The broad ruling was designed to deflect future attacks on gender-affirming care for kids.

In a scathing ruling describing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as an “unserious” and “unsafe” leader, a federal judge in Oregon issued an order that will protect doctors and hospitals, and the transgender kids they treat, from the federal crackdown on gender-affirming care.

On Saturday, US District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai ruled that Kennedy was acting illegally when he attempted last December to unilaterially cut off federal funding for healthcare providers treating kids with gender dysphoria. “Unserious leaders are unsafe,” Kasubhai wrote in his ruling, adding that Kennedy’s actions “caused chaos and terror for all those people and institutions of our great nation.”

Covid-19 vaccines roughly halved the chances that a US adult would need to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized with their infections last fall and winter, according to two sources familiar with the findings of a new study. But you won’t hear about it from the agency that led the research: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The current head of the CDC, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, who’s also director of the US National Institutes of Health, blocked the publication of those findings in the CDC’s flagship journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, according to the sources.

The authors of the study received an official rejection letter from the journal on Tuesday, one source said, even though the study had cleared internal reviews and had been scheduled for publication.

Katie Jennings was scrolling on her phone last April when a headline stopped her cold. A second unvaccinated child had died of measles in her home state of Texas.

It was a tipping point for the 40-year-old stay-at-home mom who had grown up in a staunchly anti-vaccine, fundamentalist Christian community. “What are we doing? Why are we doing this?” she remembers thinking. “I wanted to protect my kids.”

She took all six of them to get the measles, mumps and rubella shot. Then she posted an emotional TikTok aimed at the anti-vax crowd she used to be a part of: “You can change your mind,” she said in the video that’s been watched more than 422,000 times.

Benefits were also recorded in non-caffeinated coffee, found to improve learning and memory

Regular consumption of coffee “significantly” boosts mood and improves concentration, while non-caffeinated coffee also has health benefits, according to a major new study that sheds new light on how the drink interacts with our minds and bodies. 

Researchers at APC Microbiome Ireland, a world‑leading centre at University College Cork, found that both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee altered the gut microbiome in ways that improved perceived mood and stress levels – and, in some cases, sharpened cognitive performance. 

The team said the research builds on previous breakthroughs in understanding the numerous positive effects coffee drinking is now associated with.

American service members will no longer be required to get a yearly flu shot under a new Defense Department policy described by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as an effort to “restore freedom and strength to our joint force.”

In a video posted on X, the Pentagon boss cited the Biden administration's Covid-19 policies as the impetus for ditching the unrelated but mandatory influenza inoculation, accusing his predecessors of having “waged an unrelenting war on our warriors on many fronts, including when it came to denying them simple medical autonomy and the freedom to express their religious convictions.”

Calling the Covid-19 vaccine mandate part of an “era of betrayal” that was now “over,” Hegseth said the Pentagon was discarding “absurd, overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities,” such as “the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.”

Idaho was one of the states to roll back abortion rights after the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe decision in 2022. That’s not to say abortion rights are unpopular in Idaho—60 percent of voters favor them—but Idaho Republicans have total control of state government…

…That leaves voters the option of citizens initiative…and barring any further Republican attempts to scupper the initiative, voters are likely to restore abortion rights in November.

A bill banning anyone born after 2008 from buying tobacco in the UK has completed its progress through parliament in a move that ministers hope will create a “smoke-free generation”.

Under the tobacco and vapes bill anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be able to be legally sold tobacco across the UK, in an effort to save lives and reduce the burden on the NHS.

Growing use of AI tech comes at expense of workers’ rights, protections and pay, report warns

Billion-dollar tech platforms are aggressively pushing for deregulation of the “Uber for nursing” industry in an effort to expand gig work in the healthcare sector, according to a report published Tuesday.

The report from the AI Now Institute, Uber for Nursing Part II: How Gig Nursing Companies Are Lobbying States to Deregulate Healthcare, examines the use of artificial intelligence to staff hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

The report warns that growing use of the technology comes at the expense of workers’ rights, protections and pay.

