A note from Executive Editor Rick Berke and new STAT+ subscriber benefits

Subscribe to STAT+ and access exclusive benefits

As a STAT+ subscriber, you can go beyond the paywall to access STAT's award winning journalism, premium data tools, special discounts on STAT Events and Reports, and must-read subscriber-only newsletters.

LEARN MORE

Note from Executive Editor: Rick Berke

Like so many news organizations, STAT is scrambling 24/7 to keep up with the onslaught of news in Washington. Thankfully, we don't have to be on top of every policy shift set in motion by the new Trump administration.

Our mission is squarely focused on health and medicine.

As a result, our deeply sourced, deeply knowledgeable reporters have led the way on so many vital stories, from prescient coverage of RFK Jr. and all the new players in health care policy to clear-eyed examinations of executive orders and political debates.

Our coverage is tough-minded but we do not sit in judgment — we report the facts, as in this story, which lays out how we know vaccines do not cause autism.

Readers are responding — signing up for subscriptions in numbers we haven't seen in our nine-plus-year history.

I hope you'll join them. You'll be supporting our essential journalism, and you'll be far better informed on developments in health and medicine that seem to be playing out at breakneck speed.

Virtual Event: AI's role in the future of health care

Date: February 10, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. EST

Location: Virtual

Understand the rapidly changing nature of AI in health and medicine with health tech reporter Brittany Trang in conversation with investigative reporter Casey Ross.

STAT+ Exclusive: The CRISPR companies are not OK

A strange thing happened weeks before the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment made with CRISPR gene editing, an all-but cure for certain patients with sickle cell disease. CRISPR Therapeutics, the biotech that co-developed the therapy, laid off about 50 employees. "We were dumbfounded," said a scientist who was let go.

It was one early sign that, for all the public accolades, the CRISPR revolution wasn't exactly going according to plan. Read more from STAT reporter Jason Mast.

Read