Additionally, for the week ending Aug. 23, 11.2% of weekly tests came back positive for COVID, up from 3.3% the prior two months, CDC data shows.
Despite the increases, metrics remain much lower than in previous years.
Hospitalization rates are about three times lower than at the same time last year and the percentage of weekly tests coming pack positive is about two times lower compared to the same period last year.
Additionally, over the past two months, roughly 200 Americans have been dying from COVID every week, according to CDC data.
There has been confusion over who may be able to receive a COVID vaccine after the Food and Drug Administration approved updated versions of those shots for those over age 65 and younger Americans who are at high risk for severe disease. Federal health officials have insisted that anyone who wants the shot can receive it.
CDC data shows test positivity has increased above 10% in much of the southwest and western U.S. as kids head to class.
“When the dust settles, I expect it to not be as bad as last year … but that still means that some people are getting sick,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News. “Fewer people are getting hospitalized, proportionately speaking, but some people are still being hospitalized.”
“The reason why we’re seeing the increase is because of the usual factors of more than six months since a lot of people got COVID [and] new variants,” he continued.
As of the week ending August 30, XFG, an offshoot of the omicron variant, is the dominant variant in the U.S., accounting for an estimated 78% of new COVID cases.
Meanwhile, NB.1.8.1 and LP.8.1, also omicron variant offshoots, make up 14% and 3% of estimated new COVID cases in the U.S., CDC data shows.
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told ABC News that because the currently circulating variants are all members of this omicron family, there are no major mutations that make the virus more transmissible or more infectious.
“You can think of them all as cousins,” he said. “Now these cousins do share a couple of characteristics, one is that they appear to be fairly contagious and are quite capable of producing a great deal of mild disease. By mild, I mean not serious enough to get you into the hospital.”
Schaffner continued, “Fortunately, the vaccines that will become available this fall … should provide reasonable protection against serious disease caused by these variants.”
In a press release, Pfizer-BioNTech said its 2025-2026 COVID vaccine will target the LP.8.1 sublineage in line with FDA guidance to more closely match circulating strains.
It remains unclear how COVID vaccinations will be rolled out in the U.S. Recently, CVS said how it offers the shots will vary by state due to “the current regulatory environment.”
In 34 states, Americans can receive the COVID vaccine at a CVS pharmacy. In 13 states and in Washington, D.C., Americans can be vaccinated, depending on age, with a prescription. In three states – Massachusetts, Nevada and New Mexico – the COVID vaccine isn’t being offered.
Chin-Hong said he is worried about low vaccination rates as the country heads into respiratory virus season during the fall and winter months.
“As vaccination rates decline, from both people’s desire as well as structural barriers that are being put up by the federal government, it means that fewer people are going to get vaccines, even if people wanted to,” he said. “I’m worried that … it may mean that we would have some hospitalizations and deaths that we wouldn’t have seen normally if there was a simpler rule around vaccines.”
Schaffner said those who can receive the COVID vaccine should do so, along with the annual influenza vaccine, and advised those with risk factors for severe disease to be more cautious.
“You can get out your mask and put that on when you’re going indoors in crowded environments,” he said. “And if you’re really concerned, as I like to say, do some social distancing. Stream the movie rather than going to the movie.”
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
A sign for the Food And Drug Administration is seen outside of the headquarters on July 20, 2020 in White Oak, Maryland. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expanding its warning about radioactive shrimp, recalling more brands due to possible contamination.
The federal health agency said earlier this week nearly 18,000 bags of frozen Kroger Mercado Cooked Medium Peeled Tail-Off Shrimp and 26,460 packages of cocktail shrimp, both from Seattle-based Aquastar Corp, were recalled because of potential contamination with the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 (Cs-137).
PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati was added “to a new import alert for chemical contamination to stop products from this firm from coming into the U.S. until the firm has resolved the conditions that gave rise to the appearance of the violation,” the FDA said in a press release.
The shrimp placed under recall alerts may have been prepared, packed or held in “insanitary conditions” during which they became contaminated with Cs-137, the FDA said.
