Trump reverses Biden policies on drug pricing and Obamacare
As President Donald Trump’s health care agenda for a second term takes shape, it’s becoming clear that many Joe Biden-era policies won’t make the cut. On Monday, Trump signed a sweeping order aimed in part at reversing several Biden administration executive orders on health care, including efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, enhancing the Affordable Care Act and increasing protections for Medicaid enrollees. The so-called initial rescissions order, according to the Trump White House, is aimed at Biden policies that it says are “deeply unpopular” and “radical.”
Why are you being told to avoid seed oils?
A year or two ago, chances are you’d never given much thought to the concept of “seed oils.” But in 2025, they’re becoming harder to ignore. On social media and popular podcasts, wellness influencers warn of the dangers of consuming the “Hateful Eight”: canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, rice bran, safflower, soybean and sunflower oil. Late last year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health and human services secretary — repeated those claims on X, arguing that Americans are being “unknowingly poisoned” by seed oils. (Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.) It’s even become the stuff of online parody: In a recent post on TikTok, a young person pretends to sauté a pan that appears to be filled with mini bottles of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, while intoning, “The most important thing about this meal is avoiding seed oils.”
The problem with pulse oximeters your doctor probably doesn’t know.
The doctors and nurses didn’t believe Tomisa Starr was having trouble breathing. Two years ago, Starr, 61, of Sacramento, California, was in the hospital for a spike in her blood pressure. She has multiple chronic health problems, including heart failure, and uses an oxygen tank at home. But her request for supplemental oxygen while hospitalized was denied, Starr said, because readings from a pulse oximeter on her finger falsely indicated that she was getting plenty of air on her own. Starr, who is Black, said she told the care team about research showing that the devices, which measure oxygen levels in the blood, may not work as well on people with darker skin and potentially make those patients seem healthier than they really are.
Wine sales drying up as Americans turn elsewhere
The losses keep stacking up for the U.S. wine industry. Wine sales in the U.S. last year tumbled approximately 6% from 2023, according to data from the industry data group SipSource. The drop is the latest in a long-term decline in wine demand in restaurants, bars and stores that some are calling an “existential threat” to the industry.
How eating more fiber may help protect against dangerous bacteria like E. coli
Eating more fiber, which is found in whole grains, vegetables and fruits, might help protect against dangerous bacteria in the gut. After analyzing samples from the gut microbiomes of more than 12,000 people hailing from 45 countries, researchers determined that people with high levels of a certain type of beneficial bacteria known as Faecalibacterium were more likely to have low levels of potentially fatal bacteria such as E. coli, according to the report published this month in Nature Microbiology. The researchers also found that samples with high levels of Faecalibacterium had high levels of beneficial compounds called short-chain fatty acids, which are a byproduct from the breakdown of fiber. Research has indicated that having reduced levels of this type of bacteria is linked to inflammatory bowel or gastrointestinal conditions.
Children exposed to higher fluoride levels found to have lower IQs, study reveals
The debate about the benefits and risks of fluoride is ongoing, as RFK Jr. — incoming President Trump’s pick for HHS secretary — pushes to remove it from the U.S. water supply.
As bird flu concerns grow, scientists race to develop new vaccines
As fears grow of a possible bird flu pandemic in humans, the federal government is pouring more money into the development of new vaccines, including an mRNA shot. On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it’s providing about $590 million in funding to Moderna in part to fast-track the development of an mRNA vaccine that targets the strains of bird flu currently circulating in wild birds, poultry and dairy cows. The money is in addition to the $176 million HHS awarded the drugmaker in July to develop a bird flu vaccine.
'Will it really work?': Young sickle cell patient among the first to start new gene therapy
WASHINGTON — For Wedam Minyila, hospital rooms have always meant blinding pain. “Like someone is jamming a knife in me,” he said. But for a brief moment on a recent December morning, Wedam, 19, who has sickle cell disease, allowed himself to believe what his doctors had been telling him for months: This visit could be the first step to a cure. As one of the first patients in the world to undergo commercial treatment for the genetic condition, he could start imagining a future free of excruciating pain. “I choose to partially believe it,” he said the day he was admitted to Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., for his stem cell collection — the first major step of the revolutionary sickle cell gene therapy process. “But that also comes with the skepticism of: Will it really work?”
For many USMNT World Cup hopefuls, the audition for 2026 begins now
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Outside of major competitions like the World Cup, it is exceedingly rare for national team coaches to enjoy the luxury of multi-week training camps with their players. Even then, it doesn't always happen; the squads that competed at soccer's last signature event in 2022 had only a few practices to prepare for some of the biggest games of their lives, what with that tournament scheduled in the middle of the European season to avoid the searing summer temperatures in Qatar.
CDC urges faster testing to find human bird flu cases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday urged labs nationwide to determine within 24 hours of admission whether people hospitalized with the flu have seasonal influenza or are infected with the bird flu that's behind an escalating outbreak in dairy cows and poultry. The guidance for labs to do this type of testing has been in place since last fall, but the process has been slow, with many hospitals sending flu samples out for testing in bulk every few days. By the time those results come back, patients have often already been sent home, Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, said during a media briefing Thursday.