Eric Boodman
@ericboodman.bsky.social
Journalist writing narrative features for @statnews.bsky.social and occasional essays elsewhere.
Some ~news. After 11 years of working with the amazing folks @statnews.com, I’m joining @nytimes.com as national science correspondent. I’ll miss the STAT crew—some of my favorite journalists and people—and am excited to tell stories about all kinds of science. www.nytco.com/press/a-new-...
A New National Science Correspondent | The New York Times Company
nytco.com
The pediatricians who take in vaccine-skeptical parents others won’t. By @ericboodman.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2026/09/03/v...
The pediatricians who take in vaccine-skeptical parents others won't
At a "practice of last resort," pediatricians prioritize allaying parents' vaccine concerns without hardline dismissals.
statnews.com
wild story from Lizzy — FDA gave compassionate use access to a 79 year old through senior NIH clinician, @muniyappar.bsky.social, could it be President Trump? Read more from Lizzy on what she found out, and what ethicists had to say about it
Lizzy Lawrence@lizzylawrence.bsky.social · 3mo agoEXCLUSIVE: Eli Lilly gave compassionate use access to retatrutide, their unapproved powerful obesity drug, to a 79-year-old man in April. The application was arranged by a top doctor at NIH, and cleared by the FDA. www.statnews.com/2026/06/23/e...
Federal grant funding for disability research is months behind schedule. If things don't change, scores of jobs and whole institutions could disappear. w/ my colleague Lauren Chan www.statnews.com/2026/06/19/f...
Federal grant delays could jeopardize essential disability services, research
Disability researchers across the country worry about their jobs, and the future of their institutions, as a delay in issuing federal grants drags on.
statnews.com
Congenital syphilis is a “never event.” But it’s happening more. Pfizer, the only company that sells a treatment for it, is at the center. “Where purchasers are paying the full price, we’ve seen Pfizer doing a lot of handholding.” Read @ericboodman.bsky.social. www.statnews.com/2026/06/15/p...
Amid confusion over Pfizer's emergency penicillin program, newborn is diagnosed with preventable syphilis
Congenital syphilis should be preventable. An Arizona case shows how drug shortages and procedural hurdles are fueling a growing public health crisis.
statnews.com
Without treatment, syphilis in pregnancy can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, or lifelong disability. It's entirely preventable. Pfizer has an emergency system to get patients penicillin. But it's so confusing that in April, a baby was born untreated, emails show. www.statnews.com/2026/06/15/p...
Amid confusion over Pfizer's emergency penicillin program, newborn is diagnosed with preventable syphilis
Congenital syphilis should be preventable. An Arizona case shows how drug shortages and procedural hurdles are fueling a growing public health crisis.
statnews.com
A star researcher showed that a better genetics curriculum could reduce racism. Now, his funding gone, he's starting over as a nurse. A deep story from @mmolteni.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2026/04/07/b...
A star scientist showed that better genetics lessons could reduce racism. It was the death knell for his career
Brian Donovan had persuaded high school teachers and education researchers that prejudice might be ended by changing how genetics is taught.
statnews.com
"I’m beginning to regret having lived so long," Stanley Plotkin, aka "the godfather of vaccines," told @helenbranswell.bsky.social in this sobering piece. www.statnews.com/2026/03/02/s...
A titan of vaccine development sees his field’s achievements slip away
Stanley Plotkin, the 93-year-old "godfather of vaccines," is watching his field’s achievements slip away.
statnews.com
If you're not reading @lizzylawrence.bsky.social's stories on the FDA, you are missing out. Today's scoop is that agency staff were poised to evaluate Moderna's flu vaccine application but were overruled by Vinay Prasad, who refused to review the submission. www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...
Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna's flu vaccine application
The rejection is the latest instance of Vinay Prasad overruling career FDA scientists to place vaccines under harsher scrutiny.
statnews.com
In the Trump administration's vaccine rhetoric, you'll hear a refrain: "shared decision-making." But shared decision-making researchers worry that the feds may be hijacking the term to sow doubt when the evidence of benefit is in fact very strong. www.statnews.com/2026/01/20/s...