No products have tested positive for Cs-137 in the U.S. marketplace at this time, and no illnesses have been reported to date, according to the FDA.
Cesium is a soft, flexible, silvery-white metal that becomes liquid near room temperature, but easily bonds with chlorides to create a crystalline powder, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Low-dose exposure to Cs-137, such as in water or food, over a long-term period of time can damage DNA within living cells of the body and increase the risk of cancer, the FDA says.
External exposure to large amounts of Cs-137, according to the EPA, can cause burns, acute radiation sickness and even death.
The recalled Kroger shrimp was sold between July 24 and Aug. 11 in 17 states. Impacted stores include Baker’s, Gerbes, Jay C, Kroger, Mariano’s, Metro Market, Pay Less Supermarkets and Pick ‘n Save.
The recalled shrimp weigh two pounds and are packaged in clear plastic bags with has a white label and green stripes on top of each bag. The affected codes include:
• UPC 011110626196, Lot code 10662 5139, Best Before 11/19/2027
• UPC 011110626196, Lot code 10662 5140, Best Before 11/20/2027
The recalled cocktail shrimp was sold only in Walmart stores in 27 states between July 31 and Aug. 16.
“The product was sold in refrigerated condition and has a 12-day shelf life and with various Best if Use By dates,” the FDA release read. “The affected Cocktail Shrimp 6oz is packaged in a clear plastic tray and has a red and white label.”
The recalled products contain the code UPC 19434612191 and the Lot Codes 10662 5106, 10662 5107, 10662 5124 and 10662 5125 at the bottom of the plastic tray.
The FDA warned consumers who have purchased affected shrimp not to consume the products and to dispose of them.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson and Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
Susan Monarez, nominee to be the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testifies during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, June 25, 2025 in Washington. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Lawyers for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Susan Monarez said Wednesday evening that she would not leave her post as a top public health official, despite attempts by White House officials and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to oust her for “protecting the public” over “a political agenda.”
“When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted,” Monarez’s lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said in a statement.
The showdown began as a disagreement over demands from Kennedy and Stefanie Spear, his principal deputy chief of staff, for Monarez to support changes to COVID vaccine policy and the firings of high-level staff, a source familiar with the conversations told ABC News, which Monarez would not commit to.
HHS then announced that Monarez was “no longer director” of the CDC, which touched off a wave of high-level resignations from CDC officials in protest and, ultimately, a fiery response later Wednesday evening from Monarez’s lawyers, who said she wouldn’t resign.
Kennedy, on Fox News on Thursday morning, would not comment on Monarez and argued that the priorities at the CDC need to be re-examined.
“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on a personnel issue,” Kennedy said. “What I will say is President Trump has very, very ambitious hopes for what for CDC right now. CDC has problems. You know, we saw the misinformation coming out of covid. They got the testing wrong. They got the social distancing, the masks, the school closures that did so much harm to the American people.”
Asked about Monarez’s lawyer statement saying that she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts,” and the resignations that followed, Kennedy said he was not caught off guard by what happened and continued to claim that the CDC is “in trouble.”
“And we are fixing it, and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore,” Kennedy said.
The White House, which has the authority to dismiss Monarez, followed up late Wednesday night with a statement from spokesperson Kush Desai, who said Monarez was indeed “terminated.”
“As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again. Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC,” Desai said.
But Monarez’s lawyers again pushed back, arguing that because Monarez was appointed by President Donald Trump to the post — the first CDC director to go through a Senate confirmation process — Trump had to personally dismiss her.
“For this reason, we reject the notification Dr. Monarez has received as legally deficient and she remains as CDC Director. We have notified the White House Counsel of our position,” Zaid and Lowell said in a statement.
Monarez, the recently sworn-in director of the CDC, was confirmed by the Senate just four weeks ago.
Monarez was the second nominee for the position, after Trump’s first nominee, Dave Weldon, didn’t appear to have the votes for a Senate confirmation, in part because of his history of vaccine skepticism.
Monarez, during her confirmation hearing, was clear about her support for vaccines: “I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines,” she said in July.
