Read today’s Kaiser Health News
In other news:
About Covid-19
A new variant of COVID-19 may be driving up cases in some parts of the world, WHO says: COVID-19 cases are rising again as a new variant begins to circulate in some parts of the world. The World Health Organization said Wednesday the rise in cases is primarily in the eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and western Pacific regions.
Airport screening in the United States has detected the new variant in travelers arriving from those regions to destinations in California, Washington state, Virginia and New York.
The new variant is called NB.1.8.1. It arrives as the United States’ official stance on COVID-19 vaccination is changing. On Tuesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that COVID-19 shots are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women — a move immediately questioned by several public health experts.
About health insurance/insurers
States providing Medicaid coverage to undocumented immigrants could face $92B in penalties: States that extend Medicaid coverage to individuals without legal status will receive fewer federal Medicaid dollars if budget legislation passed by the House of Representatives is finalized, according to KFF.
The legislation would reduce federal Medicaid funding matches to 80% instead of 90% for states that extend coverage to individuals regardless of immigration status. Currently, 14 states and the District of Columbia provide Medicaid coverage to undocumented children, and seven states extend coverage to undocumented adults.
The top-ranked commercial health plans for member experience | 2025 FYI
Healthcare billing fraud: 10 recent cases Note not only the type of fraud but that they involved federal programs.
About pharma
7 top pharmas posted revenue declines in Q1. The common thread? All are US firms FYI
About the public’s health
Moderna reports early immunogenicity data for bird flu jab as HHS pulls funding: Moderna is facing another setback from the vaccine-sceptical Trump administration, with the company disclosing Wednesday that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has cancelled over $760 million in funding to develop vaccines for pre-pandemic influenzas — including bird flu.
"After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable," remarked HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon. "The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public."
The announcement came in conjunction with an interim data readout from Moderna's 300-person Phase I/II trial of its H5 avian influenza vaccine, mRNA-1018.
More than 97% of participants who received two doses of the experimental vaccine had haemagglutination inhibition (HAI) antibody titres ≥1:40 — the level considered to be protective — at three weeks after the second vaccination. About 2% of individuals had protective levels of HAI antibodies at baseline.
In addition, mRNA-1018 was generally well-tolerated, with most adverse reactions being either Grade 1 or 2, and no dose-limiting tolerability concerns. Moderna plans to present additional data at an upcoming scientific meeting.
Comment: Another HHS political pronouncement masquerading as scientifically reasoned.