May 11, 2025

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First Opinion editor

In recent weeks, I asked you to share your experiences with measles, whooping cough, and other vaccine-preventable diseases. And you delivered. I heard from dozens of people about their own bouts with the illnesses; people also wrote about watching a sibling, child, or patient suffer.

The result, published on STAT on Saturday, is very moving. It offers a clear reminder that even "mild" cases of these diseases can leave both physical and psychological scars that last a lifetime.

As always, if you have an idea for a First Opinion essay, email me.

Recommendation of the week: After reading "Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College" in New York magazine, I am very relieved not to be teaching these days. This is a good time to say that First Opinion authors must disclose any use of AI to write or edit their essays. If they use it, we'll note it on the article page.

Adobe

STAT+ | Bristol Myers Squibb CEO: Pharmaceutical innovation requires bold yet predictable U.S. policy

Just as government policies have bolstered U.S. leadership in the pharmaceutical industry, they can also destroy it, writes BMS' Christopher Boerner.

By Christopher Boerner

Requiring a four-year emergency medicine residency is a terrible idea

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's proposal to require four years for emergency medicine residency is misguided.

By Blake R. Denley

What it's like to have measles, mumps, whooping cough, and other vaccine-preventable illnesses

People who had measles, mumps, whooping cough, and other vaccine-preventable diseases share their experiences.

By Torie Bosch

Adobe

An evidence-based way to make Medicaid less bureaucratic and more efficient

Past efforts to make Medicaid spending more efficient led to costly bureaucratic barriers. It's time to tear them down.

By Sanjay Basu

'It's not too late to do something': An open letter from a leading vaccine advocate to Sen. Cassidy about RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds his anti-vaccine beliefs with the strength of a religious conviction, writes rotavirus vaccine co-inventor Paul A. Offit.

By Paul A. Offit

What am I supposed to say to this generation of young scientists?

The government says it's canceling grants to hold universities accountable. But it isn't institutions that are being punished. It's the young scientists.

By Daphna Shohamy

The doctor is in. So is their AI

A doctor who loves her ambient AI scribe and another who is skeptical discuss the value of offloading the tedious part of medicine to technology.

By Torie Bosch

STAT+ | How to stop the shift of drug discovery from the U.S. to China

U.S. drug firms license compounds from China due to lower costs, faster trials. Former FDA commissioner says regulatory reform needed to stay competitive.