Scoop: National Academies loses $40M in federal contracts, prompting layoffs

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has a 160-year history of bringing together experts to produce independent, science-based guidance on important issues affecting the U.S.

The trusted adviser is being abruptly and radically downsized as it heads for a major reorganization to reduce its overhead amid the loss of roughly $40 million in terminated contracts by the Trump administration, Megan Molteni reported late last week.

It has already had to lay off 50 of its 1,000 employees and could lose as many as 250 more by the end of the summer, National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt told Megan. Read more.

cdc

The proof is in the applesauce

It's a story that only STAT's Eric Boodman could write.

The CDC is continuing to publish papers after firing scientists who made the research possible, and Eric highlights that one of those papers was by CDC scientists who figured out the cause of high lead levels in the blood of two kids in North Carolina.

It was the applesauce.

The CDC investigation revealed 566 lead-poisoned children across 44 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., and it led to the removal of the adulterated applesauce from store shelves. But the paper omitted a key detail: At least six of the authors who'd worked at the CDC were laid off when their entire division was slashed by the Trump administration's cuts.

In a way, the paper is a record of what's been lost, and more importantly, what might not happen if a food product were poisoning kids right now, Eric writes. Read more.

crispr

N-of-1

The first-of-its-kind genetic treatment for a baby born with a rare disorder underscores both the promise of CRISPR therapies and the enormous scientific and societal challenges ahead, Jason Mast reports.

"For three years, gene editing has seemed in free fall, riven by layoffs, closures, shuttered programs, and sinking stock prices. Now here, finally, in striped pajama form, was a reminder of what a decade of advances could deliver," Jason writes.

But science has a long way to go before such treatments are routinely available, and the bigger challenge might be figuring out how to pay for them. If you've ever been curious about CRISPR, Jason's article is a must-read.

congress

How Trump's tax cut bill would reshape health care

In last Thursday's newsletter, I highlighted changes that House lawmakers made to Medicaid and marketplace policies in a budget reconciliation bill that aims to deliver Trump's tax-cutting agenda.

Between 1 a.m. on Thursday, when I wrote that update, and sometime after 6 a.m when the House passed the bill, Republicans made additional changes. It's been a difficult bill to follow, and it'll get even more difficult once the Senate starts working on it, because that work will likely happen behind closed doors and not in open committee hearings.

Here is a rundown of the health care measures in what's been dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

vaccines

Split over Covid-19 vaccine booster

The FDA gave Covid vaccine manufacturers instructions on what next fall's Covid vaccines should target, Helen Branswell writes, signaling it would prefer that they update the strain in their vaccine to a version of the virus that is currently circulating broadly, LP.8.1.

The instructions were posted to the agency's website shortly after the end of a meeting of FDA vaccine advisers. Members of the advisory committee appeared split on whether to advise the FDA to ask manufacturers to update their vaccine target, with a number suggesting manufacturers should be given the option to update or stay with the same target.

Novavax, which uses a vaccine production method that requires months of lead time, would likely benefit from a decision to let vaccine makers stick with an older version of the virus. Read more.

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