19 minutes agoDominic HughesHealth correspondent, BBC News

Lawmakers quizzed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wednesday during a Senate Finance hearing about his decision to keep a financial stake in litigation against a major vaccine maker.Ethics records released in advance of the hearing said that Mr. Kennedy planned to receive fees on cases with the personal injury law firm Wisner Baum.Mr. Kennedy has referred clients to the firm in cases claiming injuries from the Gardasil vaccine, a Merck product that is meant to prevent cervical cancer that can be caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV.Mr. Kennedy took the unusual step of keeping his stake in the pending litigation, according to ethics documents he filed in advance of his confirmation hearings. Mr. Kennedy said in his ethics filings that he would end his referral agreement with the law firm but would collect fees related to cases in the continuing cases.The financial arrangement drew sharp criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts. She noted Mr. Kennedy’s history of suggesting that drug companies and federal officials are motivated by financial gain.She accused Mr. Kennedy of profiteering from vaccine skepticism. She pointed to the financial stake in litigation against the vaccine maker Merck — and his intention to hold on to it even if he gains regulatory power over the company as health secretary.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

During the hearing to consider his nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at length about issues in health and medicine, including the cause of chronic illnesses, Covid-19 and ultraprocessed foods.Here is a running list of key health claims, fact-checked by our reporters.Chronic DiseaseMr. Kennedy’s opening statement focused on rising chronic health conditions, saying there was a crisis in children’s health in the United States. Many experts agree — though they disagree about the causes.Forty percent of children have a chronic health condition, and the figure is higher for adolescents when obesity is included.Roughly one in 36 children is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One in four has an allergy or eczema, and rates of Type 2 diabetes have been rising in those 19 and under every year.And while Type 2 diabetes rates are rising, they are still low: According to the American Diabetes Association, it occurs in 0.35 percent of Americans under the age of 20.Who Covid-19 AffectsSenator Michael Bennet of Colorado pressed Mr. Kennedy on a statement Mr. Kennedy made in 2023 in which he suggested that the coronavirus targeted and spared certain ethnic groups.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

In a tense exchange with Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. displayed a surprising lack of familiarity with Medicare and Medicaid, the government programs responsible for covering more than 150 million Americans.At times, Mr. Kennedy seemed to confuse the two programs. Medicare is a federal program that provides coverage to older and disabled Americans, while Medicaid is a state-federal program that covers low-income people.When he first described Medicare, he seemed to ignore the half of the Medicare program that relies on private insurance plans to provide care. Later, he acknowledged that he was enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan and said he thought “more people would rather be on Medicare Advantage because it offers very good services.”Medicare Advantage plans have been heavily criticized by lawmakers, including by federal regulators Mr. Kennedy would oversee if confirmed and by public advocacy groups. They argue that the plan overcharges the government and delays and denies access to care.Mr. Kennedy described Medicaid as ”fully paid for by the federal government.” In fact, Medicaid, which provides health insurance coverage to nearly 80 million low-income Americans, is financed through a combination of state and federal funds.Mr. Kennedy also claimed that many Medicaid enrollees were frustrated by high costs they face with their public insurance coverage.”Most people who are on Medicaid are not happy,” Mr. Kennedy claimed. ”The premiums are too high. The deductibles are too high.”But the vast majority of Medicaid enrollees do not pay any premiums or deductibles for their coverage. Federal law specifically prohibits premiums for the lowest-income Medicaid enrollees. Patients typically do not have to pay anything when they go to the doctor, aside from a handful of state-based experiments that have tested out small fees.Senator Cassidy asked Mr. Kennedy to describe how he would reform the Medicaid program. While other Trump nominees have offered concrete policy proposals — Russell Vought, the nominee to run the Office of Budget and Management, suggested a work requirement for the program in his confirmation hearing last week — Mr. Kennedy described vaguer changes.He said he supported changes to “increase transparency” and” “increase accountability.”When Mr. Cassidy pressed him to be more specific, Mr. Kennedy responded, “I don’t have a broad proposal for dismantling the program.”

Clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health and at organizations it funds may continue, and patients may still travel to trial sites to participate in research, despite the Trump administration’s restrictions on travel and communications, the acting director of the N.I.H., Dr. Matthew Memoli, said in an email to staff on Monday.While Dr. Memoli’s announcement provided some clarification, it left many questions unanswered. Communications staff at the N.I.H. did not pick up the phone or respond to emails requesting additional information.Dr. Memoli’s note emphasized that critical purchases for needed laboratory supplies and any contracting required “for anything directly related to human safety, human or animal health care, security, biosafety, biosecurity or I.T. security,” could continue.Likewise, the email said, essential purchases and contracting needed to sustain research experiments that started before to Jan. 20 could be made “so that this work can continue, and we do not lose our investment in these studies,” Dr. Memoli said.He described the pause imposed on mass communications and public appearances as “short” and said it did not apply to anything “directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health.”Scientists may also continue to meet to discuss ongoing research that was initiated before Jan. 20, as long as “it does not involve public release of information or presentation of data outside of those individuals who are part of the research or facilitation/funding of that research,” the memo said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

18 minutes agoPhilippa RoxbyHealth reporter

1 hour agoPaul PigottBBC News

Spasmodic dysphonia is a neurological condition that causes certain muscles in the “voice box,” or larynx, to spasm, often making the voice sound raspy, strained or breathy.Robert F. Kennedy Jr. started developing symptoms of the condition in 1996, when he was making most of his income from speaking engagements. He said he went from being able to speak to “large halls without any amplification” to having a chronic vocal tremor.“I think it makes it problematic for people to listen to me,” he said during a town hall last year. “I cannot listen to myself on T.V.”The chronic condition, which is more common among women than men, is thought to result from problems in the part of brain that helps coordinate the movement of muscles.Roughly 500,000 people in North America have been diagnosed with the condition, with the onset typically occurring when people are middle-aged, without an obvious explanation.The condition may run in families, although a specific gene for spasmodic dysphonia has not yet been identified.There is currently no known cure, although Botox injections and voice therapy may help reduce symptoms.

President Trump’s decision to pull out of the international health agency could deprive the United States of crucial scientific data and lessen the country’s influence in setting a global health agenda.President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization could have harsh consequences for countries around the world that rely on the agency to achieve important health goals, including routine immunizations, outbreak control and nutrition programs.But it could also have unfortunate, unintended repercussions for Americans.Disengaging from the W.H.O. would rob the United States of crucial information about emerging outbreaks like mpox and resurgent dangers like malaria and measles, public health experts said. It may also give more power to nations like Russia and China in setting a global health agenda, and it could hurt the interests of American pharmaceutical and health technology companies.The W.H.O.’s work touches American lives in myriad ways. The agency compiles the International Classification of Diseases, the system of diagnostic codes used by doctors and insurance companies. It assigns generic names to medicines that are recognizable worldwide. Its extensive flu surveillance network helps select the seasonal flu vaccine each year.The agency also closely tracks resistance to antibiotics and other drugs, keeps American travelers apprised of health threats, and studies a wide range of issues such as teen mental health, substance use and aging, which may then inform policies in the United States.“There’s a reason why there was a W.H.O.,” said Loyce Pace, who served as an assistant secretary of health and human services under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. “It’s because we saw value, even as a superpower, in the wake of the world war to come together as a global community on global problems.”“America, no matter how great we are, cannot do this work alone,” she said.Though it will take a year for the withdrawal to take effect — and it is not entirely clear that it can happen without congressional approval — Mr. Trump’s announcement has already prompted drastic cost-cutting measures at the W.H.O.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Experts fear a resurgence of infections in low-income countries if the ban were to continue. The waiver remains in place, while officials review foreign aid programs.The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a waiver for lifesaving medicines and medical services, offering a reprieve for a worldwide H.I.V. treatment program that was halted last week.The waiver, announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, seemed to allow for the distribution of H.I.V. medications, but whether the waiver extended to preventive drugs or other services offered by the program, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, was not immediately clear.Still, PEPFAR’s future remains in jeopardy, with potential consequences for more than 20 million people — including 500,000 children — who could lose access to lifesaving medications. Without treatment, millions of people with H.I.V. in low-income countries would be at risk of full-blown AIDS and of premature death.“We can very rapidly return to where the pandemic is exploding, like it was back in the 1980s,” said Dr. Steve Deeks, an H.I.V. expert at the University of California, San Francisco.“This really cannot happen,” he said.On Monday, the Trump administration ordered health organizations in other countries to immediately stop distributing H.I.V. medications purchased with U.S. aid. The directive stemmed from a freeze — which may become permanent — in the activities of PEPFAR, a $7.5 billion program overseen by the State Department.Since it started in 2003, PEPFAR is estimated to have saved more than 25 million lives; more than 5.5 million children have been born free of H.I.V. who otherwise would have been infected.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.