Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: $4B In NIH Funding Cuts Will Affect Health Care For All Of Us; Prevention Is Key To Ending Bird Flu
A dramatic cut to the National Institutes of Health鈥檚 budget for grants that support research institutions will have a seismic impact on science and medicine in the US 鈥 and will directly affect local communities and Americans鈥 access to high quality care. (Lisa Jarvis, 2/10)
In the summer of 2023, I connected with an epidemiologist from Kerala. A lush sliver of land along the Indian peninsula鈥檚 southwestern edge, it is a place of sleepy backwaters and rolling hills of spices. It is also known for its forests. There, a man from the leafy village of Maruthonkara had died from Nipah virus. (Arjun Sharma, 2/11)
The Trump administration has promised that addressing childhood obesity will be a key part of its 鈥淢ake America Healthy Again鈥 agenda. That鈥檚 much easier said than done. (Leana S. Wen, 2/11)
In addition to being a physician, I happen to be a woman, so I was curious why women needed defending from an analysis of how health professionals might better help suicidal patients. In the paper, the authors reminded clinicians to keep in mind which patient groups are known to be at higher risk, citing peer-reviewed data: 鈥淗igh risk groups include male sex, being young, veterans, Indigenous tribes, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (LGBTQ).鈥 The acknowledgment of transgender people, however peripheral, was apparently enough to invite the ax. (Danielle Ofri, 2/10)
In November 2022, Dennis Selkoe, a Harvard professor of neurologic diseases and among the most celebrated and prolific Alzheimer鈥檚 researchers, chastised me over lunch. I had just broken a story in Science about the horrific death of a volunteer in a trial of lecanemab, a much-anticipated new drug to treat Alzheimer鈥檚 by flushing certain dangerous substances from the brain. The woman suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage. A pathologist said it was like 鈥渉er brain exploded.鈥 (Charles Piller, 2/11)