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Have you ever ever seen an award-winning journalist sing karaoke? After the Summit ended final week, a giant group of STAT staffers belted and crooned collectively for hours and my coronary heart has by no means been so full. It was all deeply off the document so I can’t inform you who sang what. However simply know — we’ve obtained some multi-hyphenates within the newsroom!
RFK is alarming to well being leaders — even the GOP ones
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is relying on getting a top-ranking well being job if Donald Trump wins the election. Some well being leaders, even some former GOP well being officers, worry that Kennedy’s historical past of vaccine skepticism might delegitimize Trump’s well being care objectives.
“Look, I’d be mendacity if I mentioned among the rhetoric in some quarters didn’t make me a bit bit nervous,” former Trump official Joe Grogan mentioned on the STAT Summit final week. “However the flip facet of that’s: What, are we loopy? We don’t assume that some corporations do some issues now and again which can be sleazy? That does occur.”
That’s the tightrope many former Trump officers and longtime Republicans discover themselves strolling. Although a quantity have deep considerations about Kennedy, a number of declined to talk publicly for worry of offending Trump or his lieutenants. Learn extra from STAT’s Sarah Owermohle on what trade and political leaders are nervous about with the election simply over two weeks away.
Delirium and ache administration information from an anesthesiology convention
The annual assembly of the American Society of Anesthesiologists befell this weekend in Philadelphia. Listed below are among the abstracts that caught my eye:
Ibuprofen might forestall delirium after surgical procedure: Amongst tons of of 1000’s of sufferers in a medical data database who obtained surgical procedure between 2014 and 2023, those that acquired NSAIDS had a decrease threat for delirium within the week afterward than those that acquired acetaminophen. Non-salicylate NSAIDs like ibuprofen had been related to even decrease dangers than salicylate ones like aspirin.
However might poor sleep elevate delirium threat? A smaller research of 150 sufferers who obtained basic anesthesia for non-cardiac surgical procedures discovered that those that reported poor sleep within the month earlier than surgical procedure had been extra more likely to expertise delirium within the three days afterward.
Black sufferers much less more likely to get this normal ache administration: Earlier analysis has proven that ache administration that makes use of a mix of medication is more practical than utilizing a single treatment. However a research of practically 3,000 sufferers in a single ICU discovered that Black sufferers had been 29% much less more likely to obtain multimodal anesthesia than white sufferers.
An ‘epic’ struggle and a revolving door at FDA
The FDA is in the course of “an epic battle” with the tobacco trade over vaping and different next-generation nicotine merchandise, in keeping with Robert Califf, the company’s commissioner. “We’re in a authorized battle each single day,” Califf instructed an FDA oversight group final 12 months.
And their opponents are all too acquainted. Previously 15 years, practically two dozen FDA attorneys have left the company and its Middle for Tobacco Merchandise to advise, litigate for, or work with the tobacco and vaping trade, in keeping with new reporting from The Examination.
Tobacco trade merchandise are linked to greater than 8 million deaths a 12 months worldwide. Reporting from STAT has discovered how tough it may be to control these merchandise, which might typically be discovered within the FDA’s personal yard. With stakes this excessive, ex-FDA attorneys could be massively useful to tobacco corporations who wish to maintain merchandise on cabinets, as they convey their institutional data with them. Learn extra from The Examination on the FDA’s revolving door and the way it impacts tobacco regulation.
The mounting proof for a viral explanation for dementia
The concept that viral infections can play a task in at the very least some dementia circumstances goes again many years. It’s nonetheless controversial within the Alzheimer’s area, however as extra researchers and funders have begun to take the thought significantly, the connections between pathogens and dementia have been slowly strengthening. Simply within the final couple years, two papers have contributed proof that the shingles vaccine helps to guard folks’s brains from dementia.
A part of this latest shift has to do with Covid-19. There’s been a rising appreciation for the function of viruses in neurodegenerative illness because the pandemic. Paul Harrison, a psychiatry professor at Oxford who authored one of many shingles papers, has additionally researched how charges of temper issues, strokes, and dementia alarmingly improve following Covid an infection.
