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good morning. I’m glad you’re here. A lot of news was announced over the weekend, so let’s take a look.
American citizen appears to have been infected in Congo’s Ebola outbreak
A number of Americans in the Democratic Republic of Congo are believed to have been caught up in the country’s latest outbreak, and several are believed to have had high-risk exposures, at least one of whom may have developed symptoms, STAT’s Helen Branswell exclusively reported.
While we are still awaiting each person’s test results, the CDC said in a statement Sunday that it is assisting partners to “coordinate the safe exit of the small number of Americans directly affected by this outbreak.” The death toll from the outbreak is rising, with at least 246 cases and 80 deaths.
The CDC held a press conference early Sunday morning to discuss the outbreak, which the WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern. However, CDC case officials declined to answer questions about whether Americans were exposed to Ebola. Read more from Helen.
Bye-bye, Bill Cassidy
STAT’s Chelsea Siluzzo reports that Sen. Bill Cassidy, a key Republican health care leader, will lose his seat after finishing third in Louisiana’s Senate primary on Saturday.
A gastroenterologist by training, Cassidy served in Congress for 20 years, first as a member of the House of Representatives and then as a senator. His loss is a victory for President Trump and his allies, who have criticized the Senate’s 2021 vote to convict the president of inciting the January 6 riot. Cassidy then sought to gain support from conservatives by casting the decisive vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health, despite publicly expressing concerns about Kennedy’s anti-vaccine comments. That gamble didn’t pay off.
To understand why “doctors in Congressional clothes” will soon have no influence in Washington, you need to read Chelsea and Daniel Payne’s excellent profile of Cassidy.
Texas opens transition clinic
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton secured a settlement with Texas Children’s Hospital that requires the hospital to establish the nation’s first clinic for transitioners. (If you don’t know what detransitioning means or what it entails, see Part 19 of this series.)
According to a press release, the clinic will “help patients recover damages caused by ideologically motivated physicians who harm patients by performing dangerous medical interventions in an attempt to ‘transition’ them.” The hospital has not commented on its plans to roll out the clinic, but the settlement guarantees that the service will be free for the first five years.
It’s unclear whether other conservative states will follow Texas’ lead. The state already makes it illegal for transgender children to receive life-saving gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
The clinic is said to provide services to children and adults looking to transition, but it is questionable whether there is even a strong demand for such services to begin with. Transgender people make up 1% of the population. There is no good data on the rate at which this already small portion of the American population actually detransitions, but it is estimated that it is “relatively rare.” Additionally, transgender people and their families continue to migrate out of Texas to places with more transgender-friendly policies.
So who is this clinic for? Given that transgender people are fleeing the state and there are few transitioners, the clinic is moving toward serving more as a political gesture to anti-trans Republicans than an attempt to provide medical assistance to a marginalized population.
China — friend or foe of biotechnology?
America’s pharmaceutical business is at a turning point.
New startups and big pharma alike are addicted to Chinese drugs, spending about $60 billion on Chinese molecules in the first three months of 2026 alone. Meanwhile, over the past decade, the U.S. share of the world’s medicine cabinet has fallen from nearly half to less than 35%. China has overtaken the US in almost every measure of biotech productivity
So what should American companies do? Would you like to partner with a Chinese company? Or will we close our borders and redirect all investment to our own efforts?
STAT’s Damien Garde has an excellent look at how China’s decades-long state-led push to integrate its companies into its drug development pipeline is now forcing U.S. biotech companies to make difficult choices.
See your doctor and save your prostate
A blood test for prostate-specific antigen, a test that was once thought to do more harm than good for prostate cancer, likely reduces the risk of death from prostate cancer, according to a new review published Thursday.
Admittedly, the benefits are small. The Cochrane review analyzed the results of six trials involving 800,000 participants and found that disease-specific deaths were reduced by around two for every 1,000 men screened. But the study reverses previous findings that showed the test did more harm than good, leading to overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
If you have prostate problems and are reading this thinking you need a PSA blood test as soon as possible to save your life, I’d pump the brakes. As STAT’s Annalisa Merelli explains, it’s not that simple.
Marty McCurry’s allies leave after resignation
The fallout from Marty McCurry’s resignation continues. Tracy Beth Hogue, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drugs, is also leaving the agency after a checkered tenure.
Hogue, an epidemiologist and sports medicine physician, became famous during the coronavirus pandemic for challenging school closures, mask mandates and the approval of booster vaccinations for children. She has continued to advocate for her views on vaccines since taking office in April 2025 and later took the helm of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. During her tenure, she quickly became involved in drug reviews, a process typically reserved for career scientists.
Read more about Hogue’s departure from STAT’s Lizzie Lawrence here.
what we are reading
- Indigenous children with disabilities were kept in wooden boxes. Fundamental reform is coming, NPR
- The FDA’s new leader is rushing to reassure anti-abortion leaders. They still have questions. , Politico
- Strange alliance to reshape American psychiatry, New York Times Magazine
- Veterans face hidden psychological scars that many are still unaware of, Military.com
