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good morning. I confess. Yesterday was the first time I logged into the patient portal to review my medical records. I saw this in a clinical note a few years ago and it made me laugh. “I live with my cat.”
Excitement and anxiety over President Trump’s psychedelic order
President Trump signed an executive order over the weekend aimed at deregulating psychedelic drugs as a mental health treatment. The announcement was largely praised by supporters, but some fear it risks politicizing the sometimes controversial field and undermining the credibility of the research. (Podcaster Joe Rogan claims this order stems from a text he sent to Trump.)
“There has been a dramatic shift in the overall zeitgeist around psychedelics, from when they were drugs of abuse and gateway drugs to now a panacea,” one academic told STAT’s Elaine Chen. Read more about the details of the order and the experts’ reactions. And two psychedelic practitioners have written related first-opinion essays about the contradictions at the heart of the Republican Party’s embrace of psychedelics.
Reduced CDC conference…not open to the public
Each spring, CDC’s renowned Epidemic Intelligence Directorate holds a conference where members of the two-year program present data generated by outbreak investigations and research projects conducted. These events are typically held at hotels in Atlanta and are open to former CDC employees and interested members of the public.
This year is different.
Organizers were denied the funding they needed to hold this year’s 75th conference at a hotel. Instead, the event, which runs from today through Friday, will be held at the CDC’s main campus, which is accessible only to those with security clearance. When asked why, HHS officials said the decision was made to save taxpayers money.
First on the agenda is research showing that getting a flu shot during pregnancy helps protect newborns as young as 6 months old, who are too young to be vaccinated. — Helen Branswell
Federal judge invalidates Kennedy’s gender declaration
A federal judge in Oregon has formally ruled against Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s declaration that gender-affirming care does not meet medical standards. “Unserious leaders are dangerous,” Judge Mustafa T. Kasbai wrote. “Tragically, this incident is one in a long list of examples of how leaders’ wanton disregard for the rule of law causes real harm to real people.”
During oral arguments last month, Mr. Kasbai indicated he would rule in favor of the states that challenged Mr. Kennedy on the declaration. He concluded that Kennedy lacked the authority to make such a broad claim, saying it was illegal and barred “substantially similar policies” that would supersede the plaintiff states’ standards of care.
The declaration was released in December along with proposed rules that would block gender-affirming care from using federal funding. However, this decision does not necessarily mean those rules will be invalidated on arrival. Unlike declarations, these were proposed through a more standard process, but if finalized, Kasbai’s decisions are likely to be cited in challenges to the regulations.
A chief executive with no executive functions?
Executive functions in the brain include skills such as behavioral self-control, attention, mental flexibility, and working memory. However, the term is also used as a business metaphor to describe the job of a CEO. “CEOs can be the heads of universities, private companies, and nations,” two doctors write in a new first-opinion essay. “The same principles apply to higher-order mental processing, prioritization, and behavior.”
But what happens when a chief executive loses the ability to perform executive functions?The challenges quickly become apparent, the essay’s authors write. read more. And, as the authors point out, “any similarities to real people, living or dead, are not intentional.”
When food insecure families aren’t eligible for SNAP
Nationally, eligibility for public food assistance programs is tied to household income, with being at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level being the most common criteria. However, in a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers found that 2% of children living in high-income households still experience food insecurity. Families with public insurance who were black, Hispanic or Latino, and Spanish-speaking were more likely to be struggling than other families. About half of the children experiencing food insecurity greater than 200% lived in families with incomes between 201% and 250% of the federal poverty line.
Researchers used self-reported data from more than 33 million children from the 2024 National Child Health Survey conducted by HHS. This 2% equates to 658,704 hungry children whose families do not qualify for SNAP. The authors argue that policymakers should advocate for expanding SNAP income eligibility, but predict that changes made under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will instead tighten requirements and access.
what we are reading
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There’s new evidence about how loneliness affects memory in old age, Wired
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In Connecticut, doctors are now suing patients over medical bills, outpacing hospitals, KFF Health News
- CAR-T results in early trial raise hopes of preventing multiple myeloma in high-risk patients, STAT
- Almost one in four people seeking an abortion out of state chose Illinois. Here’s why:
