Minnesota doctors say the immigration crackdown is forcing patients to hide, endangering lives. Diabetics rationing insulin. Jaundiced babies missing appointments. Appendicitis festering untreated for days. Expectant mothers laboring in hiding. These were just some of the anecdotes shared by five Minnesota physicians Tuesday at a hastily scheduled Capitol press conference on the health care impacts of the federal law enforcement surge across the state. They were flanked by Democratic-Farmer-Labor Sens. Alice Mann and Matt Klein, both physicians. The group evoked a climate of fear keeping patients and their loved ones out of Minnesota clinics and hospitals.
The traditional model of treating mental and physical illness after it emerges is no longer tenable. Prevention and population-level psychological resilience are no longer optional but an essential economic strategy.
Most industries enjoy a luxury that U.S. healthcare does not. In professional services, retail, logistics and software, leaders can respond quickly when conditions change. Healthcare lacks that flexibility.
The U.S. on Tuesday met one of the key conditions for losing its measles elimination status, more than 25 years after it achieved this distinction and one year into a second Trump administration that has deprioritized the prevention of infectious diseases. However, the CDC says it's too soon to declare an end to the country's measles elimination status, first achieved in 2000.
Outbreaks linked to declining vaccination rates are threatening to overwhelm hospital emergency departments — most of which aren't fully prepared to treat sick kids. More than 35 million children are taken to emergency rooms each year, but most go to local hospitals that see fewer than 10 children a day. Only about 17% of hospitals met standards for high pediatric readiness in the most recent national study of nearly 5,000 emergency departments. Medical groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Emergency Physicians on Tuesday released updated guidelines for pediatric emergency care. The groups say the recommendations could save an additional 2,100 lives annually if adopted.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, cardiologist to the late former Vice President Dick Cheney, called on Monday for a congressional inquiry into President Trump's fitness. Reiner, a CNN medical analyst, cited Trump's recent letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, in which he appeared to link his threats to acquire Greenland to his having not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 'This letter, and the fact that the president directed that it be distributed to other European countries, should trigger a bipartisan congressional inquiry into presidential fitness,' Reiner wrote on the social platform X.