Scientists identified antibodies that neutralized the poison in whole or in part from the bites of cobras, mambas and other deadly species.The video is just under two and a half minutes long. A slim man with close-cropped hair walks into a room, pulls a long black mamba — whose venom can kill within an hour — from a crate and allows it to bite his left arm. Immediately after, he lets a taipan from Papua New Guinea bite his right arm. “Thanks for watching,” he calmly tells the camera, his left arm bleeding, and then exits.Over nearly 18 years, the man, Tim Friede, 57, injected himself with carefully calibrated, escalating doses of venom to build his immunity to 16 deadly snake species. He also allowed the snakes — mostly one at a time, but sometimes two, as in the video — to sink their sharp fangs into him about 200 times.This bit of daredevilry (one name for it) may now help to solve a dire global health problem. More than 600 species of venomous snakes roam the earth, biting as many as 2.7 million people, killing about 120,000 people and maiming 400,000 others — numbers thought to be vast underestimates.In Mr. Friede’s blood, scientists say they have identified antibodies that are capable of neutralizing the venom of multiple snake species, a step toward creating a universal antivenom, they reported on Friday in the journal Cell.“I’m really proud that I can do something in life for humanity, to make a difference for people that are 8,000 miles away, that I’m never going to meet, never going to talk to, never going to see, probably,” said Mr. Friede, who lives in Two Rivers, Wis., where venomous snakes are not much of a threat.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.

The H.H.S. review may set the stage for additional restrictions on gender-affirming care. Critics described it as an ideological statement.Federal health officials published a report on Thursday declaring that the use of hormonal and surgical treatments in young people with gender dysphoria lacked scientific evidence and expressing concern about long-term harms, a stark reversal from previous agency recommendations and the advice of top U.S. medical groups.The report instead prioritized the role of psychotherapy, a divisive intervention to treat gender dysphoria that many advocates and physicians have equated with so-called conversion therapy.Other parts of the review seemed to call into question the very notion that some people have a gender identity that does not align with their sex at birth.In January, President Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” giving the Department of Health and Human Services 90 days to produce a report on the best practices for treating young people who say their gender does not align with their birth sex.But the order made it clear that the administration had already reached its own conclusion about gender transition treatments for minors, characterizing the “blatant harm done to children” as a “stain on our nation’s history.”The 400-page report took a more sober tone but reached a similar conclusion. In a remarkable departure from the standard for medical evidence reviews, the authors were not identified pending a post-publication review process that would begin in “the coming days.”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.