But over the last few months, her boss, Kennedy, has made significant changes to vaccine policy, particularly for COVID vaccines, that have the potential to limit access to the shot.
Earlier Wednesday, Kennedy’s FDA narrowed the scope for who will be approved to get the updated vaccines available this fall and winter.
The latest vaccines were only approved for elderly people — adults aged 65 and older — and for younger people if they have at least one underlying condition that puts them at higher risk for severe illness, departing from the prior guidance that everyone 6 months and older should get vaccinated.
The FDA decision will come before the CDC later this month, where Monarez and a committee of advisers, recently all replaced with handpicked choices by Kennedy, would’ve had the chance to weigh in — and Monarez would’ve ultimately needed to sign off.
In March, Kennedy also oversaw a change to the pediatric vaccine schedule, shifting to a “shared clinical decision making” model that leaves the decision to vaccinate children against COVID to parents, alongside advice from a doctor.
Kennedy has defended the vaccine policy changes as advancing “science, safety, and common sense.”
Following HHS’s statement about Monarez’s departure, four other senior career officials at the CDC also resigned, according to emails obtained by ABC News.
Deb Houry, Chief Medical Officer and Deputy Director for Program and Science at CDC, Dan Jernigan, Director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, and Demetre Daskalakis, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, sent emails to colleagues on Wednesday night informing them that they’d submitted their resignations, each mentioning changing policies at CDC.
Jennifer Layden, Director for the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology, resigned as well.
“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health,” Daskalakis wrote in his departure email to colleagues.
“You are the best team I have ever worked with, and you continue to shine despite this dark cloud over the agency and our profession,” he said.
Houry, who has worked at CDC through Democrat and Republican administrations, said “the science at CDC should never be censored or subject to political pauses or interpretations.”
“I am committed to protecting the public’s health, but the ongoing changes prevent me from continuing in my job as a leader of the agency. This is a heartbreaking decision that I make with a heavy heart,” Houry wrote.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has oversight of HHS as chair of the Senate committee focused on health, committed Wednesday night to looking into the high-profile departures.
The wave of departures comes during a tumultuous time for the CDC, just a few weeks after a shooting on the main campus in Atlanta that hit multiple buildings. Authorities said they found the alleged shooter had been harboring years-long grievances with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Monarez’s departure was first reported by the Washington Post.
(WASHINGTON) — The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines for some Americans.
The vaccines were approved for use in adults aged 65 and older and for those between ages 5 and 64 with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe COVID.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Yersinia pestis, bacteria responsible for the plague, seen under optical microscopy. (Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesP
(VALENCIA COUNTY, N.M.) — A New Mexico man has been diagnosed with plague, marking the state’s first human case this year, according to local health officials.
The patient, a 43-year-old man from Valencia County — located just southwest of Albuquerque — was hospitalized with the condition but has since been discharged, the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) said on Monday.
Recently, the patient had been camping in Rio Arriba County, which borders Colorado, where health officials believe he may have been exposed.
No other identifying information about the man was available, including his name or race/ethnicity.
“This case reminds us of the severe threat that can be posed by this ancient disease,” Dr. Erin Phipps, state public health veterinarian for NMDOH, said in a press release. “It also emphasizes the need for heightened community awareness and for taking measures to prevent further spread.”
Plague is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It naturally occurs in areas of the western U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
It typically affects wild rodents including wood rats, rock squirrels, ground squirrels, mice, prairie dogs and chipmunks, the CDC said.
Humans can contract the disease after being bitten by an infected flea, coming into contact with contaminated fluid or tissue from an infected animal or by inhaling infected droplets in the air.
The CDC notes that person-to-person spread of plague has not been documented in the U.S. since 1924.
In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases have been reported each year, according to the CDC.
Plague is a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It naturally occurs in areas of the western U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
It typically affects wild rodents including wood rats, rock squirrels, ground squirrels, mice, prairie dogs and chipmunks, the CDC said.
Humans can contract the disease after being bitten by an infected flea, coming into contact with contaminated fluid or tissue from an infected animal or by inhaling infected droplets in the air.
