Good morning. In an item below, the scientific study was just in mice, but I think you'll agree the lead author's backstory is very human.

More polioviruses found in N.Y. wastewater samples

New York state health authorities revealed yesterday that they had detected additional polioviruses in wastewater sampled in two counties north of New York City, findings that signal continued spread of the viruses in the region. The positive wastewater samples were found in Rockland County, where health authorities revealed two weeks ago that a man in his 20s had been paralyzed by so-called vaccine-derived polioviruses, and in neighboring Orange County.

Positive samples were collected in June and July in Orange County and in July in Rockland County, suggesting that viruses have been spreading for some time. The two counties have among the lowest vaccination rates for polio in the state. “As we learn more, what we do know is clear: the danger of polio is present in New York today,” Mary Bassett, the state health commissioner, said in a press release. STAT’s Helen Branswell has more.

U.S. declares monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency

It’s official: The Biden administration declared the ongoing monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency yesterday, as the U.S. case count grows to more than 6,600 and criticism mounts over how the outbreak has been handled. The declaration, which gives the administration more flexibility and powers to halt the spread of the virus, follows a failure to rapidly divert vaccine stockpiled as a hedge against bioterrorism to combat spread of monkeypox and slow decision-making, which led to missed opportunities to vaccinate more quickly. “We’re prepared to take our response to the next level on this virus,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said.

Also yesterday, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said the agency was considering allowing Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos, the only monkeypox vaccine licensed in the U.S., to be given in two doses that are one-fifth the size of the licensed doses, via intradermal administration. STAT’s Helen Branswell explains (and here's her earlier story on stretching vaccine supply.)

How a daughter’s diagnosis spurred her mother’s career shift from the Navy to neuroscience

(Courtesy Carina Block)

Sometimes the stakes behind a scientific paper are high and sometimes they are personal. For Carina Block, they are both. She’s a postdoctoral researcher at Duke and the lead author of a paper published in Cell Reports this week explaining how gestational exposure to pollution and stress might be linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. But it’s her own story that’s riveting. When she was 23 years old and working on a Navy base in Japan, her 4-month-old daughter, Madison (shown above with her mom in 2021), was diagnosed with hydrocephalus.

Block read up on the neuroscience, decided to leave the Navy, finish her college education, and become the scientist she is today. She always wondered about the jet exhaust she’d been exposed to while in the Navy in Japan and whether it affected Madison’s development. STAT’s Akila Muthukumar has more on Block’s story and the science.

Closer look: How a nursing home chain stymied families’ lawsuits alleging neglect

(MOLLY FERGUSON FOR STAT)

The allegations of nursing home neglect are heartbreaking and the byzantine corporate structure and bankruptcy defense mustered in response are bewildering. STAT contributor Jared Whitlock tells us how families have been frustrated in their attempt to hold nursing homes owned by the Consulate chain responsible for what they allege led to their loved ones’ deaths. Families faced hardball tactics, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said, often being asked to either accept a significantly reduced settlement or risk getting little or nothing from a bankrupt entity.

In the six-year run-up to the bankruptcy filing of six Consulate affiliates, at least 137 plaintiffs across a half-dozen states had sued the affiliates on allegations ranging from negligence and wrongful death to Medicare fraud, according to an online search of legal databases. Consulate did not respond to requests for comment. Read more on Consulate and its maze of related businesses.

Lab chat: Digging into the genetic drivers of heart failure, with an eye on precision treatments

Cardiologist Christine Seidman has long been interested in heart muscle disorders and their genetic drivers. With her colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, she and international collaborators have been exploring the genetic underpinnings of heart failure. I asked her about their paper in Science yesterday on how genotypes change the way the heart functions.

What can be done for heart failure now?
Heart failure is a truly devastating condition. There is no treatment for it, no cure for it, except cardiac transplantation, which provides a whole host of other problems.

What could your recent discoveries mean?
We’re not there yet, but we certainly have the capacity to make small molecules to interfere with pathways that we think are deleterious to the heart in this setting. To my mind, that’s the way to drive precision therapeutics.

Read the full interview here.

How long Covid shows up in children (and in how many adults)

Blood clots, heart conditions, kidney failure, and type 1 diabetes. These conditions were considered unusual in children before the pandemic, but while still uncommon, they are now called part of long Covid in kids. A new CDC report found an increased risk for four symptoms and eight conditions from one month to a year after Covid infection, based on medical claims for 781,419 U.S. children under 18 from March 2020 through January 2022. Although still rare, even a small increase in these conditions is notable, the researchers said, as they urged caregivers and health care providers to be aware.

In a study also published yesterday, Dutch scientists writing in the Lancet estimate the prevalence of long Covid — a persistent research question — at 1 in 8 adults, based on a large survey that polled people before and after Covid infections, helping to rule out preexisting symptoms.

What to read around the web today

Opinion: We can fight monkeypox without hysteria or homophobia, New York Times
'God, no, not another case': Covid-related stillbirths didn't have to happen, ProPublica
From buzzy biomarkers to learning from failure: 3 takeaways from the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, STAT
This startup wants to copy you into an embryo for organ harvesting, MIT Technology Review
Amgen to acquire ChemoCentryx for $4 billion, adding newly approved drug for autoimmune disorder, STAT