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good morning. As mentioned earlier, it’s ice cream every day season. But yesterday, while pedaling uphill, I had a tragic arachnid encounter that reminded me that this is also the season for spiders on your bike every day. (I park next to the bushes.)
Impact of vaccine and coronavirus backlash on Ebola hemorrhagic fever countermeasures
In 2020, NIH funded a network of 10 centers focused on emerging infectious diseases. Last year, the Trump administration cut funding to these centers as part of broader cuts to operations related to COVID-19 and pandemic preparedness. And as you know, this year we saw an outbreak of Ebola in Central Africa.
These centers were not on the front lines of outbreak response like the CDC or USAID. But some researchers in the network say the cuts have weakened long-standing relationships with overseas experts and hurt research collaboration on dangerous diseases like Ebola. STAT’s Anil Oza has more on the current status of this effort and what the future holds.
Unwanted surprises in Medicaid work requirements
The guidance released Monday is the most detailed yet on how new work requirements will change the Medicaid program, which serves nearly 70 million people. STAT reporters reviewed nearly 400 pages of documents and spoke with Medicaid leaders and advocates to better understand the impact of these changes.
Frankly, says Benjamin Somers, a professor of economics at Harvard University, “it’s not going to work.” Much of the conversation revolves around medical frailty, one of the ways people can be exempted from work requirements. This is a tricky two-step process. You must have a serious medical condition and prove that it impairs your ability to work. Read more about the impact from our team of reporters.
Ultra-processed food researchers call for policy changes
A new survey of 2,000 adults finds overwhelming agreement across party lines that ultra-processed foods are addictive and are a major cause of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Despite these agreements, governments are not doing enough to rein in the food industries that produce these products, according to leading researchers. The findings and expert policy recommendations were both published this morning in a special edition of the American Journal of Public Health focused on ultra-processed foods, along with more than a dozen papers.
As scholar Marion Nestle makes clear, the issue’s contributors have one key message for lawmakers: “Do the policy!” STAT’s Sarah Todd wrote about the do’s and don’ts that experts have laid out for future government action.
Easy update for hantavirus
According to an X post from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus yesterday, one month has passed since the last hantavirus death was reported. “The situation is stable and global risks remain low,” he said.
Also yesterday, HHS emailed U.S. cruise ship passengers quarantining in Nebraska to participate in “a fun and completely voluntary opportunity to help share your experience with the public,” according to an email shared with Inside Medicine’s Jeremy Faust. The email, sent from an HHS field operations account, requests photos of activities people are doing in the room. Faust classifies this effort as “free government propaganda.”
Some good news about death
Deaths from suicide, overdose, and alcohol-related despair will decline in the United States in 2024, a hopeful turning point after years of increases. In particular, the number of drug overdose deaths has decreased significantly, dropping by 26% from 2023. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that just under 80,000 Americans will die from drug overdoses in 2024, down from more than 100,000 deaths at the peak of the opioid epidemic in 2022. “That’s more than 80 American lives saved every day,” said Alison Arwady, who recently passed away. The director of the CDC Injury Center told reporters on Tuesday.
Mortality rates, which combine suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related deaths, are still higher than pre-pandemic levels but have declined in 2024. Deaths from suicide decreased by 3%, and certain alcohol-related deaths, such as alcohol poisoning and liver disease, decreased by 4%. (Data does not include all alcohol-attributable causes, such as violence and car accidents, where alcohol is a more deadly substance than opioids in the U.S.)
Improving overdose death statistics has taken years of effort and investment, Arwady said Tuesday at a news conference hosted by the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health announcing the data analysis. Reducing suicide and alcohol-related deaths will require similarly tailored intentions, she said. With further cuts to public health looming, now is not the time to relax, she said.
“Ten years ago, we didn’t have anything like this. We barely counted drug overdoses,” Arwady said. “This is not a partisan or political issue.” — Isabella Cueto
Does the military encourage eating disorders?
The United States has the strongest military in the world. Nevertheless, the Trump administration seems intent on making its members even more powerful, or at least aesthetically so. Last fall, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said there were no “fat troops” or “fat generals and admirals” in the halls of the Pentagon. In January, the military established strict body composition ratios between waist and height, regardless of a unit’s specific role.
Paula Chesley teaches yoga at a clinic for people with eating disorders, including both military and veterans. She worries that this approach could exacerbate the pressures that already contribute to eating disorders in military and veterans. Read more about what she learned working with male military clients.
(In related news, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled Monday that there were “hostile reasons” behind the administration’s ban on transgender service members. Attorney Chris Geidner, who writes the informative LawDork blog, explained the ruling and its implications.)
what we are reading
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Losing weight did not cure the disease. That’s what it was anyway, Vogue.
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Court could deliver biggest victory for anti-vaccination movement, The Washington Post
- Senior NIH Scientist, Researcher Charged with Bringing Inactivated MPX Virus to US, Associated Press
- Sleuth claims Thermo Fisher falsified data to sell antibodies, Chemistry and Engineering News
- Listen: The Amish Way of Healthcare, STAT
