February 17, 2026
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Morning Rounds Writer and Reporter

Good morning. I finished shoveling out my car this weekend — I even drove it. Snow melts slowly, but time keeps passing. 

politics

Major shakeups at HHS

Jim O'Neill speaks at a conference sitting in a suit on a red armchair

Milken Institute

Two top health officials — Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill (above) and General Counsel Mike Stuart — are leaving their jobs, exactly a year into the reign of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The departures came a day after four political appointees were elevated into more senior roles, all part of a shakeup aiming to refocus the agency on politically popular parts of Kennedy’s agenda in advance of the midterms, including drug pricing and food.

Read more from STAT’s Chelsea Cirruzzo on the other staffing changes, what O’Neill and Stuart did while in their roles, and what might come next.

And as STAT’s Helen Branswell wrote over the weekend, O’Neill’s exit in particular highlights the CDC’s lack of leadership. “If you don’t have a head of the CDC, then the CDC doesn’t carry as much institutional weight within HHS and the executive branch — which is probably how RFK and the White House like it anyway,” law and social policy professor Samuel Bagenstos told Helen. Read more on who’s running the CDC these days and what it might mean for the rest of Trump’s time in office.

science

Cochrane review: Intermittent fasting won’t help you lose weight

Kennedy is a huge proponent of intermittent fasting, the trendy practice of limiting the blocks of time in which a person eats each day. Evidence has been sparse and mixed on whether a time-restricted diet could help with weight loss. A new Cochrane review of existing evidence says: no.

The review found that when compared to both regular dietary advice and to no intervention at all, intermittent fasting makes “little to no difference” in how much weight people lost, their quality of life, or the experience of any adverse events. The analysis included more than two dozen studies and nearly 2,000 participants who were categorized as overweight or obese. The evidence is considered very low certainty due to the studies’ risk of bias, inconsistency, and imprecision. More robust research is needed, the reviewers write, especially studies that measure people’s satisfaction with the practice, diabetes status, and overall measures of other health problems. 

circling back

Checking in on RFK Jr.’s promises, one year later

Someone sits in a crowd wearing a "Make America Healthy Again Vote Trump" tshirt

Photo illustration:STAT; Source photo: Getty Images

It's officially been one year since Kennedy became the nation's health secretary. He has made numerous promises and set many goals since he created the MAHA movement and then took the helm of HHS. But how many of them has he actually accomplished? STAT has been tracking that exact question.

The latest update of our tracker shows Kennedy has made progress on some fronts, like changing the U.S. approach to nutrition, more closely scrutinizing the nation's supply of infant formula, and investing in addiction treatment. However, many other promises are unfulfilled, or have morphed into humbler pursuits over time.

On key issues such as agency transparency and vaccines, Kennedy has broken his vows to the public, including one that he would "do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages” Americans from getting vaccinated.

Check out the one-year report card, with accompanying details, here. — Isabella Cueto

one big number

1 in 6

That’s how many people on Medicare used telehealth between 2021 and 2023, according to a study published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. And nearly half of all mental health visits were done via telehealth, the data showed. People who made virtual appointments reported worse health, greater physical and cognitive limitations, and higher health care utilization overall than those who went in person, suggesting that the service can be a vital lifeline.

A package of health care reforms that would retain Medicare coverage of telehealth appointments passed the House last month. The Senate was expected to pass it soon after, but as STAT’s John Wilkerson reports, the plan unraveled as debate over ICE funding increased.

first opinion

An ethical framework for pain medication

A new First Opinion essay poses this question: “When there is not enough pain medicine to go around, who gets it? The teenager in agony after a crushed leg, or the 80 year old down the hall dying an excruciating death from cancer?”

There’s no easy answer. Medication shortages are now a routine feature of American health care, but as two medical ethicists and a first-year resident write, intravenous opioid shortages are different. The supply is fragile, making shortages more likely, and the consequence isn’t death — it’s profound, preventable pain. Read more on what a better ethical framework for distributing these medications can look like when they’re in short supply.

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What we're reading

  • Is that carb ultra-processed? Here's a test even a kid can do, NPR

  • Kennedy says he’ll act on legal challenge to ultra-processed foods, STAT
  • Breakup between Brigham and Dana-Farber is getting messier fast, Boston Globe 
  • In court, AAP argues Kennedy’s HHS made unlawful changes to vaccine policies, STAT