Usha Lee McFarling

1 month ago | statnews.com | Usha Lee McFarling

A new framework for Covid-19 vaccines announced by Food and Drug Administration leaders Tuesday suggests the agency will no longer approve new Covid vaccines for healthy individuals under 65, including babies, without data from new randomized clinical trials showing their benefit. The plan — described in a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed by a live stream on YouTube — created confusion among physicians about what it means for young children.

1 month ago | statnews.com | Usha Lee McFarling

Although Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he cares deeply about Native American communities, the health of those communities is under severe threat because of massive cuts Kennedy is making to federal health services, U.S. senators and tribal leaders said at a hearing held Wednesday.

1 month ago | statnews.com | Usha Lee McFarling

Theirs is an unusual scientific collaboration, to say the least. Jacob Glanville is an immunologist, who worked for the pharma giant Pfizer before striking out to found startups focused on developing therapies that protect against things like coronaviruses, malaria, HIV, and, more recently, snakebites. Tim Friede is a truck mechanic and snake enthusiast from Wisconsin. Between 2001 and 2018, he was bitten 856 times by the world’s deadliest snakes: black mambas, water cobras, and kraits.

1 month ago | statnews.com | Usha Lee McFarling

A new Trump administration executive order targeting the use of “DEI-based standards” to accredit universities could shake up the small club of groups that set standards for the nation’s medical schools and residency programs. The order expressly calls out two organizations that accredit medical schools and residency programs for requiring institutions to have recruitment and retention policies that promote diversity in the medical workforce.

1 month ago | statnews.com | Usha Lee McFarling

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT’s free newsletter Morning Rounds. Sign up here. Usha Lee McFarling filling in for Theresa this morning, and very excited to hear about her adventures. In this space, we’ve debated potato chips (whether or not they should be flavored) and the best french fries (Thrasher’s found on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Del.), but people, we need to talk about burgers.