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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Florida’s New Covid Booster Guidance Is Straight-Up Misinformation
By Arthur Allen and Daniel Chang and Sam Whitehead
State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo spread more anti-vaccine misinformation by telling Floridians to avoid mRNA vaccines. Vaccine experts and historians can’t remember another state health leader urging residents to avoid an FDA-approved vaccine.
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.
Hoping to Clear the Air in Casinos, Workers Seek to Ban Tobacco Smoke
By Sandy West
Casinos in several states are fighting efforts to ban smoking, and trying to roll back existing anti-smoking laws. One planned facility even moved outside a city’s limits because of voter-approved smoking restrictions.
