abortion bans may be driving more teenage girls to seriously contemplate suicide — regardless of whether they are pregnant, a new study finds. (Luthra, 7/31)

Lawmakers are seeking the release of an immigrant woman who says that — despite pleading for help after experiencing bleeding and severe pain, indications of a possible miscarriage —��she has received limited medical care in detention. (Barclay and Luthra, 7/31)

The Pentagon is relying on closed-door hearings to kick out transgender service members. An Army Reserve lawyer is one of the few who have seen how they really work. (Jaffe and Philipps, 8/3)

The Trump administration has revised the terms of a pilot effort that will allow some drugmakers to offer rebates to certain hospitals and clinics for purchased medicines, a controversial move that may transform a key tenet of a federal drug discount program. (Silverman, 7/31)

A divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the state’s attorney general may investigate Eli Lilly over its pricing practices for insulin. (Silverman, 8/2)

Hospitals are in line for a 2.3% Medicare reimbursement increase for inpatient care under a final rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Friday. The regulation also features a revamped version of the decade-old Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model that makes it Medicare’s first mandatory and nationwide bundled payment initiative. CMS is reviving the model, dubbed CJR-X, after the original version saved more than $100 million from 2016 through 2024, according to the agency. (Early, 7/31)

Medicare pay for specialist physicians would undergo steep cuts while primary care reimbursement would rise under a plan the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services unveiled this month. The agency proposed a slate of policies this month that would effectively reduce reimbursement for some specialty services and boost pay for certain routine primary care visits. CMS can only accomplish the latter goal by cutting expenditures in other areas under a legal standard known as “budget neutrality” that doesn’t allow the agency to add more than $20 million a year in new spending. (Early, 7/31)

Many seniors and disabled people in California who need long-term care will soon face a dramatic reduction in assets they can keep and still qualify for Medi-Cal. Starting in July 2027, the individual limit will fall from $130,000 to $21,000, while the limit for couples will drop from $195,000 to $31,000 when they apply for Medi-Cal — California’s Medicaid program — or renew their coverage. That’s an 84% decrease. (Roy, 8/1)

Missouri’s Medicaid program is heading into its hardest budget years in at least a decade. A federal law passed by Congress last year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, threatens more than $1 billion in penalties unless the state lowers its error rate below 3% starting in October 2029. It also imposes new mandates on the Department of Social Services. The state allotted $132 million to implement the law in its fiscal year 2026 supplemental budget alone. (Quinn, 8/1)

51��Ƶ Health News: People With Disabilities Fear Service Cuts As Trump’s DOJ Questions Legal Protections

Amanda DeSimone-Shabrack relies on a home healthcare aide to help her high-needs autistic 12-year-old son. Virginia’s Medicaid program covers the assistance, enabling her to work as both an education technology specialist and a professor, run errands, and keep Mason in the home. That could change. In June, the Department of Justice issued a legal opinion saying federal disability rights laws don’t require states to provide services that allow people with disabilities to remain in their homes rather than institutions. (Armour, 8/3)

Democrats are taking President Donald Trump’s administration to court again in another effort to fight back against a controversial health insurance exchange regulation. New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and California Attorney General Rob Bonta led 22 Democrat-run states in the latest legal challenge against a payment and policy final rule that brings major changes to the health insurance exchanges created under the Affordable Care Act of 2010. The officials filed the case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. (Early, 7/31)

51��Ƶ Health News: Kennedy, Oz Contend Fraud Crackdown, Not Skyrocketing Prices, Led Millions To Leave Obamacare

The Trump administration credits its fraud control efforts for the disappearance of millions of people from Obamacare rolls rather than a sharp rise in premiums — a claim disputed by policy experts that glosses over the reality that many more Americans now find themselves without health insurance. Enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans fell by nearly 3 million this year to about 19.2 million, following steep premium increases by insurers and the Republican-led Congress’ unwillingness to extend more generous premium subsidies. (Appleby, 8/3)

The FDA licensed Ezplaz, the first freeze-dried plasma product available to adults in need of transfusion, on Wednesday. Ezplaz is intended for patients who need plasma -- such as those who are bleeding, need massive transfusion, or are bleeding while on warfarin -- when conventional frozen plasma is not available. (Bassett, 7/29)

With the promise that GLP-1 drugs, approved for diabetes and weight loss, can also treat ailments such as cancer and heart disease, the government is now exploring if they can reduce alcohol abuse among U.S. military veterans. With an estimated 400,000 U.S. veterans diagnosed with alcohol use disorder, the Department of Veterans Affairs said this week it is launching a randomized clinical trial to measure whether semaglutide, the ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, can reduce drinking and improve quality of life. (Rowland, 7/31)

A new study conducted by leading researchers across the U.S. suggests GLP-1 drugs could have a much greater impact beyond obesity. GLP-1s have become known as something of a go-to weight-loss drug. The research, published in “Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism,” illustrated that a variance in dosage or type of drug can impact results. (Djordjevic, 7/31)

OSF HealthCare agreed to pay $552,250 as part of a settlement agreement with the Health and Human Services Department’s Office for Civil Rights. After OSF HealthCare filed a breach report in October 2021 related to a ransomware attack, the agency launched an investigation to determine whether the provider had violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The attack — which OSF HealthCare discovered in April 2021 — exposed the protected health information of 53,907 patients. (DeSilva, 7/31)

