Health and Human Services News and Research

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Survey reveals widespread misconceptions about the role of certified nurse-midwives

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the United States is expected to face a significant shortage of OB-GYNs in the next five years.

4 Dec 2025

Americans trust AMA over CDC on vaccine safety

For decades, health-related statements by major professional health associations such as the American Medical Association (AMA) agreed with those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) because both relied on the same body of scientific knowledge, much of it funded by the federal health sector.

3 Dec 2025

RFK Jr. wants to delay the hepatitis B vaccine. Here’s what parents need to know.

Working out of a tribal-owned hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, liver specialist Brian McMahon has spent decades treating the long shadow of hepatitis B. Before a vaccine became available in the 1980s, he saw the virus claim young lives in western Alaskan communities with stunning speed.

2 Dec 2025

Feds promised ‘radical transparency’ but are withholding rural health fund applications

Medication-delivering drones and telehealth at local libraries are among the ideas state leaders revealed in November for spending their share of a $50 billion federal rural health program.

2 Dec 2025

South Carolina’s measles outbreak shows chilling effect of vaccine misinformation

Near the back corner of the local library's parking lot, largely out of view from the main road, the South Carolina Department of Public Health opened a pop-up clinic in early November, offering free measles vaccines to adults and children.

26 Nov 2025

Fluoride levels in U.S. drinking water linked to better teen cognition

Fluoride exposure in childhood supports academic achievement but lacks measurable cognitive benefits in later adulthood, according to a landmark U.S. study.

25 Nov 2025

Kennedy sharpens vaccine attacks, without scientific backing

As the federal government prepares for the next meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has intensified his attacks on aluminum vaccine components used in many shots to boost the body's immune response.

24 Nov 2025

What to know about the CDC’s baseless new guidance on autism

The rewriting of a page on the CDC's website to assert the false claim that vaccines may cause autism sparked a torrent of anger and anguish from doctors, scientists, and parents who say Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is wrecking the credibility of an agency they've long relied on for unbiased scientific evidence.

22 Nov 2025

US cancer registries, constrained by Trump policies, to recognize only ‘male’ or ‘female’ patients

The top authorities of U.S. cancer statistics will soon have to classify the sex of patients strictly as male, female, or unknown, a change scientists and advocates say will harm the health of transgender people, one of the nation's most marginalized populations.

21 Nov 2025

After series of denials, his insurer approved doctor-recommended cancer care. It was too late.

For nearly three years, Eric Tennant endured chemotherapy infusions, rounds of radiation, biopsies, and hospitalizations that left him weak and depleted.

21 Nov 2025

Nationwide study maps epilepsy incidence rates among older adults in the United States

A first-of-its-kind nationwide study has mapped epilepsy incidence rates among older adults in the United States and identified key social and environmental factors associated with the neurological condition.

20 Nov 2025

Waning immunity and falling vaccination rates fuel pertussis outbreaks

Rates of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, are surging in Texas, Florida, California, Oregon, and other states and localities across the country.

20 Nov 2025

Ticked off over preauthorization: Walk-in patient avoided Lyme disease but not a surprise bill

Leah Kovitch was pulling invasive plants in the meadow near her home one weekend in late April when a tick latched onto her leg.

18 Nov 2025

Conflicting advice on covid shots likely to ding already low vaccine rates, experts warn

More than three-quarters of American adults didn't get a covid shot last season, a figure that health care experts warn could rise this year amid new U.S. government recommendations.

14 Nov 2025

Health care costs jump to the fore as candidates jockey to be California governor

California's gubernatorial election is a year away, and the field of primary candidates is still taking shape. But one persistent issue has already emerged as a leading concern: the cost of health care.

10 Nov 2025

White House calls this 9/11-era fund ‘wasteful.’ Red and blue states rely on it.

President Donald Trump's push to eliminate a federal disaster preparedness program threatens a fund used by state health systems from Republican-led Texas to the Democratic stronghold of California.

6 Nov 2025

While politicos dispense blame, these doctors aim to take shame out of medicine

The distress that Will Bynum later recognized as shame settled over him nearly immediately.

5 Nov 2025

Louisiana took months to sound alarm after two babies died in whooping cough outbreak

When there's an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, state health officials typically take certain steps to alert residents and issue public updates about the growing threat.

4 Nov 2025

Trump’s HHS orders state Medicaid programs to help find undocumented immigrants

The Trump administration has ordered states to investigate certain individuals enrolled in Medicaid to determine whether they are ineligible because of their immigration status, with five states reporting they've together received more than 170,000 names — an “unprecedented” step by the federal government that ensnares the state-federal health program in the president's immigration crackdown.

3 Nov 2025

The nation’s largest food aid program is about to see cuts. Here’s what you should know.

The Trump administration's overhaul of the nation's largest food assistance program will cause millions of people to lose benefits, strain state budgets, and pressure the nation's food supply chain, all while likely hindering the goals of the administration's "Make America Healthy Again" platform, according to researchers and former federal officials.

31 Oct 2025