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good morning. A new Gallup poll finds that health care has once again risen to the top of Americans’ national concerns. Does staying up to date with the news help address that concern? Read more and let me know.
CDC suspends testing for rabies and variola virus
The CDC has “temporarily suspended” diagnostic testing for rabies and variola virus, according to a recent update to the CDC’s website, first reported by the New York Times. These and other tests are performed by the CDC on behalf of state and local health labs that do not have the same capabilities.
The news comes in the absence of the agency’s director, and officials have expressed anger and distrust toward Trump administration officials. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon told the Times that he expects some tests to become available again in the coming weeks, but he did not say which tests would be available.
“This is an example of a continued drain on scientific expertise, and it’s very difficult to recruit and replace talent,” Deb Hawley, the former CDC chief medical officer who resigned from the agency last summer, told STAT’s Helen Branswell. “The loss of this ability leaves us all less safe from health threats.”
“There were some actions that took place right before I came into the office that created some difficulty here.”
That’s what FDA Commissioner Marty McCulley said yesterday when he spoke to agency officials on the anniversary of his first day in office. However, this day also marked another anniversary. It was the day the Trump administration laid off 10,000 people at HHS, including 3,500 FDA employees. But as STAT’s Lizzie Lawrence reported, workplace turmoil continues at the FDA under the McCulley administration. Read more about the speech. Some of the topics he left out there are just as telling as what he discussed.
When medical misinformation wins
More than half of doctors say misinformation and disinformation hinders their ability to care for patients, according to a recent survey. Almost 9 in 10 think it has increased over the past five years. As a doctor, Ilana Yurkiewicz has seen this firsthand, talking to patients who come to her with internet theories, “cures” and health trends. She has a unique way of debunking certain claims and communicating with patients. But they all hinge on one important event. That means she actually saw the patient.
“As access to medical professionals worsens across the country, it is no coincidence that medical misinformation is hitting the hardest,” Yurkiewicz writes in a new First Opinion essay. Read more about how patients are hurting in an age where the internet is more available than doctors.
Test your ability to distinguish between real and AI X-rays.
In a recent study, a small group of radiologists tested whether they could tell the difference between AI-generated X-rays and real X-rays. The results were interesting, but a little worrying. Doctors correctly distinguished between real and deepfake images about three-quarters of the time. STAT’s Katie Palmer, who wrote about the study last week, took the same quiz and got roughly the same score.
In the latest STATus Report video, Katie teaches Alex how to tell the difference between an image and a trained professional. She says it has to do with two factors: noise and consistency within the image. Watch the video now and take the test with Alex who may have scored better than anyone else.
Test antidepressant stimulant use
As outlined in Lev Futcher’s “Recovery Wars” series, lifesaving medications for opioid addiction already exist, but access to these medications is extremely limited. For people with methamphetamine use disorder, no such drug exists. However, a study published yesterday in JAMA Psychiatry showed how existing drugs may be able to provide some symptom relief.
The study found that people who took an oral antidepressant called mirtazapine significantly reduced the frequency of their stimulant use compared to the placebo group. Of the approximately 350 participants who had used stimulants nearly every day in the previous month, those who took antidepressants had an average of seven fewer days of use per month at the end of the 12-week period. Those who received the placebo used 4.8 fewer days per month.
Although both the size of the study and the effect of the drug were small, the researchers found the numbers encouraging. Still, it’s worth noting that 23% of participants stopped taking mirtazapine because of side effects such as drowsiness and weight gain, compared with 15% in the placebo group.
what we are reading
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US visa processing delays are wreaking havoc on foreign doctors’ lives, Politico
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Atlantic family decides to have stomach removed
- Government watchdog urges FDA to finalize advisory committee conflict of interest guidance, STAT
- President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ dims prospects for government-backed clinics, KFF Health News
- Workup: Cardiology is finally prioritizing prevention, but what will that look like?Status
