The White House is working on an executive order to fire thousands of HHS workers, according to people familiar with the matter. Under the order, the FDA, CDC, and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees. The order could come as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said, after workers have an opportunity to take a buyout. The terms of the order haven't been finalized, however, and the White House could still decide against going forward with the plans. The job cuts under consideration would affect HHS, which employs more than 80,000 people and includes the NIH and CMS, in addition to the FDA and CDC. The White House on Thursday denied that there is an executive order related to HHS coming.
After combing through 4,000 existing medications, an artificial intelligence tool helped uncover one that saved the life of a patient with idiopathic multicentric Castleman's disease. This rare disease has an especially poor survival rate and few treatment options. The patient could be the first of many to have their lives saved by an AI prediction system, which could potentially apply to other rare conditions.
Almost 50 million Americans—disproportionately in rural areas—must drive 25 miles or more to access a gastroenterologist for diagnosis and treatment of issues involving the digestive system, according to a study from Weill Cornell Medicine researchers.
The Oregon Nurses Association announced late Tuesday evening it had reached a tentative deal with Providence to end one of the largest health care strikes in state history.
The proposed deal came after 26 days on picket lines at various Providence facilities stretching from Medford to Portland, and Seaside to Hood River.
Both sides have been in mediation talks urged by Gov. Tina Kotek since last week. Tuesday’s deal applies to nearly all the bargaining units that had joined the strike. One group of unionized doctors working at St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland still have not reached an agreement on their contract.
In an era punctuated by school shootings and ongoing debates about gun control and gun rights, America’s public schools continue to be riddled with safety concerns.
According to the New York Times, “Since 2017, tens of millions have been spent by the federal government on mass shooter training, and states have spent even more.”
The result of our culture’s focus on crisis management over prevention is more security staff in high schools than there are full-time registered nurses. And while on-site officers might make schools feel safer, school shootings remain rare, while about 40% of students have at least one chronic medical condition and worrying about their children’s mental health tops the list of parent concerns. Youth depression has practically doubled over the past decade. Even worse, 9% of 9th through 12th graders attempted suicide in 2023, reflecting our nationwide teen mental health crisis.
A variant of H5N1 bird flu that has circulated widely in wild birds — and in several instances led to severe illness in humans — has turned up in dairy cattle for the first time. The findings were relayed in a short update from the USDA, which traced the new variant back to dairy herds in Nevada. The variant, known as D1.1 genotype, belongs to a different genetic lineage than what's fueled the infections in dairy cattle over the past year. Scientists believe a single spillover event, from birds to cattle, in the Texas Panhandle in late 2023 seeded the nationwide outbreak. But this new finding points to at least one additional instance of the virus hopping into dairy cattle.