games
8 Across: NIH branch concerned with OTC vitamins?
Julia Bujalski/STAT
Guys, I have to admit — I find the STAT mini crossword puzzle pretty challenging!!! I was stumped by the above clue. But I did get the combination of 1 down and 4 across. Did you? Try this week's puzzle.
global health
A gene drive project shut down in West Africa
An ambitious gene drive project in West Africa's Burkina Faso has been shut down by the country's government, according to reporting from Science earlier this month. Scientists from the international nonprofit Target Malaria described a "brutal, humiliating" raid by judicial police in which offices and laboratories were sealed off like a crime scene and scientists were checked for mosquitos in their pockets.
Since 2012, the group had been working to develop genetically modified mosquitoes to help fight malaria across the continent. Former STAT reporter Ike Swetlitz wrote about the work in 2017. At the time, no living organism with a gene drive had ever been set free. In 2019, researchers from Target Malaria released their first round of genetically modified mosquitos. The project used to have government support, but according to reporting in Science, local opposition has grown in the last year, in part due to false accusations online about the group weaponizing mosquitos to spread disease or sterilize people. I recommend revisiting Ike's first story, which includes details of how the project's scientists were building trust within communities.
policy
After cutting SNAP benefits, Trump admin cancels federal food insecurity survey
The Trump administration's cuts to the food benefits program SNAP have critics worried that more people are going hungry. Now the Department of Agriculture is also canceling the annual food insecurity survey that tracks how many Americans are struggling to put enough food on the table, calling the 30-year program "redundant, costly, politicized and extraneous."
Research shows food insecurity is linked with a number of chronic diseases, including heart disease and diabetes. The timing of the survey's cancellation means that the government won't have a way to assess the impact of eliminating food benefits for an estimated 2.4 million Americans, or of other policies.
The most recent data, from 2023, shows that food insecurity is rising, affecting 13.8% of people in the U.S. compared to 12.8% the previous year. The food insecurity survey has been lauded for using language that helps researchers identify experiences of deprivation even when people might not self-identify as hungry — for example, asking whether they'd skipped meals or eaten fewer foods because of money concerns. — Sarah Todd
first opinion
Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by the wellness industry
Ana Ivkovic Smith is psychiatrist, a mother, and "an increasingly anxious wellness enthusiast," as she puts it. In a new First Opinion essay, she explains how some of the worst anxiety she's dealt with hasn't come from those first two identifiers, but from the third.
It started out as an innocent, evidence-based interest in functional medicine. But things quickly became overwhelming. "I installed three different water filters in my house," she writes. "I avoided certain fruits after reading about their impact on blood sugar. I grew fearful of lectins, oxalates, and phytates — compounds found in otherwise healthy plant foods like beans, nuts, and seeds that allegedly interfered with nutrient absorption. … This wasn't health — it was obsession." Read more about her journey and how the nocebo effect could be at play with wellness industry scare tactics.
No comments