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Following the president’s recent executive order dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, the main page for the FDA’s Diversity Action Plan guidelines — requiring pharmaceutical companies to test drugs on diverse populations before approval — has been down since Jan. 23. These guidelines were established under the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022, enacted by Congress to promote inclusivity in clinical trials. It’s upsetting to see. But I predict those mandates will eventually come back — because we need them. (Suzanne B. Robotti, 2/6)

For anyone who lives in a nursing home, the adequacy of the nursing staff is a life-or-death issue. That’s why the Biden administration issued federal rules last year setting minimum standards for staffing. By our estimate, they will save 13,000 lives a year. But those rules are now under attack. (Norma B. Coe and Rachel M. Werner, 2/7)

Three years ago, I was working at a biotech company leading a drug discovery program focused on metabolic disease. Interested in obtaining liver samples that could help identify potential therapeutic targets, I learned that a tenured professor at a top 10 NIH institution had more than 2,000 samples of tissue from patients they had accumulated over more than a decade of research. (Saif Rathore, 2/7)

Imagine standing at the pharmacy counter, knowing you need an inhaler to breathe and being forced to choose between spending the rest of your paycheck on an inhaler or rent. Thousands of uninsured Chicagoans have been in this position before, and Medicaid expansion — passed in January 2014 through the Affordable Care Act — provided much needed relief to thousands of Chicagoans. If Congress follows through on the plan by President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back Medicaid expansion, 900,000 Illinoisans could lose their health insurance, and millions more would lose coverage across the country. (Robert Vargas and Tony Christiano, 2/7)

Shock of shocks: Missouri Republicans aren’t much interested in reversing the state’s abortion ban. Quite the opposite, in fact. Show-Me State voters sent a pretty clear message to Jefferson City back in November — choosing, as expected, to undo the existing ban. But GOP officials aren’t just dragging their feet to avoid complying with the results of that vote: They are already pushing for another election, this time to re-ban abortion. (Joel Mathis, 2/7)

With asbestos use dominating most industries in past decades, the number of people diagnosed with exposure-related diseases has been increasing nationwide, including in Missouri. The military sector was no exception from applying asbestos in a plethora of products, and, consequently, military veterans are among the individuals most affected by this carcinogenic material, with many developing severe diseases stemming from their exposure, such as asbestosis, mesothelioma or lung cancer. (Cristina Johnson, 2/7)