The CDC notes that person-to-person spread of plague has not been documented in the U.S. since 1924.
In recent decades, an average of seven human plague cases have been reported each year, according to the CDC.
There are three types of plague: bubonic plague, which is associated with enlarged lymph nodes called buboes; septicemic plague, which occurs when the bacteria enter the bloodstream; and pneumonic plague, which is when the infection enters the lungs.
Common symptoms of all three include headache, fever and weakness, according to the CDC.
Plague is treatable with commonly available antibiotics and the chances of full recovery are higher if a patient seeks medical care early, the CDC says.
To reduce the risk of plague, the NMDOH recommends avoiding sick or dead rodents and rabbits; cleaning up areas near the home where rodents could live; using insect repellent when outdoors; and keeping hay and wood as far away from the house as possible.
Additionally, the NMDOH recommends having a sick pet examined immediately by a veterinarian.
Although this is the first human case of plague recorded in New Mexico this year, it is not the first in the U.S.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. has confirmed the first case of a flesh-eating parasite in a human, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Monday.
New World screwworm (NWS) is a species of parasitic flies that feed on live tissue. The name refers to the way in which maggots screw themselves into the tissue of animals with their sharp mouth hooks, causing extensive damage and often leading to death.
The patient returned from travel to El Salvador, an HHS spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. The risk to the public in the U.S. is very low, they added.
Countries in Central America and Mexico have been dealing with an outbreak of the parasite among livestock.
Panama saw infections among livestock rise from an average of 25 cases annually to over 6,500 in 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says. Since then, the parasite has been detected in seven other Central American countries, breaking a previously established barrier that contained the pest to South America for decades.
Screwworm has not been detected in animals within the U.S., the USDA noted. It was largely eradicated for decades in the U.S. through a technique in which male screwworm flies are sterilized and then released into the environment to mate with females until the population dies out.
But given the spread in neighboring countries, “[NWS] is not only a threat to our ranching community — but it is a threat to our food supply and our national security,” the USDA said in a press release where they outlined initiatives to prevent the parasite from crossing into the U.S.
Those initiatives include building a sterile fly production facility in Texas and hiring mounted patrol officers to track wildlife crossing as well as detector dogs to track imports along ports of entry. In May, the USDA banned imports of live cattle, horse and bison from Mexico and has since slowly re-opened trade.
Earlier this month, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for animal drugs to treat or prevent infestations caused by screwworm.
People who travel to outbreak areas, spend time among livestock animals, sleep outdoors, and have an open wound are at greater risk of becoming infested with screwworm, the CDC noted.
(NEW YORK) — Two U.S. hospitals are the latest to announce they will be ending some, or all, of their pediatric gender-affirming care services at the end of the month.
Kaiser Permanente, a health care company that manages 40 hospitals across several states — including California, Oregon and Virginia — said it is pausing gender-related surgeries for patients under age 18 on Aug. 29. It noted that other gender-related care will continue.
Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. said it will also stop prescribing gender-affirming medications on Aug. 30. It follows a move the hospital made in late January to pause all puberty-blockers and hormone prescriptions for minors.
Since President Donald Trump’s second term began in January, at least 17 major hospital systems in at least nine states and the District of Columbia have paused, discontinued, canceled or ended pediatric gender services, according to an ABC News tally, amid mounting legal and regulatory concerns.
In January, Trump signed an executive order stating the U.S. would not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender transition of those under age 19 and would “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Transgender adults and youth may experience extreme psychological distress due to a mismatch in their gender presentation and identity. They experience significantly higher rates of suicide than the general population, but some studies suggest gender-affirming care eases those feelings of distress.
While some individuals and groups have called for a slower approach to gender-affirming care for minors, other pediatric gender care experts and advocates have said ending such care can have a harmful effect on patients’ mental health and well-being.
They say the government is interfering in conversations meant to be held only between patients, their families and doctors, and that doctors are not being allowed to follow the established medical guidelines that medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health have endorsed.