The story of Cleveland Clinic’s Avon campus has followed a familiar pattern: Build, grow, repeat. Fifteen years after opening the Richard E. Jacobs Health Center — and a decade after opening Avon Hospital — the Clinic is ready to build again in Avon. On Thursday, July 30, the health system broke ground on a $322 million expansion that will add beds, operating rooms and cancer services to the Avon campus. (Scalzo, 7/31)

Katrina Asselin was a teen mom when she got the idea to become a nurse. She had just given birth to her daughter, six days after her own 18th birthday, when the staff and nurses who helped during her delivery inspired her to pursue the same kind of work. (Richardson, 8/3)

The Geisel School of Medicine’s first female dean starts her tenure Saturday and she’s excited to turn a spotlight onto Dartmouth’s medical school. Jennifer Hunt, 55, comes to Geisel from the University of Florida College of Medicine where she has served as interim dean since 2024. (Shanahan, 8/1)

51��Ƶ Health News: Earlier Lifeline For Rural Hospitals Faces Test Under ‘Big Beautiful’ Law

A century-old hospital near Michigan’s southern border was one of the nation’s first to convert into a new emergency-focused model Congress created to save rural care. Afterward, though, use of Sturgis Hospital’s emergency department fell, according to data collected at the state level. In June, three years after taking the federal lifeline, the hospital closed, leaving residents of Sturgis, a town of about 11,000 people, without critical healthcare. Its leaders had tried “every reasonable option” to remain open, including seeking a buyer, according to a hospital news release. (Tribble and Leys, 8/3)

Cardiologists see this happen all too often: A patient is waiting in the hospital for a heart transplant, only to be disqualified because their fitness has fallen with each day in bed.��Dismayed by such cases, Radha Gopalan, a heart transplant cardiologist at Banner–University Medical Center Phoenix, decided to try a twist on other rehabilitation programs. (Cooney, 8/3)

Hospitals have been quick to adopt artificial intelligence tools for automating note-taking during patient visits, saying they help lower physician burnout and increase revenues. Medical schools, though, are facing a vexing quandary over AI scribes. (Chan, 8/3)

Companies are exploring how robotics could reshape routine clinical care, developing devices to perform everyday tasks such as blood draws and ultrasound scans. Although the technologies are at different stages of maturity, they reflect a broader push by manufacturers to address health systems’ pressing challenges including workforce shortages and the need for safer, more efficient care delivery. (Dubinsky, 7/31)

Michigan on Saturday joined Minnesota in reporting cyberattacks on nine of the state’s water systems but an official said all systems were operating “safely.” Earlier this week, authorities said cyberattacks targeted over 30 water systems in Minnesota. The source of the attacks is being investigated, but they came amid warnings that Iranian hackers have been focused on such systems. The reports in Michigan surfaced after the state received a federal cyber alert Tuesday about attempts to tamper with operational technology at water systems. (Casey, 8/1)

Maryland lawmakers say��they’re��cracking down on harmful chemicals entering our food and water supply, but critics question whether the new legislation is really making��state residents��any safer. (Conrad, 8/1)

David Cruey hadn’t slept well — he woke up in the middle of the night gasping for air. The power had gone out briefly. The four box fans and the window air conditioning unit circulating air throughout the trailer home had turned off, along with his oxygen machine. (Beyer, 8/3)

Research Technology used to track COVID-19 in municipal wastewater is now being used to track populations’ dietary habits, according to a new paper released last week in��the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Sherer, 8/2)

A New York law allowing medically assisted death goes into effect Wednesday, allowing patients who have less than 6 months to live to take a medication to end their lives. (Bendix, 8/1)

Caring for a loved one through a long decline can change the way people think about the end of life. Family caregivers who spoke with cleveland.com described the emotional, physical, and financial burdens of caring for someone through their final days. (McGowan, 8/2)

Kyle Gospodarek is fascinated by “biological art,” specifically with the brain. In fact, those pieces cover the walls at his Indiana University Northwest office. But, one piece is more personal to Gospodarek: a light-up shadow box showing CT scans. “That’s me,” Gospodarek said, pointing to the scans. “You can see my actual name and information somewhere.” (Wilkins, 8/2)

Greg Papa sounded like Greg Papa. During a recent two-hour phone interview from his North Bay home, the San Francisco 49ers radio announcer’s distinctive baritone was robust. He recalled dates and details with his usual precision and punctuated stories with trademark humor. But every three seconds, there was a loud click. (Branch, 8/2)

I sometimes find it hard to resist what Big Wellness has to offer, even as I have been critical of an American system that allows so many drugs and supplements to be advertised without adequate disclosures and dispensed with the slightest nod to proper medical approval. (Jessica Grose, 8/1)

Artificial intelligence is moving fast — so fast that old questions about whether AI should be licensed to practice medicine, in whole or in part, have become pressing ones. These questions are arriving everywhere, in policy debates, pilot programs, and draft legislation, particularly at the state level. (Humayun Chaundhry and Christy Valentine Theard, 8/3)

When we doctors rush to provide certainty about how a patient’s disease will progress, we risk foreclosing possibilities. (Daniela J. Lamas, 8/3)

Local communities need Washington’s help to fight foreign hackers. (Jen Easterly, 8/2)

I have delivered ALS diagnoses. I know the exact weight of those words, the way the room changes when a person hears them, and the composure and presence a physician is trained to maintain. I spent nearly a decade in medical training learning how to sit across from someone and explain, gently but honestly, what their future might look like with a progressive, fatal disease that today has no cure. Then I found myself where I never expected to be: on the other side of that conversation. (Christopher Campos, 8/3)