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Cautiously optimistic about latest CDC director nomination
Last week, President Trump nominated Erica Schwartz to head the CDC. Historically, this position has most often been filled on a part-time or temporary basis. As reported by the STAT reporter team led by Helen Branswell, the appointment brought a sigh of relief to the public health world. One CDC official said the “overall mood is cautious but hopeful” among CDC staff.
But questions remain about how Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will try to influence Mr. Schwartz. “She could be a terrible person, or she could be a great person,” said former CDC Director Daniel Jernigan. “But what is the Secretary actually going to allow?”
Read more about how experts are reacting to this nomination and predicting how things will go.
Effects of cannabis on the adolescent brain
A study of more than 11,000 children and teens showed that children who used cannabis made slower progress over time in memory, attention, language, and cognitive processing speed. The researchers acknowledged that while the differences were small in some cases, they could still be significant. In many cases, people who used cannabis showed a cognitive advantage early in life, only to be surpassed by those in the control group as they got older.
The study, published yesterday in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, used data from the NIH-supported Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study of adolescents between the ages of 9 and 17. Cannabis use was self-reported and confirmed by biological testing of hair, urine, and saliva samples.
Relatedly, another study published Friday in JAMA Network Open found that rates of marijuana use among youth increased after recreational use was legalized in California, but decreased after the coronavirus pandemic.
Safety measures for families to take during a measles outbreak
Since 2020, Penelope Gatlin and her family have completely changed their lives to protect their 13-year-old son’s health. He has Okur-Chun Neurodevelopmental Syndrome, an ultra-rare genetic disease that can cause autism, intellectual disability, and low muscle tone. Gatlin has cut back on business travel and in-person meetings, and her husband has completely stepped away from work. They still wear masks and practice social distancing when outside.
Now they have to worry about another infection. The family lives in North Carolina, one of 32 states facing a measles outbreak. “Measles flare-ups are a threat to the health of all children, but for immunocompromised children like me, it’s devastating,” she wrote. Read more about how the family is coping with skepticism among friends and even medical professionals that the fear of measles is overblown.
How one nonprofit is expanding LGBTQ+ care while others are scaling back
Nicholas Indigo (pictured above with Michael Bell, one of the fathers of the family) had appointments with four different surgeons over two years until he was able to undergo top surgery in September. The first doctor gave him a dead name, “I didn’t like the vibe of the guy. He gave me a zero out of 10,” Indigo told me. The next two were not covered by his insurance. The fourth try was tempting, but it meant he had to travel all the way from his home in Savannah, Georgia, to Atlanta.
“No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t do it on my own,” Indigo recalled seeking doctors for hormone therapy and advanced surgeries. Instead, he turned to the nonprofit Savannah Pride Center, where he currently serves as lead volunteer, to find reliable information to affirm clinicians. I wrote about Indigo, his journey to top plastic surgery, his work at the Pride Center, and his optimism in the face of endless political attacks on transgender people. I was also able to travel to Savannah to attend the Center’s 2nd Annual Health Summit and eat delicious Southern food. read more.
“We still have 3.6 million births a year, but the problem is teenagers and young adults.”
That’s Mark Siegel, a senior medical analyst for Fox News, who called the decline in birth rates among girls between the ages of 15 and 19 a “problem.” And he’s not the only one who thinks this way.
A new first opinion essay by researcher Riley J. Steiner argues that Siegel’s comments are just the latest example of how politicians and public health experts are trying to control the reproductive lives of teenagers. While Siegel and his colleagues seem to want more teen pregnancies, Steiner argues that efforts to reduce teen births often stem from the same impulse.
“Controlling teenage fertility should not be a public health or policy goal,” she writes. Read more about the history of the teen pregnancy prevention era and how it impacts today’s public discussion.
Summary of controversial cancer research arrives at AACR
When I saw the press release, I had to read the headline twice. “Eating fruits, vegetables, and whole grains may increase the likelihood of early-onset lung cancer,” according to a new study from the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center to be presented tomorrow at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting.
This claim was based on a research study of 187 patients diagnosed with lung cancer before the age of 50, most of whom had never smoked. The authors speculated that pesticides may be a contributing factor.
However, outside experts watered down the research methodology. Peter Shields, a medical oncologist at The Ohio State University, said in a statement that experts have long known that being thin is a risk factor for lung cancer, which could explain the authors’ findings. “Although this is only a summary of the conference, the flaws in the study and its conclusions are quite striking,” said Baptiste Roulin, professor of medical statistics at University College London, in a comment. “It’s a huge stretch to jump to the conclusion that[a healthier diet]can cause lung cancer, much less imply that pesticides are involved.”
There are only a few days left in the conference. Sign up for STAT’s AACR in 30 Seconds newsletter for the latest and most powerful reporting on what’s happening there. Don’t miss yesterday’s special report on KRAS inhibitors.
what we are reading
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Why scientists are nervous about fungi, NPR
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Ohio nursing homes are dumping patients in homeless shelters, Signal Ohio
- Pancreatic cancer expert on why Revolution Medicine research ‘opens a new era’ in treatment, STAT
- After conversion therapy ruling, therapists torn over future of Texas’ gender care ban, Texas Tribune
- PBMs warn Trump’s drug price disclosure proposal is illegal, STAT
