Public Health

• A new report from Harris County Public Health reveals Houston has the highest tuberculosis rates in Texas, highlighting urban transmission risks. • The data shows elevated cases linked to dense populations and socioeconomic factors in the Houston area. • Rising TB incidence demands targeted screening and treatment expansions to curb spread in high-risk communities.

• Public health officials confirmed two cases of measles in Sacramento County, California, amid ongoing monitoring for potential spread. • The cases highlight persistent risks despite national vaccination efforts, with officials urging unvaccinated residents to seek immunization. • Measles outbreaks underscore gaps in herd immunity, particularly in localized communities, prompting heightened surveillance statewide.

Tom Kean, who has not voted since 5 March and whose seat is top Democratic target, due back ‘very soon’, speaker saysA vulnerable Republican congressman who has not voted in weeks “is attending to a personal health matter,” the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, said on Friday as he struggles to maintain his historically small majority in Congress’s lower chamber.Tom Kean Jr’s New Jersey district is a top pickup target for Democrats in the November midterms, but the congressman has not cast a vote in the House since 5 March. Continue reading...

• President Donald Trump announced Dr. Jennifer Shuford, Texas' top public health official and infectious disease physician, as his nominee for CDC chief medical officer on Thursday via Truth Social. • Shuford oversaw the country's largest measles outbreak in 30 years; other nominees include Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director, Sean Slovenski as deputy director and COO, and Dr. Sara Brenner as senior counselor to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. • The appointments aim to reshape CDC leadership amid ongoing public health challenges in the US.

Some candidates are making public health a central part of their midterm campaigns amid Trump’s war on science As public health has become increasingly politicized in the US, with a particularly chaotic year under the Trump administration, some political candidates are pushing back by making public health a central part of their campaigns – and the grassroots organization Defend Public Health has ideas about how to do it.On Monday, the group launched guiding principles for campaigns to prioritize public health, called the People’s Health Platform, highlighting the importance of ensuring healthcare for all, protecting and expanding sexual, reproductive, and gender-affirming healthcare, preparing for the climate crisis and the next pandemic, and taxing billionaires, among other tenets. Continue reading...

Advocates say Lee Zeldin’s EPA has rolled back protections and cut staff and funding, putting health at riskSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxMore than 160 environmental and public health organizations on Tuesday called for Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, to resign or be fired.“No [EPA] administrator in history – Democratic or Republican – has so brazenly betrayed the agency’s core mission,” the groups wrote in an open letter. “EPA’s foremost purpose is to protect human health and the environment. With Administrator Lee Zeldin at the helm, EPA has abandoned its mission, creating damage that will take decades to address.” Continue reading...

• On March 24, 2026, Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Hakeem Jeffries held a roundtable condemning Republican policies gutting Medicaid and ACA programs, forcing families to choose between medications and rent. • Pressley highlighted Republicans' $2 billion daily war funding while cutting healthcare for tens of millions and supporting ICE abuses. • 'Republicans’ manufactured healthcare crisis is making people sicker, poorer, and less safe,' Pressley stated.

A University of Pennsylvania Annenberg survey reveals only 11% of Americans would follow CDC over American Academy of Pediatrics on vaccine recommendations, signaling severe public health alarm fatigue. RFK Jr.'s leadership gutted the childhood immunization schedule from 17 to 11 vaccines, terminated $500 million in mRNA research contracts, and oversaw 2,200 measles cases with three deaths in 2025, risking loss of elimination status achieved in 2000. CDC trust plummeted from 75% to 60% in one year due to political leadership, though two-thirds still trust career scientists. Protocols are shifting as 77% prefer AAP guidance on vaccinations.

The American Council on Science and Health lists 16 landmark public health achievements, including George Washington's 1777 order for Continental Army smallpox inoculations that saved forces from a disease killing 10 soldiers per battle death. Polio cases sharply declined after Jonas Salk's 1955 vaccine was deemed safe, with Albert Sabin's 1960s oral version enabling community-wide protection. CDC identified initial AIDS clusters in 1981 among young men; by 1996, NIH-supported combination antiretroviral therapy turned HIV into a manageable condition, bolstered by US companies like Gilead and PEPFAR in 2003. These advances revolutionized medicine from antibiotics to organ transplants and birth control.