Jasmine Laws

I am currently working as a US News Reporter at Newsweek, and all of my articles can be found on my author's page here: Jasmine Laws

One of my articles also featured in the July 4th (2025) edition of the magazine, as shown below:

Below is a selection of some of the articles I have written for Newsweek.

Newsweek •

Why Black and Latina women face higher medical bills

Black and Latina women in the U.S. face higher rates of medical misdiagnosis, and the financial consequences can be severe, according to advocates and patients who say errors in care often lead to spiraling medical debt.

Jared Walker, founder of Dollar For, a non-profit organization aimed at helping patients terminate their medical debt, told Newsweek that Black and Latina women are "disproportionately" impacted by a healthcare system that's "broken,” adding there are longstanding racial and ec...
Newsweek •

Medical misdiagnosis costs billions—women often pay more

Medical misdiagnosis costs hundreds of billions of dollars each year in the U.S., a financial burden that quietly drains household finances—especially for women, who are more likely to face years of repeat appointments, tests, and prescriptions before getting the right answer. For many, this means hundreds or thousands of dollars in extra bills each year, often for care that doesn’t resolve their symptoms.

The average American family spends around 11 percent of their household income on healthc...
Newsweek •

Hospitals are deploying AI chatbots. Doctors are divided

Healthcare systems across the U.S. are launching new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to help patients ask medical questions and access appointments faster amid growing demand for quick health guidance, even as doctors remain divided over the roll‑out.

Some see the positives of patients having access to clinically-focused AI platforms to ask questions, while others caution that strict standards must be maintained to limit potential risks.

Hartford HealthCare recently launched its Patient...
Newsweek •

Popular weight‑loss drugs may pose risks for some patients

As GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs move into the medical mainstream, experts say they may pose under‑recognized risks for some patients with complex chronic conditions—underscoring the need for careful screening and close medical supervision.

GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy have become increasingly popular, with one in eight Americans using them as of March 2026, according to data from Statista. Their rise has coincided with a decline in U.S. obesity rates, though experts caution multiple factors are at...
Newsweek •

America has a helium problem

The war in Iran has helped drive a global energy shock, sending oil and gas prices higher and disrupting fuel markets–developments that are now adding fresh strain to an already fragile global helium supply.

Helium suppliers have begun warning customers of supply disruptions, according to industry letters and analysts. The element, a byproduct of natural gas processing, is essential for MRI machines, scientific research and semiconductor manufacturing.

“Over the past decade, helium has become...
Newsweek •

Bottled water prices set to soar

Conflict in the Middle East is rippling through the oil industry and into consumer goods, with analysts warning bottled water prices could rise in the coming months.

The United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran on February 28, after which Iran imposed restrictions on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil transit route that typically carries about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. The disruption has pushed Brent crude oil prices up by...
Newsweek •

Republican resistance grows to RFK Jr.’s MAHA agenda

Senate Republicans who voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary now appear to be showing buyer’s remorse, raising objections to health nominees tied to his orbit amid growing unease over Kennedy's approach to federal health policy.

President Donald Trump's pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, has yet to gain enough votes for confirmation in the Senate, amid bipartisan resistance as lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle press Means on her views on vaccines. While the...
Newsweek •

Moms stage "funeral" outside FDA in drug protest

More than 100 mothers and advocates affected by a type of rare disease gathered outside the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday to stage a funeral to "mourn the futures" of their children, following the agency's rejections of various rare disease treatments.

The community, affected by a group of rare metabolic disorders known as mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS), dressed in black, held signs and carried a coffin outside the FDA's headquarters in a peaceful protest, demanding that treatmen...
Newsweek •

Mothers "terrified" as children could lose treatments after FDA denials

Mothers from across the country have spoken to Newsweek about their concern for their children after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been rejecting various treatments for rare diseases that can be life-threatening.

One mother said she was "terrified" of losing access, as a result of an FDA rejection, to the drug her daughter relies on, while other mothers also said they were worried about how much longer they have left with their children.

The mother of a 15-year-old boy with Hunter...
Newsweek •

Dunkin’ might be RFK Jr.'s most difficult battle yet

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken on powerful food industry targets before, but his public challenge to Dunkin’ and Starbucks over high‑sugar drinks has sparked a sharper political and cultural backlash than many of his earlier health initiatives.

The health and human services (HHS) secretary has faced relatively limited resistance while pushing to phase out synthetic food dyes, promote beef tallow over seed oils, and reframe federal dietary guidelines under his “Make America Healthy Again” agend...
Newsweek •

Harmful chemicals found in major bottled water brands

A new study has found that there are dozens of unregulated harmful chemicals in a number of popular brands of bottled water.

The study, published by the journal Science Direct, reviewed 64 regulated and unregulated disinfection by-products (DBPs) in 10 popular brands of bottled water, and found that all bottled water examined contained DBPs.

However, these findings are not entirely negative for bottled drinking water. Susan Richardson, a professor of chemistry at the University of South Caroli...
Newsweek •

US cattle farmers raise alarm over China tariffs

U.S. cattle farmers have voiced their concern about the tariff war escalation between the U.S. and China that saw Beijing bringing in a huge tariff on American beef imports last month.

The United States Cattlemen’s Association told Newsweek: "Tariff battles—especially when they’re volatile and inconsistent—create uncertainty that makes it harder for ranchers to plan, invest, and pass their operations to the next generation."