“This is health care provided by licensed clinicians according to standards of care that have been around for many years,” Kellan Baker, a senior adviser for health policy with the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on LGBTQ+ issues, told ABC News.
“To have the government interfering … overreaching into the private conversations between patients and families and their doctors and telling doctors that they cannot provide the care that they know that their patients need — that is a very serious government overreach,” he added.
Evidence for gender-affirming care Gender-affirming care may include medical, surgical, mental health and non-medical services. It can range from allowing a child to pick their pronouns to more invasive treatments typically prescribed for older teens.
Early gender affirming care can be “crucial” to overall health and well-being, allowing a child to focus on social transitions and can help build up confidence while dealing with the health care system, the federal Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health wrote during the Biden administration.
Gender-affirming care is supported by multiple major medical organizations. Studies have shown many of the treatment options are generally safe and that care can have a positive impact on mental health, which psychotherapy alone cannot provide, some experts said.
Some experts have questioned the significance of the interventions on long-term mental health as well as the possibility of regret and point out potential risks on future fertility.
“It’s deeply disappointing that hospital systems have relented to the political pressure, not scientific pressure, to end these sorts of programs,” Dr. Marci Bowers, a gynecologic and reconstructive surgeon at Mills-Peninsula Medical Cener in Burlingame, California, told ABC News. “We have decades of evidence-based information that suggests that gender-related health care is beneficial to patients and their families with very, very, very scant incidences of regret or disappointment in that care.”
A spokesperson for Children’s National Hospital told ABC News it was discontinuing the prescription of gender-affirming medications in light of “escalating legal and regulatory risks” to the hospital, its providers and families.
“We know this change will have a significant impact on affected patients, families and staff, and our care teams are working directly with families of current patients to support them,” the statement read, in part. “Mental health and other support services for patients remain available. LGBT patients are always welcome at Children’s National for other medical needs and treatment.”
Similarly, a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente pointed ABC News to actions from the administration, including the Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to doctors and clinics providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth.
“As the legal and regulatory environment for gender-affirming care continues to evolve, we must carefully consider the significant risks being created for health systems, clinicians, and patients under the age of 19 seeking this care,” the statement read, in part. “After significant deliberation and consultation with internal and external experts, including our physicians, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause surgical treatment for patients under the age of 19 in our hospitals and surgical centers.”
The hospital said it would work to identify clinicians performing surgery if a patient’s planned operation was canceled and, if a clinician is available, the hospital said it will work with patients and their families to coordinate care and provide coverage for surgical treatment.
Bowers — the Mills-Peninsula gynecologic and reconstructive surgeon — said if somebody is in treatment and that treatment is suddenly withdrawn, it can be extremely difficult, and patients can experience psychosocial and personal setbacks. She said treatment gave patients a psychological boost.
‘When you look and you talk to these individuals, they are happier about themselves,” she said. “They’re happier about their bodies. They’re happier about their choice of friends, how they see themselves in the world. They’re more optimistic. So those are softer measures, but they’re important, and those things matter.”
She also said withdrawing medical care can be a major disruption to patients’ lives because families may have to move to receive care that is now no longer being provided locally.
Baker — the Movement Advancement Project’s health policy adviser — said he sees the actions from the administration as a “campaign of terror” against health care institutions, doctors and families, and that decisions about continuing or discontinuing gender-affirming care should remain between patients and their health care providers.
“This is about health care providers working together with patients and parents to get kids what they need,” Baker said. “It’s nothing more. It’s nothing less. All that trans people are trying to do is live their lives, and all the parents of trans kids are trying to do is love their kids.”
Concern after HHS report Not all experts are opposed to the closures. Dr. Kristopher Kaliebe, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and professor at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, believes the retrenchment reflects long-standing scientific concerns.
“Clinicians have quietly recognized for years that the evidence base for these interventions in minors is weak,” he told ABC News. “There’s no strong proof that they improve mental health, and we simply don’t know the long-term outcomes.”
In May, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released what it called a “comprehensive review” of transgender care for children and teens, calling for broader use of psychotherapy for young people with gender dysphoria rather than gender-affirming care.
