Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Cutting NIH Research Grants Is A Huge Waste; RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Hypocrisy Is Unsustainable
Bloomberg: NIH Grant Cuts Are Turning Out To Be A Waste Of Money
The Trump administration’s waves of massive cuts to funding at the National Institutes of Health are framed as a recasting of research priorities and a way to save taxpayer money. Another way to frame it is an exercise in massive waste. (Lisa Jarvis and Carolyn Silverman, 4/17)
The New York Times: Did Anyone Really Think Kennedy Would Soften His Hostility to Vaccines?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might have preferred to spend his early months as secretary of Health and Human Services on issues for which he has broad support, such as his battle against ultraprocessed food. But the country’s devastating eruption of measles has proved to be a make-or-break event for him, and his constant equivocation on this issue has been disastrous. (Benjamin Mazer, 4/18)
The Washington Post: Donald Trump’s War On Children
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid off everyone in its lead-poisoning group last week, just as Milwaukee schools beg for federal help with a lead-poisoning crisis. Funding to help states replace lead pipes has also been frozen or delayed. (Catherine Rampell, 4/18)
Stat: Five Priorities To Make The FDA A Success In A Time Of Deep Uncertainty
The first few weeks in office are never easy, but the early stumbles of Marty Makary, the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration under the second Trump administration, are cause for concern. Confirmed swiftly, he enjoyed broad support from the biotech industry, which hoped that he would usher in a new era of scientific leadership at the agency. (Luciana Borio and Phil Krause, 4/18)
Stat: Dismantling The One U.S. Agency Focused On Older Adults, People With Disabilities Is Startlingly Inefficient
Even before the Department of Health and Human Services announced its recent major reorganization, the media had been reporting on anticipated changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. But the very last bullet on the HHS fact sheet was a complete surprise to most people: the elimination of the Administration for Community Living (ACL). (Alison Barkoff, Kathy Greenlee, Sharon Lewis and Henry Claypool, 4/17)
Also —
Stat: My Rare Disease Doesn’t Even Have A Single Name
In 2022, I gave birth to a healthy baby girl and triggered a wildly violent chain of events: multiple organ failure, hemorrhaging, blood clots in many of my major organs, and a rattled medical team working tirelessly to keep me alive. (Taylor Coffman, 4/18)
Tampa Bay Times: A Wrong Fix For Tampa And The Nation’s Organ Transplant System
Few lifesaving medical procedures rely as deeply on partnership and coordination as organ transplantation. The moment a patient receives the call for a potential organ is only possible because a grieving family, during an incredibly vulnerable time, agrees to give the gift of life. A dedicated Organ Procurement Organization then works with hospitals to make that miracle possible. (Anthony Watkins, 4/17)
