Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s office has postponed a meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force scheduled for Thursday that was due to discuss healthy diet, physical activity and other steps to prevent cardiovascular disease, sources familiar told Axios.
Why it matters: The expert panel makes recommendations for services that health insurers must cover fully under the Affordable Care Act.
Not too long ago, mRNA vaccines were viewed as one of the country's most significant biotech breakthroughs. Safe, effective, and well-funded.
Today, they're viewed with skepticism — if not outright fear — by many Americans, including HHS chief RFK Jr.
So it seems like an unlikely time to raise $45 million in venture capital funding for an mRNA vax startup, let alone one working on a universal flu vaccine. But that's just what Silicon Valley-based Centivax did yesterday, led by Steve Jurvetson's Future Ventures.
The Department of Education threatened Harvard's accreditation on Wednesday, while the Department of Homeland Security sent the school a subpoena for information on its international students.
Why it matters: The Trump administration is continuing its multi-pronged squeeze on the Ivy League university, which it has singled out in a tirade against higher education institutions.
The Trump administration's push to end gender-affirming care for transgender youth is having a chilling effect on health systems, prompting some to pull back on the services in states where they remain legal.
The big picture: Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Stanford Medicine and Pittsburgh's UPMC are among the facilities pausing or shutting down services following federal probes and concerns that funding could be at risk.
There are four distinct varieties of autism, each linked to unique genetic profiles — a discovery that could offer new insights into the neurodevelopmental condition, according to a new study in Nature Genetics.
Why it matters: The findings come as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy is pushing federal efforts to identify an "environmental" cause for increased autism incidence by September.
The nation's hospitals rely heavily on an immigrant workforce — in some states, more than a quarter of hospital workers are either naturalized citizens or noncitizen immigrants, per census data analyzed by KFF.
Why it matters: It's a pivotal moment for the nation's hospitals.
Virginia hospitals and Richmond-area free clinics are warning that the Medicaid cuts in President Trump's tax and spending bill could reduce access to care and potentially force closures.
Why it matters: The changes threaten to trigger a domino effect across Virginia's health care system, local operators tell Axios — increasing costs, wait times and the risk of staff layoffs as hundreds of thousands lose coverage.
Children's physical and mental health declined across multiple measures over the 17 years ending in 2023, according to new research led by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The high-stakes effort to set nutrition standards for the food industry and government programs like Head Start is about to get a makeover from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Why it matters: It's an opportunity for Kennedy to exert more leverage over food and beverage companies and the products they make after narrower actions like pressing them to voluntarily eliminate synthetic food dyes.
President Trump's signature tax and spending legislation, the "big beautiful bill," is now law, and that means cuts to Medicaid spending.
The big picture: The law sets in motion almost $1 trillion in slashes to Medicaid and other health policy changes, likely forcing states to make corresponding reductions to their programs or to pick up a greater share of obligations.
