Todays Trend
Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here . Good morning and happy election day.
At the very least, after today, we can hope for a short respite from relentless campaign fundraising text messages . Midterms, midterms, midterms Read the above headline in Jan Brady’s voice when she whined “ Marcia, Marcia, Marcia ,” please. It’s finally election day.
We’ve had a bunch of great coverage over the last few weeks on the key candidates and ballot measures , and what’s at stake for health care. I’m re-sharing some highlights, but I’ll be brief. Meet us back here tomorrow morning for an early look at the results.
Voters across the country are furious over the high cost of health care, which has led to unprecedented support for more aggressive federal action. Whichever party gains control of Congress with today’s votes will largely determine the health policies that have a chance at passage in coming years. The balance of power could shift in how trillions of dollars are spent by Congress in the U.S. health ecosystem.
The MAHA movement, largely invisible on the campaign trail, has yet to deliver causes with political heft. Can it survive the midterms ? First U.S. bird flu death of the year after cattle exposure A person in Washington state has died from complications of the bird flu, the AP reported yesterday.
It’s the first such death this year in the U.S., and the third overall since bird flu became a major public health concern in 2024. (The first two deaths were from the H5N1 strain of the virus. The Washington case stemmed from a rarer version, H5N5.) It’s another day I wish Helen Branswell was still here. She reported extensively on bird flu over her career at STAT, and her most recent reporting offers a reminder: Cases over the past few years have largely been milder than expected, leaving scientists relieved and puzzled. (Also: Drinking raw milk is always a bad idea , Helen wrote, but especially when bird flu is circulating.) Read more on the Washington case.
And in more solemn infectious disease news: New York saw its first measles-related death in 30 years, the state’s governor announced yesterday. FDA approves generic HIV prevention shot The FDA has taken a key step to improve access to a groundbreaking HIV prevention medication for dozens of low- and middle-income countries. The injectable drug, lenacapavir, offers virtually complete protection against the virus with one administration every six months.
More than a year after approving the brand name version , sold by Gilead Sciences, the agency gave tentative approval to Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories to make a generic version. The move comes two years after Gilead reached licensing deals with six generic drugmakers, including Dr.
Reddy’s, to produce and distribute a lower-cost version to 120 mostly low- and middle-income countries. Read more from STAT’s Ed Silverman on who the generic can help and how much it will ultimately cost. Scientists are re-thinking ‘three-parent IVF’ I hope you took some time yesterday to read Megan Molteni’s incredible reporting on IVF clinics around the world pitching older women on a reproductive technique known as “three-parent IVF” as a way for them to have biological children, despite scant evidence that it works.
Go read that story if you haven’t yet. Today, Megan and STAT contributor Edward Chen bring us a follow-up on the thorny ethical questions about developing the procedure. The technique, formally known as mitochondrial replacement technology, was developed to reduce the risk of children inheriting sometimes fatal mitochondrial diseases from their mothers.
Pushback against it has mainly focused on its expanding use as an infertility treatment, as Megan wrote. But now, some scientists are rethinking the entire approach due to questions around ethics, safety, and efficacy. “The general public may have the idea that it is very safe and low risk and that’s just not the case,” said Bert Smeets, a clinical genomics professor who serves on the committee that reviews applications from patients to receive MRT at the sole U.K. clinic that has a license to perform it.
Read more on why some of the data is worrying experts. 10% That’s the proportion of minors who went to the ER after an electric bike accident that ultimately had brain injuries, according to an analysis of emergency room data published yesterday in JAMA . That’s double the rate of brain injuries caused by non-motorized bikes. Researchers assessed data from six medical institutions between 2023 and early 2026, finding that injury rates for e-bikes and e-scooters increased much faster than harms from traditional, non-motorized bikes and scooters over those years.
And while kids who get hurt on these motorized vehicles are generally older, 24% of e-bike injuries and 44% of e-scooter trauma occurred in kids younger than 12. How one doctor got better at his job, overnight Last fall, ophthalmologist Robert Kinast attended a meditation retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains, hoping for a respite from his busy medical practice. But when he and the other attendees were asked to stay awake and meditate through dawn, Kinast found himself revisiting the most devastating injuries he’d witnessed as a doctor: Eyes ruptured by knives, fireworks, bungee cords, windshields, beer bottles, sticks, rocks, fish hooks, and more.
“That night taught me how the inner work of meditation and self-inquiry can support the outer work of patient care,” Kinast writes in a new First Opinion essay. Read more on how he’s changed his behavior in clinic to stay grounded and better serve patients. What we’re reading Child dies of measles in New York’s first such death in 30 years, Associated Press A GOP congressman backed Medicaid work requirements.
His voters might be exempt, KFF Health News What’s the sanest approach to teen partying? The Cut Opinion: What the 2024 electoral map reveals about America’s mortality divide, STAT Your state’s next attorney general could help determine abortion access, The 19th
Source: STAT
