Health News

(NEW YORK) -- Four Western U.S. states have come together to issue unified vaccine recommendations for the upcoming respiratory illness season, and California has enacted a new law to base the state's immunization guidance on independent medical organizations, rather than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The West Coast states including California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii -- all led by Democratic governors -- banded together earlier this month to […]

(NEW YORK) -- Ahead of a key meeting amongst the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisors -- now with 12 members hand-picked by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. -- doctors, health officials and advocates are raising alarms that the panel could reverse a decadeslong guideline of vaccinating infants against hepatitis B at birth.On camera on Wednesday, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a doctor specialized in treating liver […]

(NEW YORK) -- The United States death rate decreased by 3.8% in 2024 as COVID fell out of the top 10 leading causes of death for the first time in four years, new provisional federal data shows.The overall rate declined from 750.5 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 722 per 100,000, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).This marks […]

(FLORIDA) -- A top Florida pediatrician warned Thursday that the state's plan to eliminate all vaccine mandates could lead to outbreaks of preventable diseases and put vulnerable populations at risk.Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Florida chapter, told ABC News that removing vaccine requirements for public school children could endanger not just students, but also "newborn infants, elderly populations, and people with compromised immune systems, including […]

(NEW YORK) -- People who use their smartphones while sitting on the toilet face are at higher risk for painful, itchy hemorrhoids, according to new research published in the journal PLOS One.Researchers investigated the bathroom habits of 125 adults undergoing screening colonoscopies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. About two-thirds of participants reported scrolling through their smartphones while sitting on the toilet.Those who were glued to their phone […]

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) (TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) -- Florida is moving to "end all vaccine mandates" in the state, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced at a press conference on Wednesday.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) -- More than 1,000 current and former employees across the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) signed a letter on Wednesday morning calling for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s resignation.Addressed to Kennedy and members of Congress, the signatories accused the secretary of endangering the health of Americans. Save HHS, the group behind the letter, told ABC News it's been sent to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and […]

(WASHINGTON) -- Dr. Richard Besser explains why he and other former directors of the CDC wrote an op-ed criticizing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s handling of the CDC and public health.Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are speaking out, saying Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is endangering the health of Americans.Seven former directors and two former acting directors […]

(NEW YORK) -- A large new study conducted in Spain and Italy found that beta blockers, drugs often used to slow the heart rate and lower blood pressure, did not provide clear benefits for heart attack patients whose hearts were still functioning well.The results of the study, known as REBOOT, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Saturday and presented during the European Society of Cardiology Congress […]