4 Ways Vaccine Skeptics Mislead You on Measles and More
By Amy Maxmen and Céline Gounder
Vaccine scare tactics haven’t shifted, but more parents are falling for them. Here’s what the rhetoric gets wrong and how it endangers children.
Suzanne Somers’ Legacy Tainted by Celebrity Medical Misinformation
By Liz Szabo
The popular actress and author, who died this week, also can be remembered as a progenitor of selling dubious medical information to a trusting public.
Kids Already Coping With Mental Disorders Spiral as Pandemic Topples Vital Support Systems
By Christine Herman, Side Effects Public Media and Cory Turner, NPR and Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR
Many children with serious emotional or behavioral difficulties depend on schools for access to vital therapies. When schools and doctors’ offices stopped providing in-person services last spring, kids became untethered.
Survey: Americans Want Weight Loss Drugs Despite High Cost
By Julie Appleby
A new poll reveals enthusiasm for a pricey new generation of weight loss drugs, but interest drops if users potentially have to deal with weekly injections, lack of insurance coverage, or a need to continue the medications indefinitely to avoid regaining weight.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': SCOTUS Ruling Strips Power From Federal Health Agencies
In what will certainly be remembered as a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has overruled a 40-year-old precedent that gave federal agencies, rather than judges, the power to interpret ambiguous laws passed by Congress. Administrative experts say the decision will dramatically change the way key health agencies do business. Also, the court decided not to decide whether a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care overrides Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Victoria Knight of Axios, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
RFK Jr.’s Campaign of Conspiracy Theories Is PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year
By Madison Czopek, PolitiFact and Katie Sanders, PolitiFact
Debate and speculation are heating up over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign will factor into the outcome of the 2024 election. But one thing is clear: Kennedy’s political following is built on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories.
As COVID Cuts Deadly Path Through Indiana Prisons, Inmates Say Symptoms Ignored
By Jake Harper, Side Effects Public Media
Since the start of the pandemic, prisoners and their families have contradicted state officials about the conditions inside Indiana prisons. Many inmates report they’ve had no way to protect themselves from close contact with other inmates and staff members. They believe contracting the coronavirus is inevitable.
To Stem COVID, This Small Indiana City Decided To Test All Public-Facing Employees
By Carter Barrett, Side Effects Public Media
An affluent suburb looked to Iceland’s and South Korea’s widespread testing in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The method is pricey, but leaders are convinced it is worthwhile.
Conservative Justices Stir Trouble for Republican Politicians on Abortion
By Rachana Pradhan
Republicans are learning the admonition “be careful what you wish for,” as conservative judges cause them political problems over abortion in a crucial election year.
How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Pits Parental Rights Against Public Health
By Amy Maxmen
Framed in the rhetoric of choice, Tennessee’s new law governing childhood vaccinations is among more than a dozen recently passed or pending nationwide that set parental freedom against community and children’s health.