The authors of the review were not named, so their credentials have not been reviewed and the paper has not yet been peer-reviewed by independent scientists yet — a step this is typically necessary before changing any guidelines that health care providers follow.
The more than 400-page document details possible harm from medical interventions for youth, including the use of puberty blockers and potentially associated risks, such as infertility.
It follows systematic reviews from Sweden, Finland and the U.K. that have resulted in the three countries restricting gender-affirming care. England’s National Health Service ended prescribing puberty blockers for minors experiencing gender dysphoria outside of clinical trials. Sweden and Finland have followed psychotherapy-first models.
Kaliebe called the HHS review a needed step, saying, “For the first time, the federal government acknowledged openly that these interventions are experimental and that we need high-quality data, especially long-term tracking of outcomes.”
However, Bowers dismissed the HHS review as derivative, saying the team that put the report together didn’t appear to conduct its own review and rather “pirated” reviews conducted overseas.
“There were a lot of other mischaracterizations throughout that report,” Bowers said. “Most experts, frankly, scoff at what they saw. … It’s disappointing. It sounds more like politics than it does practical and factual matter.”
Baker concurred, referring to the report as a “really shocking government document,” suggesting it was commissioned right after Trump’s January executive order with a pre-determined outcome.
“I’m a health services researcher by training … and I’m very familiar with evidence-based medicine and systematic reviews, and one of the ways that you need to make sure that you’re approaching work like that is to not have your thumb on the scale,” he said. “You don’t go in with a research question that has already been decided, where the outcome has already been decided. That’s not good science. It’s not science at all.”
He said producing the report so quickly after the executive order was issued — a little over three months — was too short of a timeline for a thorough review and he criticized not having the names of the authors on the report to ensure there were no conflicts of interest and that the authors were experts in their field.
Experts have said they are in favor of more research being conducted — Kaliebe emphasized the need for rigorous tracking of harms and a clearer study of psychotherapeutic approaches.
Bowers argued that while stronger research is welcome, cutting off services altogether harms real people.
“We know from decades of clinical experience that when care is affirming, young people are happier and healthier,” she said. “That’s what parents see, even if politics obscures it.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988.
In this April 24, 2024, file photo, a group of doctors join abortion rights supporters at a rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court hears oral arguments today on Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States to decide if Idaho emergency rooms can provide abortions to pregnant women during an emergency using a federal law known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act to supersede a state law that criminalizes most abortions in Idaho. Andrew Harnik/Getty
(IDAHO) — More than six months after Idaho’s near-total abortion ban went into effect, a small town nestled in the state’s northern mountain ranges lost its labor and delivery service — and access to such care could now be imperiled further by looming Medicaid cuts.
Bonner General Health, located in Sandpoint, Idaho, announced in March 2023 that it would no longer provide obstetrical care, citing the state’s “legal and political climate” as one of the factors that drove the decision. Abortions in Idaho are illegal except in the cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.
The hospital in the city of around 10,000 people was one of three health systems in Idaho to shutter their labor and delivery services in recent years. The state has lost over a third of its OB-GYNs — 94 of 268 — since the ban was enacted in 2022, according to a new study in medical journal JAMA Network Open.
Local health care providers and advocates ABC News spoke with said that Medicaid cuts could put additional labor and delivery services at risk of closing — adding further pressure to Idaho’s already strained maternal and reproductive health care system.
More than 350,000 of the state’s residents are insured by Medicaid, including those covered by the expansion plan voters approved through a ballot measure in 2018. Idaho was already seeking federal approval to institute its own work requirements after Gov. Brad Little signed a Medicaid cost bill this spring.
Under the federal changes, the state could lose $3 billion in funding over the next decade and 37,000 residents could lose coverage, according to analysis by KFF.
“We are living with the consequences of when you criminalize practicing medicine, you lose doctors, and I think that, coupled with these cuts at the federal level, are going to prove devastating for Idaho’s already precarious rural health system,” Melanie Folwell, the executive director of Idahoans United for Women and Families, the group spearheading a ballot initiative to restore abortion rights, told ABC News.
