NIH director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to take over as acting head of CDC
(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will take over as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a White House official and sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Bhattacharya will continue in his current duties as NIH director until a permanent CDC director is nominated and confirmed, according to the White House official.
He replaces Jim O’Neill, who served as acting director of the CDC from late August 2025 until he stepped down last week.
O’Neill will be nominated as the next head of the National Science Foundation, according to the White House official.
A woman and child walk by a damaged building, struck days earlier, during the U.S.Israeli military campaign on March 4, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — As the U.S.-Israeli military escalation with Iran continues, children may be experiencing devastating consequences of being caught in a conflict zone. Dozens of children and adolescents have been killed, many of whom were attending school at the time, according to the Iranian education ministry.
Doctors and humanitarian aid workers told ABC News that millions of children in the region are at risk of physical and mental health repercussions.
They add that it’s important children have as much structure as possible to keep a sense of stability in their lives.
“Every war is a war on children,” Ahmad Alhendawi, regional director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe at Save the Children, told ABC News. “They are not the reason why the war started, but they are the ones who pay the highest prices. Their childhood simply gets disrupted.”
Mental health effects
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president and co-founder of the humanitarian organization MedGlobal, told ABC News that the mental and emotional toll on children in conflict zones is a “huge problem.”
“Children are some of the most vulnerable sectors of the community because they need to feel that they are supported, they need it to feel that there is safety and shelter and supporting communities and they need normalcy,” he said.
Sahloul said that when children are caught in conflict zones, a sense of stability and routine is essential.
This includes going to school consistently, having playgrounds available so they can play, regular family meals and a place to sleep at night.
When any of these are disrupted, it can affect children’s mental health, causing anxiety, hyperactivity, withdrawal or feelings of sadness, according to Sahloul.
He added, “The trauma that [children] incur from violence and from what they see on TV, and of course the direct witnessing of bombs and missiles and its impact on their communities and neighbors and families, all of this will cause a lot of mental health trauma that manifests itself based on the age of the child.”
Studies of past conflicts have shown the effects of living in war-torn areas.
At least 10% of those who experience traumatic events in armed conflict will have serious mental health problems and another 10% “will develop behavior that will hinder their ability to function effectively,” according to the World Health Organization in a review of research findings.
Mental health impacts can be exacerbated when locales that are supposed to be safe spaces come under attack, Sahloul said.
Over the weekend, Shajare Tayyiba Elementary School, an all-girls elementary school in Minab located in southern Iran was hit by airstrikes, according to Iranian officials.
Iran has blamed the U.S. and Israel for the strike on the school, but Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have denied any connection. Top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have insisted the U.S. does not target civilian infrastructure.
“That adds, of course, to the trauma,” Sahloul said. “These are areas that should be considered safe and when people die in school or in a hospital or in the market, I think that adds to the trauma.”
Physical effects on children
There are physical risks for children that come with living in conflict zones, such as breathing in smoke and ash from fires and blasts that can affect the nose and lungs.
Children may also be seriously injured during air strikes, resulting in disability such as the loss of limb, sight or cognitive capacity.
“The physical impact on children is much more significant because there are fears for their development,” Alhendawi said.
Sahloul added that because children’s bodies are often smaller, shorter and thinner than those of adults, they are more likely to be hurt by projectiles such as bullets or shrapnel.
In children, severe bleeding can lead to shock, he said. Children are also more prone to amputation because of the smaller size of their limbs and they’re more prone to burns because their skin is thinner than adults’ skin.
Sahloul said that mental health trauma in children can have effects on their physical health. Research has shown a significant association between physical health problems and clinical mental health symptoms.
“So [mental health symptoms] can lead to depressed immunity to fight infection,” he said. “It can lead to malnutrition. It can lead to stunted growth.”
Health experts noted adults may also experience similar physical and mental health effects in conflict zones and may benefit from similar interventions.
How to help
Experts told ABC News it’s important to make sure that children are provided structure as much as possible while living in war zones to help with their development and well-being. Additionally, when possible, they said it important to create child-friendly spaces that allow children to learn, play and receive psychosocial support.
Alhendawi said Save the Children is not currently operating in Iran but is stationed in nine surrounding countries and is prepared to provide full shelter and basic services for a population that may be displaced.
Signs point the way to measles testing in the parking lot of the Seminole Hospital District across from Wigwam Stadium on February 27, 2025 in Seminole, Texas. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — At least 588 measles cases have been confirmed so far this year across the U.S., according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This means the U.S. has seen more cases in about one month than is typically recorded in an entire year.
Only nine other years, including last year, have had higher case counts since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.
