#public-health-policy

#public-health-policy

I believe what I would say as a private citizen is in many cases different than what I would say as a public health official. Joining a team where the purpose of this role is to communicate absolutely the best evidence-based science to the American people to keep them safe, thriving, and healthy.

By creating one of the nation's first state health departments, lawmakers and elected officials in 1901 were taking a leadership role in public health that continues to this day. Take the issue of heart health: Just last month, Governor Hochul unveiled a budget proposal that makes major investments in our fight against cardiovascular disease. Healthy hearts start with healthy diets, which is why Governor Hochul included over $100 million for nutrition programs, food banks and food pantries in the Executive Budget.

I thought: Wait a minute, I can't just start a 16-year-old on antidepressants,' says Chatterjee. He wanted to understand what was going on in the boy's life. They talked for a while, and Chatterjee asked him about his screen use, which turned out to be high. I said: I think your screen use, particularly in the evenings, might be impacting your mental wellbeing.'

"Second-hand smoke increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer and we want to protect children and the sick from harm," he said. "Prevention is better than cure, so this government is taking pressure off the NHS and building a healthier Britain where everyone lives well for longer."

The Upstate South Carolina outbreak is the largest single outbreak of measles in the United States in more than three decades. Though 95 percent of cases have occurred in Spartanburg County, officials identified a new case-patient in Lancaster County. Officials are still investigating the source of exposure for that person. Among 876 patients with known details, 859 were unvaccinated, 20 were partially vaccinated, and 25 were fully vaccines. Twenty-nine have unknown vaccination status.

although it was encouraging that fewer people were drinking at a higher risk level, this should not distract from the scale of alcohol harm in England. Millions of people are still drinking at levels that significantly increase their risk of serious harm, from alcohol-related cancers to life-changing injuries and long-term illness, and we have seen record high alcohol deaths in recent years, Roberts said.

The paper, which sought to summarize the latest research and was aimed at practicing cardiologists, concluded that light drinking - one to two drinks a day - posed no risk for coronary disease, stroke, sudden death and possibly heart failure, and may even reduce the risk of developing these conditions. Controversy over the influential organization's review has been simmering since it was published in the association's journal Circulation in July.

Dr. Kade Goepferd watched the Trump administration's moves on Thursday to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth with "a mix of sadness and frustration." Goepferd, who is the founder of Children's Minnesota Gender Health Program, says that for the medical community, nothing has changed about the evidence supporting gender-affirming care that could justify the government's actions. "There's a massive propaganda and disinformation campaign that is selectively targeting this small population of already vulnerable kids and their families," Goepferd says.

Dr. Ralph Lee Abraham, the Louisiana surgeon general who halted his state's vaccine promotion campaigns and delayed warning the public about a deadly whooping cough outbreak, has quietly been installed as the second-highest official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Department of Health and Human Services did not announce this appointment. The news was first spotted by Dr. Jeremy Faust, who runs the Substack called Inside Medicine.

The meeting's purpose was to discuss the future of health in the United States. Organizers called it the MAHA Summit, referring to US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr's signature 'Make America Healthy Again' movement. Attendees included Kennedy, US vice-president JD Vance, NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya, US Food and Drug Administration chief Marty Makary and the food activist Vani Hari, who blogs under the name 'Food Babe'.

A new decades-long study has found no evidence that exposure to recommended levels of fluoride lowers children's cognitive skills. The research, which was published on Wednesday in Science Advances, challenges U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s earlier claim that adding fluoride to tap water may harm cognition. Citing fears that the chemical negatively affects brain development, several U.S. cities and states are either in the process of reevaluating the inclusion of fluoride in their water supply or have already moved to remove it. The new paper's findings, however, offer U.S.-based evidence that the public health intervention is safe, says University of Minnesota sociologist and study co-author John Robert Warren.

The standard pandemic-preparedness playbook "has failed catastrophically," NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and NIH Principal Deputy Director Matthew J. Memoli wrote in City Journal, a magazine and website published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank. The pair argue that finding and studying pathogens that could cause outbreaks, then stockpiling vaccines against them, is a waste of money.

Between 1984 and 2005, rates of cervical cancer had been dropping steadily. But a report published Monday by the Canadian Cancer Statistics Advisory Committee shows a plateau in the annual percentage change for cervical cancer rates, which is just under zero for the period from 2005 to 2021. "Cervical cancer is not one of the most common causes of cancer death for females in Canada, but each one of the 430 deaths expected in 2025 due to this cancer was potentially preventable," the report said.

