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Who could have guessed there were so many bikers among STAT’s readership? Thanks to all who sent me advice yesterday. There are a couple more days of news ahead before I hit the pavement though, so let’s get into it.
Hundreds of NIH grant terminations are ‘void and illegal,’ federal judge rules
A federal judge deemed that some of the grant terminations by the NIH are “void and illegal” in a hearing yesterday regarding two lawsuits against the Trump administration. STAT’s Anil Oza was in the courthouse as Judge William G. Young expressed frustration that the NIH had no formal definition of DEI despite terminating a wide swath of grants in that area. The decision, which can be appealed, hands a temporary victory to researchers across the country, who are reeling from unprecedented changes at the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.
I called Brittany Charlton, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and a plaintiff in one of the suits, to get her reaction to the decision. “It was so, so powerful to hear the judge’s pretty strongly worded response,” she said. “I think his words really remind us that the promise of fairness and scientific integrity can’t be subject to the whims of politics.” Read more from Anil on the details.
Fired ACIP members are ‘deeply concerned’ about the future
Last week’s abrupt firing of all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was one in a series of “destabilizing decisions, made without clear rationale,” those same former members wrote yesterday in a JAMA commentary. The dismissal and immediate replacement of these members “have left the U.S. vaccine program critically weakened,” threatening people’s access to lifesaving shots and putting families at risk of preventable illnesses, the scientists argue.
Historically, ACIP has been one of the most transparent federal committees, they wrote, with rigorous reporting on conflicts of interest and specific succession procedures in place to ensure continuity “and avoid precisely the disruption that will now ensue,” they wrote.
The authors also bring some data to the table that they find important to share “in this age of government efficiency.” Routine vaccination of around 117 million children between 1994 and 2023 has likely prevented around 508 million lifetime cases of illness, 1.13 million deaths, and saved $540 billion in direct costs and $2.7 trillion in societal costs.
16,642
That’s how many preventable deaths will occur each year if key health care provisions — especially proposed cuts to Medicaid and ACA marketplace reforms — in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are implemented. That’s according to new analysis in the Annals of Internal Medicine, STAT’s Marissa Russo reports. The analysis also found that 7.6 million people could lose insurance coverage. Read more from Marissa on these big numbers.
Two CDC labs won’t close after all
The staff of two world-class CDC labs that were slated for closure have been informed that their terminations were cancelled, STAT’s Helen Branswell reports. Last Thursday, the 55 full-time employees of the CDC’s sexually transmitted disease lab and the viral hepatitis lab received emails about the reversal from the same human resources account that had originally notified them of their dismissals.
They represent a fraction of roughly 450 CDC workers whose firings have reportedly been reversed. “It’s great news,” one of the lab’s employees said. But the relief is tempered with uncertainty over what the working conditions will be, and if more cuts could happen again in the future. “This has been very grueling,” another employee said. Read more from Helen.
The latest data on fetal mortality
There were 20,005 fetal deaths at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the U.S. during 2023, according to the latest data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. That translates to a rate of 5.53 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is not significantly different from the rate in 2022 (5.48). But early fetal deaths (between 20-27 weeks of gestation) increased 4% from the previous year, marking the first statistically significant increase in that annual rate since 2014.
The term “fetal death” is used to include a range of experiences including stillbirth, spontaneous abortion, and miscarriage. The fetal mortality rate was highest in 2023 for Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Black parents, while Asian parents had the lowest rate.
The data reminded me of a STAT story published the same year as it represents — in 2023, contributor Eleanor Cummins wrote about how pathologists who study pregnancy loss were worried about pressure from law enforcement in the post-Dobbs era to produce definitive cause of death determinations. But it’s not that easy. “There is no such thing as absolute determination,” physician-scientist Mana Parast said. “If anyone said so, they’re lying.” Revisit the story.
Private equity comes to a Harvard research lab
As Harvard University grapples with the Trump administration’s severe funding cuts, a private equity firm has stepped in to finance one of the school’s biological research labs, while also launching a biotech alongside it to develop new therapies for metabolic conditions.
It’s a relatively modest deal in the scope of investment banking, STAT’s Allison DeAngelis reports. But the collaboration provides much-needed capital at a time when the model for funding scientific research has been thrown into chaos. And some university officials believe the unusual arrangement could be at least one model to fund other academic research in the future. Read more on the details.
What we’re reading
Purdue Pharma, Sacklers reach new $7.4 billion opioid settlement, NPR
This historian has seen the future of trans health care, them
- After second Sarepta death, Duchenne muscular dystrophy community is racked by recrimination and worry, STAT
- ‘A bloodbath’: Doctors describe carnage at Iran’s hospitals after Israeli strikes, The Guardian
- China, where obesity levels are low, becomes hotbed for weight loss drug trials, STAT
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