Are you a nurse going on strike? Did you travel to New York City to fill in during the strike? Do you have a loved one hospitalized at one of the impacted facilities? I want to hear about your experience! I can keep you anonymous if need be. Reach out to mayakaufman.11 on Signal.

BREAKING: @nynurses.bsky.social announces the start of the "largest nurse strike in New York City history," with nearly 15,000 nurses walking out this morning at Montefiore, New York-Presbyterian and Mount Sinai facilities.

One individual briefed on the negotiations told POLITICO there has been so little back and forth on core economic issues, such as wages, that they believe a strike appears increasingly inevitable. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

BREAKING: @nynurses.bsky.social announces full, tentative contract agreements with 4 safety-net hospitals where they previously rescinded strike notices. - Interfaith (part of One Brooklyn Health) - Kingsbrook Jewish (part of One Brooklyn Health) - Flushing Hospital - Maimonides

NEWS: Nurses at 5 hospitals in New York City have called off a potential strike as they settle new @nynurses.bsky.social contracts. - Interfaith (part of One Brooklyn Health) - Kingsbrook Jewish (part of One Brooklyn Health) - Maimonides - Wyckoff Heights - Richmond University Medical Center

The New York State Department of Health @nysdoh.bsky.social announces the state is experiencing the highest number of flu hospitalizations (4,546) recorded in a single week. That's 1,000 more flu hospitalizations than the prior week.

Lots of Eric Adams political obits landing this week as his one term as NYC's mayor comes to an end. But you really should read this by my POLITICO colleague Joe Anuta. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...

Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign a bill expanding New York's legal protections for gender-affirming care providers and patients, @bradhoylmansigal.bsky.social tells POLITICO Pro. subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

NEW: In an interview w/ me, new chair of ACIP says they are planning to vote on ending practice of vaccinating all newborns for hepatitis B and to examine whether childhood immunization schedule is behind rise of allergies and autoimmune disorders. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

RELEASE: NewsGuild journalists are sounding the alarm – media companies are undermining public trust with unethical AI in the newsroom. Today, we launch #NewsNotSlop, a national campaign kicking off a Week of Action on AI, December 1–5. newsguild.org/release-stan...

A neutral arbiter agrees: @politico.com violated our contract and its own journalistic standards when it deployed AI. Our readers deserve news, not slop! wbng.org/2025/12/01/p...

Exciting news: my union @pen-guild.bsky.social won our fight to hold management accountable for rolling out AI tools with no notice & for failing to hold the bots to the same standards all of us humans must follow — in violation of the contract they agreed to. A neutral arbiter said we were right!

NEW with @ruthreader.bsky.social: Nearly as many migrants have died in custody so far this year than over the 4 yrs of the Biden admin. ICE is hiring dozens more medical workers, but former insiders are skeptical the deaths will stop w/o more fundamental reforms. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Gov. Hochul vetoed a @jamesskoufis.bsky.social @johnmcdonald108.bsky.social bill to require insurers to reimburse pharmacists for patient consultations on birth control, saying it would burden insurers with "significant" new costs and raise premiums. But NY's insurance lobby hadn't taken a stance.

Gov. Hochul vetoed a @jamesskoufis.bsky.social @johnmcdonald108.bsky.social bill to require insurers to reimburse pharmacists for patient consultations on birth control, saying it would burden insurers with "significant" new costs and raise premiums. But NY's insurance lobby hadn't taken a stance.

My colleagues in POLITICO's New York bureau worked hard to put together this important piece of accountability reporting — please make some time to read it.

The Trump admin wouldn't tell us who's being deployed to Indian Health Service facilities. But we discovered top leaders at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration were sent on the 120-day stints — potentially disrupting programs targeting the opioid epidemic.

The Trump admin's recent warnings against pregnant women taking Tylenol, Covid shots and antidepressants clash with the mainstream medical consensus. But they also highlight a dangerous data vacuum -- one that's gotten worse since the fall of Roe v. Wade. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

Interesting catch here: ACIP did not specifically vote on whether the shot should be administered during pregnancy, yet the vote appears to encompass pregnant women, according to an update this month on the CDC website that reflects the new guidance. www.politico.com/news/2025/10...

The Trump admin wouldn't tell us who's being deployed to Indian Health Service facilities. But we discovered top leaders at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration were sent on the 120-day stints — potentially disrupting programs targeting the opioid epidemic.

NEW: RFK transferred 70 public health officers to work for four months at far-flung Indian Health Service sites. Though the help is desperately needed, the deployment threatens to disrupt vital disease tracking and harm reduction work. www.politico.com/news/2025/10... w/ @mayakaufman.bsky.social

NEWS: The federal govt is sending NYC’s top disease control official to Arizona for a months-long stint at an Indian Health Service facility. That could complicate local infectious disease response efforts. “If we have an outbreak, then we’re fucked,” a city health department staffer told me.

