Eric Lander resigns — potentially imperiling the rest of Biden’s scientific agenda

When President Biden tapped Eric Lander to serve as White House science adviser in January 2021, he tasked the renowned genomics researcher with “reinvigorating” American science. Now, though, the question isn’t whether Lander will reinvigorate the country’s research and technology enterprise. It’s whether he’s derailed it. Lander’s resignation yesterday, in the wake of a stunning all-staff apology for abusive workplace behavior first reported by Politico, is now threatening to derail the White House’s broader scientific agenda, STAT’s Lev Facher reports. Among other priorities, it could threaten not just the Biden administration’s revamped Cancer Moonshot, but also its push to create the new agency ARPA-H, and the selection process for a new NIH director, too. And with just nine months remaining before the midterms, the clock is ticking.

Early study suggests stimulation could jolt spinal cord back to life after paralysis

After a traumatic motorcycle collision in 2017, Michel Roccati was left completely paralyzed from the waist down. He couldn’t have imagined that a few years later, he would be walking through the streets of Lausanne, Switzerland. Roccati is one of three men who has had his motor function restored — able to stand, walk, swim, and cycle again — with electrical stimulation of key spinal cord nerves that control lower-body movements. The participants in the first-in-human study — 29, 32, and 41 years old — each had a traumatic thoracic spinal cord injury due to motorcycle collisions. Previous studies have shown stimulating an injured spinal cord can eventually help some people with paralysis, but a new paper published in Nature Medicine goes a step further. STAT's Isabella Cueto explains.

Turning to tech to pinpoint needy patients may leave some behind

Health insurers are increasingly looking to machine learning to predict which patients will miss out on care because they can't get a ride to an appointment or don't have reliable internet to sign onto a video visit. But with those new technologies come concerns that lack of standards or checks on their use could propagate biases in health care, leaving some of the neediest patients behind. Technology, payers say, helps them flag at-risk members faster and stave off costlier long-term complications. Taken in aggregate, these predictions could give payers a window into community-level needs. But the deployment of these tools also carries risks that some experts say haven’t been fully examined: If they’re not built and deployed thoughtfully, they risk flagging the wrong patients and neglecting others, an analysis published Monday in Health Affairs warns. STAT’s Mohana Ravindranath has more.

Closer look: Some long Covid patients see improvement, but full recovery is elusive

Joni White, finally back in her glass studio after months of long COVID, in her Hillsborough, N.C., home. (LISSA GOTWALS FOR STAT)

How long does long Covid last? Is anyone getting better? What does recovery mean? I posed those questions to doctors and patients recently, as weeks and months stretch into years for some people plagued by persistent symptoms. If you ask Joni White of Hillsborough, N.C., she’ll tell you she just wants to feel like herself again. And she’s almost there. More than a year after her Covid infection, her headaches and brain fog — and the frustration and depression they caused — are lifting. She’s back in her studio making fused glass, crediting strategies she learned from a long Covid clinic at the University of North Carolina, one of dozens that have opened since spring 2020. For most people, treatment is good, not great, doctors say. White is clear: “They saved my brain,” she said. “They gave me the tools I needed that I didn’t know were out there.” Read my story here.

Guess who's commenting on Medicare’s limits on a new Alzheimer’s drug

Medicare has already received 4,200 comments on its recent proposal to limit coverage for Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, and other similar drugs. If you guessed they’d come from from drug makers, Alzheimer’s advocacy groups, or even neurologists, you’d be wrong. They’re from two unexpected letter-writing campaigns, STAT’s Nicholas Florko reports. The largest campaign is organized by an “advocacy news” operation, More Perfect Union, which was founded by a former campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The other campaign is organized by a coalition of Down syndrome advocacy organizations, cautioning that people with the condition will be blocked from accessing Aduhelm because they won’t be allowed to enroll in the clinical trials Medicare has proposed requiring for coverage. Comments close Friday.

New study casts doubt on e-cigarettes' role in helping people quit smoking

Since they were first introduced, e-cigarettes have been promoted as a better way to quit smoking, and randomized clinical trials have supported those claims. The marketplace changed in 2017 when Juul introduced its higher-nicotine, heavily advertised products. A new observational study in the BMJ journal Tobacco Control challenges previous research, saying that while more people began using e-cigarettes starting in 2017, fewer people are using them to quit tobacco. The researchers also conclude from their study of more than 3,500 people that there were fewer quit attempts among e-cigarette users than among those who relied on nicotine replacement (in the form of patches, lozenges, gum, nasal spray, or tablets), medications, or nothing at all to successfully stop smoking.

What to read around the web today

Justice Dept. signals it may allow safe injection sites. Associated Press
A brain circuit tied to emotion may lead to better treatments for Parkinson's disease. NPR
‘Caught in the middle’: Some patients say they’ve lost out in unusual battle over a rare disease drug. STAT+
Harm to AstraZeneca jab’s reputation ‘probably killed thousands.’ The Guardian
In a victory for medical journals, Pacira loses a libel lawsuit over ‘faulty scientific research’ allegations. STAT+