May 4, 2025

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First Opinion editor

Happy nasal spray season to all who celebrate. What a bumper crop of pollen this year.

Thank you so much to everyone who shared their experience with measles, whooping cough, rubella, and other vaccine-preventable diseases that have largely been forgotten. I'm going to publish them on STAT next Saturday, May 10. The deadline to share an experience for publication in the roundup is Tuesday, May 6. Please share this with friends and loved ones who may not be subscribed to the First Opinion Newsletter (and tell them to subscribe!).

Recommendation of the week: In a very unsettling corner of the internet, online critics entertain themselves by accusing people of faking cancer or another serious disease. But what if they're wrong? This week, the New York Times chronicled the story of Sydney Towle, a young woman with cancer who was falsely accused of faking her illness. I'm still processing the identity of the person who was leading the small but ferocious mob dedicated to taking down Towle.

Adobe

Therapy and poetry have more in common than you think

Poetry and psychiatry both ask you to slow down and consider the words, writes Owen Lewis.

By Owen Lewis

Public health still hasn't reckoned with which Covid policies and interventions failed

There has been a collective failure to evaluate which Covid policies and interventions worked, which didn't, and which may have caused harm.

By Steven Phillips

Why it's still unclear exactly how much banning soda from SNAP could improve health

U.S. spends billions on sugary sodas via SNAP while also covering the cost of related chronic diseases. Expert says it's time to start testing restrictions.

By Murray Carpenter

Adobe

Why NIH's policy on grants to universities with DEI programs is not cause for widespread alarm

Carefully reading the actual NIH notice on grants and university DEI programs provides clarity — and perhaps some reassurance.

By Michael A. Yassa

RFK Jr.'s synthetic dye bans miss a much bigger problem

Examining the FDA's dye ban, a physiology professor argues sugar, not synthetic color, is the real threat with ultra-processed foods.

By James Smoliga

The end of the medical school cadaver lab?

Said one medical student whose school is doing away with cadavers: 'The biggest lesson I took from cadaver lab was just being in the presence of death.'