Help us continue this reporting! We're looking for more information on who else is being deployed to IHS. Tips are confidential. @altcdc.altgov.info

"The federal government is sending New York City’s [federal point person] head of disease control to Arizona for a sudden 120-day assignment with the Indian Health Service, scrambling the Department of Health’s support system for outbreak response." -- subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2025...

NEWS: The federal govt is sending NYC’s top disease control official to Arizona for a months-long stint at an Indian Health Service facility. That could complicate local infectious disease response efforts. “If we have an outbreak, then we’re fucked,” a city health department staffer told me.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul got the latest COVID vaccine at an independent pharmacy in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan, highlighting her recent executive order authorizing pharmacists to administer it.

New from me: The NY Attorney General’s Office is investigating politically influential law firm Abrams Fensterman over its debt collection practices for nursing homes. (The firm says there is “no fraud or illegality to investigate.”) www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

BREAKING, from NY Playbook PM: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will sign an executive order allowing pharmacists to prescribe and administer Covid vaccines to New Yorkers who request them.

States are increasingly forging their own paths on public health, especially on vaccines. My colleague Katelyn and I keep asking NY's Health Department about their plans. (e.g., Will they ease access to the latest Covid shot?) We can't get a concrete answer, let alone an interview.

The Trump administration has refused to say how many workers have been lost. My @propublica.org colleagues did the analysis & here, in unprecedented detail, is what they found: In total, 20,500+ workers — 18% of the Department of Health and Human Services’ workforce — have left or been pushed out.

Big scoop by my colleague @jccoltin.bsky.social and a good reminder to sign up to get New York Playbook in your inbox — it’s free! www.politico.com/newsletters/...

NEWS: @1199seiu.org voted today to endorse @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social for mayor.

Per a new Health Affairs analysis, 20 New York hospitals lost obstetric services between 2010 and 2022, leaving 39.8% of hospitals statewide without obstetrics.

TODAY: PEN Guild heads to arbitration over POLITICO’s contract-breaking use of AI. This fight could set the standard for how AI is used in newsrooms across the country. ✍️ Sign our petition and help us go into arbitration with full support: bit.ly/PENGuild

BREAKING: Six leading medical organizations filed a lawsuit on Monday against Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, and the health dept, charging that recent decisions limiting access to vaccines were unscientific and harmful to the public. (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/h...

Show your support by signing our petition! 🙌🏻 actionnetwork.org/petitions/ai...

We’re taking @politico.com to arbitration this week for its unethical use of AI and we’re asking for your support! bit.ly/PENGuild

BREAKING: NYC Mayor Eric Adams will not move forward with Medicare Advantage for retired city workers, a contentious cost-cutting plan that has been in the works since 2021.

NEWS via @politico.com: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is preparing to endorse the mayoral bid of his old nemesis, Andrew Cuomo. The two men met Monday to discuss the race, according to someone familiar with the outreach. www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

The Supreme Court gave Trump permission yesterday to strip legal status from half a million immigrants. Tens of thousands of them work in health care. "t’s going to affect the whole health care system, and I fear the quality of care will be poor.” www.politico.com/news/2025/05...

We're proud our AI agreement has safeguards for journalists jobs-and company ethics, to allow AI use in a way that works for us, not against us. @politico.com already agreed that AI-generated content should be subject to the same standards as human-written articles. It needs to follow the contract

New York-Presbyterian plans to lay off 2 percent of its workforce. “The magnitude of what’s happening at the federal level plus the magnitude, quite frankly, of our loss of volumes across the board has mandated that we need to take this action,” CEO Steven J. Corwin said in a message to employees.

With NIH director Jayanta Bhattacharya dismissing my reporting as "false" and "spreading rumors" hours before releasing a policy that confirmed said "rumors," I feel compelled to respond. Here's an inside look into how this story was reported. It was a weird one. 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

NEWS: Longtime labor leader George Gresham was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for reelection as @1199seiu.org president, according to election results circulated overnight.

The votes for @1199seiu.org's leadership elections are in, and the opposition slate, 1199 Members First, won big. Yvonne Armstrong will become 1199's new President; Veronica Turner-Biggs will be Secretary-Treasurer. Very big news, first reported by @mayakaufman.bsky.social (x.com/mayakauf/sta...).

NEWS: Health care union @1199seiu.org endorses Andrew Cuomo for New York City mayor. Union president George Gresham: "At a time when our city is facing enormous challenges, we need leaders with the experience and vision to deliver real results." www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

ICYMI: Labor leader George Gresham has for years used 1199SEIU funds to benefit himself, his family and political allies, a nine-month @politico.com investigation found. In some cases, Gresham bypassed officers tasked with signing off on major expenses. www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

NEW: The House Committee on Education and the Workforce asked the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate “improper financial practices” by the union 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, citing my recent reporting. www.politico.com/news/2025/04... .

NEW: My colleagues obtained a document laying out the Trump administration’s plan to slash federal health budgets. It would eliminate all of the CDC’s chronic disease programs and domestic HIV work. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...