The pilot, launched in January 2026 in 6 states, could reduce wasteful spending, but increases provider paperwork and risks patient access to necessary care.
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Kristi Noem faces intensifying public scrutiny over her leadership of the Department of Homeland Security. Criticism of the former South Dakota governor has focused on her handling of the killing of Alex Pretti by a federal immigration agent and her oversight of […]
The White House may have pulled the plug on U.S. participation in the World Health Organization, but that doesn’t mean that Americans have to.The Illinois Department of Public Health sidestepped the federal government this week by independently joining the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday. It is the second state to do so, after California joined the network last month.Illinois officials said the decision was made in part to keep the state informed on the latest global health data. “We knew this created serious concerns, really, in our effort as a big state in the United States to keep our awareness and [stay] alert about potential global outbreaks and how they could impact the residents here in the state of Illinois,” said Dr. Sameer Vohra, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, during a press conference. “Part of that was the fear that we would lose access to the WHO’s global surveillance system, which would really let us know about early warnings of outbreaks.”Vohra underscored that it was critical that Illinois remain up-to-date with accurate information about surging health threats around the world, citing the Marburg virus outbreak that appeared in Ethiopia last week.“This provides the real-time information to us,” Vohra said of GOARN. “Instead of waiting for the federal government to relay that, if and when that might happen, we’ll get direct access to that network of information.”The Trump administration completed the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO on January 22. In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services claimed that the global public health entity had failed not only in its efforts to address the Covid-19 pandemic but also to reform itself in the years since.
By Dan Dinello for Informed Comment Three thousand ICE maniacs invaded Minneapolis and rampaged through its streets, indiscriminately terrorizing immigrants and US citizens. Ordered by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to carry out Trump’s promise of “reckoning and retribution,” these masked, armed lunatics express a torrent of belligerence to everyone in sight, breaking windows, […]