Is 'shared decision-making' being hijacked by U.S. health officials to sow doubt about vaccines?
Experts worry that health officials' use of 'shared decision-making' in new vaccine guidance distorts the concept's meaning and disregards the importance of evidence.
statnews.com
A hard but important read from @mmolteni.bsky.social about Alex Pretti, the ICU nurse who was shot by federal agents in Minneapolis www.statnews.com/2026/01/26/a...
Alex Pretti remembered by health care workers at a Minneapolis vigil as a ‘stand-up guy’
Health care workers brought flowers and wreaths, lit candles, and draped stethoscopes over a wooden cross as a makeshift memorial to nurse Alex Pretti.
statnews.com
After an order from Trump, federal officials unilaterally slash recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11, @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social @helenbranswell.bsky.social report. Public health experts worry the move will sow confusion for parents. www.statnews.com/2026/01/05/c...
Federal health officials slash recommended childhood vaccinations under Trump’s directive
The number of recommended childhood shots drops from 17 to 11.
statnews.com
A great profile from @isabellacueto.bsky.social about LA-vegan-restaurateurs-turned-tallow-embracing-MAHA-evangelists in small-town Texas. www.statnews.com/2025/10/16/m...
In Texas, ex-vegan restaurateurs put MAHA's vision for farming to the test
A former vegan chef is trying to execute MAHA's dream of a utopian future based on small-scale, family-owned farms.
statnews.com
Smart story from @jonathanwosen.bsky.social and @angusrohan.bsky.social on the dangerous new territory Trump waded into Monday as he issued direct medical advice regarding the use of Tylenol. Almost makes one nostalgic for the days of some light bleach-pushing. www.statnews.com/2025/09/23/t...
In dispensing advice on Tylenol and autism, Trump takes on a new role: doctor in chief
Trump repeatedly and forcefully issued direct medical advice during his autism announcement, in ways that went beyond presidential precedent.
statnews.com
"Health care's dirty little secret": To avoid being fined for hospital-acquired infections, some administrators discourage clinicians from testing for them, even when that worsens patient care. Important reporting from @tarabannow.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/09/22/h...
Hospitals get dinged for reporting too many infections. In some cases, the solution is not to test
A STAT Investigation: To avoid fines for reporting excessive hospital-acquired infections, some facilities are discouraging testing.
statnews.com
If you run a life science lab where research has either significantly slowed or shut down completely due to Trump administration policies, I’d like to hear your story. I'm a biotech and life sciences reporter for @statnews.com, and you can reach me at jonathan.wosen@statnews.com #journorequest
#NIH director Jay Bhattacharya says the #BARDA mRNA contracts were terminated because the platform isn't viable because people don't trust it. Experts question some of the claims Bhattacharya made. www.statnews.com/2025/08/11/m...
NIH director: mRNA vaccine contracts were canceled because public lacks trust in technology
NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya offered an explanation for the cancellation of mRNA vaccine contracts that didn't align with that of his boss, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
statnews.com
NEW: Massive and confusing inconsistencies at NIH. New director says health disparities research is critical yet grants are being cut left and right. With @aniloza.bsky.social and @ericboodman.bsky.social. (Also my last story for STAT. 😢) www.statnews.com/2025/08/01/n...
Jay Bhattacharya once studied health disparities. As NIH director, he’s allowed such research to wither
Jay Bhattacharya’s tenure as NIH director has seen health disparities research swept up in the Trump administration’s attack on DEI
statnews.com
Incredibly well reported deep dive on NIH and health disparities research in STAT. 🧵 www.statnews.com/2025/08/01/n... 1/31
Jay Bhattacharya once studied health disparities. As NIH director, he’s allowed such research to wither
Jay Bhattacharya’s tenure as NIH director has seen health disparities research swept up in the Trump administration’s attack on DEI
statnews.com
. @lizzylawrence.bsky.social takes a look at the lead up to Vinay Prasad's abrupt departure from #FDA. The now former #CBER head "wasn’t able to outrun his firebrand persona," she writes. www.statnews.com/2025/07/30/v...
