nih
NCI head front-runner
Anthony Letai, a cancer researcher and doctor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University, is a leading candidate to run the National Cancer Institute, Matthew Herper and Angus Chen scoop.
The choice of Letai would come as a relief to scientists, who praised him for his ability and demeanor. Matt and Angus spoke to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation for their story.
The NCI is the largest NIH institute and the only institute with a director appointed by the president. Read more.
vaccines
RFK Jr. is getting his way
Trump has at turns embraced health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine skepticism or seemed at odds with it. Regardless, Kennedy is plowing ahead with big changes to vaccine policy, and Trump isn't standing in his way. Chelsea Cirruzzo and Daniel Payne have the analysis.
Days after Kennedy ousted the CDC director, Trump said the agency was "being ripped apart" over Covid vaccine policies. A week later, when Florida officials announced plans to phase out all childhood vaccine mandates, Trump struck a note of caution.
But Trump's widely covered anti-vaccine comments on Monday signal that, all things considered, Kennedy is mostly getting his way. How much will the pair upend vaccine policy?
Medical advice
Doctor in chief
"Ask your doctor." It's one of the most-uttered phrases in medicine. It's a way of emphasizing that the practice of medicine is complicated and that medical advice should not be given without examining patients, whose conditions and situations vary considerably.
But Trump ignored this conventional wisdom when he repeatedly and forcefully provided medical advice to the public that is at odds with the scientific consensus, telling pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol, Jonathan Wosen and Angus Chen write.
"Presidents have a long history of giving the public advice on public health issues," said John Evans, a sociologist at the University of California San Diego who studies the relationship between science and society. "The difference here is that there has never been a president who has taken stances that are in opposition to the vast majority of scientists and doctors."
Read more.
research
'Unreliable' source
Trump based his assertion that taking Tylenol during pregnancy can cause autism on research by a Harvard dean, who is a preeminent epidemiologist.
Andrea Baccarelli, dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, was paid $150,000 to provide a review of research tying Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism as part of expert testimony in a lawsuit against Tylenol's maker.
But when a federal judge reviewed the testimony, she concluded it was "unreliable," O. Rose Broderick reports.
drugs
Drugs vs. dietary supplements
The Trump administration announcement that it's bringing back leucovorin as a potential treatment for some people with autism resurfaced a common conundrum for consumers: go through the trouble of getting a prescription for the drug, or buy the active ingredient over the counter as a dietary supplement.
Leucovorin's approval could be a boon for supplement makers, Tara Bannow reports. Leucovorin is the trade name for folinic acid, a supplement that's sold over the counter. But there's a big difference between the medication and the supplement.
For starters, a kid would need to swallow more than 60 folinic acid tablets to get the same dose available in drug form. Read more to understand the differences between drugs and supplements and to get an explanation of why some people thought Mehmet Oz, director of the agency that runs Medicare, would profit from folinic acid sales (he won't.).
No comments