After Bonner General closed its obstetric services, Kootenai Health, located an hour south, inherited its patients, which included residents across the northern tip of the state. Some women now have to drive two to three hours to get prenatal care or to deliver at Kootenai, according to one of its OB-GYNs, Dr. Brenna McCrummen.
Traveling that far for care, especially in cases of complications, can endanger women and infants, McCrummen noted.
“There have been patients that have delivered on the side of the road because they’re not able to get to the hospital in time. There have been babies that have gone to the NICU who didn’t do as well as they probably would have had they not had to travel long distances,” she told ABC News.
The loss of OB-GYNs in the state has hit rural areas like those in the north especially hard, the JAMA Network Open study noted. A vast majority of the remaining physicians providing obstetric care are concentrated in Idaho’s seven most populated counties, leaving only 23 OB-GYNs to serve a population of over half a million across the rest of the state, according to the study.
Those giving birth aren’t the only ones affected by the shortage of physicians. OB-GYNs like McCrummen have packed schedules, leading to long wait times for other reproductive care. Patients seeking annual exams, for instance, often have to book five months in advance, McCrummen explained. These exams provide vital preventive health services, such as screenings for cervical and breast cancer.
Across the U.S., more than 35% of counties are maternity care deserts — areas that lack obstetrics clinicians — according to Dr. Michael Warren, the chief medical and health officer of the March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on maternal and infant health.
Reductions to Medicaid funding could exacerbate the problem, Warren told ABC News.
“The worry is that as these changes are happening in the Medicaid space, it’s going to be harder, particularly for rural hospitals, to maintain those obstetric services, and if they discontinue those, we’ve got more maternity care deserts, and we’ve got a greater risk of both moms and babies having worse outcomes,” Warren said.
The Medicaid cuts were passed into law in July as part of President Donald Trump’s massive tax and policy bill. Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo, a Republican who serves as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, defended the bill in a press release earlier this month, saying that “targeting waste, fraud and abuse in the program ensures that it stays financially viable for the populations who need it most.” Crapo has also argued that the legislation’s $50 billion rural hospital fund is the “largest investment in decades in rural health care.”
In Idaho, Medicaid covers around a third of births, according to data from March of Dimes. Even before cuts to coverage, labor and delivery units were difficult to keep open, Toni Lawson, a vice president of the Idaho Hospital Association, told ABC News.
Lawson explained that such units require “special equipment” and “specially trained staff” on call, which is expensive to maintain — especially in rural areas with lower birth volumes and where Medicaid reimburses less than cost. Additionally, she said, hospitals have had difficulty recruiting and retaining qualified OB-GYNs amidst Idaho’s abortion restrictions.
As a result, looming reductions to Medicaid funding could push these healthcare systems over the edge, according to Lawson.
“What you’ll see in Idaho, before you see hospitals close, is we’ll have more closures of labor and delivery services,” she said.
These cuts could also worsen outcomes for the women who lose coverage, physician assistant specialist Amy Klingler explained.
“If patients don’t have access to insurance and they don’t have access to Medicaid, sometimes they delay prenatal care, we don’t catch complications early enough, and it puts the baby and the mother’s lives at risk,” Klingler, who works in a small mountain town in central Idaho, told ABC News.
The two problems can compound — Klingler noted that the risk of not catching complications early on is heightened when the same women also have to travel further to receive care.
While she is able to provide prenatal care to her patients, the closest hospital that can deliver babies is a 60-mile drive from her clinic — a route she says that lacks cell service for 45 miles.
“So in the best circumstances, it takes planning and forethought. And then when things are serious and complicated, it’s much more dangerous,” Klingler said.
“Complicated pregnancies in Idaho are the scary ones right now,” she added.
In cases when the mother’s health becomes at risk, health providers say that the state’s abortion ban limits the emergency care they are able to provide. A state court issued a ruling in April slightly expanding the medical exception to the ban in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, but advocates still argue the existing law constricts physicians’ ability to supply adequate care.
