Many monkeypox questions — and some answers

It was just three months ago that monkeypox joined the broader public health conversation, training our attention on a long-neglected tropical disease endemic in parts of Western and Central Africa but rare elsewhere. Now that it’s gone global, with more than 41,000 cases in about 100 countries, several pressing questions still await answers. STAT’s Helen Branswell, Andrew Joseph, Megan Molteni, and Jason Mast cover what we do and don’t know, starting with “where does the damn thing come from?”

What’s different this time is the virus' speed of spread and how people are becoming infected. But what happens after infection: Can the virus persist? Can people be reinfected? What about animals? And as with other diseases that at first show up in one group of people — in this case primarily spreading through sexual contact among men who have sex with men — what happens next? Read more.

Pandemic disrupted programs to increase physician diversity

STAT’s Usha Lee McFarling has this report: There’s never been more attention to increasing the diversity of the physician workforce as there is today, but a new JAMA Network Open study shows that the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted many medical school pathway programs, challenging efforts to make medicine more inclusive. A survey of more than 100 administrators of such programs found that nearly 40% had reduced their pathway programs since the start of the pandemic. Programs most likely to be canceled included those for elementary and middle school students, meaning the setbacks to diversity efforts may not be apparent for decades.

Types of activities that were most disrupted by the pandemic included shadowing, internship, and research programs, while mentoring was least affected. Many respondents reported that students were more stressed, less engaged, and less interested in planning for college while doing their regular schoolwork virtually. Many students also had a difficult time with distance learning pathway programs due to a lack of technology or software. The opportunities lost by students during the pandemic, the authors said, could “exacerbate preexisting disparities in educational outcomes.”

Apple Watch to be tested for stroke prevention

For years, Apple has been developing — and aggressively marketing — features in its Apple Watches that detect irregular heart rhythms. But the tech giant has yet to show they can directly affect care and improve outcomes. Now it’s launching a seven-year study to see if the watches can help people with atrial fibrillation. They now take expensive blood thinners to prevent strokes from their irregular heartbeats, but the drugs also increase the risk of dangerous bleeding.

The new study will test whether the devices can be used as part of a strategy to minimize use of those medications when they’re not needed. Researchers will compare strokes, bleeding, and health care costs between people given the standard course of blood thinners and an experimental group that will take medication only after an Apple Watch detects prolonged atrial fibrillation. STAT’s Mario Aguilar has more.

Closer look: Exciting new study finds scientists LOVE hype

(alex hogan/stat)

If I call this study “novel,” I might just prove its point. “Novel” shows up an impressive amount of times in applications for grant funding, followed closely by “critical,” “sustainable,” and “actionable.” You name the adjective, and a scientist has probably stuck it into a grant application to score funding. Pick a glowing adjective and Neil Millar from Japan’s University of Tsukuba has found it.

In a paper published in JAMA Network Open, he estimates 130 out of 139 hype adjectives increased in prevalence by an average of over 1,300% percent in successful NIH applications submitted between 1985 and 2020. You could call that “exciting,” “incredible,” “unprecedented," or even “devastating.” But what happens when you use them in a sentence? “They don’t actually really say much,” Millar told STAT’s Theresa Gaffney. Read more, including what might be the origin story.

Who meets physical activity guidelines is uneven

(CDC)

Being physically active for at least 150 minutes a week has solid links to better health. A CDC report out today looks at who actually meets those guidelines for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities. Overall, about a quarter hit the benchmark for both, nearly half met only the aerobic one, and under a third met the muscle-strengthening one. Nearly half didn’t meet the guidelines for either one. Differences crop up by age, race and Hispanic origin, and income:

Men were more likely than women to meet both guidelines across all age, race and Hispanic origin, and income groups.
Physical activity declined with age for everyone.
Non-Hispanic white women had higher levels compared with other women.
Hispanic men reported lower levels than other men.
Adults with family income at or above 200% of the federal poverty level had higher percentages meeting both guidelines compared with adults with lower family income.

Opinion: A surgeon asks, ‘Whose life do I prioritize?’ and ‘Who says?’

Christopher Hartnick is a pediatric otolaryngologist who describes his job one day as a surgeon in a delivery room this way: “I was there to help her breathe.” “Her” refers to a baby being born via C-section at 29 weeks with a massive growth covering her neck and jaw. There were risks to both the baby and the mother, who temporarily becomes a heart-lung machine for the partially born child during a procedure to create a breathing tube past the baby’s obstruction.

The baby’s parents had decided to carry the child to term and to try this procedure to save her life, but when it became complicated, a decision needed to be made. “‘Whose life do I prioritize?’ is a difficult decision no parent ever wishes to make,” Hartnick writes in a STAT First Opinion. Now he worries that after the Dobbs decision, no parent’s voice will be heard. Read more.

What to read around the web today

Striving to outrace polio: What's it like living with the disease, NPR
People in jail sued over Covid safety. The oversight didn’t last, Washington Post
'It just seems like my patients are sicker,' The Atlantic
Revealed: ‘disturbing’ race divide on cancer patients’ wait times in England, The Guardian
CVS removes purchase limit on Plan B pills, says sales have ‘returned to normal,’ CNBC