US Department of HHS

ncnewsline.com

People with disabilities ask NC legislators for funding to support community living • NC Newsline

People with disabilities and their families told NC legislators more funding is needed for a program that allows them to live in communities.

www.politico.com

Becerra’s surge draws progressive backlash in California governor’s race

Activists on the left are resurfacing past fights over immigration, oil-industry donations and healthcare as the former HHS secretary gains ground in the contest.

www.audacy.com

Calls emerge for RFK to be fired over rising measles cases |

Warnock calls for HHS Secretary RFK Jr.'s firing amid rising US measles cases and concerns over his vaccine skepticism and declining vaccination rates. |

jamanetwork.com

Many Medical Schools to Increase Nutrition Training Under New Initiative

This Medical News article discusses an initiative from the US Department of Health and Human Services to increase nutrition training for physicians.

iowacapitaldispatch.com

Family sues state over Medicaid payment cuts for 'medically necessary services' • Iowa Capital Dispatch

An Iowa couple claims reduced state payments for home-care services are so low they’ve made it almost impossible to find care providers.

www.thexylom.com

‘Podcast Bros’ Are Embracing the Other ‘Maha’ Madness

In recent years, mad honey, a sacred yet psychedelic gift among Himalayan tribes, has been appropriated by “podcast bros”, creating health and ecological complications.

bit.ly

Pro-Trump activists pile on admin over 'inexcusable' Supreme Court betrayal

Followers of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who contributed mightily to Donald Trump’s reelection in 2024, are fuming that the administration is blowing off their concerns as a closely-watched case heads to the Supreme Court on Monday.According to CNBC repor...

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'Not a good look': Trump official hammered for ditching wife amid shooting chaos

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was hammered Monday after video of him being escorted by security officials amid the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting on Saturday went viral, in which the HHS secretary was seen being tailed by his wife, Cheryl Hines.“RFK Jr....

dlvr.it

The left comes for Xavier Becerra

Progressive activists are resurfacing past fights over immigration, oil-industry donations and healthcare as the former HHS secretary gains ground in the California governor’s race.

cancerletter.com

Senators press Kennedy to release details on Most Favored Nation drug deals - The Cancer Letter

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified before two Senate committees on April 22 as part of a final “blitz” of congressional budget hearings. To access this subscriber-only content please log in or subscribe.If your institution has a site license, log in with IP-login or register for a sponsored account.**Not all site licenses are enrolled […]

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WA Democrat tells RFK Jr. he’ll be ‘the HHS Secretary that caused kids to die’

U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier condemned the nation’s leading health official for his stance on vaccines and vitamin K for newborns.

talkingpointsmemo.com

RFK Jr. Is Consistent on One Thing: Denying Cuts Have Been Made to Medicaid

“There’s no cut in Medicaid,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary...

talkingpointsmemo.com

RFK Jr. Is Consistent on One Thing: Denying Cuts Have Been Made to Medicaid

“There’s no cut in Medicaid,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary...

www.motherjones.com

What RFK Jr. doesn’t get about paid family caregiving

The silver-spoon HHS secretary can’t stand to see people—mainly women—get paid for care work in the home.

bit.ly

WA Democrat tells RFK Jr. he’ll be ‘the HHS Secretary that caused kids to die’

U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier condemned the nation’s leading health official for his stance on vaccines and vitamin K for newborns.

www.motherjones.com

What RFK Jr. doesn’t get about paid family caregiving

The silver-spoon HHS secretary can’t stand to see people—mainly women—get paid for care work in the home.

www.motherjones.com

What RFK Jr. doesn’t get about paid family caregiving

The silver-spoon HHS secretary can’t stand to see people—mainly women—get paid for care work in the home.

bit.ly

Vitamin K Deficiency Bleeding After Refusal: A Sentinel Event in a Misinformation Era

