“There’s been a fundamental destruction.”
Scientists are leaving the National Institutes of Health in droves under President Donald Trump.
@rachanadpradhan.bsky.social & @k-hought.bsky.social report on what's left behind ⤵️
Thousands of Minnesotans are still too scared to leave home, even for desperately needed medical care. So doctors and nurses have quietly operated informal, underground medical networks to bring that care to them.
“It’s clear when someone comes out with a drug and now you’ve just cured a disease. But you never know which ones could have been cured...We don’t know what we’ve lost.”
Data by @hackwriter.bsky.social
Our full investigation is below. More on the people and work lost: www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h...
A more complete set of voices in a companion piece.
www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h...
The number of people employed at the NIH is at its lowest level in at least two decades.
Hear from six scientists run out by Trump and the work they left behind on cancer research, tick-borne diseases, and more.
Me + @k-hought.bsky.social @kffhealthnews.org for @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h...
Katheryn is truly one of the best. Give her a follow to see all her work @kffhealthnews.org
The National Cancer Institute’s decision to do lab research on ivermectin as a potential cancer treatment has alarmed the agency’s career scientists.
“I am shocked and appalled,” one scientist said.
@rachanadpradhan.bsky.social reports ⤵️
The National Cancer Institute, the federal research agency charged with leading the war against the nation’s second-largest killer, is studying ivermectin as a potential cancer treatment, according to its top official. New from me @kffhealthnews.org
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
My latest: A look inside the secretive immigration prisons at Guantanamo—and the ethical questions that doctors and nurses face to treat those inside.
F.B.I. Searches Home of Washington Post Journalist for Classified Documents www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/u...
Ensures that all the diseases covered by the previous immunization schedule will still be available to anyone who wants them through Affordable Care Act insurance plans and federal insurance programs, including Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Vaccines for Children program. Families will not have to purchase them out of pocket. Among peer nations, the U.S. will continue to offer the most childhood vaccines for free to those who want them.
Copy Editing Matters, from HHS's release on the new childhood vaccine schedule: All the diseases will still be available to anyone who wants them
Scoop: The Trump admin is planning to overhaul the childhood vaccine schedule, per person familiar.
The proposed new schedule would recommend fewer vaccines, bringing it close to or in line with Denmark’s schedule.
Comes weeks after Trump demanded an expedited review: www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/h...
This summer, Brett Murphy, @peterdicampo.bsky.social and I went to South Sudan, where the U.S. had been supporting the response to a historic cholera outbreak in the world’s poorest country before pulling the plug.
We found shuttered clinics and dead bodies. www.propublica.org/article/usai...
In preparation for the session, Dr. Daskalakis, the C.D.C.’s top infectious disease expert, said he asked agency scientists to assess the benefits and risks of thimerosal. Their 17-page report showed that while thimerosal in vaccines given to pregnant women had fallen steadily, autism rates were still rising, suggesting that the preservative was not to blame. The C.D.C. posted the report on its website the night before the meeting. But during the meeting, it suddenly disappeared. An explanation came from Dr. Robert Malone, a close ally of Mr. Kennedy’s and staunch opponent of Covid vaccines who now sits on the committee. “My understanding,” Dr. Malone said, “is that article was not authorized by the office of the secretary, and has been removed.” Mr. Kennedy said in the interview that he was not aware of the document.
RFK laid out his plans to wreck vaccine science & policy in books, speeches, podcasts & films before becoming Health Secretary.
@sherylnyt.bsky.social & @by-cjewett.bsky.social track how he's succeeding in impressive detail. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u... eg:
12 former commissioners of the FDA came together to write a Perspectives piece for the New England Journal of Medicine; raising our concerns about recent changes to vaccine approval policy at the FDA and its implications for patients and public health.
My latest, with @kffhealthnews.org and @usatoday.com:
RFK Jr. wields the country's biggest bullhorn on health. Here's what he wants to talk about -- and what he doesn't. (For example, skipping Father's Day posts): www.usatoday.com/story/life/h...
Nayra Guzmán was 15 days post C-section — going to see her baby in the NICU — when she was taken to Broadview and held in custody for about 34 hours.
She slept on a bench and barely got food. She couldn't pump.
Her story is a rare window into the growing detention of pregnant & postpartum people.
All this - and much much more about why this little-known think tank matters - here. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Brownstone's critics say its associates make extreme claims about vaccines and promote anti-vaccine messages. As @jakescottmd.bsky.social put it, "They’ve successfully placed their ideology inside the mechanism that determines U.S. vaccine policy. It’s very, very troubling.”
Founded in 2021, Brownstone says it works to support people “who have been professionally purged and displaced during the upheaval of our times.” President Jeffrey Tucker told me in an interview that “there’s never harm that comes from open debate and open distribution of information and views.”
People with ties to the institute have sown doubt about covid vaccines or routine childhood immunizations, dismissing widespread evidence that they are safe and the benefits outweigh the risks. They've restricted the use of covid vaccines, or overseen mass terminations of NIH research grants.
At least eight people with ties to the Brownstone Institute hold or recently held senior positions at federal health agencies or key roles advising the government. As we document in this @kffhealthnews.org story, they're already having a major impact on access to vaccines and scientific research:
🧵HHS today announced that Martin Kulldorff has been hired to advise Secretary Kennedy on science policy.
Kulldorff is one of many in government who share ties to the Brownstone Institute, a think-tank whose associates seek to limit the government’s role in protecting Americans from disease.
“In the U.S., if you’re receiving federal money, then we, essentially, we weren’t given any choice” — Why leading sources of U.S. cancer information will soon classify a patient’s sex as only male, female, or unknown.
@rachanadpradhan.bsky.social reports ⤵️ kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
US Cancer Registries, Constrained by Trump Policies, To Recognize Only ‘Male’ or ‘Female’ Patients
For decades, registries have been the most comprehensive U.S. tool for understanding cancer rates and identifying troubling trends.
Via @kffhealthnews.org kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
KFF Health News and @thetrace.org are talking to people who’ve been wounded or families of those killed by gun violence to better understand how insurance affects such medical care.
Click below to reach our reporting team ⤵️ kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
BREAKING: Common health conditions such as obesity and diabetes could prevent immigrants from obtaining U.S. visas under guidance the Trump administration issued Nov. 6. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Quite the lede on this Arthur Allen @kffhealthnews.org story on the medical freedom movement in Florida kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
"...several hundred gathered to honor state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, his wife, and an unlicensed Canadian radiologist who treats cancer with horse paste."
Senators are demanding answers from Deloitte and other companies about errors in eligibility systems that determine who qualifies for Medicaid. The letters follow a KFF Health News investigation exposing problems that resulted in people losing health benefits. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
