It’s the Midday Healthwatch, our monthly series of conversations with former Baltimore City Health Commissioner and Washington Post columnist, Dr. Leana Wen.
Flu cases are up here in Maryland and around the country. And the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, is reporting more than 2,000 cases of measles in 44 jurisdictions around the country, more cases than at any time in the last 34 years.
Yesterday, in an unprecedented move, the CDC dropped the number of vaccines it recommends for children.
Last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced rules that punish hospitals that offer gender-affirming care for people dealing with gender dysphoria, and President Trump signed an executive order that re-scheduled marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug to a Schedule 3 drug.
In her column in the Washington Post, Dr. Wen wrote about a new study’s sobering conclusion about marijuana’s effectiveness and safety in medical treatment.
In response to allegations of fraud in daycare centers in Minnesota, HHS announced last week it was freezing grants made available to parents through the Child Care and Development Fund in five states controlled by Democrats.
Yesterday, HHS announced it would rescind a series of Biden-era rules around the Child Care Fund, which supports making childcare more affordable for low-income families.
As of last week, Americans in five states who receive SNAP benefits will not be allowed to purchase soda, candy, and other foods with those benefits. As many as 18 states are considering similar restrictions. Maryland is not among them.
And as we enter the new year, lots of people will be trying to lose weight, and to help with those resolutions, they’ll turn to GLP-1 drugs that go by names like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro. Researchers have been testing these drugs for purposes other than weight loss.
Dr. Wen is a board-certified emergency room physician and former Baltimore City health commissioner. She is a columnist for the Washington Post, a professor at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, and the author of the book Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health.
Dr. Wen joins us on Zoom.
You're welcome to join the conversation, too!
If you have questions for Dr. Wen about public health issues, email us at [email protected] or call Midday's live Listener Line at 410.662.8780.