These new tariffs mean that American cattle farmers face higher costs...
Newsweek •

Why Obamacare could still collapse under the Trump administration

The Trump administration seems to be veering away from maintaining Obamacare and instead finding its own alternatives to making health insurance more affordable.

Rather than extending the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, the administration has instead been slashing drug prices and giving Americans access to pay for drugs on a new website with cheaper rates, while proposing health savings accounts.

There was a vote to decide if the ACA subsidies should be extended on December 11, but the Se...
Newsweek •

What will happen to COVID-19 in 2026? Experts explain

It has been almost six years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in 2020, and while it is no longer considered a public health emergency, it can still make more vulnerable people very unwell.

As the virus is currently on the rise in the United States, which is typical in the winter months, Newsweek has spoken to experts about how COVID-19 will change in 2026, what symptoms to look out for, and whether Americans should be concerned about the virus.

While some people...
Newsweek •

Fast food with most plastic chemicals revealed 

A number of fast food favorites from major chains across the U.S. have high levels of certain plastic chemicals, according to the database PlasticList.

The fast food items were found to have high levels of a group of chemicals called phthalates, which are commonly found in products that have contact with plastics during the producing, packaging or delivering process.

While they are commonly found in consumer products, these plastic chemicals are also known to leach into food products, and stud...
Newsweek •

The 'immortal' animal that can cheat death

One ocean-dwelling creature found in tropical waters is known to be able to reverse its own life cycle, cheating death.

The jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, was first discovered in 1883, but it was around 100 years later that scientists uncovered the creature's ability to rejuvenate its own life cycle and combat environmental and physical stresses.

The Turritopsis dohrnii's ability to rejuvenate could "hold important clues to maintaining a long life and lengthening the healthspan of humankind,"...
Newsweek •

Colorado River water contamination is impacting certain groups more: Report

The people most vulnerable to water contamination from the Colorado River are minority and low-income groups, according to a new essay.

The essay comes as part of a series of articles released on December 3 in a report by the Colorado River Research Group titled "Colorado River Insights, 2025: Dancing with Deadpool."

"Key findings include a distinctly segregated pattern in where people of color live, and highly disproportionate access to household drinking water and exposure to pollutants for...
Newsweek •

Nurses increasingly turning to side hustles out of "financial need"

A new study has revealed that a significant number of nurses have been turning to side hustles in order to make ends meet under the weight of high tuition costs, student loan debt, and wages that barely stretch to cover the rising costs of living.

The study, conducted by St. Thomas University and released on November 18, found that four in five nurses have a side hustle outside of nursing, with nearly half having started theirs in the last one to three years.

Following the release of the study...
Newsweek •

Trump embraces pesticides after previously promising crackdown 

Despite saying he would protect Americans from "harmful chemicals" like pesticides, President Donald Trump and his administration seem to be embracing their use and have sought to bring in new pesticides that have sparked significant concern among environmentalists and experts.

The EPA told Newsweek: "Comments from EPA critics are just another example of partisan organizations pedaling mistruths to the American public to drum up fear and distrust. Sadly, some organizations are only interested i...
Newsweek •

Nursing is no longer counted as a 'professional degree' by Trump admin

The Department of Education has excluded nursing as a "professional degree" program as it sets about implementing various measures regarding student loans laid out in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill."

The move has sparked significant uproar among nurses and nursing groups, with the American Nurses Association saying, as reported by Nursing World, that "limiting nurses’ access to funding for graduate education threatens the very foundation of patient care."

In the regulatory de...
Newsweek •

Microplastics are changing your insides in unexpected ways

A new study has shown that microplastics can alter gut microbiome, where those changes resemble patterns associated with depression and colorectal cancer.

The research, conducted within microONE, a project led by the CBmed research center in Graz, Austria, in collaboration with international partners, was presented at the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Week 2025 on Tuesday.

"We live in a close relationship with our gut microbiome, and even subtle changes could have implications for our...
Newsweek •

Washington schools find major contamination levels in drinking water

Data collected by the Washington Department of Health (DOH) has revealed that the majority of schools in the state had levels of lead in drinking water fixtures that were higher than the level the state considers safe enough to drink.

A Washington DOH spokesperson also told Newsweek that children under the age of 6 are particularly at risk. "Their growing bodies absorb more lead than adults and are more sensitive to its damaging effects," they said.

The metal can contaminate drinking water sou...
Newsweek •

The 'devastating' hidden costs of cancer

Most people will be familiar with the huge impact cancer has as a disease, on patients and their loved ones, but the vast effect the disease also has on society more broadly is less recognized.

In the United States, more than 1.8 million new cancer cases were reported in 2022, and more than 600,000 people in the country died of cancer in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making it one of the biggest killers in America.

While cancer as an illness has there...
Newsweek •

America's 'alarming' depression problem

Jasmine Laws is a US News Reporter at Newsweek based in London, U.K. Her focus is reporting on health insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, but she also writes about U.S. politics, crime and global affairs. Jasmine joined Newsweek in 2024 from News UK and had previously written for the Metro, Byline Times, The Human Perspective magazine and The Express. She has previously extensively covered stories within the U.K. art industry, human rights, health, and human trafficking. She was one of t...
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