America's vaccine policy has been set for decades, with patients, providers, scientists and insurers more or less in sync on the merits of immunizations.
In the last several weeks, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has upended long-standing norms, introducing uncertainty into a once-reliable system.
Why it matters: Access to health care may shift in unpredictable ways. At worst, infectious diseases once thought to be eradicated could return.
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.
