In a narrative right now from STAT’s Anil Oza, I discovered that researcher and doctor Alex Keuroghlian just lately wrote the primary editorial on transgender well being analysis in the complete 150-year historical past of the journal Science. And the backstory is nearly as cool: Keuroghlian first met Science editor-in-chief Holden Thorp this spring at a dinner celebrating the 2024 STATUS Listing.
JD Vance tries to make clear Trump’s ‘idea of a plan’ for medical insurance
Former president Trump memorably stated that he had a “idea of a plan” to switch the Inexpensive Care Act within the current presidential debate with Vice President Harris. Trump’s working mate JD Vance tried to elaborate on that in a current NBC interview, saying, “You need to guarantee that pre-existing protection — circumstances — are coated.” Then he stated individuals ought to be sorted into danger swimming pools, as an alternative of a “one-size-fits-all method that places lots of people into the identical insurance coverage swimming pools.”
It’s unclear what sort of system Vance was envisioning, and Trump’s platform doesn’t really point out the ACA in any respect. The confusion has offered Democrats with a brand new line of assault, STAT’s John Wilkerson and Sarah Owermohle report.
“Right here’s what it means,” stated Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden on Tuesday. “The ideas proposed by JD Vance are a prescription for discriminating in opposition to these with pre-existing circumstances.”
Learn extra from John and Sarah on the back-and-forth. And for extra D.C. information, learn one other story from Sarah on yesterday’s failed vote on IVF protections within the Senate.
Ought to near-sightedness be an official prognosis?
It’s exhausting to pinpoint precisely how many individuals are near-sighted right now, however the quantity is growing. But clinicians don’t have a transparent consensus on diagnostic standards for myopia (the extra romantic title for near-sightedness), and information assortment isn’t standardized. A brand new, hefty report from the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Drugs recommends that CDC and WHO coordinate to streamline medical understanding of the situation. The authors additionally suggest that Medicare and Medicaid classify myopia as a illness that requires an official prognosis in order that well being businesses and different stakeholders make investments extra in prevention and therapy.
Within the meantime, the authors pointed to the significance of time spent exterior for youngsters (not less than 1 hour per day!) to strengthen imaginative and prescient. Children use digital units like smartphones earlier and extra incessantly than ever earlier than, and analysis reveals that display time and time spent open air are negatively correlated. However the proof is complicated with regards to how a lot of an issue the screens themselves pose. “Close to work” at white-collar desk jobs has lengthy been correlated with near-sightedness. Extra analysis is required to higher perceive the impression of all sorts of screens on myopia in youth, the report concluded.
The examine was retracted final 12 months. We’re nonetheless seeing the fallout.
A Springer Nature journal revealed a web based survey of 1,700 dad and mom whose kids had gender dysphoria in late March final 12 months. By mid-June, the piece had been retracted. Outdoors researchers had rapidly identified that the examine authors didn’t acquire correct consent from the dad and mom. On prime of that, it was a self-selecting group of individuals, who had all reached out to a web site that clearly expresses biased opinions on gender-affirming care.
“Yeah, there are specific issues that might have been accomplished higher,” Michael Bailey, a psychologist at Northwestern College who co-authored the retracted examine, advised STAT’s Anil Oza. “[But], all analysis is imperfect.”
The story will get extra difficult from there, culminating within the resignation of an editor at a special Nature journal. Specialists say that the saga exemplifies an vital shift in how teachers contemplate analysis on trans individuals and different marginalized communities. It’s the thought of “nothing about us with out us,” which goals to make sure that the topics of scientific analysis play a central function in shaping it. Learn extra.
Former CDC director Walensky on find out how to finish HIV drug experimentation in Africa
The newest surprise drug in HIV prevention obtained a standing ovation at this 12 months’s Worldwide AIDS Convention. Gildead’s injectable drug Lenacapavir was 100% profitable in stopping the virus in adolescent women and younger ladies in two African nations. Nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not this weak inhabitants — African ladies have extraordinarily excessive charges of HIV an infection — will profit from the therapy.
“And if historical past is any information, this may very well be a nightmare,” write former CDC director Rochelle Walensky and doctor Mark Siedner in a brand new First Opinion essay. Drug firms will usually take a look at HIV medication amongst younger ladies in Africa as a result of the upper charges of an infection make it quicker and cheaper to take action. However they not often make these therapies rapidly and affordably accessible in African nations. “Examined in Africa, utilized in America,” the First Opinion headline says. So what might be accomplished? Learn extra from Walensky and Siedner on find out how to break the sample.
Is Tupperware plastic leaking into your meals? (It’s difficult)
Meals contact supplies like waxed paper, cardboard, and plastic containers comprise chemical substances that preserve them waterproof, greaseproof, or structurally sound. Most research inspecting whether or not these chemical substances get into meals use unrealistic circumstances like soaking these supplies in liquids just like vodka — which isn’t precisely just like canned soup, salad dressing, or a glazed donut.
A new study took a special method for estimating human publicity to those compounds: digging by biomonitoring applications and databases to see which chemical substances have been detected in people, and evaluating that to lists of meals packaging chemical substances. The examine discovered that 25% of 14,000 identified meals contact chemical substances have been present in people.
Although the examine suggests the U.S. wants stricter laws on these chemical substances, it additionally reveals gaps in our data. The proof that meals packaging alone was liable for that 25% is slim for a few of the compounds — a few of them are not often present in packaging and will have gotten into individuals by different exposures. And solely about 40% of the detected chemical substances had been of excessive or medium concern, however that’s partially as a result of we haven’t accomplished sufficient analysis to find out whether or not the opposite ones are dangerous, the authors famous.
— Brittany Trang
What we’re studying
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Docs cured her sickle-cell illness. So why is she nonetheless in ache? Nature
- 12 individuals shaping psychedelics drug improvement, STAT
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A long time of nationwide suicide prevention insurance policies haven’t slowed the deaths, KFF Health News
- The U.S. ought to observe California’s lead on banning poisonous chemical substances in IV luggage and tubes, STAT
- Most Latinx immigrants stated they didn’t know abortion was authorized in New Jersey. Meet the group serving to the state perceive why, Next City
- From Epic to FDA, all of the leaders presenting at HHS’ invite-only AI in well being care occasion, STAT