RFK Jr.’s CDC reform plan looks awfully similar to another proposal

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In the days after health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed out the director of the CDC, he suggested sweeping changes were needed at the agency, writing in a Wall Street Journal opinion essay that he had “replaced leaders who resisted reform.” But many of Kennedy’s proposals match ideas laid out by ex-director Susan Monarez in a confidential roadmap she submitted to his staff more than a month ago, STAT’s Daniel Payne exclusively reports.

The memo raises questions about the rationale Kennedy has put forward for firing Monarez. Read more from Daniel on how the Kennedy and Monarez plans for CDC reform compare.

And don’t forget that Kennedy is set to testify before Congress today. He was previously slated to discuss the president’s 2026 health care agenda, but after Monarez’s ouster and the resignation of other top health officials, there’s a heightened level of urgency. STAT’s Chelsea Cirruzzo and Isabella Cueto previewed the seven burning questions that could be answered during the hearing. Read more. And you can follow along in real time with STAT’s live blog of the hearing here.

policy

States are diverging on vaccine policy

In June, as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired and replaced the CDC’s entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, on top of rewriting Covid-19 vaccine recommendations, STAT’s Helen Branswell made a prediction: The U.S. is headed toward a balkanized vaccination policy, she wrote, where doctors' recommendations may come from their professional organizations instead of the CDC.

Months later, as we head into flu season, the regional responses to Trump’s vaccine policies are already diverging. Democratic governors from Oregon, Washington, and California announced yesterday that the states have formed a partnership called the West Coast Health Alliance to develop a set of immunization guidelines “informed by respected national medical organizations” and separate from those made by ACIP, per the AP. Officials in Colorado and Massachusetts circumvented the FDA’s narrow approval for new Covid shots by authorizing pharmacists to administer the shots. In Florida, meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced that the state would work to eliminate all of its childhood vaccine mandates.

“This is going to go on for years, potentially,” lawyer Richard Hughes told Helen this summer. “And so the contingency plans need to be just very, very, very practical and not overengineered.” Read more about how a “choose-your-own-adventure” approach to vaccination decisions is raising alarms for experts.

hot mic

Russian, Chinese leaders swap tips on immortality

Russian president Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were recorded yesterday trading fantastical factoids on longevity and immortality, multiple outlets reported. A translator likely speaking for Putin was overheard highlighting how developments in biotech and transplantation could help human beings become immortal. Xi predicted that humans will live to 150 years old within this century.

Sorry to burst their bubbles (can someone forward this to them?), but these claims are not real. As STAT’s Jonathan Wosen reported last fall, wealthy countries may already be hitting the ceiling on improvements in life expectancy from modern medicine. For life expectancy to reach 110, one model found that most of today’s major causes of death would need to be cured.

The talk between world leaders is sure to fuel criticism of the longevity field, which has long been seen as an attempt to play God, as STAT’s Jason Mast reported in 2023. “This is literally a multi-thousand-year-old grift,” researcher Charles Brenner told him then. Still, there’s a small but growing community trying to make longevity more digestible to the drug-making mainstream. I recommend revisiting the story.

science

Where Trump and scientists agree

A report released yesterday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine outlines a series of policy proposals in a rare area where the Trump administration’s rhetoric is aligned with academia’s interests: simplifying federal research regulations. Its authors — a committee of academic leaders that includes Trump’s former science adviser — lay out 53 ways policymakers could simplify research regulations across an array of topics, from the submission of grants to clinical research to the handling of alleged scientific misconduct.

Some of the proposed solutions have been suggested before and gained little traction, STAT’s Jonathan Wosen and Anil Oza write. Still, many people see the administration’s position as a fresh opportunity to make progress on an evergreen issue. Read more from Jonathan and Anil.

climate

Five years after Hurricane Sandy, older people in its path had worse heart disease

As hurricane season picks up steam, the immediate health impacts from flooding — evacuations, disruptions to medical care — come to mind. In the near term, hospital admissions for chronic diseases climb, as do deaths. A new study in JAMA Network Open finds that these cardiovascular effects live on long after a storm blows through.

Looking back to Hurricane Sandy in 2012, a team of researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and New York University tracked more than 120,000 Medicare beneficiaries in the densely populated tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. They compared heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure over the five years following the storm in flooded vs. non-flooded ZIP codes. Cardiovascular health was similar at first while income and deprivation indices did vary.

Up to five years later, flooding from Sandy was associated with a 5% higher risk of worse cardiovascular health than in areas without flooding. Three years after the hurricane, the biggest increase in heart failure risk was found in New Jersey, where flooded ZIP codes also had higher indicators of social and economic disadvantage.

The authors say their results show the need to consider the lingering impact of severe weather. — Liz Cooney

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