Medicine

The Daily Beast reports: Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, has been walking a tightrope in the weeks since his colleague, Brian Thompson, was executed on a New York City street earlier this month. On one hand, Witty’s had to fight to raise flagging morale in the company’s ranks—but on the other, he’s quietly been boasting that 2024 has …

The Associated Press reports: Cases of a wretched stomach bug are surging in parts of the United States this winter, according to government data. The most recent numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show there were 91 outbreaks of norovirus reported during the week of Dec. 5. A norovirus infection is characterized by sudden vomiting and …

Reuters reports: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday its analysis of samples from the first severe case of bird flu in the country last week showed mutations not seen in samples from an infected backyard flock on the patient’s property. The CDC said the patient’s sample showed mutations in the hemagglutinin (HA) gene, the part …

Science.org reports: Despite decades of progress, HIV still infects more than 1 million people a year, and a vaccine remains stubbornly out of reach. But this year the world got a glimpse of what might be the next best thing: an injectable drug that protects people for 6 months with each shot. A large efficacy trial in African adolescent girls …

NBC News reports: Whooping cough cases in the U.S. have reached the highest annual total in a decade, according to data from the CDC. As of mid-September, about 14,500 cases had been recorded nationwide since the beginning of the year. That number climbed to more than 32,000 as of Dec. 14, meaning as many cases have been tallied in the …

The Sacramento Bee reports: Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday in response to rising cases of bird flu, the same day the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed a person in Louisiana had been hospitalized with a ‘‘severe’’ case of the disease. “This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility …

Via press release from the CDC: A patient has been hospitalized with a severe case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus (“H5N1 bird flu”) infection in Louisiana. This marks the first instance of severe illness linked to the virus in the United States. The case was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday, December 13. Since …

“There is not a vaccine that Kennedy thinks is safe or effective. These folks don’t believe the polio vaccine actually stopped polio. It’s true! They think it is a combination of better sewage, of refrigeration. They are polio truthers. That is what they believe. Robert F. Kennedy has told me this. And so, absolutely, they wanna get rid of all …

Detroit’s ABC affiliate reports: The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has seen over 1,500 cases of whooping cough this year. That’s more than 13 times what they saw in 2023, when the state saw 110 cases. “Pertussis cases in general are up across the country,” said Ryan Malosh, director of the Division of Immunizations at the Michigan Department …

The New York Times reports: The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death. Aaron Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause …

The New York Times reports: More than 75 Nobel Prize winners have signed a letter urging senators not to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The letter, obtained by The New York Times, marks the first time in recent memory that Nobel laureates have banded together against …

The New York Times reports: Needing a pair of scissors, a 13-year-old girl went into the bedroom where her father was sleeping and reached for a fishing tackle box on a shelf above the bed. But in the darkened room, she accidentally knocked it over. “Something fell out of it and there was a loud noise,” she recounted to the …

The Independent reports: Trump’s nominee to head the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and economist at Stanford, reportedly wants to target so called “cancel culture” at a number of top progressive universities, according to The Wall Street Journal. Those with knowledge of Bhattacharya’s thinking told the newspaper that he’s considering linking the doling out of billions …

CNN reports: The early morning killing of a top health insurance executive in midtown Manhattan Wednesday has unleashed a flurry of rage and frustration from social media users over denials of their medical claims, a public display of Americans’ pent-up anger at the nation’s complex health insurance industry. In one stark example, a Facebook post by UnitedHealth Group expressing sadness …

Axios reports: A major health insurance company is backing off of a controversial plan to limit coverage of anesthesia in at least one state, according to Connecticut’s comptroller. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield recently decided to “no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure goes beyond an arbitrary time limit, regardless of how long the surgical procedure …

The New York Times reports: Mr. Trump’s pick for N.I.H. director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford professor who gained notoriety during the pandemic for supporting the widely maligned idea that the coronavirus should be left to spread freely among healthy Americans, has called for a dramatic restructuring of the N.I.H., which he has said is led by small-minded bureaucrats. Dr. …

The Associated Press reports: People with HIV who need a kidney or liver transplant will be able to receive an organ from a donor with HIV under a new rule announced Tuesday by U.S. health officials. Previously, such transplants could be done only as part of research studies. The new rule, which takes effect Wednesday, is expected to shorten the …

The Hill reports: Yu Shang Food, Inc. is recalling more than 70,000 pounds of its ready-to-eat meat and poultry products because of a listeria outbreak that has sickened at least 11 people, including one baby who subsequently died. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said it discovered the problem on Oct. 21, 2024, during routine testing …

The Associated Press reports: Millions of Americans with obesity would be eligible to have popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy or Ozempic covered by Medicare or Medicaid under a new rule the Biden administration proposed Tuesday morning. The costly proposal from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services immediately sets the stage for a showdown between the powerful pharmaceutical industry …

CNN reports: The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a challenge from major tobacco companies to the FDA’s requirement that they place graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements. The FDA issued a rule in 2020 that requires health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements, occupying the top 50% of the area on the front and back …