The U.S. death rate from alcohol-related liver disease roughly doubled over two decades and was exacerbated by the pandemic, with women, young adults and Indigenous people experiencing the sharpest rise, a study in JAMA Network Open found.
Why it matters: The increase continued past the acute phase of the pandemic, suggesting lasting changes in alcohol consumption patterns when deaths from other liver diseases like hepatitis C were falling, researchers wrote.
Physicians are divided over how the massive Republican budget bill moving through Congress would insulate doctors from future Medicare cuts without continuing financial incentives to provide better care through alternative payment models.
Why it matters: The "doc fix" championed by the American Medical Association, among other groups, would solve a long-standing complaint about the way Medicare pays physicians.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has embraced a new attack line in his ongoing showdown with Donald Trump: The president — who turns 79 on Saturday — is slipping.
"He is not the same person that I dealt with just four years ago, and he's incapable of even a train of thought," Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential contender, told Fox LA. "He's lost it."
Why it matters: Newsom, who was among the many Democrats who repeatedly attested that Joe Biden was sharp and ready to serve another four years, is now among those suggesting that Trump — the oldest president ever inaugurated — is showing signs of not being up to the job.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy on Wednesday named eight new members to serve on an influential federal vaccine advisory panel after firing all 17 of the committee's members.
Why it matters: While Kennedy posted on X that the new appointees are committed to evidence-based medicine, several have a history of expressing anti-vaccine sentiment or voicing concerns about COVID-19 or mRNA vaccines.
By gutting the expert panel that's advised the government on vaccine policy for more than 60 years, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned the condemnation of virtually every medical society, as well as former public health officials and local practitioners.
What became immediately clear is that no outside group can immediately step in and fill the vacuum if the public won't trust the reconstituted Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The big picture: The distress and lack of organization apparent in health circles on Tuesday was a sign that a new independent body that could act as a "shadow CDC" to truth-squad the Trump administration isn't close to materializing.
Current and former employees of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are calling on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign, warning that job cuts and proposed funding reductions will hurt the agency's ability to protect the public from future health outbreaks.
Why it matters: The Atlanta-based CDC has long been the unbiased hub Americans turn to for facts about health topics, including sexually transmitted infections, maternal and infant health and respiratory infections.
