https://www.scmp.com/rss/523100/feed The latest news and top stories on the US Department of Health and Human Services. A prominent Washington DC-based governmental body, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is dedicated to protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its main areas of focus include public health, biomedical research, disease prevention and administering major healthcare programmes like Medicare and Medicaid. HHS is a significant federal agency, overseeing... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse It was meant to be a glitzy Saturday night at a Washington ballroom featuring President Donald Trump, but the glamour was shattered by gunshots that left guests diving to the floor and the US leader bundled out by security personnel. Trump was seated on the dais at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner – the first time he is attending as president – when loud bangs disrupted the revelry and caused him and others on stage to look up in alarm. Video captured by news outlets... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3351450/how-gunfire-threw-trumps-glitzy-washington-hilton-dinner-chaos?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3351450/how-gunfire-threw-trumps-glitzy-washington-hilton-dinner-chaos?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Apr 2026 03:06:09 +0000 Ling Xin Ling Xin After 30 years in the United States, world-leading computational biologist Bao Zhirong has taken up a full-time position at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen. Bao, who pioneered imaging technologies that allow scientists to track the behaviour of individual cells in real time as organs form and diseases emerge, has been a chair professor at SUSTech’s life sciences school since January, according to his new faculty profile. He was previously at New York’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3343210/world-leading-computational-biology-pioneer-bao-zhirong-returns-china-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3343210/world-leading-computational-biology-pioneer-bao-zhirong-returns-china-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Feb 2026 01:00:12 +0000 SCMP Reporters SCMP Reporters Online retailers and a Hong Kong pharmacy are offering slimming injections without prescriptions despite local authorities requiring a doctor’s approval before purchase, a Post investigation has found, with an expert warning it could lead to misuse. Weight-loss injections, which have been approved by Hong Kong authorities for use, have become increasingly popular around the world and work by targeting hormones, reducing appetite and slowing down food digestion. In Hong Kong, such products are... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3341117/no-prescription-no-problem-hong-kongs-grey-zone-weight-loss-injections?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3341117/no-prescription-no-problem-hong-kongs-grey-zone-weight-loss-injections?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jan 2026 13:08:58 +0000 Ambrose Li Ambrose Li A business claiming to offer fetal gender testing is advertising for delivering blood samples from mainland China to Hong Kong as of Thursday, despite city health authorities warning that such services require prior approval, the Post has learned. According to its website, HK LongKang DNA can provide testing services from as early as four weeks of pregnancy with a 99.995 per cent accuracy rate. The company charges HK$3,000 (US$385) for testing at the six-week mark, with same-day appointments... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3340874/hong-kong-lab-still-offering-cross-border-gender-tests-despite-government-warning?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3340874/hong-kong-lab-still-offering-cross-border-gender-tests-despite-government-warning?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Jan 2026 11:55:42 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press Health tech gadgets displayed at the annual CES trade show make a lot of promises. A smart scale promoted a healthier lifestyle by scanning your feet to track your heart health, and an egg-shaped hormone tracker uses artificial intelligence to help you figure out the best time to conceive. Technology and health experts, however, question the accuracy of products like these and warn of data privacy issues – especially as the US federal government eases up on regulation. The US Food and Drug... https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339151/dose-uncertainty-experts-wary-ai-health-tech-gadgets-display-ces-trade-show?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/3339151/dose-uncertainty-experts-wary-ai-health-tech-gadgets-display-ces-trade-show?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jan 2026 06:34:32 +0000 Connor Mycroft Connor Mycroft The emergence of a so-called “super flu” has gripped global headlines, prompting authorities in Hong Kong to urge residents to get vaccinated. Amid the spate of infections, a local research team also found that 99 per cent of residents lacked sufficient antibodies needed to protect themselves from the new strain. With many people travelling for the Christmas holiday, the Post breaks down what the new super flu is, whether it is as dangerous as it sounds and what you can do to protect... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3337539/super-flu-spreads-worldwide-how-can-hongkongers-protect-against-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3337539/super-flu-spreads-worldwide-how-can-hongkongers-protect-against-it?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Dec 2025 14:00:01 +0000 Reuters Reuters US President Donald Trump said on Monday he is considering an executive order to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug - a decision that could reshape the cannabis industry, ease criminal penalties and unlock billions in research funding. The shift would represent one of the most significant federal changes to marijuana policy in decades, reducing oversight to the level of common prescription drugs and potentially opening doors long closed to banks and investors. “We are looking at that... