First Opinion Newsletter

2 days ago | statnews.com | Helen Branswell

When word broke this week that the Department of Health and Human Services was investing half-a-billion dollars on a National Institutes of Health project to develop a vaccine platform for pathogens that could trigger pandemics, a number of scientists who work in the field of vaccinology had decidedly mixed feelings. That HHS and NIH are going to continue to invest in efforts to make vaccines that could reduce the impact of future pandemics was good news, many thought.

3 days ago | statnews.com | Daniel Payne

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday proposed massive cuts to the federal government’s health agencies in his 2026 budget request, arguing that Congress should reduce spending by tens of billions from current levels. The request would be a 26% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services’ discretionary budget, which doesn’t include spending on health coverage programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

3 days ago | statnews.com | Murray Carpenter

Critics of the soda industry have long highlighted an unsavory pattern: Americans have spent billions of funds from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka SNAP, better known as food stamps, on sugar-sweetened beverages. Sugar-sweetened beverages are actually the No. 1 item Americans buy with SNAP funds. Amplifying the pattern, some stores place window stickers on the soda coolers to remind consumers that they accept SNAP funds.

4 days ago | statnews.com | Megan Molteni

The National Institutes of Health announced Thursday it will no longer allow subawards to foreign institutions, as part of a national security-minded overhaul to how the agency manages its $47 billion research funding portfolio. The change is likely to cause immediate disruptions to research projects around the world. “Subawards” are NIH funds that a grant recipient can give another organization to carry out a specific piece of the project.

4 days ago | statnews.com | O. Rose Broderick

SEATTLE — Michael VanPelt spent the spring glued to his telephone, dialing doctors who might be able to get his 3-year-old son in for an autism evaluation. The music teacher ran out of providers who took his health insurance, but luckily the New Jersey public school system provided him with an independent neurologist, who diagnosed his son with autism on April 3. VanPelt was thrilled.