In text messages sent in 2017, disgraced financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein appears to position himself as a middleman between president Donald Trump's administration and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, even seemingly representing himself as passing on information directly from Trump to Gates through an intermediary. The messages, which the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released on Wednesday and originated with the Epstein estate, begin on January 27, 2017, years after Epstein had already pleaded guilty to state prostitution solicitation charges.

For the first time in Great Britain, there are more over-16s using vapes or e-cigarettes than smoking cigarettes, according to the Office for National Statistics. Some 5.4 million adults use vapes daily or occasionally, compared with 4.9 million using cigarettes, an ONS survey for 2024 suggests. Daily use of vapes is most common among 25-49 year olds, with rising use among women. The popularity of cigarette smoking has been falling for the past decade as the harmful effects of tobacco encouraged many to quit, while less risky vape use has been rising - particularly among younger age groups.

If you've spotted a tiny white spoon inside a black triangle next to your soda or combo meal lately, that's not a new McFlurry flavor. It's a warning. As of October 2025, chain restaurants across New York City are required to post this "sugar spoon" symbol next to menu items that contain more than 50 grams of added sugar, the entire daily recommended limit.

Major US soft-drink and snack-food corporations are waging a coordinated campaign that aims to pit Donald Trump's Maga faithful against Robert F Kennedy Jr's Make America Healthy Again movement, a Guardian investigation in partnership with environmental watchdog Fieldnotes has found. Their goal is to stymie the Maha-led effort to curb Americans' consumption of soda and ultra-processed foods. To carry out the plan, the companies have turned

A gamechanging injection to prevent HIV is set to be approved for use in England and Wales. The long-acting jab, administered every two months, will offer an alternative to the daily pills used to protect against the virus. This form of HIV prevention therapy, known as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), is typically taken by HIV-negative people to reduce their risk of infection.

The San Francisco Bay Times joins with Olga Talamante and The Ven. Miguel Bustos in thanking Sandra R. Hernández, MD, for her inspiration and support in creating the inaugural Honoring LGBTQ+ Bay Area Latine Leaders, which will take place on October 24, 2025. Beyond this event, all Californians have benefited from her work. Dr. Hernández is the President and CEO of the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which for decades has worked to benefit the lives of many in the state and particularly in the Bay Area.

Under a new Health Department rule that took effect October 4, restaurants that are part of chains with 15 or more locations nationwide must display a warning icon next to any food or drink containing 50 grams or more of added sugars. The regulation affects nearly 4,000 restaurants citywide. Fines to follow "Every New Yorker deserves access to delicious, healthy food that they feel good about eating," said Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hit back at an op-ed written by the most recent six surgeons general, who said they wanted to warn the U.S. about the dangers of Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The op-ed, published in The Washington Post on Tuesday, called the health secretary's policies and positions an "immediate and unprecedented" threat to the nation's health. In a statement to ABC News, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the doctors are the same officials "who presided over the decline in America's public health."

Over the past 20 years, there has been a 67% rise in diabetes cases in Turkey, meaning that overall prevalence has almost doubled, to more than 16% of the population. The International Diabetes Federation now lists Turkey as the country with the highest diabetes prevalence in the European region. According to data from the World Health Organization's (WHO)Global Health Observatory, the age-standardized prevalence of diabetes in Turkey in 2022 was 16.6% of the adult population (aged over 18): 16% of men and 17.1% of women.

Researchers are concerned about what will happen should pregnant women follow US President Donald Trump's advice to avoid the painkiller Tylenol also called paracetamol and acetaminophen. In an address at the White House on September 22, Trump claimed the medication is linked to autism and other long-term neurodevelopmental conditions in the developing child. But experts warn that avoiding the drug when it is needed could place women and their fetus at even greater risk.

Mexico is one of the world's top consumers of sugary drinks, with Mexicans consuming on average 166 litres of soda per year. This has had a devastating impact on the country's health: one in three Mexican children are overweight or obese while, at 100,000 deaths a year, diabetes is the nation's second-leading cause of death. 'It's deadlier than the drugs trade,' said Viri Rios, a Mexican public policy analyst.

In 2022, the medical establishment and public health world nixed the name "monkeypox" for two key reasons. Animal-to-human transmission comes from rodents. And the name "monkeypox" was seen as racist and stigmatizing language. To replace it, World Health Organization (WHO) officials decided to call the disease that causes painful lesions "mpox." Now, the U.S. is reverting to the old term "monkeypox."