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Since the start of the second Trump administration, I have heard from colleagues in the medical research community about their experiences. Many are afraid to speak openly but want the public to understand the effects of these policy decisions on the future of science. I am sharing some of their stories here, while respecting their wishes to omit details that would identify them. (Leana S. Wen, 8/14)

Several days after a drug overdose, Kentuckian TJ Hoover was declared brain dead. Doctors prepared him for organ removal surgery, and as the procedure was about to begin, Hoover woke up. Reports indicate that hospital professionals allegedly disregarded signs that Hoover was still alert, and opted to move forward with harvesting anyway until it was undeniable that their patient was not dead. (8/14)

The recent decision by federal health officials to exclude voluntary liaisons, including the nation’s leading physician organizations, from the process of reviewing and informing vaccine recommendations threatens patient and public health. (8/15)

Since 2010, suicide rates among young men have risen by a third — they are now higher than they are among middle-aged men. The share of college degrees going to men has fallen to 41 percent, lower than the women’s share in 1970. One in 10 men aged 20 to 24 is effectively doing nothing — neither enrolled in school nor working. That’s twice the rate in 1990. (Robert D. Putnam and Richard V. Reeves, 8/15)

The scarcity of recovery stories like mine distorts drug policy. It bolsters the continued dominance of abstinence-only rehabs and recovery housing, which deters many people who could benefit from seeking help. It enables most residential treatment and recovery homes to reject long-term use of the addiction medications like buprenorphine and methadone — the only treatments proven to cut opioid overdose deaths in half — based on the mistaken idea that taking them means a person isn’t really sober or in recovery. (Maia Szalavitz, 8/14)