7 minutes agoShareSaveMichael BuchananSocial affairs correspondentShareSaveBBCCampaigners have questioned Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s commitment to maternity safety after his department watered down funding levels.Almost £100m was invested into improving maternity safety annually following the publication of an interim report into poor care at the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS trust. But changes by the Department of Health mean that just £2m of the funding is guaranteed to be spent on maternity care this year.Rhiannon Davies, who lost her daughter due to poor care at the trust, called the decision “an absolute betrayal by Wes Streeting”. The Department of Health said local health leaders would be given the money to decide how best to spend it.The Royal College of Midwives described the funding decision as taking “a wrecking ball” to maternity safety.’Short-sighted’The review into maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford trust, published in 2022, found that at least 201 babies and nine mothers could have survived with better care. Following the publication of an interim report, in March 2021, NHS England said it would increase spending on maternity care by £95m a year. At the time, it said the money would be used to hire as many as 1,000 midwives and around 80 consultant obstetricians.Some of the money was also to be spent on allowing consultants and midwives to train together – a key recommendation of the initial report, by senior midwife Donna Ockenden – as well as allocating money for the NHS to recruit from overseas. But analysis of NHS funding for this year, carried out by the Health Service Journal, showed that just £2m of the £95m was to be ringfenced for 2025/26. The rest of the money will be given to the 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) that decide how the health service funding is allocated locally across England. Getty ImagesResponding to the change, Ms Ockenden posted on social media: “How has this happened? So disappointed. Talking to colleagues across perinatal services, the sense of disappointment is profound.”If the ICBs decide to spend the money they’ve been allocated on maternity care, there won’t be a funding cut. But some maternity staff have labelled the change as disastrous, fearing that taking away the funding protection will mean maternity budgets will be cut. “Removing the ringfencing will take us back years,” said a senior midwife.The Royal College of Midwives said it was “utterly shocked” by Streeting’s decision, adding it was “short-sighted” and “utterly unacceptable”. “These budget cuts… will rip the heart out of any moves to improve maternity safety,” said chief executive Gill Walton. “The government has taken a wrecking ball to the work that’s being done up and down the country to improve maternity safety, something which is desperately needed.”‘More flexibility’Rhiannon Davies, who alongside Kayleigh Griffiths was instrumental in getting the Shrewsbury inquiry commissioned, was also strongly critical of the health secretary.The money, she wrote, “was to ensure others avoided the lifelong pain we have to endure without our children”. The Department of Health and Social Care said maternity care remained a top priority for the health service. In a statement, it said: “The same level of funding is still being delivered as part of wider ICB allocations, giving local healthcare leaders – who are best placed to decide how to serve their local community – more flexibility.”We are clear that too many women are not receiving the safe, personalised and compassionate maternity care they deserve, but through our Plan for Change, this government is determined to change that.” The department said it would help hospital trusts to make rapid improvements and train thousands more midwives.

The Justice Department accused large insurers of colluding with national brokers to steer older people and those with disabilities toward coverage that might not offer the best medical care.The Justice Department on Thursday accused three of the nation’s largest health insurers of paying hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks over several years to insurance brokers that steered people into private Medicare plans.Federal prosecutors also accused two of the insurers of colluding with brokers to discriminate against people with disabilities, by discouraging enrollment in the private Medicare plans because the insurers believed coverage would be more costly.About 12 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are younger than 65, covered by the federal insurance program because they are disabled. Their care can be expensive given complex health needs.According to the complaint, originally brought by a whistle-blower and joined by the Justice Department, three of the nation’s largest health insurance companies — Aetna; Elevance Health, formerly known as Anthem; and Humana — are accused of paying kickbacks to three large brokers, eHealth, GoHealth and SelectQuote, to increase enrollment in their Medicare Advantage plans. Those brokerage firms are also charged with misconduct.The complaint, filed in a federal court in Boston, asserted that the kickbacks occurred from at least 2016 through 2021, and it accused Aetna and Humana of discriminating against people with disabilities.Aetna, Elevance, GoHealth and Humana denied the allegations, while the others did not immediately respond to requests for comment.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.

She successfully challenged her involuntary commitment to Bellevue Hospital in 1987, setting a precedent for homeless people that remains relevant today.This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.Joyce Brown’s New York minute lasted longer than most. A onetime secretary, Brown became homeless in 1986 and began camping on a heating grate on Second Avenue and 65th Street in Manhattan.A year or so passed before she was picked up by city officials, involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital — where she was declared mentally ill — and forcibly given medication. Brown, who was better known as Billie Boggs, was the first homeless person to become the focus of Mayor Edward I. Koch’s newly expanded initiative to address the increasing visibility of homelessness and untreated mental illness on the streets.But, as she would later say in interviews, the city chose “the wrong one.” Unlike the dozen or so other people who would face similar fates, she said she knew her rights, and she would begin exercising them the very next day.What followed was a landmark lawsuit centered on mental health, civil liberties and the involuntary psychiatric treatment of homeless people. “I’m not insane,” Brown would say. “Just homeless.”Before long, Brown was lofted from the pavement to prominence, with a whirlwind of interviews on talk and news programs.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.

