The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week is pausing all long-term work-from-home accommodations, including for employees with disabilities, according to an internal note reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The move comes after the CDC's parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, issued an updated policy in mid-August removing telework as a "reasonable accommodation" option for employees. On Tuesday, the CDC posted an official announcement in an internal publication detailing HHS' updated telework policy. The CDC's Office of Human Resources requested clarification regarding the new policy, according to the note.
The Food and Drug Administration's guidance on who needs the COVID-19 booster shot has changed, but many insurers will still be covering the costs for enrollees-at least through the end of the year. AHIP (formerly known as America's Health Insurance Plans), the largest U.S. health insurance association, said Tuesday that its members will continue to cover vaccines with no cost-sharing for patients, following recommendations issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee as of September 1.
Soon, though, Florida's policy may change. Earlier this month, the state's surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, announced his intention to end all vaccine mandates: "Every last one of them is wrong," he said. Some vaccine rules-including the one applying to the meningococcal vaccine -are written into the state's laws, but Ladapo has said his office will partner with Governor Ron DeSantis's to push for necessary changes.
After he'd cleared out the liquor cabinet, Harper, a prolific academic who has authored several books, announced he was tired of writing. Next the once daily runner quit going to the gym. Kostalik noticed he also was growing more forgetful. The behaviors were unusual enough that, at an annual physical, the couple's physician recommended they consult a neurologist. A battery of medical tests and brain scans revealed that Harper's surprising actions and memory loss were the result of dementia.
The rate of Alzheimer's diagnosis has declined steadily in recent decades, but as baby boomers age, the number of new cases continues to rise. The top risk factor for dementia is age, and by 2030 more than one in five Americans will be 65 or older. That means the prevalence of Alzheimer's in the U.S. could exceed 13.8 million people by 2060.
In the 1960s it was considered a watershed moment of liberation for women. Now, a new generation is being inundated with messages online that birth control is evil and poison. Across social media feeds, influencers are venting about hormonal contraception. Some are spreading false claims that taking synthetic hormones causes infertility, or can even be responsible for bad romantic decisions because you are attracted to different men than you would be if you were off the pill.
It is fundamentally wrong that so many LGBT+ people still face challenges when accessing healthcare, including barriers such as discrimination, misunderstanding and miseducation. The result is that LGBT+ patients face longer waits, have poorer experiences of health care and suffer from high rates of mental ill-health. This pilot marks a major step, acknowledging the unacceptable waits endured by thousands of transgender patients and starting to tackle it head on.
The list of cookware has grown from the FDA's initial alert in August, issued after tests showed some types of imported cookware made from brass, aluminum, and aluminum alloys (known as Hindalium/Hindolium or Indalium/Indolium) had leached into food when used for cooking, making food unsafe. The FDA investigation remains ongoing as it continues to collect and sample cookware, and the agency said other products may also be affected.
The signs of pediatric cannabis poisoning that parents usually notice first are sleepiness and strangeness. Their child is acting off, parents say. Their kid seems slowed, confused. Some of them vomit. Some can't stay awake, or sit up, or support their own weight when trying to walk. Some kids and teens skip these relatively benign symptoms and sink into psychosis, ranting and screaming and fighting paranoid delusions while parents look on helplessly.
Although the Department of Veterans Affairs has adopted some artificial intelligence capabilities to better identify veterans at risk of self-harm, VA officials said these technologies represent only one part of their suicide prevention strategy and are not designed to replace human interventions. VA's 2024 AI use case inventory included 227 examples of the emerging capabilities being used or implemented across its operations, with these applications ranging from AI-enabled devices to an on-network generative chatbot for department personnel.
The hidden cost behind newly cleaned streets is an increase in health risks. People lose vital medical devices-wheelchairs, canes, and oxygen tanks. Many end up farther from the clinics and treatment programs they rely on. That can mean missed appointments, lapsed prescriptions, or untreated wounds - crises that drive people to the emergency room. For people using illicit drugs, it can mean losing contact with street medicine teams-or using alone, which is especially dangerous when trusted friends aren't nearby to administer Narcan.
"The new ACIP members bring a wealth of real-world public health experience to the job of making immunization recommendations," said Jim O'Neill, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services and Acting Director of the CDC in a media statement. "We are grateful for their service in helping restore the public confidence in vaccines that was lost during the Biden era."
The shift comes as California state officials and mainstream medical organizations are breaking from the Trump administration's recent revisions to federal vaccine guidelines. The changes, made under the leadership of vaccine-skeptic Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have been so dramatic that a number of medical experts and officials now express little to no confidence in two key agencies within that department - the CDC and Food and Drug Administration.
Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who is a senior fellow at the Independent Medical Alliance (formerly Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance), which promotes misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and touts unproven and dubious COVID-19 treatments. Those include the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, the de-worming drug ivermectin, and various concoctions of vitamins and other drugs. Milhoan has stated that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines should be removed from the market, telling KFF in March: "We should stop it and test it more before we move forward."