A previously healthy infant presented at several weeks of age with irritability and cutaneous bleeding. Laboratory testing demonstrated a profound coagulopathy with markedly prolonged prothrombin and activated partial thromboplastin times. Coagulation factor studies demonstrated the classic pattern of vitamin K deficiency, with significantly reduced vitamin K-dependent factors (II, VII, X) and preserved factor V and VIII. Neuroimaging demonstrated an intracranial hemorrhage. After parenteral phytonadione (vitamin K1), coagulation tests substantially corrected, consistent with vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB). Despite escalation of care, the infant died. Intramuscular (IM) vitamin K prophylaxis had been refused at birth.In this scenario, which represents a composite and anonymized case, this presentation should not be a diagnostic mystery. VKDB is a hemorrhagic disorder of infancy caused by inadequate vitamin K-dependent coagulation factors. VKDB is typically classified as early-onset (within the first 24 hours of birth), classical (2 days to 1 week after birth), or late-onset (1 week to 6 months after birth), with late-onset VKDB occurring predominantly in exclusively breastfed infants who do not receive IM vitamin K. VKDB is characterized by marked prolongations in clotting times, low vitamin K-dependent factors with preserved factor V and factor VIII, and rapid laboratory correction after vitamin K administration. The clinical endpoint of late-onset VKDB is frequently intracranial hemorrhage, occurring in 30% to 60% of cases, with around 14% to 20% mortality and around 40% long-term neurologic morbidity among survivors.1–3 It is also, in most cases, preventable.Without IM vitamin K prophylaxis, late-onset VKDB occurs in approximately 1 in 14 000 to 1 in 25 000 infants.3,4 With IM prophylaxis, incidence falls to less than 1 per 100 000 births. Infants who do not receive IM vitamin K are estimated to be 81 times more likely to develop late-onset VKDB.3,4 Parents who decline IM vitamin K are not making an isolated choice about 1 intervention; refusal often co-occurs with refusal of other newborn preventive services, including ocular prophylaxis and the hepatitis B vaccine.5 The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has noted that parental objections to vitamin K generally fall into 3 broad categories—belief systems, infant welfare concerns, and outside influencing factors—and that outside influences can include friends, celebrities, and health care professionals.6In a national electronic health record (EHR) analysis of more than 5 million newborns, the proportion not receiving IM vitamin K increased from 2.92% in 2017 to 5.18% in 2024.7 This trend echoes historical patterns, whereby clusters of vitamin K refusal have emerged before, driven by localized misinformation, and have similarly resulted in preventable infant deaths and severe neurologic injury. Even if most infants who do not receive vitamin K never experience major bleeding, rising nonreceipt rates will inevitably surface as sentinel events in pediatric emergency departments and intensive care units, often weeks to months after a normal newborn course.This clinical tragedy occurred within an increasingly politicized public health climate, where long-settled pediatric prevention is increasingly being framed as optional or discretionary rather than standard of care. In December 2025, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shifted to “individual-based decision-making” (shared clinical decision-making) for the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose in infants born to mothers who test negative, a departure from the evidence-based universal vaccination strategy that has substantially reduced perinatal hepatitis B transmission.8 On January 5, 2026, the US Department of Health and Human Services announced acceptance of recommendations to reorganize the childhood immunization schedule into categories that include “immunizations based on shared clinical decision-making.”9 Regardless of one’s position on any single vaccine policy, repeated high-visibility reframing of pediatric prevention that has demonstrated long-standing efficacy and safety has spillover effects because it can normalize the idea that established prophylaxis is optional and that “doing nothing” is a medically equivalent choice.The AAP has emphasized that vaccine policy should be driven by evidence and an established, transparent review process. In response to recent federal schedule changes, the AAP has reaffirmed that it will continue to publish its own childhood immunization recommendations, maintaining routine use of vaccines moved out of the “universal” category.10 Professional societies are now tasked not only with providing recommendations for best practice but with actively countering confusion and misinformation created when national policy messaging contradicts established evidence.Vitamin K prophylaxis is not a vaccine, but parents experience it as a comparable intervention: an injection offered immediately after birth to a healthy newborn. When families encounter public narratives emphasizing optionality and individualized risk discussions for preventive interventions, some may generalize skepticism beyond vaccines to other routine newborn protections, especially those like vitamin K that are administered once and rarely discussed again unless catastrophe occurs.The policy implication for pediatric clinicians is straightforward. IM vitamin K refusal should be treated as a high-risk perinatal safety event requiring education about the potentially life-threatening consequences of this decision, not a simple checkbox on hospital records. Refusal changes the infant’s risk profile for months, and it should trigger a standardized response analogous to other safety procedures in perinatal care. As health care providers, our goal should not be coercion, but we should endeavor to ensure that parents’ decisions are truly informed and that clinicians mitigate foreseeable harm. Standardized procedures also reduce moral distress and practice variation among clinicians and nurses who otherwise must improvise in an emotionally charged moment. Effective messaging emphasizes 3 key points: (1) vitamin K is not a vaccine. It replaces a nutrient babies lack naturally at birth. (2) The bleeding can be difficult to detect. Babies may appear healthy until sudden, catastrophic hemorrhage. (3) This is preventable. One injection substantially reduces risk. When discussing refusal, frame it as, “I understand you want what is best for your baby. The challenge is that babies who skip vitamin K may look completely healthy, until they don’t. Brain bleeding is a common presentation of late VKDB, and we can’t always reverse the damage.” Table 1 proposes practical guidance that can be implemented without new technology and adapted across delivery settings. It intentionally spans prenatal care through postpartum handoff because refusal is often decided before delivery, and late VKDB occurs after discharge.From a surveillance standpoint, vitamin K refusal is difficult to track reliably across health systems. Although the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) includes codes in the Z53 series for procedures not carried out because of patient/caregiver decision, these codes may not be consistently used in newborn care and are poorly standardized across EHRs. A dedicated, clearly labeled ICD-10-CM code (or a required discrete EHR field) for neonatal vitamin K refusal would enable more accurate trend monitoring, geographic mapping, and research to understand upstream drivers, including the “outside influencing factors” the AAP has identified.6 Clear documentation would also allow for more reliable outpatient follow-up and education by pediatricians who assume routine prophylaxis unless explicitly informed otherwise.Clinicians often carry the emotional weight of these decisions, as we counsel, parents decide, and downstream teams face the hemorrhage. However, refusal is not just an individual clinician-parent interaction; rather, it is shaped by institutional communication, public discourse, and the messages that trusted bodies send about what is “optional.” When prevention guidance is repeatedly reframed in the public eye, families may interpret that reframing as evidence that settled interventions are unsettled.Pediatrics has a long tradition of preventing rare but devastating outcomes with simple, low-cost, high-value prophylactic measures. The case described here is a sentinel harm that should prompt 2 actions: (1) continued surveillance of rising IM vitamin K nonreceipt and (2) a systems-level response that treats refusal as a high-risk condition with standardized mitigation, just as we do for other predictable perinatal hazards. If refusal continues to rise, the question is not whether we will see more late-onset VKDB, but whether health systems will be prepared to prevent the preventable.

www.motherjones.com

What RFK Jr. doesn't get about paid family caregiving

The silver-spoon HHS secretary can't stand to see people—mainly women—get paid for care work in the home.