Jessie Hellmann

Amid measles outbreak, Trump pulls funding for vaccines - Roll Call The Trump administration clawed back $12 billion in grants for state and local health departments, leading to vaccine clinic cancellations.

Public health departments are laying off staff and cancelling vaccine clinics after the Trump administration prematurely pulled billions of dollars in funding

rollcall.com/2025/04/04/a...

Updated just now. Six pages so far. The breadth of destruction is staggering.

White House halts long-running HIV research network for youth - Roll Call The termination of grant funding will impact seven clinical trials that aimed to improve the health of youth.

Now no one is doing that research. This comes at a time of rising congenital syphilis rates. “Without that data, men have access to that product but women don’t," said a researcher I spoke with.
rollcall.com/2025/03/26/w...

The Trump admin terminated NIH grant funding for a long-running research network that studied HIV in adolescents.

One of the immediate impacts of this is a cancelled study to examine whether an antibiotic currently only approved for men to prevent STDs can also work in women.

Trump cancels NIH grants on equity research - Roll Call Grantees were told that diversity, equity and inclusion studies "are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race.”

The Trump admin is canceling NIH grants it deems to be "DEI" related. Mostly health equity grants, including one that studied maternal mortality in Black women, and a slew of HIV grants.

rollcall.com/2025/03/24/t...

NIH Ends Future Funding to Study the Health Effects of Climate Change It’s unclear whether the guidance will impact active grants, but it appears to halt opportunities for future studies. One climate health expert said the directive would have a “devastating” impact on ...

NEW: It’s unclear whether new NIH guidance will impact active grants, but it appears to halt opportunities for future funding of studies focused on the health effects of climate change.

One climate health expert called the directive “catastrophic.”

@anniewaldman.bsky.social/@fastlerner.bsky.social

Trump cancels NIH grants on equity research - Roll Call Grantees were told that diversity, equity and inclusion studies "are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race.”

The Trump admin is canceling NIH grants it deems to be "DEI" related. Mostly health equity grants, including one that studied maternal mortality in Black women, and a slew of HIV grants.

rollcall.com/2025/03/24/t...

Trump’s policies threaten his 2019 vow to end HIV, experts say - Roll Call Trump's second term has included pauses to HIV public awareness campaigns and the cancellation of at least 20 grants funding HIV research.

My story about how the Trump administration is undermining its own 2019 initiative to end the HIV epidemic in the US

rollcall.com/2025/03/19/t...

Thank you @stephanienolen.bsky.social for writing this, “Despite being fully treatable, tuberculosis claimed 1.25 million lives in 2023, the last year for which data is available…The main TB research effort, testing new diagnostics and therapies, has been terminated.”

After Trump’s inauguration, a dramatic halt to LGBTQ+ research - Roll Call The Trump administration has dramatically dialed back research into LGBTQ+ health, and researchers say the impact has been dramatic.

My story about how Trump is canceling LGBTQ+ research grants at NIH and how that's a wild departure from historical norms:

rollcall.com/2025/03/07/a...

After Trump’s inauguration, a dramatic halt to LGBTQ+ research - Roll Call The Trump administration has dramatically dialed back research into LGBTQ+ health, and researchers say the impact has been dramatic.

My story about how Trump is canceling LGBTQ+ research grants at NIH and how that's a wild departure from historical norms:

rollcall.com/2025/03/07/a...

While President Trump talks about childhood cancer at the faux SOTU, it’s a fact that billions of dollars in research funding has been frozen at NIH and staff who support researchers have been fired.

Looking for sources who can talk about how HIV care and research in the US might be impacted by Trump’s executive orders and actions on DEI and gender. Hoping to talk to service providers, researchers, people with lived experiences, etc. DMs open!

Can also me DM me on here or email: jessie.hellmann@cqrollcall.com

I'm working on a story about how the Trump administration's EOs on DEI could impact federal funding of research on health disparities & health equity. If you're a researcher whose work has been impacted by this or you fear if might be, I'd love to chat. I can keep you anonymous. Signal:jshellmann.18

Death is not the only outcome that matters when it comes to infectious disease. In the TX measles outbreak, 16 people have been hospitalized so far, which can be traumatizing for kids and financially destructive for their parents. Measles can also cause a variety of adverse outcomes such as…

Some NIH study sections will resume reviewing grants, but final funding decisions are still in limbo While some NIH study sections will resume, advisory council meetings, which make final funding decisions, seem to still be held up.

