Articles

Researchers racing to develop bird flu vaccines for humans have turned to a cutting-edge technology that enabled the rapid development of lifesaving covid shots. There’s a catch: The mRNA technology faces growing doubts among Republicans, including people around President Donald Trump. Legislation aimed to ban or limit mRNA vaccines was introduced this year by GOP…

Joseph Shea, who sells athletic wear in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, wonders and worries about the food he eats. The chemical ingredients with mystifying names. The references on product labels to unspecified natural or artificial flavors. The junk food that fits his budget but feels addictive and makes him feel unwell. Shea, one of 1,310…

Jennifer Pahlka is perhaps best known as the founder of Code for America, a widely respected nonprofit that helped formalize the principles of civic tech, a movement leveraging design and technology expertise to improve public access to government services and data. Notably, the organization reimagined the online application for California’s food assistance program, which once…

BOLIGEE, Ala. — Green lights flickered on the wireless router in Barbara Williams’ kitchen. Just one bar lit up — a weak signal connecting her to the world beyond her home in the Alabama Black Belt. Next to the router sat medications, vitamin D pills, and Williams’ blood glucose monitor kit. “I haven’t used that…

The U.S. public health system has long been under strain, stymied by declines in funding as well as employees. And so state and local public health departments around the nation — tasked with monitoring and responding to disease outbreaks that threaten to sicken the masses — have relied on workers from the Centers for Disease…

In Washington’s debate over enacting steep funding cuts to Medicaid, words are a central battleground. Many Republican lawmakers and conservative policy officials who want to scale back the joint state-federal health program are using charged language to describe it. Language experts and advocates for Medicaid enrollees say their word choice is misleading and aims to…

Panelists at a covid conference last fall were asked to voice their regrets — policies they had supported during the pandemic but had come to see as misguided. Covid contact tracing, one said. Closing schools, another said. Vaccine mandates, a third said. When Marty Makary’s turn came, the Johns Hopkins University surgeon said, “I can’t…

The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to…