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The precarious state of science in the United States
STAT’s Daniel Berman
A STAT survey of nearly 1,000 federally funded researchers found that many academic scientists are upset after President Trump returns to the White House. Researchers have drastically scaled back their research ambitions, with some labs closing completely.
The survey found that more than a quarter of respondents had laid off a member of their lab, and more than two in five had canceled a planned study. Two-thirds advise students to consider a career outside the ivory tower. Surprisingly, even though courts have reversed some grant terminations and Congress has blocked plans to cut the NIH budget, only 35% of respondents whose grants were cut or deferred said their government funding would be fully restored by the end of 2025. “This is like the Titanic hitting an iceberg,” said one researcher.
The reach is amazing. Below is the main story by Jonathan Worthen. This article delves into the details of the findings, supported by interviews with 30 of the researchers. Jonathan and Anil Oza partnered on the second story, which specifically reveals the struggles faced by three researchers.
What we take for granted about vaccines (and WHO news)
Amid the post-pandemic backlash and emboldened by the rise of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vaccine critics are focusing on the importance of individual autonomy and “medical freedom” in choosing which vaccines to receive and when. But as STAT’s Helen Branswell writes, the public health implications affect us all.
When widely used, many vaccines provide indirect health benefits to both the recipients and society as a whole. For example, when vaccines were developed to protect young children from pneumococcal disease, infection rates decreased in all age groups, especially older people. Children who are vaccinated against chickenpox are much less likely to get shingles in the future. And by giving girls the HPV vaccine, boys were also protected from certain cancers. Read Helen’s story about what benefits are lost when you focus on “me” instead of “we.”
Speaking of vaccines, the World Health Organization has updated its recommendations for coronavirus vaccines. Officials said high-risk groups such as the elderly should be vaccinated twice a year, six months apart, while nearly all other adults and children should receive regular coronavirus vaccinations once a year. The WHO said healthy children between 6 and 23 months of age should not receive routine vaccinations unless countries experience a significant disease burden in this cohort.
The Trump administration wants to eliminate health care fraud. But that effort could come at a significant cost: cutting critical services for people with disabilities.
In January, federal officials threatened to withhold about $2 billion in funding for Minnesota’s 14 Medicaid services over the next year. It also imposed a moratorium on suppliers of new durable medical equipment. They are now notifying states such as Florida that they will be investigated for fraud.
Advocates worry that broadly targeting state Medicaid funding and other health services would put people’s lives at risk after more than a quarter of Americans have disabilities and last year’s administration’s tax bill cut Medicaid funding by $1 trillion over 10 years.
What are disability advocates saying about recent efforts by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services? Read more from me here.
Early menopause increases risk of heart disease
According to a new study in JAMA Cardiology, stopping menstrual periods before you reach age 40 can dramatically increase your risk of coronary heart disease. For reasons unknown, the findings are particularly concerning for black women, who are three times more likely to experience early menopause than white women.
Researchers have previously linked early menopause to short-term heart disease, but the new study looked at six ongoing studies of more than 10,000 women without coronary heart disease whose health was followed from 1964 to 2018. Of the 3,522 black women studied, 15.5% had premature menopause; Of the 6,514 white women, 4.8% did so.
It’s still unclear what causes increased risk of disease, but scientists have a few ideas. Read Elizabeth Cooney’s article in STAT to find out what we know and don’t know about early menopause.
Latest information on hepatitis B testing in Guinea-Bissau
What is the status of the controversial hepatitis B vaccine birth-dose clinical trial being conducted in Guinea-Bissau that the CDC has agreed to fund? That seems to be a question without a clear answer.
Earlier this week, it was reported that the University of Southern Denmark had permanently put the trial, proposed by some of its researchers, on hold, with the dean of the Faculty of Health saying that the WHO’s research ethics committee had agreed to review the trial plan.
But on Wednesday, WHO’s immunization and immunization program director Kate O’Brien said the university had made that request but the global health body had not yet responded. O’Brien said it is the responsibility of funders and researchers’ home institutions to ensure that proposed research protocols are ethical. — Helen Branswell
Did we underestimate the number of deaths from the new coronavirus by 155,000?
The official U.S. death toll early in the coronavirus pandemic may be much higher than previously thought.
Approximately 840,000 deaths due to COVID-19 were reported on death certificates in 2020 and 2021. However, a group of researchers used AI to estimate that as many as 155,000 additional unrecognized deaths may have occurred outside of hospitals over the same period. This results in approximately 16% of the associated deaths being lost.
If we missed the deaths of this huge number of people, whose deaths specifically did we miss? primarily Hispanics and other people of color from the South and Southwest. Click here to learn more about the survey results.
what we are reading
- FDA rescinds 2015 proposal to ban tanning bed use by minors, Medscape
- Can the Keto Diet Really Improve Mental Health? new york times
- Eliminates tumors in mice, Azalea Therapeutics advances dream of in vivo CAR-T therapy, STAT
- Is the medical industry sick? Why Maryland doctors are burning out, The Baltimore Sun
- The evidence shows that the benefits mandated by the ACA alone do not drive up costs. The discussion continues. KFF Health News
What word? Test your knowledge with today’s STAT Mini crossword.