“I’ve at all times been a vaccine believer, however the Covid vaccine bolstered to me that there could also be long-term advantages to vaccination past merely stopping short-term results,” he mentioned.
Learn extra from STAT’s Megan Molteni on the rising physique of proof round viral infections and dementia. Then take a look at her Q&A with an ophthalmologist who’s working to develop an antiviral to handle shingles-induced blindness — a situation that ended her personal profession as a cornea surgeon.
Progress on the Marburg outbreak in Rwanda
There was excellent news over the weekend about Rwanda’s Marburg outbreak. Two sufferers who had been on ventilators had been efficiently taken off the machines, Well being Minister Sabin Nsanzimana instructed a press convention on Sunday, including this marks the primary time that Marburg sufferers handled in Africa had been intubated for care after which efficiently extubated. The 2 are amongst three remaining sufferers in care. To this point there have been 62 circumstances recorded, 15 of them deadly.
WHO Director-Common Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who visited Kigali to find out about how the nation has been coping with the outbreak, spoke extremely of Rwanda’s response. “I can see that the outbreak is being managed beneath sturdy management,” Tedros mentioned. “However we’re coping with one of many world’s most harmful viruses, and continued vigilance is crucial.”
Nsanzimana mentioned contact tracing efforts level to the index case being a 27-year-old male who frolicked in a cave recognized to be a bat habitat, noting the genetic sequence of viruses from this outbreak is carefully associated to viruses retrieved from bats within the area in 2014.
— Helen Branswell, senior author specializing in infectious illnesses
3 new suggestions to stop a primary stroke
You most likely know strokes could be lethal, however did you notice that as much as 80% of the 600,000 first strokes Individuals endure annually could also be preventable? That startling determine seems with up to date screening pointers printed this morning by the American Stroke Affiliation in its journal Stroke. Well being care suppliers already monitor folks for hypertension, elevated ldl cholesterol, excessive blood sugar, and weight problems. These are all well-known to lift the danger of blood circulate to the mind being blocked by a blood clot or lower off when a blood vessel ruptures. However for the primary time the rules additionally suggest:
Contemplating GLP-1 medication not solely to handle sort 2 diabetes but in addition to decrease weight and cut back the danger of heart problems and stroke.
Recognizing and addressing social determinants of well being: Structural racism, decrease entry to well being care, much less availability of wholesome meals, and lack of walkable neighborhoods.
Specializing in sex- and gender-specific components that elevate threat: Oral contraceptives, hypertension throughout being pregnant, untimely start, endometriosis, untimely ovarian failure, early onset menopause, and taking estrogens for gender affirmation in transgender ladies and gender-diverse folks.
— Liz Cooney, cardiovascular reporter
With being pregnant loss, perplexed
Rebecca Little has skilled being pregnant loss. However the phrase loss doesn’t really feel fairly proper to her. “I felt remoted, devastated, and like there wasn’t a vocabulary for what occurred — clinically, emotionally, or legally,” Little writes in a First Opinion essay.
Clinically, a being pregnant loss earlier than 20 weeks known as “a spontaneous abortion.” Somebody who has recurrent miscarriages is understood within the medical world as a “ordinary aborter.” However in a post-Roe world, these language points aren’t only a matter of semantics. When “abortion” is restricted, pregnant individuals who urgently want care could be turned away from emergency rooms or receiving subpar therapy. Relying on the state you reside in, a miscarriage might put you in danger for prosecution.
“The dearth of language and divisive politics are leaving pregnant ladies much more adrift,” Little writes. Learn extra.
What we’re studying
Psychedelics have a shaky-science downside, Atlantic
The flu shot is totally different this 12 months, due to COVID, NPR
What the U.S. election might imply for Medicare, drug pricing, and AI, STAT
Greater than 2,000 Kaiser psychological well being professionals might go on strike Monday, LA Occasions
Perplexing outcomes from Duchenne muscular dystrophy trial elevate questions on gene therapies, STAT
Get your every day dose of well being and drugs each weekday with STAT’s free publication Morning Rounds. Enroll right here.