HHS
5 HHS officials to watch this year
Chelsea Cirruzzo runs down the new team of health policy experts charged with driving the more politically popular aspects of the MAHA agenda. (Read, not vaccines.)
In addition to playing up policy "wins," such as healthy food and drug pricing, the new direction for HHS after last week's shake-up is an attempt to smooth over dysfunction at the agencies.
The new team includes a former health IT exec and a Trump administration veteran. Read more to find out who is on the A Team and who has been benched.
vaccines
Vinay Prasad overruled
The FDA is going to review Moderna's application for a new mRNA flu vaccine after all, Lizzy Lawrence reports.
Last week, the agency refused to review the submission. FDA career scientists wanted to accept the application, but biologics center director Vinay Prasad overruled them, Lizzy scooped last week.
Keep in mind, the FDA hadn't refused to approve the vaccine; it was refusing to review the application for approval, even though the FDA had okayed the approach to testing.
That rejection led industry to question whether they could trust the FDA. It also put vaccines in the spotlight right as the administration tries to shift attention toward drug pricing and food policies.
Read more.
pharma
Unequal treatment
The day before the FDA's reversal, Commissioner Marty Makary was grilled about the agency's handling of Moderna's flu vaccine application at the PhRMA Forum.
Makary had a much different reception than Oz, Lizzy and Daniel Payne report. Makary was given the third degree by former CNBC reporter Bertha Coombs, while Oz fielded softball questions from Pfizer CEO and PhRMA board chair Albert Bourla.
The contrast illustrated industry's seemingly positive relationship with Oz and its strained relationship with Makary. Read more.
vaccine advisers
ACIP meeting might be postponed
Federal officials have missed the legal deadline to notify the public of an upcoming meeting of a vaccine advisory panel that was planned for next week, Chelsea reports.
This is the kind of thing that makes it difficult to shift attention from the administration's work to undermine vaccines. The health care community was expected to closely monitor the meeting, one of three regularly held each year, for signs of what the Trump administration might do next on Covid-19 vaccines and other mRNA-based immunizations.
It's not been officially postponed yet, but the missed deadline raises questions. Read more.
cdc
Double duty
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya will also be the acting CDC director, Chelsea and Anil Oza report.
He'll take over from Jim O'Neill, who will be nominated to run the National Science Foundation.
By law, the post isn't supposed to be held by an acting official past March 25, though Bhattacharya could remain in the role during the confirmation process for a new director. Trump hasn't nominated a permanent CDC director, and it's possible that there will not be a full-time director for the rest of Trump's term.
stat
Tooting our own horn
STAT co-founder and Executive Editor Rick Berke wrote this note about STAT winning its fourth George Polk Award.
The Polk Award goes to Lizzy – go Lizzy! – for documenting the Trump administration's shakeup of the FDA. It also recognizes journalists across STAT for, among other achievements, the 10-part series "American Science, Shattered," and the 17-part "MAHA Diagnosis."
Shameless suck-up: Our editors deserve a lot of credit, too, and if you're reading this sentence, it means my editor didn't strike it. No other news outlet our size has been so frequently honored in recent history.
h-1b visas
100
That's how many lawmakers signed a bipartisan, bicameral letter urging Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to grant a health care sector exemption from the $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas.
They say the exemption is needed to mitigate health care workforce shortages, especially at rural and urban safety-net hospitals. Nearly 87 million Americans live in areas without sufficient medical professionals, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. More than 20 million Americans live in areas where foreign-trained physicians account for at least half of all practicing doctors.
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