Determined to cut costs and manage communications, the Trump administration is moving too slowly to contain the virus, experts say.The campaign to curb bird flu on the nation’s farms has been slowed by the chaotic transition to a new administration that is determined to cut costs, reduce the federal work force and limit communications, according to interviews with more than a dozen scientists and federal officials.On poultry farms, more than 168 million birds have been killed in an effort to curtail outbreaks. Since the virus first appeared on American dairy cattle about a year ago, it has spread to 17 states and infected more than 1,000 herds.In its first months, the Trump administration has fired teams of scientists crucial to detecting the spread of the virus, canceled important meetings, and limited access to data even for federal scientists.The Department of Health and Human Services has not held a public news briefing on bird flu since January, and did not respond to requests for comment.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, has suggested allowing the virus to spread uncontrolled through poultry flocks to identify birds that might be immune, an idea that scientists called reckless and dangerous. His comments prompted Democratic lawmakers to open an investigation into the federal response.The Trump administration has also eliminated funding for programs at the Food and Agriculture Organization, an agency at the United Nations, that monitor and contain bird flu in 49 countries.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.

Congress authorized the money in a bipartisan breakthrough around addressing gun violence after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 children and two teachers.The Trump administration has halted $1 billion for mental health services for children, saying that the programs funded by a bipartisan law aimed at stemming gun violence in schools were no longer in “the best interest of the federal government.”Lawmakers authorized the money in 2022 after a former student opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers and injuring 17 others. The measure, known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, broke a decades-long impasse between congressional Republicans and Democrats on addressing gun violence by focusing largely on improving mental health support for students.But just as some of the mental health programs are starting, the Education Department canceled the funding this week and informed grant recipients that they would have to reapply for the money because of potential violations of federal civil rights law.The department did not specify a civil rights law or provide the grant recipients with any evidence of violations, according to the notice reviewed by The New York Times.An Education Department spokeswoman confirmed that the grants had been discontinued because of a particular focus on increasing the diversity of psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers.“Under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,” said Madi Biedermann, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications. “We owe it to American families to ensure that taxpayer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students’ mental health.”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.

The agency suggested that clinical trials in humans may be required for updated Covid shots, raising questions about whether they will be available in the fall.Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan that would require placebo-controlled studies for all new vaccines, surprising some experts who noted that such testing already routinely takes place.In a statement, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that “all new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials” before approval, and called the move a “radical departure” from existing standards.Modern studies tend to use placebos. One exception has been the Covid booster shots, which have been authorized without human trials to target new strains of the virus as it has evolved. It’s unclear how the announcement will affect availability of Covid vaccines that were expected to be updated for the fall.Mr. Kennedy also announced an effort Thursday for the National Institutes of Health to turbocharge the development of new inoculations for Covid, bird flu and seasonal flu.The new vaccine development initiative would involve methods other than the mRNA technology used to develop the dominant Covid vaccines that are already in use, a statement from the Health and Human Services department said. The mRNA shots have been the subject of conspiracy theories, and Mr. Kennedy has intensely criticized them.Taken together, the moves suggest that Mr. Kennedy will reach far into the details of vaccine development, an effort likely informed by his decades as one of the nation’s most vocal critics of immunization oversight.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.

