NHP news | May 2026

Patients who are sick, scared, recovering from surgery, or facing a devastating diagnosis need a highly skilled, compassionate nurse at the bedside—providing vigilant monitoring, clinical judgment and real-time intervention that saves lives. Our patients are not data points in an algorithm. They are people, and they deserve human care. There is a place for technology in healthcare. It can support our work, but it cannot replace it.

 

President Donald Trump has selected Dr. Nicole Saphier to be the next U.S. surgeon general. The selection of Saphier reflects the president's and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s ongoing effort to dismantle America’s healthcare system. Saphier’s views on vaccines, ties to the wellness industry and alignment with an agenda to undermine public health could make public health even more politicized. This AFT Voices post notes that the surgeon general must remain an independent, science-based voice, especially at a time when trust in medicine and public health institutions is already under strain.  

 

 

Medical bills, student loans and credit cards are pushing too many working families to the brink. That’s why the AFT is hosting free Affordability Clinics as part of our Fight for Affordability campaign. Learn how to reduce, dispute and manage your debt—and understand your rights. Register for an upcoming clinic.

 

 

The U.S. Supreme Court in Louisiana v. Callais has struck down Louisiana’s congressional map, ruling that the state’s second majority-Black district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. That 6-3 decision kicked away the last pillar holding up the Voting Rights Act. “When courts eliminate remedies for racial discrimination in voting, they aren’t just redrawing maps,” says AFT President Randi Weingarten. “They’re dismantling democracy and setting back the promise of fair, multiracial representation. We will continue to fight for what Americans want and deserve—a fair system of representation, in which every community has an equal chance to choose their leaders and hold them accountable.” Learn how you can join the fight.

 

In this month’s column, AFT President Randi Weingarten writes about how the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act disenfranchises voters of color and undermines the right of people to decide who their elected representatives are, not the other way around. Weingarten writes that the AFT is committed to building on our history of fighting to expand rights for all Americans; the AFT was the only union to file an amicus brief in Brown v. Board of Education. “This is another moment for moral clarity and action,” she says. “This is an imperative for the AFT as educators, a union and a champion for civil rights. And it is an imperative for all Americans seeking to create a more perfect union.”

 

Seven Days in June is a decentralized, nonpartisan campaign focusing on how healthcare funding cuts will devastate communities. From June 1-7, local groups and advocates will demand that our elected representatives tell us how they will improve access to healthcare; strengthen biomedical research; modernize public health infrastructure; and provide reliable care for older Americans, veterans, rural communities, people with disabilities and working families. Local groups and advocates will organize town halls and other forums. Join us on June 5 at sunset around the nation for candlelight vigils honoring everyone who has died because of cuts to healthcare.

 

Why would a public health leader walk away from his role at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? For Demetre Daskalakis, the choice was clear: He could not be part of an institution where public health was no longer grounded in science and transparency. In his essay for the Spring 2026 issue of AFT Health Care, he describes a CDC transformed by the sidelining of experienced scientists, reshaping of health policies without evidence, and the replacement of science by ideology and conspiracy. He also calls for a new, responsive public health system built on a commitment to health equity and scientific integrity.