TRUMP

[Nearly] 100 days later in science and health…

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If you read this newsletter, I feel comfortable assuming that you have also struggled to follow the head-spinning series of events that have occurred in federal health agencies since President Donald Trump took office in January. We here at STAT definitely have! 

So, as we approach the 100-day mark, we are taking stock with a special report that elucidates how the partnership between the NIH and academia has crumbled, and examines the toll this has taken on five individuals. We’ve also put together a thorough timeline that illustrates the breadth of executive orders, legal actions and funding cuts that have defined the year's first quarter.

A new STAT analysis by Megan Molteni, Emory Parker and Jonathan Wosen shows that the NIH has scaled back its awards of new grants by at least $2.3 billion since the beginning of the year — coming on top of threats to freeze billions of dollars of NIH funding to specific universities as well as abrupt terminations to hundreds research projects targeted by Trump’s political agenda. Read the analysis and check out Emory’s stunning charts and graphs here. 

The human toll of these cuts — the thousands of personal tragedies playing out across the country, far beyond the NIH’s Maryland campus — is incalculable, but these five stories illustrate the trauma that people are weathering as labs go dark and careers evaporate overnight. Angus Chen, Jonathan Wosen and Usha Lee McFarling did an incredible job capturing the heartbreak of this moment. And be sure to take a look at the timeline, compiled by Usha and given a snazzy design by Julia Bujalski. 

What a mighty project!

AUTISM

HHS axes autism registry

The federal health department is not creating a new autism registry, an official told STAT on Thursday. Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services will launch a $50 million research effort to improve treatments and understand the causes of the condition.

The news arrives after a couple of days of bedlam in the autism community. National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya announced Tuesday the intent to create a registry at an all staff meeting. Much of the fear centered around his remarks that the government would pull health data from private sources, even wearables like smart watches and fitness trackers. Many autistic people worried it presaged dark days ahead. 

Instead, the HHS has reversed course. It’s unclear what this new $50 million research initiative will look like, but stay tuned. We’ll have the scoop when more details emerge.

VACCINES

CDC finally does its job

In a new report on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stressed that increasing measles vaccination coverage is essential to ending the outbreaks currently underway in the country and preventing new ones. That message is exactly what one would expect from the public health agency, but one that the CDC hasn’t often been given the chance to voice since Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an avowed critic of vaccines, was confirmed as Health and Human Services secretary earlier this year. Kennedy stresses that getting vaccinated is a matter of personal choice.

Of the 800 confirmed cases that were reported up to April 17, 654 or 82% have been associated with a large and ongoing outbreak that began in West Texas and has since spread to New Mexico, Oklahoma, and possibly Kansas, as well as across the border into Mexico. There have been three confirmed deaths associated with that outbreak, marking the first time in over 20 years that the country has experienced multiple measles deaths in a single year. The report is in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. – Helen Branswell