Public Health

The rate of new measles cases is slowing in South Carolina, the hardest-hit state this year, but the U.S. is still on its way to surpass the 2025 case count by mid-2026. The CDC confirmed 2,284 measles cases in 2025,…

The White House has taken steps to assert tighter control over HHS amid leadership and messaging changes tied to concerns that department Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s focus on vaccine policy could pose political risks heading into the 2026 midterm elections,…

The FDA’s vaccine advisory committee has unanimously recommended updating the strains included in this fall’s flu vaccines, endorsing a new variant that emerged late in 2025 and quickly became dominant. On March 12, members of the Vaccine and Related Biological…

As measles continues spreading across the U.S. at a pace not seen in decades, physicians are warning about a rare but often fatal neurological complication that can emerge years after initial infection, KFF Health News reported March 13. Subacute sclerosing…

One in 3 Americans have made trade-offs  —such as prolonging a prescription or skipping a meal —to afford healthcare, according to a March 12 article from Gallup. The insights come from surveys of 19,535 U.S. adults conducted by the West…

The Government Accountability Office is calling on HHS to increase transparency in how it assesses and mitigates risk related to high-risk pathogen research.  In a report released Feb. 19, the GAO said HHS does not consistently disclose key details about…

The CDC is sending three service officers to South Carolina to assist the state in addressing an ongoing measles outbreak, officials with the state health department confirmed to The Hill.  The workers are expected to arrive in South Carolina the…

Public confidence that federal health agencies are providing trustworthy public health information has fallen for the second consecutive year, according to a March 5 survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.  The survey includes responses…

While shooting deaths in the U.S. decreased 14% in 2025 — the largest decline since 2015 — now is not the time to pull back on prevention efforts, healthcare, science and community leaders cautioned March 5. The remarks came during…

For the third time since March 2025, HHS has postponed a planned meeting for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which provides clinical preventive health recommendations to Congress every year.  The USPSTF, which is a volunteer panel of national experts…