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Jessie Hellmann

@jessiehellmann.bsky.social
723 followers 1.4K following 30 posts

Health care reporter with CQ Roll Call

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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
If you missed my first story, you can read it here: rollcall.com/2026/04/27/d... I have found it incredibly rewarding to talk to people cured of hep C about how it changed their lives. More stories to come!
rollcall.com
Deadly liver disease, rooted out elsewhere, retains grip on US
​It was hailed as a “triumph of 21st century medicine” — a daily pill that cures a life-threatening liver disease in a matter of weeks with minimal side effects and a success rate of more than 95 perc...
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
All in all, it's a weird time to get public health spending through Congress. I haven't even gotten into reemerging policies that will harm people who inject drugs, the primary group of people impacted by hep C. That will come in future stories.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
rollcall.com/2026/04/27/i...
rollcall.com
Immigration debate, upfront costs are hurdles for hepatitis C bill
Despite bipartisan agreement on the need for testing and treatment for the life-threatening liver disease hepatitis C, potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans remain untreated or even unaware t...
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
A key sticking point is cost: lawmakers have struggled to get bills through Congress that cost money up front but reduce costs in the long-term. This bill would do that. By expanding access to testing and treatment, you reduce the long-term costs of treating sicker people
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
But the bill from Sen. Cassidy has stalled in Congress. Despite bipartisan sponsors in the senate, it hasn’t received a committee hearing or a vote, as lawmakers focus on other priorities and broader partisan fights over health spending.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
The second story in my series on barriers to hepatitis C elimination in the U.S. focuses on legislative hurdles. A bill would do what other countries and some states already do: negotiate with drug companies to lower treatment costs and expand access to those who need it most.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
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...
rollcall.com
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.
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Updated just now. Six pages so far. The breadth of destruction is staggering.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
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...
rollcall.com
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.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
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.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
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...
rollcall.com
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.”
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 24/03/2025
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
propub.li
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 ...
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
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...
rollcall.com
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.”
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
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...
rollcall.com
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.
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Emma Smith @3mm4sm1th.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
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.”
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
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...
rollcall.com
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.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
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...
rollcall.com
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.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
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.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
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!
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
Can also me DM me on here or email: jessie.hellmann@cqrollcall.com
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
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
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
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…
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Usha Lee McFarling @usha.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
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...
statnews.com
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.
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Julie Rovner @julierovner.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
reminder: Medicaid expansion was approved by Idaho voters in 2018 with more than 60 percent of the vote.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
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.
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Rani Molla @rani.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
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-...
wsj.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.
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Emily Ramshaw @eramshaw.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
"At first glance, we were ecstatic... And then we're like, 'Well, where are all the female cancers?'" 19thnews.org/2025/02/canc...
19thnews.org
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.
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19thnews @19thnews.org · 20/02/2025
For parents of kids and adult children with immunocompromised systems, the consequences of fewer people vaccinating themselves and their children could be life-threatening.
19thnews.org
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.
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Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
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.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 19/02/2025
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)
propub.li
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.
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Usha Lee McFarling @usha.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
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...
statnews.com
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.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
After the Trump administration was required to restore health websites, this disclaimer appears on top of targethiv.org
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Larry Levitt @larrylevitt.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
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.
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Julie Rovner @julierovner.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
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...
kffhealthnews.org
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...
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Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak @alikodjak.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
“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...
propublica.org
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...
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Peter Sagal @petersagal.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
wapo.st/4ht6mU5
wapo.st
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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Edwin Park @edwincpark.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
The Modern Medicaid Alliance, a coalition of providers, health plans and advocacy organizations, urges Congressional leaders to drop efforts to cut #Medicaid and uphold Trump's recent promise to protect the program. modernmedicaid.org/pressrelease...
modernmedicaid.org
Health Care Leaders Urge Congress to Uphold President Trump’s Promise to Protect Medicaid Beneficiaries - Modern Medicaid Alliance
Washington, D.C. – Following President Trump’s statement this weekend that his administration is committed to protecting the Medicaid program and not undermining the millions of Americans who rely on ...
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Andy Kaczynski @kfile.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
NEW on CNN: Rubio spent years defending USAID/foreign aid as vital to US interests—arguing it was necessary to counter China. A CNN KFile review of Rubio’s Senate record show a decade of praise for USAID, including calling foreign aid “critical to our national security” . www.cnn.com/2025/02/05/p...
cnn.com
Rubio’s years of strong support for USAID stands in contrast to his sudden criticism of the aid agency | CNN Politics
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, newly in charge of the besieged US Agency for International Development, was for years a staunch supporter of its mission while in the US Senate, reversing his views on...
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Key physician groups have stayed silent on the nomination of RFK Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department. rollcall.com/2025/02/03/k...
rollcall.com
Key physician groups stay silent on Kennedy nomination  - Roll Call
The American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics have been silent on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nomination as HHS secretary.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Several databases at the #CDC have gone offline today. We know of some — Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, AtlasPlus. There are undoubtedly more. If you are a researcher & use these databases, please share with @statnews.com how this will affect your work. www.statnews.com/2025/01/25/t...
statnews.com
Are you affected by the Trump administration’s pause on health communications, science meetings, and reviews?
Have you been affected by the Trump administration’s pause on communications, science meetings, and reviews? @statnews would like to hear from you.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
#CDC staff have been instructed to remove pronouns from their email signatures by 5 pm today. This is part of the "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" Initiative.
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
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Jessie Hellmann @jessiehellmann.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
This is not even an answer to the question (From Kennedy's written responses to Senate Finance Committee members)
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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Non-answer answers are typical responses to questions for the record after confirmation hearings; department heads can't commit to policies without the President's direction But these are just wild www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
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Association of Health Care Journalists @healthjournalism.org · 31/01/2025
An urgent message from the nation's health journalists:
To Acting Secretary Fink and Acting Director Monarez:

