Meredith Wadman

2 weeks ago | science.org | Meredith Wadman

In an unprecedented move both feared and expected by public health proponents, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday fired en masse the 17 expert members of a committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on what vaccines people in the United States should take and when. Conflicts of interest among members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), he alleged, were undermining public trust in vaccines.

2 weeks ago | science.org | Meredith Wadman

Hospital patients and their families often learn that nurses know far more about their condition and care than doctors. Last year, a clinical trial published in Nature Medicine underscored that with an eye-popping number: Hospitalized patients were 36% less likely to die if their caregivers used an artificial intelligence–based system that analyzes patterns of nurses’ observations to provide an early warning that patients are deteriorating.

3 weeks ago | science.org | Meredith Wadman |Jeffrey Mervis

Last Saturday, the morning after a news article announced major job losses coming at the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt wrote an apologetic memo to employees. Her statement to STAT that 250 people could lose their positions by summer’s end had come as news to the NASEM staff, which numbered 1383 as of 2023. McNutt told staff “no decisions [have been] made” about the number of coming layoffs.

3 weeks ago | science.org | Jon Cohen |Meredith Wadman

Documents released late last week are providing new details about the breadth and depth of the spending cuts the White House is asking Congress to make to public health and biomedical research programs in the 2026 fiscal year that begins on 1 October. Among other things, the plans call for deeper spending and staff cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) than were outlined in a less detailed “skinny budget” that President Donald Trump’s administration released last month.

3 weeks ago | science.org | Meredith Wadman |Jeffrey Mervis

Last Saturday, the morning after a news article announced major job losses coming at the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt wrote an apologetic memo to employees. Her statement to STAT that 250 people could lose their positions by summer’s end had come as news to the roughly 1100 NASEM staff. McNutt told staff “no decisions [have been] made” about the number of coming layoffs.