Inside the fall of Vinay Prasad at the FDA
Prasad's departure followed a campaign by a right-wing activist and a controversy over a rare disease drug.
statnews.com
He didn't have ALS. At least, not yet. But clearly some of his nerve cells had died. Would an experimental drug prevent him from getting it? Great piece from @jasonmast.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2025/07/28/a...
Did a drug prevent this man’s ALS?
For over an hour, Jeff Vierstra lay still in Columbia University’s ALS clinic, as a doctor poked him ankle-to-throat with an electric needle. Sometimes,
statnews.com
Senate passes Trump’s tax-cut bill that would slash Medicaid spending www.statnews.com/2025/07/01/s...
Senate passes Trump’s tax-cut bill that would slash Medicaid spending
The Senate has passed a $4.5 trillion tax cut bill after last-minute changes to its health care provisions, as Republicans scrambled to get their party on board.
statnews.com
You can't make this stuff up. Fortunately, my brilliant colleague @jasonmast.bsky.social, was around to explain to you all what happened at the first meeting of the new #ACIP. www.statnews.com/2025/06/26/c...
The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, empowered by RFK Jr., is just getting started
The ACIP, the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel newly empowered by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is just getting started.
statnews.com
Important story: Native American longevity rates even lower than previously thoughts because their race is often recorded wrong on death certificates. Story by new STAT intern Marissa Russo. www.statnews.com/2025/06/18/l...
Why a lot of Native American deaths are not counted
Native American deaths are significantly undercounted because of errors in death certificates, a new study claims.
statnews.com
The newly reconstituted CDC vaccine advisory committee will discuss the combination measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella vaccine, among other things, at its meeting next week. It has been on the CDC’s childhood vaccination schedule for decades. www.statnews.com/2025/06/18/r...
Vaccine advisers to consider MMRV vaccines, 'thimerosal containing' flu shots in pared-down meeting
RFK Jr.'s handpicked advisers will discuss two long-approved shots at their next meeting
statnews.com
NEW: Vinay Prasad will now hold three separate jobs at the Food and Drug Administration, solidifying his position as a top adviser to Commissioner Marty Makary. www.statnews.com/2025/06/18/v...
Vinay Prasad named chief medical and science officer at FDA
Vinay Prasad is taking on several big roles at the FDA, solidifying his position as a top adviser to Commissioner Marty Makary.
statnews.com
BREAKING: The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for trans minors. Story here, will be updating: www.statnews.com/2025/06/18/s...
Supreme Court ruling on gender-affirming care delivers major setback for transgender rights
Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors can stand after the Supreme Court ruled that it does not constitute sex-based discrimination, in a 6-3 decision.
statnews.com
Two critical labs at the #CDC were inexplicable targeted for closure in April. The #STD & viral #hepatitis laboratories are among the parts at the agency where terminations have been rescinded. www.statnews.com/2025/06/16/c...
CDC workers fired from prominent STI, hepatitis labs are rehired
The staff of two world-class CDC laboratories that were slated to be closed by the Trump administration have been informed that their terminations have been canceled.
statnews.com
Veteran photographer Michael Nigro was shot in the head with a non-lethal bullet while covering anti-ICE protests in LA. "It felt very very intentional," Nigro tells NPR, "a chilling effect to convince us to go away." Other reporters say they have been targeted too. My story below:
NPR@npr.org · last yr.The Los Angeles Press Club says law enforcement officers have violated press freedoms of reporters covering anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles more than three dozen times. https://n.pr/3Zw0tPg
BREAKING: federal judge overrules hundreds of NIH grant terminations www.statnews.com/2025/06/16/n...
Federal judge rules that hundreds of NIH grant terminations were 'void and illegal'
A federal judge ruled that some of the grant terminations by the National Institutes of Health on DEI grounds are “void and illegal.”
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