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Category: Health

Democrats see an opening in rural states for the first time in decades. In Iowa, it’s about water

Democrats see an opening in rural states for the first time in decades. In Iowa, it’s about water

Tom Philpott and Nina B. Elkadi write: Chris Jones, the 65-year-old Democratic nominee for Iowa secretary of agriculture, stands at the edge of a pond on a 72-acre farm in eastern Iowa. “What you see here is how fertile Iowa is,” he says, looking intently into the water. Massive bluegills dart about in the clear depths. “When we go up to a corn or soy field, we don’t see this anymore.” Jones isn’t just talking about the fish. He means…

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Mapping the largely uncharted terrain of the human microbiome

Mapping the largely uncharted terrain of the human microbiome

Jeneen Interlandi writes: In the mid-2010s, when they were still postdoctoral fellows at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mathilde Poyet and Mathieu Groussin kept bumping into different sides of the same obstacle. Poyet, an ecologist and a microbiologist, was trying to study rare bacterial species, the kind that had never been grown in a lab before. Groussin, a computational biologist in the same lab, wanted to understand how humans and microbes evolved together over millenniums. Each was focused on microbes…

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‘The decision is sickening’: MAHA leaders feel betrayed by Supreme Court ruling on Roundup weed killer

‘The decision is sickening’: MAHA leaders feel betrayed by Supreme Court ruling on Roundup weed killer

NBC News reports: Many prominent figures in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement said they felt betrayed Thursday after the Supreme Court ruled that Bayer, the manufacturer of Roundup, did not need to warn consumers of a potential cancer risk associated with its weed killer. The ruling is likely to prevent thousands of lawsuits from arguing in state courts that Roundup should come with a cancer warning. Worries about chemicals in the food supply have long animated a subset of…

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‘Digital colonialism’: U.S. demands to access Africans’ data raise privacy, sovereignty concerns

‘Digital colonialism’: U.S. demands to access Africans’ data raise privacy, sovereignty concerns

By Sharon Lerner and Anna Maria Barry-Jester This story was originally published by ProPublica Frank Ssekamwa says the United States presented his country with an impossible choice. If it accepted the terms of a new health agreement, Uganda would have to give the U.S. access to the data of millions of his fellow citizens — a decision he worries would make their personal information more vulnerable to breaches and possible exploitation. But if it refused, the East African nation would…

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MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are feeling betrayed by ‘business as usual’

MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are feeling betrayed by ‘business as usual’

Politico reports: The Make America Healthy Again coalition, made up largely of women who followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into the MAGA fold, has reached the end of its rope with the Trump administration. Now many among the group of vaccine skeptics and healthy food crusaders say their vote is up for grabs in the midterms after a string of perceived losses on pesticides and chemical regulations, not to mention disappointing leadership picks and an unpopular war in Iran. “We…

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Profits before people: EPA scientists are being pushed to downplay potential risks of household products

Profits before people: EPA scientists are being pushed to downplay potential risks of household products

CNN reports: Inside the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency, scientists say they’re under pressure to alter safety reviews of chemicals commonly found in consumer products like household cleaners and cosmetics to make risks to human health and the environment disappear on paper. Multiple current and former career employees at the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention recounted being pushed by supervisors to downplay the potential risk of chemicals that are already used in products on shelves. With President…

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White House seeks to impose political test on billions in federal grants

White House seeks to impose political test on billions in federal grants

The New York Times reports: The White House is seeking to exert more control over billions of dollars in annual government grants, aiming to restrict a vast swath of funding — in health, housing, science and transportation — so that it primarily serves the purposes and organizations politically aligned with President Trump. While the administration says that its primary goal is to safeguard taxpayer money, its proposal amounts to a major escalation in its attempt to reimagine the nation’s spending,…

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Rats, raw sewage, skin diseases: Israel’s siege is ravaging Gaza’s displaced

Rats, raw sewage, skin diseases: Israel’s siege is ravaging Gaza’s displaced

+972 reports: Eman Abu Jame had counted her family among the lucky ones. Israel bombed their home in the southern Gaza Strip at the beginning of the war, forcing them to move from one shelter to another. But throughout the first two years of the genocide, neither she, her husband, nor her children suffered any serious health problems. That all changed in October 2025, when they took refuge in a crowded tent camp in Khan Younis. By the time they…

