CARDINAL & PINE BRINGS YOU BAD MEDICINE
Cardinal & Pine brings you Bad Medicine, a wide-ranging look at how new federal healthcare policies threaten to overwhelm already overwhelmed doctors and nurses, widen health disparities in rural areas, and make North Carolinians sicker.
North Carolina’s medical institutions are among the best in the world. Yet even in this global healthcare hub, our system is straining. Historic disparities among income, race, gender and geography are getting worse. Drug prices and insurance premiums are rising. Vaccine hesitancy is increasing.
This is a lot of highly flammable kindling for the Trump administration’s burning match. Medical disinformation used to come only from fringe circles and paid influencers, but now it’s also coming directly from the federal government. The uninsured rate was dropping, now hundreds of thousands face losing their coverage in 2026 and 2027 amid more than $1 trillion in federal cuts to healthcare.
This is not how medicine is supposed to work.
Cardinal and Pine’s new series, Bad Medicine, will look at the multi-front attack the Trump administration is waging on North Carolina, from huge cuts to Medicaid to the dismantling of federal health infrastructure and research funding to the widespread disinformation on vaccines and pregnancy. Most importantly, our work will center the voices and communities most affected by these changes.

Most Americans disapprove of RFK Jr.’s changes to vaccine policy, new poll says
February 10, 2026
A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that adults who had heard of federal changes to the childhood vaccine schedule were twice as likely to say it would hurt children than help them.

Looking for reliable resources about childhood vaccines? Start here.
February 10, 2026
It can be hard to know where to find good information about vaccines, but these organizations offer clear and sound medical guidance on what can be a confusing and maddening debate.

How measles came back from the dead and what it means for North Carolina
February 9, 2026
Measles is the most contagious disease to ever confront humans and is entirely preventable, doctors say. Now, an outbreak in neighboring South Carolina is putting North Carolina doctors increasingly on edge.

Introducing Bad Medicine, a weekly series investigating the state of health care in North Carolina
February 9, 2026
Cardinal & Pine taps its award-winning reporting to highlight the dangers federal policy changes pose to the state's health care and what can be done about them.

How to get health care in North Carolina if you’re uninsured
February 9, 2026
For those who’ve lost health insurance, free clinics and providers offer help in uncertain times. Here's how to get health care if you're uninsured.

How the loss of Affordable Care Act tax credits is affecting North Carolina
February 9, 2026
Affordable Care Act tax credits that reduced premium costs for millions of Americans expired after inaction from Congress. Here's what that means for you.

These preventable diseases are huge fans of federal changes to vaccine policies
February 9, 2026
Recent changes to federal vaccine policies could cause a resurgence of some serious diseases, medical experts warn. Here’s a primer on why the diseases are so dangerous and how the vaccines are so effective.