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3336554/trump-considering-order-loosen-federal-marijuana-restrictions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3336554/trump-considering-order-loosen-federal-marijuana-restrictions?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:30:12 +0000 Khushboo Razdan Khushboo Razdan Yuanxin, a 6-year-old immigrant from China who was detained and separated from his father, Fei Zheng, over the Thanksgiving holiday in New York City, was finally allowed to speak with his parent by phone this past weekend. Jennie Spector, who has been supporting the family since July, described the call as a “very good development”. She said a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer at the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where Zheng is being held, made it... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3335815/chinese-boy-yuanxin-6-speaks-father-first-time-ice-detention?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3335815/chinese-boy-yuanxin-6-speaks-father-first-time-ice-detention?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Dec 2025 19:25:54 +0000 Khushboo Razdan Khushboo Razdan More than a week after US immigration authorities separated 6-year-old Yuanxin from his father during a routine check-in with ICE in New York, it has been confirmed that the child has been placed in the custody of the US Office of Refugee Resettlement. However, his location still remains unknown. The ORR, a federal agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, is almost always the agency that takes custody of immigrant children classified as unaccompanied or separated minors... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3335428/us-confirms-chinese-boy-federal-custody-his-whereabouts-remain-unknown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3335428/us-confirms-chinese-boy-federal-custody-his-whereabouts-remain-unknown?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Dec 2025 20:41:56 +0000 Reuters Reuters A group of vaccine advisers on Friday scrapped a long-standing recommendation that all US children receive the hepatitis B shot at birth, a major policy win for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jnr that disease experts say will reverse decades of public health gains. The committee voted to keep the birth dose only for infants whose mothers test positive for the virus, replacing the 1991 universal recommendation that has protected all children from hepatitis B infections, which can lead to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3335421/us-vaccine-advisers-say-not-all-newborns-need-hepatitis-b-shot-win-rfk-jnr?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3335421/us-vaccine-advisers-say-not-all-newborns-need-hepatitis-b-shot-win-rfk-jnr?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:00:03 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press John F. Kennedy’s granddaughter disclosed on Saturday that she has terminal cancer, writing in an essay in The New Yorker that one of her doctors said she might live for about another year. Tatiana Schlossberg, the daughter of Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, and Edwin Schlossberg, wrote that she was diagnosed in May 2024 at 34. After the birth of her second child, her doctor noticed her white blood cell count was high. It turned out to be acute myeloid leukaemia with a rare mutation,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3333821/jfks-granddaughter-says-she-has-terminal-cancer-criticises-cousin-rfk-jnr?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3333821/jfks-granddaughter-says-she-has-terminal-cancer-criticises-cousin-rfk-jnr?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Nov 2025 21:45:06 +0000 Natasha Rogai Natasha Rogai “I don’t want to hit people over the head and make them sorry they came to the concert,” Renee Fleming said with a smile, “But I do want a sort of collective ‘We love the planet.’” The American soprano was talking about Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, the title of her 2021 album and “Renee Fleming: Voice of Nature”, the concert she was performing in Hong Kong. At 66, Fleming has lost none of the beauty and glamour which, combined with her exquisite voice and dramatic ability, have made her... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3331809/soprano-singer-renee-fleming-voice-nature-how-music-good-your-health?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3331809/soprano-singer-renee-fleming-voice-nature-how-music-good-your-health?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Nov 2025 23:15:08 +0000 Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse Mercury, a fixture of dentistry for more than 175 years, is finally set for extinction. Countries around the world agreed on Friday to phase out the use of mercury-based dental amalgams by 2034 in a decisive step towards protecting human health from the toxic metal. At a conference in Geneva, signatories to the Minamata Convention on Mercury – aimed at protecting humans and the environment from mercury pollution – called time on mercury amalgams. Nations agreed “to end the use of dental amalgam... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3332022/no-more-mercury-your-mouth-toxic-metals-use-tooth-filling-end-2034?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3332022/no-more-mercury-your-mouth-toxic-metals-use-tooth-filling-end-2034?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Nov 2025 04:20:55 +0000 Reuters Reuters In some neighbourhoods of heavily Democratic Washington, Halloween displays with a decidedly political tone have long been a tradition. Nine months into Republican US President Donald Trump’s second term, some residents are staging anti-Trump yard displays prompted in part by his administration’s budget cuts, job lay-offs and norm-breaking policies. This Halloween also coincides with one of the longest government shutdowns in US history. In a front yard close to the US Capitol, Donna Breslin,... