Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Researchers Have Created A Molecular Map Of Autism In The Brain
CNN: Largest Ever ‘Map’ Of Autism May Hold Clues For New Targeted Therapies
Scientists are getting a step closer to understanding exactly how autism develops in the brain – and what might work to treat it. (Howard, 8/27)
Stat: Vaccines Take Center Stage At Federal Autism Advisory Committee Meeting
Vaccines took center stage at the federal autism advisory committee meeting Thursday, as committee members explicitly pointed to vaccines as a potential cause of autism, even though the link has been routinely debunked. (Broderick, 8/28)
San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Gets $46M Autism Grant From Sergey Brin-Backed Foundation
UCSF has received a $46 million grant from a foundation backed by Google cofounder Sergey Brin to advance autism research and potential therapies, one of the largest single grants the university has gotten for basic research. The award comes from Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA), an initiative funded by the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, and goes to Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI), a research unit within UCSF. (Ho, 8/27)
In other health and wellness news —
The Trace: Murder-Suicide Among Older Americans Appears To Be Rising
A day after New Year’s, 2025, a 91-year-old man fatally shot his 89-year-old wife in their house in Camarillo, California. He called the police to confess before killing himself. “They were inseparable for the 64 years they were together,” according to the couple’s joint obituary. (Mascia and Brownlee, 8/27)
MedPage Today: Dementia Risks Vary By Menopause Hormone Therapy Timing, Study Shows
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was tied to a lower risk of dementia in a prospective study of nearly 185,000 postmenopausal women in the U.K. Biobank. (George, 8/27)
The Washington Post: Parkinson’s Can Rob People’s Voices. This Instrument Could Help Bring Them Back.
Harmonica lessons could be helping patients regain voices weakened by the progressive movement disorder, a boon for patients and their families. (Kim, 8/28)
MedPage Today: U.S. Women Increasingly Not Screened For Cervical Cancer
The proportion of women never screened for cervical cancer increased by more than 5% per year from 2005 to 2023, a cross-sectional study showed. (Bassett, 8/27)
Daily Southtown: Cancer Survivor Says She Owes Her Life To A Labradoodle's Snoot
These days when Karen Daggett goes to see her doctors at South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, she’s known as the “dog patient.” For Daggett, of Chicago Heights, it’s a bittersweet reminder of a family pet that may have saved her life. (Neumann, 8/27)
KFF Health News: Why Older Pedestrians Fare Worse In Car Crashes
On an August morning two years ago, Meredith Melville was crossing Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California, to meet a friend at a cafe. While in the crosswalk, she noticed a car some distance away. Perhaps she misjudged its speed, she said, because she’d walked only partway across the street when the car, a Toyota sedan, came bearing down on her. (Span, 8/28)
