In many ways, it’s been a banner year for chronic disease. America’s enduring ailments became a central theme of the Trump administration, with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wielding his influence over the president. Trump created a commission focused on childhood chronic illnesses, which issued two reports on the matter. Statehouses across the country…
WASHINGTON — Vaccine policy has become a key issue for the Trump administration, especially under the leadership of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who himself once led an anti-vaccine group. In less than a year, Kennedy has bulldozed vaccine policy precedent and government personnel. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food…
WASHINGTON — A possible Trump administration effort to change the childhood vaccine schedule left hospital leaders, health policymakers, and pediatricians scrambling to navigate what could be the most significant changes to the American vaccine program in decades. The administration had planned to announce on Friday moves to pare down the number of shots on the…
WASHINGTON — Federal vaccine advisers, through a freewheeling, and at times combative two-day meeting, recommended a major change to childhood vaccinations that runs counter to the medical consensus — and began setting the stage for a larger rethink in the future. The new recommendations and many of the arguments about U.S.vaccination strategies overlook vast bodies…
A panel that advises on U.S. vaccine policy voted on Friday to recommend a delay in when most babies begin to be vaccinated against hepatitis B, overturning a 30-year-old policy that has contributed to a massive decline in cases of the virus. The vote, which followed a day of contentious discussion, was 8-3. Specifically, the…
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s twice-weekly newsletter about the politics and policy of health and medicine. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I haven’t read Olivia Nuzzi’s new book, but I dare say my favorite line about her relationship with the unnamed politician will likely be, “I…
WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration moves ahead on what could be its most wide-reaching vaccine changes yet, the makers of the shots are weighing their options — and privately warning that officials could severely limit access to key vaccines and upend the childhood vaccine schedule for years to come. U.S. health authorities, under the…
WASHINGTON — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and many top deputies are scheduled to speak alongside industry executives and health activists at a daylong MAHA event on Wednesday that has not been publicly disclosed by administration officials or event organizers. The event, called the MAHA Summit, is to take place at the gilded Waldorf…
WASHINGTON — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was uncharacteristically chummy with pharma executives at the White House on Thursday as he cheered the Trump administration’s plan for lowering obesity medication prices. Kennedy has railed against drugmakers in the past, and his lifestyle-focused “Make America Healthy Again” movement has opposed Medicare coverage of GLP-1 weight loss…
WASHINGTON — The inquiry came in August, and struck scientists at the Food and Drug Administration as highly unusual. The leader of the center that regulates prescription medicines wanted to know what they thought about leucovorin, a generic drug that’s mainly used to alleviate side effects of cancer therapies. He’d seen some promising studies and…