What We're Reading

Every day, we share what we're reading, listening to, and watching in the world of global health — from well-reported news articles and in-depth studies to timely podcast episodes and features

Latest

Devex

Devex Newswire: U.S. Congress Gives Aid Supporters $50 Billion Boost

by Anna Gawel

The funding bill would provide some $50 billion for U.S. foreign assistance programs in fiscal year 2026

NPR

Marrying for Health Insurance? The ACA Cost Crisis Forces Some Drastic Choices

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

Enhanced subsidies that made plans affordable for many people expired at the end of 2025 and Congress failed to extend them before the 2026 plan year

BBC

Are You Dead?: The Viral Chinese App for Young People Living Alone

by Stephen McDonell

The concept is simple. You need to check in with it every two days—clicking a large button—to confirm that you are alive

New York Times

EPA to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution

by Maxine Joselow

In a reversal, the agency plans to calculate only the cost to industry when setting pollution limits, and not the monetary value of saving human lives

NPR

Why is the United States Pulling Out of 31 UN Groups? And What’s the Impact?

by Gabrielle Emanuel and Fatma Tanis

President Trump's executive order to withdraw the United States from 66 international organizations, agencies, and commissions has global impacts

New York Times

“Chinese Peptides” Are the Latest Biohacking Trend in the Tech World

by Jasmine Sun

The gray-market drugs flooding Silicon Valley reveal a community that believes it can move faster than the FDA

New York Times

Kennedy Flips Food Pyramid to Emphasize Red Meat and Whole Milk

by Alice Callahan and Dani Blum

The Trump administration released new dietary guidelines on Wednesday, pushing Americans to prioritize protein and cut back on added sugars

NBC News

CDC Overhauls Childhood Vaccine Schedule to Resemble Denmark in Unprecedented Move

by Berkeley Lovelace Jr., Erika Edwards, and Mustafa Fattah

The new U.S. guidelines recommend all children get vaccines for 11 diseases, compared with the 18 previously on the schedule

Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy

HHS Recommends Home HPV Testing For Women For the First Time

by Liz Szabo

The new guidelines are geared toward women at average risk of cervical cancer, which was diagnosed in more than 13,000 U.S. women last year

New York Times

RFK Jr. Likely to Swap U.S. Childhood Vaccine Schedule for Denmark’s

by Apoorva Mandavilli

A Danish health official found the idea baffling, saying the United States was getting “crazier and crazier in public health”

Devex

State Department Scrambles to Rebuild Foreign Aid Workforce

by Elissa Miolene

“What we’re seeing anecdotally is a recreation of the things that we just tore down,” says Rohit Nepal, the Department of State vice president

Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy

CDC Awards $1.6 Million for Hepatitis B Vaccine Study by Controversial Danish Researchers

by Liz Szabo

The CDC is paying the University of Southern Denmark to conduct a single-blind clinical trial of the hepatitis B vaccine in newborns in Guinea-Bissau