Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: EPA's Plan To Regulate PFAs Is Just A Start; Melinda Gates Invests In Women's Health
The Washington Post: EPA Plans To Regulate 6 PFAS Forever Chemicals. Just 10,000 To Go.
The Environmental Protection Agency earned praise last month for its first-ever drinking water standard for forever chemicals, and rightly so. But there’s a catch: The standard would regulate only six of these chemicals, and already more than 10,000 forever chemicals face no such restrictions. (Joseph G. Allen, 5/28)
The New York Times: The Enemies of Progress Play Offense. I Want to Help Even the Match.
Many years ago, I received this piece of advice: “Set your own agenda, or someone else will set it for you.” I’ve carried those words with me ever since. That’s why, next week, I will leave the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, of which I was a co-founder almost 25 years ago, to open a new chapter in my philanthropy. To begin, I am announcing $1 billion in new spending over the next two years for people and organizations working on behalf of women and families around the world, including on reproductive rights in the United States. (Melinda French Gates, 5/28)
The New York Times: Step Aside, DNA. RNA Has Arrived.
RNA discoveries have led to new therapies, such as the use of antisense RNA to help treat children afflicted with the devastating disease spinal muscular atrophy. The mRNA vaccines, which saved millions of lives during the Covid pandemic, are being reformulated to attack other diseases, including some cancers. RNA research may also be helping us rewrite the future; the genetic scissors that give CRISPR its breathtaking power to edit genes are guided to their sites of action by RNAs. (Thomas Cech, 5/29)
Stat: Focused Ultrasound For Uterine Fibroids: An Uphill Battle
If an effective treatment is available for one common disease in men, and that same treatment is available for a different common disease in women, a logical expectation would be that the treatments are equally accessible to men and women. That is not the current reality. (Suzanne LeBlang, 5/29)
