Public Health

This first edition of the Health Misinformation Monitor explores misinformation about raw milk amid bird flu outbreaks on dairy farms, false vaccine narratives that continue to spread, and legal challenges against abortion pill reversal claims. Additionally, a growing number of states have required public schools to show fetal development videos that some have called biased and inaccurate. This Monitor report also provides a snapshot of new KFF misinformation polling on TikTok and discusses the early challenges faced by The World Health Organization’s new AI tool SARAH in providing accurate answers to health questions.

As bird flu continues to circulate among animals in the U.S. with some human cases, about six in 10 (58%) people overall have at least “a fair amount” of trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide reliable information about bird flu, though only 21% have…

As bird flu continues to spread among animals in the U.S., KFF’s Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust finds that the public is more concerned about its impact on food prices than potential health impacts. Trust in the CDC to provide information on bird flu is also divided along partisan lines, and a large share of the public is uncertain about public health agencies’ recommendations for preventing infection.

Between 8 and 24 million people across the U.S. could be disenrolled from Medicaid during the unwinding of the program’s continuous enrollment provision. KFF’s new analysis offers three illustrative scenarios for how state-level Medicaid enrollment could decline between March 2023 and May 2024, ranging from 8 percent to 28 percent of total enrollees. 

A new KFF analysis finds that between 8 and 24 million people across the U.S. could be disenrolled from Medicaid during the unwinding of the program’s continuous enrollment provision. The estimates draw on data collected through KFF’s recent survey of state Medicaid and CHIP officials, conducted with the Georgetown University…

Medicaid enrollment increased since the start of the pandemic, primarily due to the continuous enrollment provision. KFF estimates that between 8 million and 24 million people will lose Medicaid coverage during the unwinding of the continuous enrollment provision. The Medicaid continuous enrollment provision stopped “churn” among Medicaid enrollees. States approaches…

This brief provides an overview of the impact of mpox in the U.S. one year after a case of was identified domestically and the federal response to date, and discusses the future outlook.

Funding from CDC has been a major source of support for public health programs across the U.S., but CDC is now being targeted for budget cuts by the Trump administration. To better understand how much CDC funding is provided to state and local jurisdictions, we analyzed FY 2023 funding data from CDC and present findings about much funding was provided to state and local jurisdictions, what types of public health activities were supported with this funding, and how the funding was distributed across states and regions of the U.S.

With so many Americans dying, and so many more suffering severe economic hardship, it’s hard to look over the horizon at the larger questions the COVID-19 crisis will bring. The current emergency requires everyone’s attention 24/7. But an emerging set of questions will fall right in the bailiwick of the health…

This Monitor covers how fears about fluoride as a neurotoxin are impacting public health and how trust in food safety is eroding following the USDA’s disbandment of two food safety panels. It also discusses approaches to addressing false information and the accuracy of AI chatbots compared to search engines.