Table of Contents
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Good morning! It was a very rainy day in Boston yesterday – but at least it was not a cold. I manifest some sun today.
Trump chooses a new CDC director
After the chaotic withdrawal of his first nominee to lead the CDC, President Trump chose the acting director of the agency, Susan Monarez, to play the role, Sarah Owermohle and Helen Branswell report.
Monarez is an old biosafility expert with ties with the flagship Health Initiative of former President Biden, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. If confirmed, she will be the first CDC director since 1953 to not be a doctor in medicine. Although she was not known before the news dropped yesterday, some apparently called her to her as’ the Kevin Bacon From biomedical innovation. “Read more.
Does the kidney transplantation system have to change?
A new study says yes – if the waiting list for a kidney transplant would be expanded to improve access, fundamental changes to the current model would be needed to reduce or even maintain existing waiting times. While at a certain moment there are around 90,000 people on the waiting list, per Federal data From autumn, only about 25,000 kidney transplants take place every year. Adding 10% more patients to the waiting list would increase the average waiting time by 4 months; Adding 50% more patients would increase time by almost two years. Another 2,800 kidneys would be needed to compensate for the increase of 10% or 11,000 for an increase of 50%, according to the analysis published yesterday in Jama Network Open.
At the moment it is especially difficult for people with kidney failure (the most sick patients) to be on the waiting list for a transplant, and once there, it takes them longer To actually get a new kidney. But it is not only the extreme cases that would benefit from more kidneys and shorter waiting times – that can save lives across the board. In general, there are probably a large increase in kidneys of living donors, just like research and policy initiatives that would promote this, the authors wrote. (They did not discuss xenotransplantation, which has received a lot of attention but is still in the early days of research.)
NIH removes external advisers who evaluate research
Prominent external scientists who help the NIH evaluate the internal research programs are abruptly removed, according to five advisers whose positions have been terminated and a recording of an internal meeting obtained by Stat’s Megan Molteni and Jason Mast.
It is unclear why this happens. The advisers who spoke with Stat received no reason and still have to receive an official notification of termination of the NIH. “I asked where this order came from and nobody seemed to know,” said a person. Among those who are terminated are people without American citizenship, women, people of under -represented racial and ethnic groups, and people who work in new taboo areas such as diversity and fairness. Read more.
How proposed cuts can influence on the budget
Over the past 35 years, the US has built up systems to support people who live with dementia and their carers – often through programs that depend on Medicaid financing. But the Proposed federal budget requires $ 880 billion in cuts on Medicaid for 10 years. If that happens, these programs that trust medicaid should probably reduce their services or possibly have to be closed.
“People are scared. I’m afraid. They are afraid of what will happen to them if they get this disease. They are even more afraid of how their families are?” In a new essay of the first opinion, Arts Jason Karlawish argues that this fear “will visit the American family again” if the dramatic cuts are made. Read the essay, which includes the stories of two patients from the memory clinic of Karlawish, whose life has been changed by Medicaid-Fastinanced programs.
The world reduces avoidable deaths and the US adds them, says the study
In most countries with a high income around the world, the number of avoidable deaths (avoidable thanks to preventive measures or treatments) has decreased in the last decade. But in the US that number is increasing, according to a study published yesterday in Jama Internal Medicine.
Between 2009 and 2021, the avoidable deaths in the US increased from around 20 to 44 avoidable deaths per 100,000, the study showed. The number of deaths increased in all 50 US states, but the variation between each situation also increased. Other countries saw about 14 less avoidable deaths per 100,000. Reduction in the European Union was even greater, with an average of almost 24 fewer deaths per 100,000.
The US spends more on health care than any other country with a high income, but the increase in avoidable deaths “suggests that there are broad and systemic issues,” the authors of the study write. They write that policy solutions that promote healthy food, limit exposure to harmful products, tackling rifles and regulating motor vehicles are potential ways to tackle the versatile problem.
23andme -files for bankruptcy
Late on Sunday, the DNA tests startup 23andme said it will request for bankruptcy and CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki, after she repeatedly tried and took the legendary but financially restless company Private, Jason Mast reported yesterday morning. The company will now try to sell itself through a sale guided by the court, and Wojcicki will continue to try to buy it.
To understand how it all happened, Stat’s Matthew Reper -Ernest Hemingway’s description of bankruptcy in the novel of 1926, “The Sun also rises”: It happens “two ways: gradually and then suddenly.” Bankruptcy is the worst result for both Wojcicki and the shareholders of the company, Matt writes. But it is the customers who can suffer the most. Read more analysis in Matt’s Take.
What we read
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NIH terminates future financing to study the health effects of climate change, Propublica
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Medical benchmarks and the myth of the universal patient, New Yorker
- Impatient about cell and gene therapy? Progress in Biotech is not always linear, Stat
- A war within the war: the sick children of Ukraine, New York Times
- The rapid acceptance of the health insurers of AI Tools exceeds the assets of the supervisors to keep watch, Stat