Helen Branswell
Senior Writer, Infectious Diseases and Global Health at STAT
I cover infectious diseases @statnews. 2020 Polk winner. Nieman '11. She/her. #H5N2 #birdflu #Covid #polio #flu, #RSV. I have not paid for a blue checkmark.
Articles
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2 weeks ago |
statnews.com | Helen Branswell
The United States recorded three measles deaths in the first 24 years of this century. In just over three months of 2025, it has equaled that number. The most recent patient, an 8-year-old unvaccinated and previously healthy girl in West Texas, died late last week. Infectious disease experts warn that the days when measles deaths in the United States were ultra rare may be over for now.
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2 weeks ago |
statnews.com | Helen Branswell
At a time when the world is down to a single drug that can reliably cure gonorrhea, the U.S. government has shuttered the country’s premier sexually transmitted diseases laboratory, leaving experts aghast and fearful about what lies ahead. The STD lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a leading player in global efforts to monitor for drug resistance in the bacteria that cause these diseases — was among the targets of major staff slashing at the CDC this past week.
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3 weeks ago |
statnews.com | Helen Branswell |Sarah Owermohle
Workers across the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were summarily fired on Tuesday, triggering what will be an unprecedented and chaotic withdrawal of the agency from many areas of disease prevention on which it has long worked. In all, the CDC is expected to lose roughly 2,400 employees, or about 18% of its staff, as part of the broader cuts playing out across the Department of Health and Human Services.
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3 weeks ago |
statnews.com | Helen Branswell |Lizzy Lawrence
Layoff notices began arriving early Tuesday for thousands of employees of the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services and its subsidiary agencies, with as many 10,000 workers potentially expected to be hit by the cuts. “I regret to inform you that you have been affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action,” an email to affected employees said. It went on to tell the recipients that they were placed on immediate administrative leave, offering no details of the length of that leave.
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3 weeks ago |
statnews.com | Matthew Herper |Helen Branswell |Usha Lee McFarling |Lizzy Lawrence |Jason Mast
Peter Marks, the top Food and Drug Administration official who oversaw vaccines, gene therapies, and the blood supply, resigned Friday after being told by Trump administration officials he would be fired if he did not step down, according to press reports and people familiar with the situation. In his resignation letter, which was obtained by STAT, Marks said that he had attempted to answer the concerns of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.
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Secretary Kennedy seems to believe that vaccines against respiratory bugs that target a single antigen don't work. People who have studied and designed vaccines beg to differ. With multiple pending #Covid vaccines before #FDA, this may not bode well. https://t.co/sx1zKdC8VA
Secretary Kennedy makes headlines for anything he says that sounds remotely pro-vaccine. But for every one of those mildly supportive statements, there are other remarks that continue to cast doubts about these important products. https://t.co/btBxSMWAIE
Georges Benjamin, exec director of @PublicHealth, calls on Secretary Kennedy to resign, calling him "a danger to the public’s health.” https://t.co/3hvtCC7W61