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3330976/washington-halloween-displays-show-scariest-thing-democrats-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3330976/washington-halloween-displays-show-scariest-thing-democrats-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Oct 2025 23:28:37 +0000 Leopold Chen Leopold Chen A Hong Kong biotechnology company behind a controversial human papillomavirus (HPV) screening method involving sanitary pads has said it will present its research to the government after authorities warned against using products that lacked scientific evidence. Dr Choi Pui-wah, the founder of WomenX Biotech, also said on Tuesday that the government’s dismissal of the technology would not dampen her view of Hong Kong as a destination for innovation. WomenX, the firm known for its sanitary pad... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3330646/hong-kong-biotech-firm-back-controversial-sanitary-pad-hpv-test-evidence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3330646/hong-kong-biotech-firm-back-controversial-sanitary-pad-hpv-test-evidence?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Oct 2025 10:37:07 +0000 Bloomberg Bloomberg US President Donald Trump proclaimed Charlie Kirk a “martyr for American freedom” in a memorial ceremony to commemorate the political activist as Erika Kirk said she forgave the man who gunned down her husband. “On that day, this evangelist for American liberty became immortal,” Trump said on Sunday before tens of thousands of mourners inside the State Farm stadium in Glendale, Arizona. “He’s a martyr now for American freedom.” Trump described how Kirk would ask him to fly across the country to... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3326322/trump-pays-tribute-charlie-kirk-tens-thousands-attend-memorial-service?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3326322/trump-pays-tribute-charlie-kirk-tens-thousands-attend-memorial-service?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Sep 2025 21:16:07 +0000 Danny Mok Danny Mok Hong Kong police have arrested three people for allegedly practising medicine without a licence at a Central cosmetic clinic after two women suffered from septic shock following anti-ageing intravenous injections. The women, both 57, were hospitalised after undergoing infusion treatments at a clinic named Bioscor Hong Kong in Crawford House on Queen’s Road Central, the Department of Health said on Thursday. The women reportedly received infusions containing nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), a... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3326042/3-held-hong-kong-after-anti-ageing-shots-clinic-leave-2-women-seriously-ill?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3326042/3-held-hong-kong-after-anti-ageing-shots-clinic-leave-2-women-seriously-ill?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Sep 2025 15:43:11 +0000 Amalissa Hall Amalissa Hall Nutrition and education are inherently interlinked. In March 2025, Unesco released the Education and Nutrition: Learn to Eat Well report, which underscores the “importance of school meals in the health and learning of children” and advocates for more food education and nutritious foods. The report found that in 2022, 27 per cent of school meals worldwide were not designed in consultation with nutritionists, and only 93 countries out of the 187 evaluated had legislation, standards or guidelines... https://www.scmp.com/special-reports/article/3325835/learning-eat-well-hong-kong-schools-stress-eating-meals-nourish-and-educate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/special-reports/article/3325835/learning-eat-well-hong-kong-schools-stress-eating-meals-nourish-and-educate?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Sep 2025 22:15:11 +0000 Lo Hoi-ying,Emily Hung Lo Hoi-ying,Emily Hung A scheme providing professional help to Hong Kong secondary school students at a high risk of suicide will be made permanent and the programme extended to Primary Four to Six pupils on a trial basis for early identification and intervention, the city’s leader has announced. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced on Wednesday the Three-Tier School-based Emergency Mechanism for secondary schools would become a regular fixture this academic year. Upper primary students would also benefit from... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3325880/policy-address-2025-more-help-hong-kong-students-risk-suicide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3325880/policy-address-2025-more-help-hong-kong-students-risk-suicide?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Sep 2025 10:29:22 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press Members of Robert F. Kennedy Jnr’s family are calling for him to step down as health secretary following a contentious congressional hearing this past week, during which the Trump cabinet official faced bipartisan questioning about his tumultuous leadership of federal health agencies. Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, and his nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, issued scathing statements on Friday, calling for him to resign as head of the Health and Human Services Department. The calls from the... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3324624/rfk-jnrs-family-members-say-hes-threat-americans-health-call-his-resignation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3324624/rfk-jnrs-family-members-say-hes-threat-americans-health-call-his-resignation?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Sep 2025 19:18:43 +0000 Associated Press Associated Press At least 600 employees of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention are receiving permanent termination notices in the wake of a recent court decision that protected some CDC employees from lay-offs but not others. The notices went out this week and many people have not yet received them, according to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents more than 2,000 dues-paying members at the CDC. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday did... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3322581/least-600-cdc-employees-are-getting-final-termination-notices-union-says?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3322581/least-600-cdc-employees-are-getting-final-termination-notices-union-says?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Aug 2025 23:06:40 +0000