When there’s an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, state health officials typically take certain steps to alert residents and issue public updates about the growing threat. That’s standard practice, public health and infectious disease experts told KFF Health News and NPR. The goal is to keep as many other vulnerable people as possible from getting…
Since 2019, overall rates of nicotine vaping have declined among U.S. youth, but those who continue to vape are showing signs of worsening addiction, according to new USC research. Between 2020 and 2024, the share of current users who vaped every day increased from 15.4% to 28.8%. Over the same period, the share of daily…
Over a recent two-year period, Novo Nordisk spent an estimated $7.5 million on more than 15,000 paid keywords related to weight loss searches and generated more than 2.4 million visits to Ozempic.com, even though the medicine is not approved to combat obesity, a new analysis found. Notably, more than 3,500 keywords contained no mention of…
MAGA and MAHA are happily married in Florida, and nowhere more at home than in Sarasota County, where on a humid October night a crowd of several hundred gathered to honor state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, his wife, and an unlicensed Canadian radiologist who treats cancer with horse paste. The event, titled “The 3…
Florida plans to end nearly a half-century of required childhood immunizations against diseases that have killed and maimed millions of children. Many critics of the decision, including doctors, are afraid to speak up against it. With the support of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Sept. 3 announced his plan to…
Frustrated by the price of a lifesaving cystic fibrosis treatment sold by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a group of families is working with a generic manufacturer to revive a buyer’s club and distribute the medication in countries where the cost is out of a reach. The generic version of Trikafta will be priced at $6,375 for a…
New evidence from a large U.S. primary care network shows that early peanut introduction, endorsed in 2015 and 2017 guidelines, was followed by a marked decline in clinician-diagnosed peanut and overall food allergies among young children, reinforcing the real-world benefits of early allergen exposure. Study: Guidelines for Early Food Introduction and Patterns of Food Allergy….
The termination of thousands of federal grants that fund clinical trials threatens to reverse substantial progress in understanding and treating the health challenges of marginalized populations, particularly children and adolescents who are already underrepresented in research. A new commentary in the medical journal Pediatrics raises important concerns about the ethics of stopping clinical trials before…
For the past three months, CVS Caremark has resisted adding a new Gilead Sciences HIV prevention drug to its formularies, repeatedly explaining there are “clinical, financial, and regulatory considerations” that must be reviewed before it will take that step. Not surprisingly, though, what the largest pharmacy benefits manager in the U.S. simply wants is a…
After months of tense negotiations, Gilead Sciences has agreed not to boost prices next year for HIV medicines that are sold to state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs, an outcome that lessens the financial strains for agencies that are relied on by many people on low incomes. Earlier this year, the company sought to boost prices…