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U.S. funding cuts have hampered response to the deadly Ebola crisis, aid workers say

U.S. funding cuts have hampered response to the deadly Ebola crisis, aid workers say

CNN reports: As a deadly Ebola outbreak tears through northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo, many first responders are turning a critical eye on events that preceded the crisis: layoffs of health workers funded by the United States, shortages of critical medical supplies and a steep reduction in American support for global aid programs. The World Health Organization says more than 170 deaths are thought to be linked to this outbreak, with nearly 750 suspected cases so far and it’s…

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U.S. is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

U.S. is ‘simply choosing not to stop’ Ebola outbreak after massive public health cuts, experts say

The Guardian reports: A previously undetected outbreak of Ebola is coursing through parts of central Africa, and the US appears to be doing little to help stop it, after massive cuts to global and domestic public health efforts. There is no cure and no vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, which has caused two outbreaks in recent decades. Health leaders and scientists are now racing to understand where the virus is spreading and attempting to stop it –…

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How a new Israeli policy cuts off humanitarian aid in Gaza

How a new Israeli policy cuts off humanitarian aid in Gaza

Clayton Dalton writes: On a hazy morning in November, a group of aid workers with Médecins Sans Frontières (M.S.F.), known in English as Doctors Without Borders, crossed into Gaza for a two-month mission. Jennifer Hulse, an emergency physician from the U.K., led a medical team. “We all had as many bags as we could physically carry,” Hulse said. Inside were essential supplies such as surgical tools and engine oil for generators. Her assignment was to help the Gaza Health Ministry…

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A radical court just called Trump’s abortion bluff

A radical court just called Trump’s abortion bluff

Naomi Cahn and Sonia M. Suter write: On Friday, the archconservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a stunning nationwide injunction that directly affects one-fourth of all abortions in the United States. The opinion rejected an Food and Drug Administration regulation allowing people to buy mifepristone, a drug used for medication abortion and miscarriage management, by mail. This ruling applies nationally, even in states that haven’t banned abortion. On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a temporary hold,…

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The race to mine critical minerals for AI and clean energy is creating ‘sacrifice zones’ that harm water and health of world’s poor

The race to mine critical minerals for AI and clean energy is creating ‘sacrifice zones’ that harm water and health of world’s poor

An artisanal miner holds a cobalt stone at a mine near Kolwezi, Congo, in 2022. About 20,000 people work there among toxic materials. Junior Kannah/AFP via Getty Images By Abraham Nunbogu, United Nations University and Kaveh Madani, United Nations University There is a troubling contradiction at the heart of the global transition to a cleaner, greener, tech-driven future: Modern technologies – everything from AI to wind turbines, as well as cellphones, electric vehicles and defense systems – depend on critical…

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How the Trump administration ended independent science at the EPA

How the Trump administration ended independent science at the EPA

The New York Times reports: For more than a half-century, a prestigious scientific arm of the federal government did groundbreaking research aimed at saving American lives. It studied fertility, asthma, wildfires, drinking water, climate change and myriad other health threats. In just one year, it has been almost completely dismantled. One scientist, a doctor and expert in lung health, has recently been reassigned to a finance office. Another, an epidemiologist, has been told she has a new job issuing permits…

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Pesticides may wreak havoc on the gut microbiome

Pesticides may wreak havoc on the gut microbiome

Science reports: Eight years ago, Bhanudas More went for a routine blood test. More, a farmworker in this small village in Maharashtra state, was lean, worked long hours in the fields, and seemed healthy, so the result startled him. He was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a disease commonly associated with sedentary life in the city. Medication did little to bring his condition under control. He also began to experience persistent bloating and stomach discomfort. “I was taking the medicines,…

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We are all collections of errors

We are all collections of errors

Jerome Groopman writes: As I am writing this, my DNA is changing. And, as you read this, so is yours. People tend to assume that the genes we inherit from our parents are a fixed blueprint for our growth and development, immutable throughout our lives, and that the DNA in each cell of our body is the same as in every other cell. In fact, changes in our DNA, known as mutations, occur from the time we are in the…

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