The high case counts in 2026 are largely being driven by a measles outbreak in South Carolina.
At least 17 states have also reported measles cases this year including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Almost all cases are tied to ongoing outbreaks in pockets of undervaccinated or unvaccinated communities. Just three measles cases were reported among international travelers so far this year, according to CDC data.
Last year, the U.S. saw a record-breaking number of measles cases reported with 2,257 infections, the highest figure recorded since 1992. The U.S. could be on pace to surpass that record if cases continue to mount at this rate.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
However, federal data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years. During the 2024-2025 school year, 92.5% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 92.7% seen in the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019-2020 school year, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The national trends mirror those see in counties across the U.S. A recent map from ABC News — a collaboration with researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai that allows people to type in their ZIP code and see the measles risk in their area — found a wide range of risks in areas across the U.S.
Some counties and ZIP codes fell into the “lowest risk,” with 85% or more of children under 5 years old receiving one or more measles vaccine dose to “very high risk” with fewer than 60% of children under age 5 receiving one or more measles vaccine dose.
The healthcare.gov website on a laptop arranged in Norfolk, Virginia, US, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — When Jessica Chamberlain went to sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for 2026, she not prepared for the sticker shock.
Last year, Chamberlain was paying $59.67 in monthly premiums. This year, she would be paying nearly $100.
The 43-year-old mother of two from Illinois said she was floored to see her monthly premiums were nearly doubling.
“I can’t afford that as a single mom with two kids,” she told ABC News.
After carefully weighing her options, Chamberlain decide to forego health insurance and is currently uninsured.
“What do I sacrifice [to pay for health insurance]? I’m diabetic,” she said. “What do I have to sacrifice to keep my medications and my health afloat?
Chamberlain is not alone. Nearly one in 10 people enrolled in the ACA Marketplace last year dropped their coverage in 2026, according to a new KFF survey published Thursday.
The findings come amid rising health care costs and the end of the enhanced premium tax credits. The tax credits helped lower the cost of monthly premiums for about 22 million Americans covered under the ACA and expired at the end of 2025, with no plans by Congress to extend them.
The survey built upon a previous KFF poll conducted in 2025 among Marketplace enrollees. Surveyors re-interviewed more than 1,100 adults between Feb. 2 and March 2, 2026.
Of the respondents, 69% said they re-enrolled in Marketplace coverage with 39% selecting the same plan and 29% switching plans.
More than half, or 51%, of returning ACA enrollees said their health care costs are “a lot higher” this year compared to last year. Of this group, four in 10 specifically said their premiums are “a lot higher.” Additionally, 80% said all health care costs — including premiums, deductibles, co-pays or coinsurance — are higher.
Meanwhile, 9% of Marketplace enrollees dropped their ACA coverage and are currently uninsured.
When asked why they decided to drop or change their coverage, most respondents said costs were the driving factor.
One of the respondents, Holly Weir, a 26-year-old from Ohio, told ABC News she was paying $30 in monthly premiums last year under a plan run by UnitedHealthcare. This year, her plan went to $177 in monthly premiums.
“I didn’t do anything to pick a new health care plan. I got the bill in the mail and I was like, ‘[Expletive]!'” Weir said. “I didn’t pay too much attention until I got the bill the next month and I was like ‘Oh my God, this isn’t from me going to see a medical provider.'”
Weir decided to cancel her insurance and has applied for Medicaid coverage. She is currently waiting to see if she will be approved.
Weir said she is a thyroid cancer survivor, and she has to see an oncologist every two months or so, in addition to taking regular medication.
“Once that runs out, I’ll get a lot more scared,” she said. “Of course, I’m not going to be stupid and leave it so long. If it does come to it, I’ll pay [for the insurance]. The idea that I would have to spend that each month is frustrating. I’m already not doing amazingly financially.”
The survey found that even those who re-enrolled in the ACA Marketplace may need to rework their household budgets.
More than half, or 55%, said they need to cut spending on food or other basic household expenses to afford their health care costs.
Among those with chronic health conditions, 62% of those who reenrolled in the ACA Marketplace said they will be cutting back on food and other basics.
The survey found that 22% of respondents did not re-enroll in the ACA Marketplace and got coverage through an employer, Medicare, Medicaid or another health plan outside the Marketplace.
Chamberlain, who also responded to the survey, said her kids qualify to be on state-run Medicaid. However, she said she doesn’t qualify because she makes too much in her current role working in probation.
She is hoping she can find another insurance plan to help cover health care costs.
“This is destroying people who have pre-existing conditions,” she said. “It is affecting people, especially single moms. We’re just trying to live.”