Bots give equal weight to scientific and non-scientific sources, potentially directing sufferers away from approved treatments and preventing them from receiving the life-saving help they need, study finds

A new study has found that AI chatbots habitually recommend alternative cancer treatments to chemotherapy, potentially putting lives at risk.

A team from the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center tested a series of widely used bots as part of their research, including xAI’s Grok, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Meta’s AI, and High-Flyer’s DeepSeek.

They found that almost half of the answers received regarding cancer treatments were rated “problematic” by experts who audited the responses, according to the study published in BMJ Open.

Physicians issue reminder to public after TV doctor and CMS chief relays president’s claim on Don Jr podcast

Donald Trump defended his consumption of diet soda by suggesting it might help prevent cancer, according to recent comments shared by Mehmet Oz in an interview with Donald Trump Jr.

The remarks have even prompted some doctors to remind the public that, no, diet soda will not do anything to prevent cancer.

“Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass – if poured on grass – so, therefore, it must kill cancer cells inside the body,” Oz said on Triggered with Don Jr, the president’s eldest son’s podcast.

Schwartz was deputy surgeon general under Trump’s first administration and is a rear admiral in the US Coast Guard

Donald Trump has selected Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bringing to an end a months-long search for a permanent head of the troubled public health agency.

Trump revealed his choice on Truth Social, saying: “I am pleased to announce the new leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is my Honor to nominate the incredibly talented Dr Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, as my Director of the CDC,” he wrote. “She is a STAR!”

Schwartz must receive confirmation from the Senate before taking the role.

Only 39% of people in poll said that the science on vaccines ‘is clear and it is damaging to question it’

Nearly half of Americans are somewhat skeptical of vaccines, a new poll has found.

Some 46% of U.S. adults who responded to a Public First poll by Politico in March agreed that “facts on vaccines are still up for debate and it is damaging to enforce their uptake.”

In contrast, only 39% said that the science on vaccines “is clear and it is damaging to question it.”

The results of the survey are in line with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic and founder of the Republican “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

People who ate diets that were high in ultraprocessed foods had more fat in between their muscles.

Eating too much ultraprocessed food could take a toll on muscle health, according to new research published Tuesday in the journal Radiology.

Ultraprocessed foods, which include salty snacks, sugary drinks and fast food, make up the majority of calories in Americans’ diets. The negative effects they have on heart health and diabetes risk is well-established.

“What is not so well-known is that diet also has a significant impact on musculoskeletal health,” said Dr. Thomas Link, chief of the musculoskeletal imaging section at the University of California San Francisco and the senior author of the study.

The new research is the first to measure community water fluoridation exposure during childhood and any potential impact on cognition up to age 80.

Tests of intelligence and brain function showed the same results whether or not people drank fluoridated water growing up, a highly anticipated, long-term study found.

The new research, published Monday in the respected Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to measure community water fluoridation exposure during childhood in the U.S. and any potential impact on cognition up to age 80. The results contradict claims made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that fluoride is “industrial waste” associated with IQ loss.

Dr. Scott Tomar, head of the department of population oral health at the University of Illinois in Chicago, called the new study “quite significant.”

“I think that the public can be assured,” Tomar, who was not involved with the new research, said. “There is no association with community water fluoridation and any measure of IQ or neurodevelopment.”

Experts say any short-term financial benefit will be outweighed by long-term health costs related to obesity

Faced with high demand for GLP-1 drugs, some American cities and states that previously covered the cost of the weight-loss medication for low-income residents and public employees have now started to restrict or eliminate coverage.

The pullback stems from the dramatic increase in public spending on drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy in recent years.

Still, some legislators and healthcare providers argue that dropping coverage of the drugs might provide short-term relief for governments but will ultimately harm Medicaid recipients’ health. They argue that cities and states will then have to pay for more health problems related to obesity.

“Patients should have access to these therapies,” said Dr Matthew Klebanoff, a professor of internal medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine who has studied prior authorization policies for GLP-1 drugs. “It’s just very challenging right now for payers to be able to afford covering these medications for everyone who could benefit.”