7 Important Health Stories We’ll Be Following in 2026

Much of this year’s health news has been exhausting and demoralizing, as the Trump administration has weakened science agencies and called into question public health and science itself. Deadly outbreaks of measles, bird flu, foodborne illnesses and infant botulism have exposed the flaws in our surveillance systems. “Downgrade” is the term I used to describe the year’s developments in our annual recap episode of our podcast. Science quickly. But it wasn’t all bad news: There were a number of exciting discoveries in everything from male contraception to GLP-1 weight loss drugs. As we close the door on 2025, here are some of the health developments we’ll be watching for next year.

Trump’s war on public health

Health experts have sounded the alarm this year over the systematic dismantling of federal health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist who heads the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS has been particularly focused on life-saving vaccines: The CDC has changed the universal birth recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine and plans larger changes to the vaccination schedule next year. Kennedy’s FDA could also add a “black box” warning label to COVID vaccines, which agency officials have linked, without evidence, to child deaths. Over the next year, we will monitor developments on the vaccine and drug approval front, as well as other federal government policy changes that could affect the health of Americans.

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GLP-1 pills are here

Blockbuster weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) have made a lot of headlines in recent years as study after study has shown their potential to trigger significant weight loss and treat metabolic, heart and kidney diseases. Now, companies that make these popular injectable glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) medications are developing weight loss pills. Manufacturer Wegovy Novo Nordisk’s pill for type 2 diabetes, Rybelsus, was approved in 2019. A version of this pill gained FDA approval specifically for weight loss on December 22. But Eli Lilly, maker of Zepbound, also has a pill in the works. It remains to be seen how effective the pill formulations will be.

US measles-free status at risk

The United States could lose its measles-free status as early as January 2026 if current infection trends continue. Measles – a highly contagious but vaccine-preventable disease – was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. But last year, many large outbreaks of the disease occurred in states like Texas, Utah and South Carolina. Canada lost its measles-free status in November, and if measles continually spreads in the United States for a year, the disease will once again be considered endemic here.

Personalized gene therapies

In May 2025, the world learned that a little boy with a rare and life-threatening genetic disease had become the first person to receive a custom gene-editing treatment. The gene-editing tool CRISPR has previously been used to functionally cure people with sickle cell disease, but this was the first time it was used to develop a treatment for an individual with a specific mutation. These therapies can take years to develop, so they are unlikely to immediately cure other genetic diseases. But in the coming year, we will be watching for other personalized gene editing treatments.

No more bird flu

The H5N1 strain of avian influenza, or bird flu, has been sickening wild birds and other animals for several years now. It continued to infect dairy cattle and poultry flocks in the United States; outbreaks in chickens have been so deadly that they caused egg prices to spike earlier this year. After a summer lull, avian flu returned with a vengeance this fall, as seasonal bird migrations seeded new infections.

HEAR MORE: Part 1 of our three-part podcast series on bird flu

Next year, we will continue to monitor the epidemic. H5N1 has already caused 71 human cases and two deaths in the United States since 2024, according to the CDC. Although the virus does not yet appear to spread effectively from person to person, the more opportunities it has to infect people and animals, the more likely it is to mutate and mix into a more dangerous form that could trigger an epidemic or pandemic.

“Peacekeeper Cell” treatments

This year has been an important year for research into cells of the immune system, called regulatory T cells, which keep the body from attacking itself: the discovery of these “peacekeeper cells” won a Nobel Prize. And next year, regulatory T-cell therapies could finally become a reality. As early as spring 2026, the FDA could approve the first of these therapies: a regulatory T cell therapy that could prevent graft-versus-host disease in bone marrow transplant recipients. This complication develops when the donor bone marrow attacks its new host. Similar therapies are also being developed for autoimmune diseases.

The AI ​​will see you now

Artificial intelligence models – and specifically generative AI – are currently reshaping many fields, and medicine and healthcare are no exception. There are already models to predict the risk of developing breast cancer, and researchers are now using AI to predict the risk of developing 1,000 different diseases. We’ll be closely watching new uses of AI in healthcare in 2026. But don’t try using it for your therapist just yet.

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