politics
The next MAHA Commission report will publish today
This afternoon, the MAHA Commission, led by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will release its report on how to reduce chronic disease among children. It's a long-awaited follow-up to a controversial May report that contained citations to nonexistent studies and mis-cited others. We'll have more details on the new report later today, but here's a recap of what we know so far:
STAT reporters reviewed a leaked draft of the report in mid-August, which the White House referred to as "speculative literature." That draft called for more research on familiar topics like childhood vaccine schedule reform and nutrition, largely steering clear of explicit policy recommendations. There were some surprises, including a call to look into the "potential benefits of select high-quality supplements," as well as for research on electromagnetic radiation, which is more of a fringe concern.
Keep an eye on STAT for more coverage on what was kept in the final version of the draft and what may have gotten cut.
science
FDA greenlights trial of gene-edited pig kidneys
It's been almost three months since Bill Stewart received a kidney transplant from a pig. He's back at home, at work, and has even been able to go e-biking on a lakeside trail with his wife, untethered to the grueling schedules of dialysis for the first time in years. He's the latest of a small number of people who've gotten a kidney from a donor pig that's been CRISPR'd to make its organs more human-friendly.
"My pig kidney and I had a little conversation while I was laying there," Stewart told STAT. "I just basically said, 'I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that you stay healthy, and I appreciate you doing everything you can to keep me upright and breathing.'"
These experiments and others like them have proceeded through an expanded access program at the FDA that's focused on patients with life-threatening conditions. But that's about to change. Yesterday, eGenesis, a Cambridge-based biotechnology company, announced that it had been cleared by the FDA to begin a broader trial of kidneys from the CRISPR'd pigs. Read more from STAT's Eric Boodman and Megan Molteni on what's ahead.
disagreement
Florida vs. Trump vs. RFK Jr.
Last week, Florida became the first state in the country to plan to eliminate school vaccination requirements. Kennedy has a long history of opposing such mandates, and both NIH director Jay Bhattacharya and CMS administrator Mehmet Oz praised the decision out of Florida. But President Trump offered a different view. "I think we have to be very careful," he told reporters in the White House on Friday.
It's another example of the growing public divide between Trump and his health secretary over vaccines, which could threaten Kennedy's plan to upend business as usual at the federal health agencies, especially for vaccines, STAT's Chelsea Cirruzzo and Daniel Payne report. Read more on what's at stake.
In the meantime, two local public health officials — one from Texas, another from Ohio — write in a new First Opinion essay that they're worried their states could be next to drop the mandates.
"We have seen firsthand in our communities how viruses do not respect borders," the authors write. During the last school year, state laws exempted 3.6% of children nationwide from vaccine requirements. But in parts of Texas and Ohio, that rate is often even higher. Some Texas schools at the epicenter of the state's measles outbreak had MMR vaccination rates under 50%. In Ohio, only 85% of kindergartners received MMR vaccines last year. Read more on what public health authorities are bracing for if more states follow Florida's lead.
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