4 takeaways from Trump’s health agency nominations President-elect Trump’s team to lead the nation’s health agencies is rapidly coming together.   Trump first tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HH… kwadington The Hill

...Almost all have been highly critical of the agencies they would run if confirmed, and experts say the nominees represent a complete overhaul of the vision and priorities of key agencies for health care and public health.

Here are four takeaways:

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Lungs might hold clues to long COVID brain fog - UPI.com The "brain fog" of long COVID might be due to impaired lung function following a person's infection, a new study says. UPI

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Reduced gas exchange in the lungs -- oxygen coming in, carbon dioxide going out -- appears to be associated with brain fog in long COVID, researchers will report in Chicago at next week's annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

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Study: No unexpected COVID vaccine safety concerns in kids Postvaccination reactions were reported for 47% of children. CIDRAP

A new research letter published yesterday in JAMA Network Open shows no new safety concerns or reactogenicity signals among babies and toddlers who received their first COVID-19 vaccines by the age of 2.

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Trump picks Jay Bhattacharya, who backed COVID herd immunity, to lead National Institutes of Health President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. AP News

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Is there enough land on Earth to fight climate change and feed the world? An MIT-led study shows that there is enough land to support efforts to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius while addressing competing needs for long-term food security and ecosystem health. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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The team finds that with transformative changes in policy, land management practices, and consumption patterns, global land is sufficient to provide a sustainable supply of food and ecosystem services throughout this century while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with the 1.5 C goal.

Biden proposes Medicare and Medicaid cover costly weight-loss drugs for millions of obese Americans Millions of obese Americans would be eligible to have popular weight-loss drugs like Wegovy or Zepbound covered by Medicare or Medicaid under a new rule the Biden administration proposed Tuesday morning. AP News

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Long COVID patients push to see federal research refocused on treatments The federal government has allocated $1.15 billion so far on long COVID research, without bringing any new treatments to market. Patients and scientists say it's time to push harder for breakthroughs. NPR

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Raw milk from a California dairy is recalled after routine testing detected the bird flu virus State health officials say the bird flu virus was detected in a retail sample of raw milk from a dairy in Fresno, California. AP News

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Pasteurized milk remains safe to drink, the department said.

How Can Government Build Resilience in the Face of Crises? - HS Today Since the turn of the millennium, pandemics, heat waves, wildfires, floods, cyberattacks, supply chain interruptions, and other crises have deeply stressed governments, communities, businesses, and individuals around the world. HSToday

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COVID update: Map reveals state with "very high" wastewater viral activity "Very high" levels of the virus were detected in New Mexico, with "high" levels in Arizona, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. Newsweek

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SARS-CoV-2 levels were found by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to be "very high" in New Mexico for the period November 10 to November 16, 2024, and "high" in Arizona, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.