Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
A Bullying Management Style Doesn't Pay Off In Long Run, So Why Do So Many Leaders Fit That Mold?
Senator Amy Klobuchar鈥檚 nascent campaign is fending off a stream of stories from former staffers that she was a volatile, highhanded boss who often demeaned and humiliated people who worked for her. She has one of the highest rates of turnover in the Senate. 鈥淎m I a tough boss sometimes? Yes,鈥 she said in a recent CNN forum. 鈥淗ave I pushed people too hard? Yes.鈥 The presumption that tough bosses get results 鈥 and fast 鈥 compared with gentler leaders is widespread, and rooted partly in the published life stories of successful C.E.O.s. Bobby Knight, the Indiana University basketball coach and author of 鈥淭he Power of Negative Thinking,鈥 was notoriously harsh, and enormously successful. So was Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple. (Carey, 2/26)
The decision to invite only female speakers to the microbiome conference at the University of California, San Diego, this week was meant to make a statement about how scientific meetings ought to be organized. Instead, the move has ignited a minor controversy, thrusting a gathering about a technical scientific subject into the culture wars. The inaugural International Microbiome Meeting, put on by UCSD鈥檚 Center for Microbiome Innovation, is expected to have 27 microbiome experts 鈥 all women 鈥 take the stage as presenters over two days this week. (Robbins, 2/27)
China has unveiled draft regulations on gene editing and other potentially risky biomedical technologies after a Chinese scientist's claim of helping to create gene-edited babies roiled the global science community. Under the proposed measures released Tuesday, technology involving gene editing, gene transfer and gene regulation would be categorized as "high-risk" and managed by the health department of the State Council, China's Cabinet. (2/26)
In cancer immunotherapy these days, technology is advancing so fast that 2017鈥檚 buzzy new treatment may soon be passe:聽Only 18 months after聽approval of the first CAR-T, pharmaceutical companies and biotechs are already talking about next-generation cancer therapy. Called bispecific antibodies, they鈥檙e being developed by some two dozen companies large and small, with a version cleverly branded as BiTEs already constituting 60 percent of Amgen鈥檚 oncology pipeline. The appeal: Bispecifics make the immune system kill tumor cells like first-gen immunotherapy, but, unlike the weeks it takes to laboriously manufacture CAR-Ts, they can start being infused almost as quickly as an oncologist can write a prescription. (Begley, 2/27)
A few minutes of brief, intense exercise may be as effective as much lengthier walks or other moderate workouts for incinerating body fat, according to a helpful new review of the effects of exercise on fat loss. The review finds that super-short intervals could even, in some cases, burn more fat than a long walk or jog, but the effort involved needs to be arduous. I have written many times about the health, fitness and brevity benefits of high-intensity interval training, which typically involves a few minutes 鈥 or even seconds 鈥 of strenuous exertion followed by a period of rest, with the sequence repeated multiple times. (Reynolds, 2/27)
The story of Keira Ball, a sprightly 9 year old, did not end in the summer of 2017, when she was fatally injured in a car accident in England. Her parents consented to donating her organs, saving the life of Max Johnson, also 9, whose heart was failing because of an infection. Pictures of these two children, who never met in life, have been on newspaper front pages and news broadcasts in Britain this week, the most highly publicized of the cases that have helped win passage of what has been called Max and Keira鈥檚 law. It is intended to boost Britain鈥檚 low rate of organ donations by making most adults presumed organ donors by 2020. (Karasz, 2/26)