‘Sound familiar?’

Former top U.S. infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that Americans have “selective amnesia” about the Covid-19 pandemic, which has distorted how they now think of pandemic mitigation measures like masking and lockdowns.

“There were freezer trucks parked in front of most city hospitals because there were not enough slabs in the morgue for people who were dying” in early 2020, he said during a livestreamed conversation at Georgetown University’s O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

Fauci, who is now retired, spoke about the vitriol he’s faced since the pandemic and recounted similar criticism during the HIV/AIDs crisis.

“Because I was the face of the government response — sound familiar?”

Fauci did not comment on a recent congressional hearing at which he invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid responding to Republican allegations of a government cover-up of Covid origins. As a result, committee Republicans voted to hold Fauci in contempt and sent the recommendation directly to the Justice Department.

Fauci said he has a “completely open mind” about the origins of Covid, but added there’s no data to prove the “lab leak” theory while data “strongly” suggests the virus jumped from animals to humans.

Fauci plans to write a book on vaccine skepticism, which he blames on misinformation.

He did, however, say he does not believe most people are truly “anti-vaccine.”

“They just need more information because they’re unclear,” he said. “There’s a small proportion of people who are ‘anti-vax.’” — Chelsea Cirruzzo

drug prices

The irony of Medicaid MFN deals

Analysts have long suspected that the proposed mandatory Medicare “most-favored nation” pilots were a threat to get companies to agree to MFN deals in Medicaid.

With each passing MFN deal announcement, that hunch seems increasingly correct.

Had the administration done the Medicare pilots, there would be no need for the voluntary Medicaid pilot. By law, Medicaid gets the lowest price among U.S. payers, so if the MFN prices in Medicare were the lowest, Medicaid would get those prices anyway.

Read more about why the exemptions could make the Medicare pilots vulnerable to legal challenges. And read this story by Daniel Payne and Elaine Chen about the questions the latest MFN announcement raises.

federal research

Congress delays politicization of research funding

When the House voted to fund the government until Dec. 11, it was also voting to block the Trump administration from giving political appointees more control over federal research grants.

The ban only lasts until Dec. 11, but it’s a toehold. The bigger achievement would be to get the measure in a government-funding bill at the end of the year. If Democrats win back either the House or Senate, they could make blocking the grant overhaul a priority. Also, once a measure is in a yearlong funding bill, it’s easier to add it in subsequent years.

Read more from Anil Oza and me about the expected fight this fall.

addiction

No silver bullet behind the decline in overdose deaths

Overdose deaths fell precipitously starting in 2024, Theresa Gaffney writes. But instead of a silver bullet, experts credit a raft of interventions that include naloxone saturation, broader use of methadone and buprenorphine treatment, and better care in and around prisons.

Medicaid expansion helped make those measures possible. Big cuts to Medicaid risk reversing those gains.

american diabetes association

ADA denies censorship allegations

If the American Diabetes Association had hoped to put to rest the controversy over its handling of dissident members at its annual conference, it didn’t work.

Three months ago, five ADA members were ejected from the group’s scientific sessions in New Orleans for handing out an editorial criticizing federal funding cuts. This incident caused quite a stir, so the ADA undertook an internal review of what happened.

The group rejected claims of silencing protest and involving local police, which did not sit well with many members.

Elizabeth Cooney was in the Big Easy for the conference and has been covering the fallout.

What we’re reading

Opinion: The next DSM should address the algorithm’s role in eating disorders, STAT
GLP-1s are forcing hospitals to rethink care models, investments, Modern Healthcare
Doctors groups release vaccination guidelines ahead of respiratory illness season, STAT
A top virus scientist stared down Covid lab-leak proponents. Now his life’s work is at stake, Bloomberg
The Ig Nobel Prizes, long held in the U.S., head to Europe due to Trump policies, The Boston Globe

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