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EVERYTHING
What Trump Cancellations of NIH Meetings, Health Pubs Mean for Research
What: The incoming Trump administration took the unusual step of cancelling NIH meetings this week and prohibiting all federal health agencies (including FDA and CDC) from communicating with the public. Scientists are saying the disruptions to meetings and normal communications (like the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) will harm ongoing (and future) research.
Key line: “[NIH] gathers together scientists at academic institutions around the country into what are called ‘study sections’ to help them figure out what research is the most important to fund. Dr. Chrystal Starbird, a cancer structural biologist and professor at UNC Chapel Hill, said her study section was scheduled to meet next week. On Wednesday she received notice of its cancellation through email. …She explains that these aren’t the kinds of meetings that can easily be rescheduled. There are a lot of moving parts, involving different institutions all operating on different timetables. A delay — especially an indefinite delay, like this one — could have a negative impact on important cancer research, Starbird says.”
Source: NPR
Women Have Higher Risk of Long COVID Than Men
What: A study in JAMA Network Open looked at over 12,000 patients and found women have a 31% higher risk of developing long COVID than men. The risk was highest for women ages 40 to 55 years old.
Key line: “’These findings show that patients and health care teams should consider the differences in long COVID risk as it relates to sex assigned at birth,’ said Dimpy Shah, MD, PhD, assistant professor of population health sciences with the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. ‘Understanding these differences can help us recognize and treat patients with long COVID more effectively.’”
Source: JAMA Network Open
PREGNANCY + POSTPARTUM
South Carolina Tests Tele-Mental Health Treatment for New Moms
What: A program in South Carolina helped connect new moms in rural and medically underserved areas with telehealth psychiatric care. The clinicians based the program on a similar one in Massachusetts, and were able to serve nearly 900 patients, half of whom were on Medicaid. Just over 60 percent of patients contacted the hotline to request mental health support.
Key line: “The state of South Carolina has approximately 57,000 births each year. As such, an estimated 11,400 South Carolinians will experience a perinatal mood, anxiety, or substance use disorder, based prevalence rates. During the first year of program implementation, the Mom’s IMPACTT team served roughly 8.7% of women in the state who are predicted to have experienced a perinatal mental health or substance use disorder, almost all of whom resided in rural and/or medically underserved areas.”
Source: BMC Women’s Health
ABORTION ACCESS
Potential New Abortion Pill Combo, But with Political Risk
What: A study of 133 women found the active ingredient in Ella, a morning-after pill approved in the United States, led successful termination of pregnancy at up to nine weeks gestation, when also followed by misoprostol. Misoprostol can be taken on its own for an abortion, and the active ingredient in Ella–ulipristal acetate—was double the typical amount in the morning-after pill.
Key line: “Mary Ziegler, a law professor and abortion expert at the University of California, Davis, said the study could present challenges for both sides of the abortion debate. ‘It’s going to put wind in the sails of abortion opponents who have been saying things like contraceptives can be abortifacients,’ she said, adding, ‘This study being released will be difficult, I think, for abortion rights supporters to manage.’…Reproductive health experts said the new study did not refute the science showing that morning-after pills don’t induce abortions, because it involved a different dose of the drug.”
Source: New York Times
MENOPAUSE
Millennials and Gen X: The Menopause Complainers
What: Axios (in its traditional bullet point style) looks at why menopause is getting so much attention these days, and credits it to millennials and Gen X being vocal complainers. It also provides a good overview of the (lack of) balance between scientific developments and evidence-free supplements and creams.
Key line: “The younger generations are saying ‘We’re not going to sit in silence and suffer. Are you kidding?’ said Stephanie Faubion, director of Mayo Clinic’s Center for Women’s Health. ‘That’s great now that we’re having more of a conversation about it because women are demanding solutions.'”
Source: Axios
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