Healthcare & Policy News
Reporting on health care policy, insurance coverage, and federal health programs. Includes news updates and conservative commentary from The Daily Signal.
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news
GOP Lawmakers Question CDC Mask Guidance for Kids
Thirty-two Republican members of Congress have written to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking how the agency came to its conclusion that children 2 years of age and older should wear face masks against the coronavirus when in public and around people who don’t live in their household. The lawmakers,… -
opinion
Sin of Planned Parenthood Is Abortion, Not Margaret Sanger
The president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Alexis McGill Johnson, has used The New York Times as a confessional to fess up to the racist history of Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger. “We must reckon with Margaret Sanger’s association with white supremacist groups and eugenics,” she writes. Sanger’s involvement with the notoriously racist eugenics… -
opinion
Biden Administration’s Rank Partisanship Won’t Cancel Trump’s Vaccine Accomplishments
President Joe Biden has been taking a bit of a victory lap lately. He is telling the nation that we will have enough vaccine supply for every adult by the end of May and that his administration is on track to meet his stated goal of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days. According… -
news
Democrats Come to Defense of Gov. Rick DeSantis After ‘60 Minutes’ Segment on COVID-19 Vaccine
Republicans and Democrats alike say they’re horrified by how “60 Minutes” portrayed actions to fight COVID-19 taken by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. On Sunday night, “60 Minutes” aired an edited exchange with DeSantis implying that the Republican governor favored grocery store chain Publix with coronavirus vaccines because Publix had donated to his campaign. The Daily… -
opinion
European Defense Spending Still Rising, but COVID-19 Poses Retrenching Risk
Defense budgets in Europe have thus far weathered the coronavirus pandemic surprisingly well. While that’s good news, it’s no time to become complacent. As the economic impact of the pandemic comes more clearly into focus over the next few years, maintaining defense spending will require sustained political will. The recently released NATO Secretary-General’s Annual Report… -
news
US Grant to Wuhan Lab on Bat-Based Coronaviruses Didn’t Get Review, NIH Says
An oversight board created to scrutinize research that would enhance highly dangerous pathogens did not review a National Institutes of Health grant that funded a lab in Wuhan, China, to genetically modify bat-based coronaviruses. Experts say the NIH grant describes scientists as conducting gain-of-function research, a risky area of study that, in this case, made… -
opinion
Meet Hair Salon Owner Who Went to Jail for Opening During COVID-19 Lockdown
Shelley Luther made national news at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic when she was arrested and jailed for a week in the spring of 2020 for reopening her North Dallas, Texas, salon contrary to the county’s stay-at-home edict. “You get a lot of moments of silence by yourself,” Luther said of her week in… -
opinion
My Friend Was Pressured to Have an Abortion After Scan Showed Chance of Disability
Every day in America, pregnant women sit in their doctors’ offices, waiting for scan results. These mothers—no matter their age, race, or economic backgrounds—all hope to hear the same news: that their baby is healthy and growing right on track. Hearing the all-clear, these moms can rejoice and continue with their medical appointments. However, for… -
news
US Joins 13 Other Democracies in Condemning China’s Influence on WHO’s Report on Origins of Coronavirus
The State Department issued a joint statement with 13 other democracies expressing concerns over the World Health Organization’s study with China investigating the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Together, we support a transparent and independent analysis and evaluation, free from undue influence, of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the State Department's statement read. “In this regard,… -
opinion
Abortion Industry Puts Its Cruel Paws on Pet Dogs
The abortion industry has done some stupid things over the years—like putting forceps on its Christmas trees, fundraising on Mother’s Day, opening abortion “spas,” hosting condom art contests, and offering Black Friday deals—but NARAL’s latest “#ProChoicePup” hashtag is so ridiculous that The Babylon Bee had to clarify that it’s not satire. “In news that should surprise no one, the abortion industry is… -
opinion
Trump Critics Who Called Vaccine Timetable Reckless Now Say It’s Reckless Not to Take Vaccines
Dr. Anthony Fauci wants former President Donald Trump to tell his supporters to take the COVID-19 vaccine. It is true that a March 2021 NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found that 47% of Trump 2020 supporters said they would not get vaccinated. It is also true that Trump has urged Americans to take the vaccine. He called… -
news
Ex-CDC Director Says He Believes Coronavirus Leaked From Wuhan Lab
Dr. Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cast doubt on the prevalent theory about the origins of the coronavirus, saying in an interview released Friday that he believes the virus escaped from a science lab in China. “I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a… -
opinion
The Racist Sound of ‘Whiteness Is a Pandemic’
The Root is obviously a hyperbolically racial magazine, since its slogan is “The Blacker the Content the Sweeter the Truth.” It’s not surprising that The Root frequently publishes writer Damon Young, author of the memoir “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker.” We’re told he asked important and dramatic questions like “Will this white person’s… -
opinion
Trump’s Tax Cuts Worked. Tax Hikes Now Will Kneecap Economic Recovery From COVID-19.
Three years after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took effect, Democrats in Congress are ready to roll back some of the most critical reforms. The business tax cuts have been maligned as contrary to the interests of workers. In reality, the corporate tax cut succeeded at allowing new business investment, creating jobs, raising wages,… -
opinion
How Robust Education Marketplace Could Combat Learning Loss From COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic drastically changed K-12 education, as U.S. public and private schools complied with state-mandated closures a year ago. As of January, 72% of the nation’s 56.4 million schoolchildren were learning in remote or hybrid models, according to a nationally representative survey of families. Amid ongoing calls from special-interest groups for continued school closures… -
news
As More Schools Reopen, CDC Now Says Students Can Sit Just 3 Feet Apart
As more schools around the country move toward reopening, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidance Friday, saying that K-12 students may sit 3 feet apart instead of 6 feet—as long as they wear masks. That’s regardless of whether the children are in “areas of low, moderate, or substantial community transmission” of… -
news
Read the Paul-Fauci Exchange About Wearing Masks After Vaccination
During a Senate hearing Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul and Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sparred over whether masks should be used after a person has received a COVID-19 vaccine. Here’s a transcript of their exchange, which occurred during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing: Rand… -
news
Senate Narrowly Confirms Xavier Becerra to Lead Health and Human Services
The Senate narrowly confirmed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Thursday to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Becerra, who also previously served in the House of Representatives, was confirmed 50-49, with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joining Democrats in voting for him. The vote was the closest of any of President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees so… -
opinion
Team Biden Spreads Fake News About Trump Vaccine Record
Team Biden has a persistent lying problem when it comes to the Trump administration’s supposedly terrible record with the coronavirus vaccine. You could see it again in a March 11 prime-time NBC News coronavirus special, “COVID One Year Later: Life After Lockdown.” On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, anchorman Lester Holt suggested to White… -
opinion
More Children 14 and Under Are Murdered Than Die of COVID-19
American children 14 years and younger are more likely to be murdered than to die because of COVID-19, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Jan. 12, the federal agency’s National Center for Health Statistics published its final report on the death data for the United States in 2018….