American Science, Shattered: a new STAT special report

The multipart series details how the Trump administration has disrupted labs, upended lives, and delayed discoveries.

December 6, 2025 Check out STAT+

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Good morning. I encourage you to take some time with the first four stories in this newsletter, part of our new series American Science, Shattered, a fantastic, deeply reported look into how the Trump administration has disrupted labs, upended lives, and delayed discoveries. Thanks for reading. — Sarah Mupo, director of editorial operations

Laura Weiler for STAT STAT+ | Trump has 'shaken the hell' out of the 80-year research pact between the government and universities. What now? After a year of grant cancellations, DEI bans, layoffs, and increased politicization of science, what comes next? Part 1 of 'American Science, Shattered.' By Megan Molteni, Anil Oza, and J. Emory Parker Rita Harper for STAT Working with monkeys was this lab tech's dream job. Now she's staffing an IT help desk Part 2 of STAT's 'American Science, Shattered' series looks at a lab tech who left research, becoming part of a troubling national trend By Jonathan Wosen Nate Smallwood for STAT What West Virginia teens lost when CDC cuts ended their fight against Big Tobacco CDC closure of the Office on Smoking and Health hit a teenaged activist hard. Her story is told in Part 3 of the STAT series "American Science, Shattered." By Sarah Todd His lab was humming with discovery. After one year under Trump, it's almost silent Computational biology pioneer John Quackenbush watched a lab once humming with discovery go silent. Part 4 of STAT's "American Science, Shattered" series. By Angus Chen RFK Jr.'s vaccine panel is laying the groundwork for more scrutiny of childhood shots CDC panel, after changing at-birth hepatitis B vaccine recommendation, is ready to tackle childhood shots, vaccines containing aluminum. By Daniel Payne and Chelsea Cirruzzo STAT+ | Marion Nestle still believes that 'calories count' Marion Nestle, author of 'What to Eat Now,' discusses calories, changes to federal dietary guidelines, and why people ask her what she eats in a STAT Q&A. By Sarah Todd STAT+ | AI scribes may not save a lot of time on clinical notes, but they make clinicians happy As health systems study the impact of ambient scribes, they are finding that clinicians love the tools, even though they don't seem to save that much time. By Mario Aguilar and Brittany Trang What to know about the new flu variant, subclade K Infectious diseases reporter Helen Branswell discusses this year's vaccine and the new flu strain that's circulating, H3N2 subclade K. By Alex Hogan

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