NEW: Some study sections resuming, but damage accrues. The resumption of some study sections is the latest twist in a whiplash-inducing four weeks of unprecedented delays that have left researchers reeling and already held up an estimated $1.5 billion in new funding. www.statnews.com/2025/02/24/s...

reminder: Medicaid expansion was approved by Idaho voters in 2018 with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Hi Jane, I'm a health care reporter with CQ Roll Call in DC and would love to chat with you about all of this. Could you shoot me a DM? Or I'm on signal at jshellmann.18 or email: jessie.hellmann@cqrollcall.com.

Apple’s $500 Billion U.S. Investment Is Mostly Already in the Books The U.S. expansion plan is in line with the company’s spending pattern and its efforts to diversify manufacturing away from China.

WSJ did a back of the envelope calculation and figured Apple’s $500B US spending announcement is basically what it would have spent anyway, but packaged it as an appeasement gift to Trump. Brilliant. www.wsj.com/tech/apples-...

Future of cancer coverage for women federal firefighters uncertain under Trump Biden's Labor Department added ovarian, uterine, cervical, and breast cancer coverage for wildland firefighters. It’s unclear whether the new protections will stick under Trump.

"At first glance, we were ecstatic... And then we're like, 'Well, where are all the female cancers?'"
19thnews.org/2025/02/canc...

For families with sick kids, the rise of vaccine hesitancy could be life-threatening Some parents are concerned about the recent confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has a history of anti-vaccine views, to oversee the nation’s health department.

For parents of kids and adult children with immunocompromised systems, the consequences of fewer people vaccinating themselves and their children could be life-threatening.

It’s hard to describe simply the Medicaid cuts in the House budget plan, but the short answer is they're big.

The Energy and Commerce Committee has to produce at least $880 billion in cuts in its jurisdiction. Medicaid isn’t the only program, but it’s by far the biggest.

How a Decades-Old Loophole Lets Billionaires Avoid Medicare Taxes Some of Wall Street’s richest and most powerful figures are using a legal loophole to avoid paying millions of dollars in taxes earmarked for health care, a ProPublica investigation found.

Billionaires are using a loophole to avoid Medicare taxes. Closing it — and eliminating other ways around the tax for wealthy business owners — could raise more than $250 billion over 10 years for the program.

(Published Dec. 2024)

Graduate student admissions paused and cut back as universities react to Trump orders on research In response to Trump science policies, universities are accepting fewer graduate students than normal and freezing positions, STAT has learned.

NEW: Trump actions on science may affect a generation as pauses + cuts in graduate admissions begin. “We had just flown them out, we told them we love you, we want to admit you, and then everything just stopped." "It's freezing everybody into inaction."
www.statnews.com/2025/02/19/t...

After the Trump administration was required to restore health websites, this disclaimer appears on top of targethiv.org

It's difficult to reconcile President Trump's vow to "love and cherish" Medicaid with his endorsement of the House budget that could cut over $800 billion from the program. Cuts of that magnitude go well beyond eliminating fraud and abuse.

Courts Try To Curb Health Cuts - KFF Health News Some of the Trump administration’s dramatic funding and policy shifts are facing major pushback for the first time — not from Congress, but from the courts. Federal judges around the country are attem...

on this week's #WTHealth podcast: The courts push back on Trump actions, plus budget battles on Capitol Hill, with @shefali.bsky.social, @jessiehellmann.bsky.social, and Maya Goldman. Plus a chat w/Mark McClellan on NIH grants.
kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

The Courts Blocked Trump’s Federal Funding Freeze. Agencies Are Withholding Money Anyway. Agencies continue to suspend funding, despite multiple court orders blocking the federal freeze. Experts say the Trump administration’s actions set the stage for challenges to Congress’ authority — an...

“If it’s not there,” Leach said of the federal money that covers the salaries for 40% of her staff, “things get really bad, really fast.”

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

Analysis | The White House’s wildly inaccurate claims about USAID spending Eleven out of 12 claims about the agency’s work are misleading, wrong or lack context.

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