Category: Health Care

March 22, 2023

In Congressional testimony Wednesday, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel unabashedly defended the company’s plans to raise the US list price of its COVID-19 vaccines by more than 400 percent—despite creating the vaccine in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, receiving […]

March 15, 2023

President Joe Biden will highlight the stark differences in how Democrats are tackling skyrocketing drug prices compared to their Republican counterparts as he gears up for an expected reelection announcement. In a speech on Wednesday in Las Vegas that could […]

March 7, 2023

President Joe Biden wants to increase taxes to boost funding for Medicare and expand the program’s ability to negotiate lower costs for prescription drugs, according to advance details of his budget proposal being released later this week. The Democratic president […]

March 2, 2023

The Biden administration is asking Congress to give federal watchdogs and prosecutors more funding — and more time — to go after billions of dollars in COVID-19 spending lost to fraudsters. The White House is seeking $1.6 billion to help […]

February 23, 2023

Back in the simpler times of 2018—before the US Food and Drug Administration had to grapple with emergency authorizations in a deadly pandemic, before it scrambled to address a scandalous baby formula shortage, and before it largely bungled oversight of […]

February 20, 2023

The government agency responsible for tracking down contaminated peanut butter and defective pacemakers is taking on a new health hazard: online misinformation. It’s an unlikely role for the Food and Drug Administration, a sprawling, century-old bureaucracy that for decades directed […]

February 8, 2023

The Georgia Senate approved a measure Tuesday to prohibit schools and most state and local government agencies from mandating the coronavirus vaccine. The legislation, Georgia State Senate Bill 1, passed the state Senate 31-21. The bill would not apply to […]

February 6, 2023

Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who oppose a COVID-19 vaccination requirement on religious grounds want a federal appeals court to keep alive their legal fight against the Biden administration, even though the requirement has […]

January 12, 2023

A federal appeals court has upheld a ban on forcing workers in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee who contract with the federal government to get a COVID-19 vaccine. An appeals court has affirmed a ban in three states on enforcing a […]

January 10, 2023

The federal government’s employee health insurance plan could be wasting $1 billion a year in improper payments by providing benefits to family members who are no longer eligible, a new report has found. The Government Accountability Office said in an […]

January 10, 2023

China suspended visas Tuesday for South Koreans to come to the country for tourism or business in apparent retaliation for COVID-19 testing requirements on Chinese travelers. A brief notice posted online by the Chinese Embassy in Seoul said the ban […]

January 5, 2023

Pentagon leaders, who must scrap their COVID-vaccine mandate within three weeks, are trying to figure out what happens after that. The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act—signed into law by President Joe Biden Dec. 23—requires Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to rescind […]

January 5, 2023

Last summer, US President Joe Biden criticized states attempting to restrict access to abortion pills. In response, Biden directed the Food and Drug Administration to protect access, saying that “extremist governors and state legislatures” that were “looking to block the […]

December 29, 2022

Moves by several countries to mandate COVID-19 tests for passengers arriving from China reflect global concern that new variants could emerge in its ongoing explosive outbreak — and that the government may not inform the rest of the world quickly […]

December 27, 2022

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Tuesday that Japan will tighten border controls for COVID-19 by requiring tests for all visitors from China starting Friday as a temporary emergency measure against the surging infections there. The announcement comes days after […]

December 21, 2022

The Biden administration said Wednesday it will release doses of prescription flu medicine from the Strategic National Stockpile to states as flu-sickened patients continue to flock to hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country. This year’s flu season has hit […]

December 15, 2022

The Biden administration is again making some free COVID-19 tests available to all U.S. households as it unveils its contingency plans for potential coronavirus surges this winter. After a three-month hiatus, the administration is making four rapid virus tests available […]

December 15, 2022

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ health care workforce is one step closer to receiving full collective bargaining rights on par with the rest of the federal workforce. The House on Thursday passed the VA Employee Fairness Act in a 219-201 […]

December 14, 2022

China said Wednesday it would stop reporting asymptomatic COVID-19 cases since they’ve become “impossible” to track with mass testing no longer required, another step in the country’s uncertain exit from some of the world’s strictest antivirus policies. China last week […]

December 9, 2022

Democrats on the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Friday released their final report, which argues that structural weaknesses, leadership failings and the spread of misinformation contributed to the deaths of more than 1 million Americans during the pandemic. […]