The organization Idahoans United for Women and Families is currently gathering signatures to get a measure on the ballot in 2026 to return the state to the standard of abortion access it had before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
However, Lawson said “there is no silver bullet” to solve depleted access to maternal and reproductive care.
“It is going to have to be a combination of things and certainly removing barriers to recruitment is an important part of that,” she said, adding that the state must also address rural hospitals’ precarious financial position amid the projected loss of Medicaid funding.
Breana Lipscomb, the senior manager of maternal health and rights at advocacy group the Center for Reproductive Rights, noted that all of these factors are “working in tandem” to restrict access.
“It’s making health care even further out of reach for people, and this is particularly concerning for Black people, for people living in rural areas, for low income folks and for people with capacity to birth,” Lipscomb said.
“I am really afraid of what we might see,” she added.
(WASHINGTON) — More than 750 employees across the Department of Health and Human Services sent a signed letter to members of Congress and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday morning, calling on the secretary to stop spreading misinformation.
The letter states the deadly shooting that occurred at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 8 was “not random” and was driven by “politicized rhetoric.”
Authorities said the 30-year-old gunman — who killed a police officer in the attack — had been harboring yearslong grievances with the COVID-19 vaccine. He believed he suffered negative health effects after he got the vaccine, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found written documents at his home indicating that he wanted to make his discontent known.
The signatories are accusing Kennedy of endangering the lives of HHS employees by spreading misinformation.
Kennedy, who oversees the CDC, has peddled vaccine skepticism throughout his career. Before becoming health secretary, Kennedy falsely called the COVID-19 vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”
HHS did not return ABC News’ request for comment.
“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information,” the letter states.
The employees pointed to various examples, such as Kennedy referring to the CDC as a “cesspool of corruption” in a post on X and falsely claiming mRNA vaccines “failed to protect effectively” against COVID and flu.
The letter said such “dangerous and deceitful statements and actions” contributed to the harassment and violence experienced by CDC employees.
Dr. Shiv Prasad, a scientific review officer at the National Institutes of Health who signed the letter, said he felt compelled to do so for many reasons.
“Like my colleagues at the CDC, I am concerned about several things,” Prasad, speaking in his personal capacity and not on behalf of NIH or HHS, told ABC News. “One is the misinformation that’s being spread, especially concerning vaccines and COVID-19 and it has a way of vilifying federal workers who are working every day to ensure the health of Americans.”
He went on, “I’m concerned about the safety of HHS workers … I think we are all potential targets now.”
The letter called on Kennedy to take a number of actions by Sept. 2, including not spreading inaccurate health information, affirming the scientific integrity of the CDC and guaranteeing the safety of the HHS workforce.
Prasad added that he would also like to see action from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the director of NIH. Bhattacharya recently supported Kennedy’s decision to cancel $500 million in federal funding for mRNA vaccine development, saying the decision was made because “the mRNA platform is no longer viable.”
Prasad said he and his colleagues would like Bhattacharya “to consider the effect of his words, potential effect on NIH staff, because he has made some comments in the past about the origins of COVID-19 and certainly recently with the NIH moving away from mRNA vaccine technology.”
“These things are not accepted by the field and, again it’s misinformation, and it could lead to it could put us at risk,” he continued.
ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.
Plague is a disease caused by a type of bacteria that usually results in about seven cases nationally each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It occurs naturally in areas of the western U.S., where it circulates among wild rodents and other animals. Humans usually get infected through the bite of an infected rodent flea or by handling an infected animal. Symptoms, including fever, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes, usually show up within two weeks of exposure, according to health officials.
“Plague is naturally present in many parts of California, including higher elevation areas of El Dorado County,” Kyle Fliflet, El Dorado County’s acting director of public health, said in a statement. “It’s important that individuals take precautions for themselves and their pets when outdoors, especially while walking, hiking and or camping in areas where wild rodents are present.”
The disease can be cured with antibiotics, which must be given quickly to prevent serious illness or death. At least 15 people have died from plague since 2000, the latest CDC data shows.
The risk to the public of exposure as well as the risk of human-to-human transmission remains low, according to health officials.
