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good morning. We have a lot of great reports today, so be sure to read the newsletter till the end. There will be no newsletter tomorrow, June 1st, so I’ll talk to you again on Monday.
New announcements, old funds
The Trump administration announced yesterday that it will spend $700 million in what Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called new investments in mental health and addiction programs. But behavioral health experts told STAT’s Lev Fascher that the money is actually long-awaited existing grants that Congress had previously approved and that the federal government already planned to spend.
“We have a huge drug problem here in our country,” President Kennedy said. “$700 million won’t solve that problem. But the good news is that about $50 billion has been set aside during states’ lawsuits against opioid companies, and that money will be made available to states over the next 20 years.” Read more from Lev
Senate Democrats demand federal vaccine records
In other news on another classic Kennedy topic, Senate Democrats are launching an investigation into the Trump administration’s reshaping of federal vaccine policy and are demanding records from the agency by next week. STAT’s Daniel Payne viewed a letter sent by senators to Kennedy, specifically criticizing his changes to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Democrats in Congress regularly complain that HHS leaders do not respond to requests for information, and it is hard to see how this investigation will be different. Still, the letter provides clues about the direction of future oversight efforts by Democratic senators, especially if they win a majority after the midterm elections. Read more about what that will look like here.
FTC and state authorities sue trans health organizations
The Federal Trade Commission and four state attorneys general have sued a leading professional organization of gender-affirming care clinicians for making false claims about selling medical services to children.
The lawsuit against the World Association of Transgender Health Professionals was filed in the Northern District of Texas, a federal court with a conservative reputation where the Trump administration has recently focused its legal efforts around gender-affirming care. Read more from Bob Herman and me.
High-quality powdered milk is under scrutiny
Here in the United States, the overall safety of infant formula is good. However, the risk is very high if something goes wrong. I’ve failed twice in the past year. Last year, dozens of infants contracted botulism after drinking contaminated milk powder from Byheart. Last weekend, the brand Nara Organics was linked to three new cases.
“If you buy a product thinking it’s safe for your child, you end up sending your child to the hospital,” said Katie Connolly, a mother whose daughter became ill. Many parents may think they can buy a better product for more money, but infant formula turns out to be the only exception to an otherwise reliable American standard. STAT’s Sarah Todd spoke to food safety and regulatory experts about what’s happening with the infant formula supply and what steps need to be taken. read more.
How super-powerful synthetic opioids spread
You may not have heard of a type of drug called nitazen, but it’s worth knowing about. Nitazene can be up to 40 times more potent than fentanyl and 500 times more potent than heroin. Overdose deaths from these drugs, which are most often mixed with several other drugs to increase their potency, have skyrocketed in recent years, according to CDC data.
In a months-long open-source investigation, independent reporter Jonathan Moens combed through criminal proceedings, filed Freedom of Information requests at the national, state and county level, and obtained numerous autopsy reports to create the most detailed account yet of how these drugs enter the U.S. border and destroy lives. Read more about what this deadly and highly profitable supply chain looks like, including how some synthetic opioid manufacturers are already adapting to new regulations.
The completed diversity program was working.
Two diversity-oriented programs supported by the National Institutes of Health doubled the odds of undergraduates earning a Ph.D., a new study finds. Over the past year, both programs have been ended by the Trump administration, and funding for studies analyzing them has also been stopped.
Anna Woodcock, author of the study, said of the end of the study: “The word that comes to mind is heartbreaking.” “I’ve spent 20 years of my career doing this work, and to have it suddenly cut short is really shocking.” Read more from STAT’s Anil Oza on what existing data shows about diversity in academia.
what we are reading
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Luigi Mangione to seek psychiatric defense in United Healthcare CEO murder case, Associated Press
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Billion dollar peptide gold rush, Bloomberg
- Quick Justice Department victory in OhioHealth lawsuit means hospitals should reconsider contracts, experts say, STAT
- AI takes over hospitals, The Atlantic
- Opinion: AI’s growing desire for power is a public health problem. Fixed, STAT
