Banks permitted millions in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein—and former 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had the story months ago. But the report would never air. trib.al/ZShZlIS

STAT's @bobjherman.bsky.social explains how the cost of health care in the US is getting more expensive.

🚨Breaking🚨: NIH is terminating health disparities research grants again. This time, they may successfully avoid legal challenges by giving specific reasons for their decisions. One grant so far, more to come. Exclusive @science.org by me and @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH is again terminating grants that the Trump administration dislikes

With cancellation of health disparities project, agency may be testing new way to legally kill politically sensitive grants

science.org

For 18 months, the Trump admin has been shredding the social contract between academic scientists and the federal government that made the US a research and economic powerhouse. Now it’s proposing a way to rebuild American science. @aniloza.bsky.social dives in: www.statnews.com/2026/07/24/s...

White House offers its science blueprint: More AI, less life sciences

The Trump administration released its blueprint for U.S. science, calling for shifting hundreds of billions of research dollars from universities to industry.

statnews.com

A couple paid more than $800,000 for a gene-editing therapy for their daughter. She died, and it wasn’t made public. An exclusive from us and @science.org.

Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public

Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals

science.org

Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by our work. That’s why we’re removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don’t want you to read, making them free for everyone.

Really important new series from @bobjherman.bsky.social, chronicling the quiet erosion of U.S. employer health insurance system and what it means for everyday Americans. www.statnews.com/health-insur...

Bob Herman@bobjherman.bsky.social · 4w ago

Bigger picture: Health insurance premiums (both employer and employee contributions) have vastly outpaced inflation for decades. These are constant wage cuts, and everyone out there is getting hammered, silently behind the scenes. www.statnews.com/2026/07/07/s...

I know there is, um, other stuff happening right now, but HHS under RFK Jr. has postponed yet another meeting of the US Preventive Services Task Force, while also failing to provide public access to nominees' application materials as promised in a Federal Register notice

Key Health Care Panel Is Again Blocked From Meeting

nytimes.com

I don't know if this is a scoop, but I haven't seen it reported elsewhere: flu vaccines expire TOMORROW, with a growing flu outbreak at an Air Force training facility in Texas www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

US military races to vaccinate new recruits before flu shots expire

Move comes amid growing outbreak in Texas and after two-month halt on mandatory shots

theguardian.com

Today we take you inside the alcohol industry's influence. These are just some ways the beer, wine & liquor trades (and their stables of lobbyists) try to shape politics, policy, philanthropy, science. In the face of enormous business troubles, tactics are key: www.statnews.com/2026/07/01/a...

Booze schmooze: The alcohol industry, frazzled by headwinds, wields its power behind the scenes

Demand for alcohol is declining. The industry is fighting harder and more creatively than ever against limits — and winning.

statnews.com

Meet SpudCell, a collection of a few dozen genes floating inside a fatty membrane-encased bubble. @matthewherper.bsky.social writes about the scientists who’ve come closest to building a living cell from scratch. www.statnews.com/2026/07/01/s...

Synthetic biology researchers think they’ve made a cell. Is it alive?

Researchers have created what they say may count as the first synthetic cell, and have started a public benefit corporation to share the technology with

statnews.com

New: Officials in 25 states and DC sued today over Medicaid work requirements. “This eleventh-hour attempt to further narrow protections for medically frail Medicaid recipients seeks to punish those who cannot fend for themselves." – @peterneronha.bsky.social www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

States sue to block Medicaid work requirements

RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz's harsh new rules "punish those who cannot fend for themselves,” Democratic officials argue.

motherjones.com

STAT's latest investigation goes inside Nutex Health and its network of microhospitals that charge ER prices while still refusing to see patients who can't pay — quadrupling revenue along the way. Don't miss this one from @tarabannow.bsky.social.

@elizabethcooney.bsky.social · last mo.

‘"We’re not that kind of ER” may be the most chilling quote in this tour de force from @tarabannow.bsky.social at @statnews.com www.statnews.com/2026/06/29/n...

I’ve spent more than a year reporting on how the fossil fuel industry has infiltrated academia over the last 30 years, shaping fundamental paradigms on how to address climate change. My first story in the new @propublica.org and @drilledmedia.bsky.social series, “Carbon Captured”, is out today.

ProPublica@propublica.org · last mo.

NEW: This is the story of how one of the most influential climate papers in history came to exist thanks to one of the companies most responsible for causing the climate crisis — and one with a financial stake in the technologies described in the paper. w/ @drilledmedia.bsky.social

Scoop with @mercohn.bsky.social: Johns Hopkins University is laying off more than 100 employees in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Carey Business School and central administration. Hopkins is suffering "debilitating" decreases in federal research funding www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

Johns Hopkins University lays off over 100 employees due to federal research losses

The layoffs this week impact the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Carey School of Business and the university’s general administration.

thebanner.com

Next-gen CRISPR tools improve editing accuracy in embryos, but also stoke ethical concerns www.statnews.com/2026/06/25/c...

