FDA workers are back in-person — and many aren't pleased

Plus: Texas arrests an abortion provider

March 18, 2025 Check out STAT+

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By Theresa Gaffney Morning Rounds Writer and Podcast Producer

Good morning! Lots of news today, but let's start with this exclusive from late last night: Eric Green is out as head of National Human Genome Research Institute.

politics The mood is bad as FDA workers return to the office Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images Yesterday, any FDA employee who lives within a 50-mile radius of their "duty station" was required to return for in-person work. (Those who live outside of that radius have until April 28 to comply.) It's a tough transition. One employee's "station" turned out to be a storage closet in a district courthouse, STAT's Lizzy Lawrence reports. At the main campus in Silver Spring, Md., employees wondered whether the water was drinkable after testing last fall revealed Legionella bacteria in some of the buildings. Some employees there were assigned to share a conference room with one to two other people. But it's better than what they heard about a colleague in Massachusetts, who's sharing one with dozens of other people. Public health experts worry that the return-to-office — coupled with chaotic firings and rehirings — will lead to a staff exodus at the FDA and other agencies. Read more from Lizzy on how day one went. And if you need a refresher on the big names in charge of these changes, check out the latest in our "Who to Know" series: Isabella Cueto wrote about 8 people to know in RFK Jr.'s HHS. reproductive health Texas arrests an abortion provider A Houston-area midwife has been arrested on allegations of performing illegal abortions, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced yesterday. It's the first time criminal charges have been brought since the state banned nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy in 2021 — a law that state legislators have recently sought clarification on when it comes to medical emergencies. The Texas Tribune reported on the arrest.  It's one in an escalating series of moves by federal and state officials that will likely have far-reaching effects on reproductive health care. A few weeks ago, the Trump administration filed to dismiss an emergency abortion case in Idaho that was left over from Biden's Justice Department. In January, a New York doctor was indicted for prescribing abortion pills to somebody in Louisiana.  research Trump canceled a landmark diabetes study  President Trump and top health officials like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have repeatedly emphasized their focus on battling chronic health conditions. But last week, the administration canceled funding for an ongoing 30-year, nationwide study following people with prediabetes and diabetes, STAT's Elaine Chen reports.  For a few years, Columbia University has managed funding for the program, which takes place at over two dozen sites across the country. So while researchers haven't gotten confirmation from the NIH about why the grant has been canceled, it's likely related to the Trump administration's cancellation of federal grants to Columbia University on the grounds that it failed to adequately address antisemitism on campus. Read more from Elaine on the cancellation.

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global health The starkest warning yet from WHO FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images  Yesterday, the WHO issued its starkest warning yet on the consequences of the abrupt cessation of U.S. global health funding, saying it is threatening to reverse years of progress in the fight against diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, and measles. "The U.S. administration has been extremely generous over many years. And of course it's within its rights to decide what it supports and to what extent," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a news conference in Geneva. "But the U.S. also has a responsibility to ensure that if it withdraws direct funding for countries, it's done in an orderly and humane way that allows them to find alternative sources of funding." Read more from STAT's Helen Branswell on where things stand. Helen also recently spoke with John-Arne Røttingen, CEO of the Wellcome Trust, about how charities and other governments will be unable to fill the gaps left by the Trump administration's decision to slash aid spending. Read their conversation here.  LGBTQ+ health Gender-affirming hormones linked to lower risk of depression In a study of more than 3,500 trans and nonbinary people, those who received gender-affirming hormones had a statistically significantly lower risk of moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms than those who didn't receive the treatment. The research, published yesterday in JAMA Network Open, analyzed data from patients at two prominent federally qualified community health centers that treat queer communities — Callen-Lorde in New York, and Fenway Health in Boston.  The results are hardly surprising, as experts — clinicians, researchers, and trans people themselves — have long known that gender-affirming treatment has mental health benefits. But it can be both logistically and ethically difficult to conduct robust, randomized, anonymous research on treatments that come with known benefits.  The study comes out at a time when research on trans and queer communities is being dismantled by the Trump administration. Relatedly, I spoke with Ankit Rastogi, the director of research at Advocates for Trans Equity, about how groups like theirs can fill the gap. "It's important to show how gender-affirming care impacts people," they said. "If people aren't collecting those data, then we can't make those same arguments." You can read that Q&A here. first opinion Would banning drug ads actually work? No. So says "reformed hypochondriac" and health tech CEO Hal Rosenbluth in a First Opinion essay published today. Rosenbluth understands the urge to ban direct-to-consumer drug ads — he's vulnerable to them himself. But as he points out, the pharmaceutical industry is strong, spending billions on these advertising and lobbying efforts.  Instead of banning the ads, Rosenbluth argues for reining them in. "Pharmaceutical companies, like 'mackerels in the moonlight,' stink and shine at the same time," he writes. The products are innovative, but the ads can be manipulative. Read more from Rosenbluth on how to install stricter regulations on transparency and accuracy in these ads.

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Correction: Yesterday's item about public access to naloxone kits mischaracterized the concept of blanket placement of those kits at chain businesses, which refers to the strategy of placing the kits at all businesses, as opposed to distribution at select locations.  What we're reading VA rolls back care for trans veterans after Trump's executive order, Washington Post Leading a movement away from psychiatric medication, New York Times After a big donor sought care from a Dana-Farber cancer doctor, things went awry, Boston Globe Scientists say NIH officials told them to scrub mRNA references on grants, KFF Health News Congress must reject taxing employer-provided health care coverage, STAT

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Thanks for reading! More tomorrow,

theresa.gaffney@statnews.com

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