19 minutes agoShareSaveJoe McFaddenShareSaveGetty ImagesA new daily pill treating endometriosis has been approved for use on the NHS in England.The pill, called linzagolix, will soon become available for over 1,000 women to help manage symptoms of the condition.It’s estimated endometriosis affects 1.5 million women in the UK – it can cause chronic pain, heavy periods and extreme tiredness.The condition occurs when cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body like the pelvis, bladder and bowel.Linzagolix is the second take-at-home pill to become available on the NHS.In March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved a similar treatment called relugolix combination therapy.The two pills differ slightly as linzagolix will require additional ‘add back’ treatment, whereas relugolix combination therapy combines the two into one pill.The list price for linzagolix is £80 for a monthly pack of tablets while a 28-day course of relugolix costs the NHS £72.What are the symptoms of endometriosis?Severe period pain that stops you from doing normal activitiesVery heavy periodsPain when you poo or peeOther symptoms can include pain in your lower tummy, pain after sex, fatigue, shortness of breath, low mood, anxietyDifficulty getting pregnantAlthough there is no cure for endometriosis, current treatments include pain relievers and hormone injections which temporarily shut down the body’s production of oestrogen – the hormone which causes endometriosis tissue to grow and cause pain.However, patients often need to travel to hospitals to have the injections, which last for up to three months.In clinical trials, linzagolix was shown to reduce painful periods and non-menstrual pelvic pain when compared with a dummy drug.The pill works by blocking specific hormones including oestrogen.The charity Endometriosis UK says this will then induce a ‘medical menopause’ and will be used alongside ‘add back’ hormone therapy.’Add back’ therapy uses low dose hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) to prevent menopause-like symptoms and bone loss.Linzagolix will only be available specifically for patients whose previous medical or surgical treatments have been unsuccessful.Dr Sue Mann, national clinical director in women’s health for NHS England, said the new pill was welcome news for women living with endometriosis.”It’s another treatment option which will help women take control of their health and better manage the symptoms of this often painful and debilitating condition.”This is a testament to our ongoing commitment to improving treatment, care and quality of life for women – giving women more choice in treatment they can take in the comfort of their own homes.”Women’s Health Minister Baroness Merron, said the daily pill could be “a game-changer” for thousands of women battling endometriosis, which can be “a debilitating and life-limiting condition”.Endometriosis UK chief executive Emma Cox said the charity welcomed the approval of linzagolix for NHS use in England and called on “all other nations to approve this medication as an option available to all across the UK”.”There are far too few options available due to the historic lack of research into endometriosis, and we are pleased to see NICE approving this new medication for endometriosis.”Welsh ministers have issued directions to the NHS in Wales, in line with NICE guidance, which requires they provide funding and resources for new approved treatments within 60 days.More on this story

21 hours agoShareSaveLewis AdamsBBC News, EssexShareSavePA MediaBereaved families have been traumatised by “distressing and appalling delays” to inquest proceedings, a landmark inquiry heard.The Lampard Inquiry is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 mental health patients who died under NHS care in Essex between 2000 and 2023.Fiona Murphy KC told the hearing “institutional defensiveness” by health providers was hindering inquests and preventing families from getting closure.Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) has apologised to those affected.The public inquiry is England’s first into mental health deaths, with evidence being heard in London after previous sessions in September and November.Ms Murphy told of the “horrendous” experiences that families she represented had during their loved ones’ inquests.She said there had been an “extraordinary and shocking number of deaths” in inpatient units in Essex.PA Media”The families’ experience has been…the death of loved ones falling under the radar and of distressing and at times appalling delays,” she said.The barrister accused EPUT of knowingly disrupting inquest proceedings by being defensive.This included “unreasonably disputing” the relevance of an inquest, failing to provide evidence and delaying its disclosure.Ms Murphy said: “There has also been shameful misrepresentation that lessons have been learned when they have not.”These defensive behaviours cause real harm. “They cause the retraumatisation of grieving families, they obstruct the truth, they obstruct lesson learning and they act as a fundamental bar and barrier to change.”An inquest is a legal investigation into a death which appears to be due to unknown, violent or unnatural causes.Coroners can hold an Article 2 inquest when the person’s death occurred while they were under state care.Ms Murphy said they had the potential to deliver “real meaning” for families, as well as change.However, she claimed a “systematic collapse of acceptable service delivery in Essex” was “undermining” this potential.EPUT chief executive Paul Scott has apologised for deaths under his trust’s care.He said: “As the inquiry progresses, there will be many accounts of people who were much loved and missed over the past 24 years and I want to say how sorry I am for their loss.”More on this storyRelated internet links