|
|
|
|
Thursday, October 26, 2017
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good morning. STAT reporter Rebecca Robbins here, filling in for Megan. A quick PSA for readers in the Boston area: My colleague Meghana Keshavan and I will be hosting a panel discussion next Thursday
with MIT's Bob Langer and several other Kendall Square entrepreneurs. STAT Plus subscribers can sign
up here to join us. Now, on to the day's news!
|
White House hosts event about the opioid crisis
President Trump will declare the opioid crisis a national emergency next week, he said in an Fox Business interview broadcast last night, conflicting with previous statements that he would do so this week.
It's now been two and a half months since Trump first said he would declare a national emergency. And there are still
big questions about what this anticipated step will mean. In the meantime, the White House is hosting an event this afternoon where it's expected to map out plans to address the opioid crisis. STAT's Washington correspondent
Lev Facher (@levfacher) will be tweeting live from the event, which begins at 2 p.m ET.
|
Science writers gather at fraught political moment
The
annual gathering of the world's science writers kicks off today in San Francisco, with over 1,300 registered attendees from more than 70 countries. This year's conference comes at a time of growing doubts about the Trump
administration's commitment to science. That concern is reflected in the conference agenda, which features panels about the need to address climate change, how to report with clarity about vaccines, and how pseudoscience influences government policy. Also
on the schedule: A talk by Susan Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, "in defense of science." And a parliamentary-style debate about whether science journalists should "get off the sidelines" and battle scientific misinformation.
|
Does honesty about values help scientists win trust?
What happens when scientists disclose their personal beliefs? To answer that question, researchers at Michigan State University asked nearly 500 people to evaluate the disclosures of a fictitious scientist
studying BPA, a controversial chemical often used in canned foods. In different versions of a mock presentation slide, the scientist concluded that BPA is harmful or recommended that it be regulated — and also that he either favored emphasizing public health,
or that he favored preserving economic growth, or nothing about his personal values. In general, the study participants said they trusted the scientist less when he shared his personal beliefs — but they trusted him more when his conclusion was at odds with
those values.
The takeaway for scientists? Don't be deterred from sharing your personal values, but "think carefully" about how you do that, said Michigan State philosopher of science Kevin Elliott, the
study's lead author.
|
Inside STAT: She learned at age 41 that she's intersex
When Kimberly Zieselman was a teenager, a doctor told her parents that she needed surgery to remove her uterus and ovaries because of fears about cancer. Twenty-five years later, she got her medical records
and learned she had actually had unnecessary surgery to remove her hormone-producing testes. That's because, as she learned for the first time at age 41, she has androgen insensitivity syndrome, characterized by X and Y chromosomes and a typically female appearance.
Her story is an example, Zieselman writes in a First Opinion for STAT, of the need for better medical care for intersex people. That means fewer surgeries on intersex kids, more attention to the needs of intersex adults, and more listening.
Read more.
|
Undocumented teen in legal battle obtains abortion
The 17-year-old undocumented immigrant at the center of a high-profile legal battle over her reproductive rights had an abortion yesterday,
according to her ACLU lawyers. “I made my decision and that is between me and God," the teenager, whose identity has not been disclosed, said in a statement. The teen was detained last month after entering the U.S. without
the proper paperwork. A Texas court had approved her request to get an abortion, but the Trump administration had refused to transport her to the procedure. A federal appeals court on Tuesday overrode the Trump administration's objections, allowing the teen
to undergo the procedure.
|
Scar tissue reprogrammed into healthy heart cells
heart muscle cells reprogrammed from scar tissue cells (QIAN LAB, UNC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE)
After a heart attack, part of the way a heart heals is by forming scar tissue from cells called fibroblasts. That's a problem because these cells can obstruct the heart's pumping action. So researchers
are on the hunt for ways to reprogram these fibroblasts into working cardiac muscle cells. They've shown it's possible in the lab, but the details of how that happens at the molecular level have been poorly understood. Now, researchers at the University of
North Carolina have identified the step-by-step changes that occur in this reversal. By analyzing the RNA sequences in mouse cells as they were reprogrammed into cardiac cells, researchers were able to pinpoint a number of important genes — chief among them
a gene called Ptbp1. When that gene was deleted, cells were reprogrammed much more readily, the researchers write in their
study published in Nature.
|
Health alerts increase after crackdown on lead in candy
Here's a finding that might reassure you as Halloween approaches: A public health-minded policy to keep candy safe seems to be working. In a new study published in
Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers at UCSF and California's health department evaluated the effectiveness of a 2006 law requiring an increase in surveillance and public health alerts concerning lead in candy.
In the seven years after the law went into effect, the percentage of the state's health alerts flagging lead contamination in candy doubled. Most of those alerts were for imported candy from Mexico, China, and India. The researchers' conclusion: While the
full magnitude of the problem in California is still not clear, the state's candy testing program is a "useful model" for public health practitioners.
|
What to read around the web today
§
He died on his 24th birthday. Then a reporter bought part of his spine.
Reuters
§
Purdue Pharma is target of a federal criminal probe over opioid marketing.
Bloomberg
§
Investigation reveals hospices abandon patients at death’s door.
Kaiser Health News
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
