Robert F. Kennedy Jr. petitioned the F.D.A. to revoke authorization of the shots at a time when they were in high demand and considered life-saving.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the nation’s health agencies, formally asked the Food and Drug Administration to revoke the authorization of all Covid vaccines during a deadly phase of the pandemic when thousands of Americans were still dying every week.Mr. Kennedy filed a petition with the F.D.A. in May 2021 demanding that officials rescind authorization for the shots and refrain from approving any Covid vaccine in the future.Just six months earlier, Mr. Trump had declared the Covid vaccines a miracle. At the time Mr. Kennedy filed the petition, half of American adults were receiving their shots. Schools were reopening and churches were filling.Estimates had begun to show that the rapid rollout of Covid vaccines had already saved about 140,000 lives in the United States.The petition was filed on behalf of the nonprofit that Mr. Kennedy founded and led, Children’s Health Defense. It claimed that the risks of the vaccines outweighed the benefits and that the vaccines weren’t necessary because good treatments were available, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, which had already been deemed ineffective against the virus.The petition received little notice when it was filed. Mr. Kennedy was then on the fringes of the public health establishment, and the agency denied it within months. Public health experts told about the filing said it was shocking.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 government is expected to pay lower prices for Ozempic and Wegovy starting in 2027. The Trump administration will decide whether to expand coverage for millions of Americans.Medicare’s prices for the blockbuster weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy are likely to decline starting in 2027, thanks to their inclusion on a list of medicines whose prices will be negotiated directly between the government and drug makers.The Biden administration announced the list on Friday, but the incoming Trump administration will oversee the price discussions this year.Late last year, the Biden administration separately proposed that the federal government expand coverage of weight-loss drugs to millions of Americans, though it’s unclear if the Trump administration will carry out the proposal. Expanding coverage would drive up the government’s overall spending on those medications even if the negotiations result in a deep price cut.The drugs, made by Novo Nordisk, were selected for price negotiations along with more than a dozen other widely used or costly medications as part of a program created by the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s signature legislation. It is not clear how much Medicare’s prices for Ozempic and Wegovy could drop. It’s possible that the price cut would be small, as it has been for some of the drugs in the negotiation program so far, which would save little money for the government.But if Medicare negotiates a deep price cut on the weight-loss drugs, it could have ripple effects in the broader market for the medications, which have transformed the treatment of obesity and become a cultural touchstone.The drugs are in huge demand, but many employers, insurers and government programs do not cover them because the cost is so high. On those insurance plans, only patients who can afford to pay hundreds of dollars per month out of pocket can generally obtain them.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.

Getty ImagesPutting calories on food labels and menus “is no silver bullet” say researchers, who analysed the best evidence to date on how effective the policy can be.

Prisons across the country are struggling to find nursing home placements for sick prisoners after granting them parole. In New York, some inmates are suing for release.When the letter arrived at Westil Gonzalez’s prison cell saying that he had been granted parole, he couldn’t read it. Over the 33 years he had been locked up for murder, multiple sclerosis had taken much of his vision and left him reliant on a wheelchair.He had a clear sense of what he would do once freed. “I want to give my testimony to a couple of young people who are out there, picking up guns,” Mr. Gonzalez, 57, said in a recent interview. “I want to save one person from what I’ve been through.”But six months have passed, and Mr. Gonzalez is still incarcerated outside Buffalo, because the Department of Corrections has not found a nursing home that will accept him. Another New York inmate has been in the same limbo for 20 months. Others were released only after suing the state.America’s elderly prison population is rising, partly because of more people serving long sentences for violent crimes. Nearly 16 percent of prisoners were over 55 in 2022, up from 5 percent in 2007. The share of prisoners over 65 quadrupled over the same time period, to about 4 percent.Complex and costly medical conditions require more nursing care, both in prison and after an inmate’s release. Across the country, prison systems attempting to discharge inmates convicted of serious crimes often find themselves with few options. Nursing home beds can be hard to find even for those without criminal records.Spending on inmates’ medical care is increasing — in New York, it has grown to just over $7,500 in 2021 from about $6,000 per person in 2012. Even so, those who work with the incarcerated say the money is often not enough to keep up with the growing share of older inmates who have chronic health problems.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.

MARTIN MCQUADE / BBCThe deaths of at least 56 babies, and two mothers, at an NHS trust over the past five years may have been prevented, the BBC has found.

Lisa McHughCounty Fermanagh-based country music singer Lisa McHugh has told how her baby daughter spent 10 “horrendous” days in hospital after contracting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

“I’ve got no oxygen”, cries emergency department nurse Lisa Blackwell.

But high medical costs contributed to results that disappointed Wall Street, and the company’s stock fell on the news that it had made less than analysts expected.UnitedHealth Group reported on Thursday that it earned less than expected this past quarter, citing higher medical costs and pressure on its insurance division at a time when the company is still reeling from the shocking murder of a top executive last month.Revenues for UnitedHealth Group amounted to $100.8 billion for the fourth quarter, below what analysts had predicted but still 6.8 percent higher than in the same quarter the year before. The company’s full-year revenue for 2024 rose to $400.3 billion. For UnitedHealthcare, the insurance division, full-year revenue increased to $298.2 billion, up 6 percent from 2023.The results were the company’s first since Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down in front of a Midtown Manhattan hotel.The murder unleashed public outrage aimed at big health insurers, over lack of access to health care and denials of coverage and insurance claims.Some shareholders have urged UnitedHealth to issue a report on its practices that “limit or delay access to health care.”Andrew Witty, UnitedHealth Group’s chief executive, said on a call with analysts on Thursday that frustrations about claims, including delays in receiving care and coverage, were “key areas for us to work hard at to improve.”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.

Emergency service teams, local councils and government officials will take part in a full, multi-day pandemic preparedness exercise, to help the UK prepare for potential future threats.

Although long considered a disease of aging, certain cancers are turning up more often in younger women, according to a new report.More Americans are surviving cancer, but the disease is striking young and middle-aged adults and women more frequently, the American Cancer Society reported on Thursday.And despite overall improvements in survival, Black and Native Americans are dying of some cancers at rates two to three times higher than those among white Americans.These trends represent a marked change for an illness that has long been considered a disease of aging, and which used to affect far more men than women.The shifts reflect declines in smoking-related cancers and prostate cancer among older men and a disconcerting rise in cancer in people born since the 1950s.Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, but the leading cause among Americans under 85. The new report projects that some 2,041,910 new cases will occur this year and that 618,120 Americans will die of the disease.Six of the 10 most common cancers are on the rise, including cancers of the breast and the uterus. Also on the rise are colorectal cancers among people under 65, as well as prostate cancer, melanoma and pancreatic cancer.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.