We are writing on behalf of the 1,400 members of the Association of Health Care Journalists, to protest the removal of vital public health data from the CDC website, including survey results from the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System, the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, and AtlasPlus, an interactive CDC tool with years of data on social determinants of health and diseases including HIV, TB, and STDs.

These data are used by journalists every day to report stories about public health. 

At a time when the rise in chronic illnesses and harmful behaviors among young people is at the top of the national agenda, the YRBS data on smoking, vaping, drinking, eating, exercise, and sexual behavior are crucial for reporters trying to inform the public about these issues. The county-level Social Vulnerability Index data is important to inform reporting on communities’ resilience and ability to respond when faced with disasters such as wildfires and severe weather.

Even the temporary removal of such data will impair our members’ ability to give the public essential and timely health information. We request the immediate restoration of sites that have been taken down in recent days, and that the agency not take down other pages with critical health data.

Sincerely, 

Felice J. Freyer, president
Gideon Gil, vice president
Andrea Waner, interim executive director
Association of Health Care Journalists
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Adrianna McIntyre @adrianna.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Love a turn of phrase that makes me say "oh my god" aloud. "In response to Cassidy’s questions, Kennedy looked & sounded exactly like someone in a cold sweat nightmare trying to take an exam for a course he didn’t know he was enrolled in." @joannekenen.bsky.social www.politico.com/newsletters/...
politico.com
RFK Jr.’s rocky rollout
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Usha Lee McFarling @usha.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
Physicians and patients have been waiting years for the FDA to ask manufacturers to make pulse oximeters work on all skin tones. Just as they were making headway it looks like progress may now be stalled by anti-DEI initiatives. Great story by Erika Edwards. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
nbcnews.com
Trump's anti-DEI initiatives could hamper pulse oximeter research, doctors worry
The future of funding to study racial disparities is unknown, as the federal government appears to oppose diversity, equity and inclusion programs .
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Tara Haelle @tarahaelle.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
The #HPV #vaccine protects against 6 kinds of #cancer: cervical, vulvar, vaginal, anal, penile & head/neck/throat. Robert F. #Kennedy Jr's senate confirmation hearings for HHS Secretary begin today. Required reading on #RFK & HPV vaccine by @jessiehellmann.bsky.social
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How RFK Jr. drove mistrust of a cancer prevention vaccine - Roll Call
President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead HHS has a long history of discounting and peddling misinformation about the HPV vaccine.
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Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
BREAKING: The Trump administration has issued a waiver for lifesaving medicines and medical services, offering a reprieve for a worldwide H.I.V. treatment program that was halted last week. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/h...
nytimes.com
State Department Permits Distribution of H.I.V. Medications to Resume — for Now
Experts fear a resurgence of infections in low-income countries if the ban were to continue. The waiver remains in place, while officials review foreign aid programs.
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