Next-gen CRISPR tools improve editing accuracy in embryos, but also stoke ethical concerns

The use of genome editing in early embryos has pulled back the curtain on the role of one of the key genes that orchestrates the first stages of human development, researchers reported.

statnews.com

The US government is entering a partnership to store frozen cells and other biological samples from endangered and threatened species with Colossal, a private company best known for claiming to "de-extinct" dire wolves. Story by me & @catrineinhorn.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/43Rzhfw

Scientific American is being sold to LabX Media, publisher of Discover: group.springernature.com/gp/group/med... They've fired me and other union staff, ahead of June 26 vote ratification. My rates are suddenly more reasonable, if you need editing or reporting - Argonaut2026@gmail.com

We gave a sneak preview of our clean air system for buildings at the @arpa-h.bsky.social BREATHE Demo Day. All the credit goes to Rajan Chakrabarty et al. at WashU, Madhav Marathe et al. at UVA, and Chris Cappa + Theresa Pistochini et al. at UC Davis. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/s...

Buildings May Soon Have ‘Immune Systems’ That Fight Airborne Disease

nytimes.com

Been wondering why NSF isn't spending most of its FY26 appropriation? A $1.5B tech initiative may be the reason. And big cuts to hundreds of research programs could be just the beginning of the bad news. www.science.org/content/arti...

Exclusive: NSF slashes research programs to support new tech initiative, insiders say

Unexpected shift in funds has meant sharp drop in grants this fiscal year

science.org

New: Federal officials are seeking to speed up clinical trials, and an increasingly innovative China appears to be a not-so-small reason for the shift. Via @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social @lizzylawrence.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2026/06/22/f...

FDA to launch pilot program to speed up early-stage clinical trials

Federal health officials aim to speed up drug development and better compete with China.

statnews.com

Does Bundibugyo virus, now causing the devastating outbreak in DRC and Uganda, differ in important ways from Ebola virus? Scientists aren’t sure. “You can read the entire Bundibugyo literature in an afternoon,” says virologist Jens Kuhn. My story in @science.org:

Big Ebola outbreak puts spotlight on little-known virus

The Bundibugyo virus only emerged twice before. Now, scientists see a chance to get to know it better

science.org

A 20 year study on 2 NIH diversity programs in Science Advances shows they doubled undergrads' odds of getting a Ph.D. That is, before the funding for those programs and for the study itself was terminated last year: www.statnews.com/2026/06/17/n...

NIH diversity programs doubled undergraduates’ odds of getting a Ph.D., 20-year study finds

A new study found that two diversity-oriented programs supported by the NIH doubled the odds that an undergraduate would earn a Ph.D.

statnews.com

“The ultimate deciders of these grants will be the political employees at the agencies.” - Hal Duncan, today at his Senate confirmation hearing to serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. www.politico.com/live-updates...

OMB nominee touts plan to give Trump appointees power to kill grants

The administration is expected to finalize the proposed changes as soon as this summer.

politico.com

Several colleagues and I have a big new feature out today: An inside look at the global peptide trade, a billion-dollar black market in experimental and potentially dangerous drugs that RFK Jr. is pushing to make legal. Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

The Billion-Dollar Peptides Gold Rush

As black-market drugs go mainstream and legalization is within reach, entrepreneurs, investors and healthcare players are racing to cash in.

bloomberg.com

How do you persuade people they need to take #Ebola seriously when more in their midst are dying from other diseases & armed conflict? That is the challenge #WHO DG Tedros confronted when he visited the outbreak zone in DRC this week. “Ebola is a lesser evil." www.statnews.com/2026/06/13/w...

WHO director-general is profoundly concerned after visit to Ebola outbreak area

The director-general of the World Health Organization is profoundly worried about the Ebola outbreak in the DRC, he told STAT in an interview.

statnews.com

Teamed up with the great @meganmesserly.bsky.social to bring you the untold story of how Trump's first term health officials convinced him to back an ambitious plan to end the HIV epidemic by 2030...and how the policies he embraced in his second term destroyed the hopes of meeting that goal.

Trump Started a Plan to Eradicate HIV. He Never Finished It.

The president’s first-term pledge to end HIV in the U.S. by 2030 has evaporated in his second term.

politico.com

95% of CDC workers say Americans will die because of federal cuts to the agency. Virtually all staffers (99%) say reductions in staff and lack of leadership have left the agency unprepared to respond to a pandemic or other public health emergency. ow.ly/UTK550ZaH3c

RFK Jr. claimed his calendar, including meeting details, is public. But those records have not been released — despite more than a year of FOIA requests from @statnews.com reporters. More on the state of transparency at HHS, w/ @chelseacirruzzo.bsky.social www.statnews.com/2026/06/11/r...

RFK Jr. claims his calendar is publicly available. We've been trying to get it for a year

None of STAT's requests for Kennedy's schedule have been completed, and some haven't even been acknowledged.

statnews.com

It’s the Bethesda Declaration’s birthday — to mark the occasion, 73 NIHers have a report outlining ongoing concerns, which have become “more insidious and systematized, but no less harmful” as @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social put it www.statnews.com/2026/06/09/n...

NIH staffers published a letter of dissent a year ago. They feel it’s been ignored

In a report published on the first anniversary of the Bethesda Declaration, 71 staffers write that they feel NIH leadership “largely ignored" their concerns

statnews.com