when we wrote about this pew data on trust in science came out, some outside experts wished pew had data on figures in the current admin
this @appc.upenn.edu survey released today has data comparing trust in several professional societies, agencies, and officials
Is Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk trolling teleheath company Hims & Hers with a new video? A spokesperson from the company told me there was "no connection." Here's a clip from my new @statnews.com video
Watch @alexhogan.bsky.social's latest STATus Report video with @mariojoze.bsky.social for a slickkkkk video transition and to catch up on the "AI replacing doctors" conversation.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxGm...
🩺🖥️
In today's AI Prognosis, a conversation with Casey Ross about the new frontier in health insurer AI, and why I think the ACCESS pricing wasn't surprising:
"I will go out of my way to destroy that CPT code if that’s what you do," Medicare head Chris Klomp said at CES.
More @statnews.com:
🩺🖥️
This story has now been updated with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and others:
✨ Sign up for the newsletter here: www.statnews.com/signup/ai-pr...
And don't let me be the only one to tell you it's worth it. Here's a reader message:
🗣️ "Brittany...this is terrific and one of the very best and most comprehensive summaries of what AI is or can do for healthcare. Too much that is written on this topic is hyperbole and vapor ware."
💯 people (an improbably round number, I know) just signed up this past week, you can be another! We're running a 50% off STAT+ sale right now: marketing.statnews.com/stat-plus-fe...
Today's issue is about a study that proves one of my longtime fears about health AI. Take a look, then join us on the quest to understand how AI is shaping health and medicine:
www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/p...
It's AI Prognosis' birthday! 🎉 One year ago this week, I sent the first edition of @statnews.com's newsletter about AI in health care & medicine. I've learned a lot since then (and so have AIP readers!)
Photo: Me, tired but proud, after launching the newsletter a year ago.
🖥️🩺
BREAKING: @lizzylawrence.bsky.social reports that CBER director Vinay Prasad overruled career #FDA staff and unilaterally decided to refusal to accept #Moderna 's #flu vaccine submission. www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...
Breaking: The FDA refuses to review Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine www.statnews.com/2026/02/10/f...
The first four teeth I lost had to get pulled, which resulted in my parents creating the first shared savings incentive program I ever encountered: If you lose a tooth at home, you get to go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Anyway, that's not all that different than this @statnews.com First Opinion today:
If you, like me, can't offer much on football but think that a fun fact about Superbowl drug ad commercials is achievable for you at your watch party:
Chek out this week's Status Report with @alexhogan.bsky.social & Damian Garde. Learn more about the FDA rules companies are trying to skirt:
We found at least 18 of the drugs on TrumpRx have cheaper generics available ranging from potential savings of over $600 for Tikosyn to just around $2 for Diflucan. Most of the drugs are made by Pfizer.
So about TrumpRx: We crunched the numbers today and about half of the drugs on there have cheaper generics available already. www.statnews.com/2026/02/06/t...
“Katie Mettler, a former chair of the Washington Post guild, said: “I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/t...
Read more in the newsletter, and click those links to the fantastic Chemical and Engineering News stories underlying the vanilla and "natural" food dye production facts:
Reminder: Everything is chemicals, no matter if we've decided that it is "natural" or "petroleum-based," and that has no bearing on how "healthy" it is.
(Remember that petroleum is also derived from natural sources! It's from delayed plant and animal matter! Everything is chemicals!)
As STAT’s friendly neighborhood PhD chemist, I am here to remind you that everything is chemicals no matter where it comes from. “Natural” vanilla includes vanillin made from tree pulp waste, and just because a dye is “natural” doesn’t mean it’s necessarily squeezed from the teat of a beet. The FDA’s new working definition of “natural” dyes includes dyes that are manufactured via fermentation from yeast, algae, or fungi; mixed or reacted with other chemicals, or extracted from plants bred to maximize color production. —Brittany Trang
Proud of this contribution to today's Morning Rounds — and not just because I managed to get "squeezed from the teat of a beet" into the newsletter.
#chemistry #food #fda
The danger of adopting a Danish-style vax schedule: "When we remove a vaccine like the meningococcal shot from the routine schedule, we aren’t just changing a line on a chart. We are inviting previously well-controlled diseases back into our high schools & colleges." www.statnews.com/2026/02/06/d...
Note: Next week will be AI Prognosis' one-year anniversary. You won't want to miss it.
And the best way not to miss it? Sign up to get it in your inbox every Wednesday: www.statnews.com/signup/ai-pr...
Ever wanted to hear what didn't make it into a story? I talked to @mariojoze.bsky.social about what he left out of his story exploring the unanswered questions behind Doctronic's AI prescription pilot in Utah, and what he learned.
🩺🖥️
www.statnews.com/2026/02/04/u...
"Doctors nationally are describing harrowing consequences for patients who delayed seeking care or skipped it altogether..." @danielpayne.bsky.social reports on the ICE crackdown's chilling effect on immigrants seeking necessary health care. www.statnews.com/2026/02/03/i...
This is the most important story you haven't read about the Utah AI program.
@mariojoze.bsky.social has more about the law, the uncertainties, and the risks of the experiment, only @statnews.com:
🩺🖥️
“I’m befuddled why this is not a medical device and why folks believe that ‘medical device’ and ‘practice of medicine’ are mutually exclusive,” said Ateev Mehrotra, a physician and professor of health services, policy, and practice at Brown University School of Public Health.
You're tired of reading takes about Doctronic's Utah AI prescription pilot. But did you know that the company hasn't spoken to the FDA about it?
Nine policy and legal experts STAT spoke to disputed Doctronic's argument that its AI is not a medical device:
🩺🖥️
How HHS is implementing Trump AI mandates, in numbers
I take a look at the AI tools the nation's health agency is using for everything from controversial audits to helping the agency cope with layoffs & executive orders.
Full charts in the story @statnews.com:
www.statnews.com/2026/02/03/n...
Do pediatricians make large profits from vaccines? We followed the money. www.statnews.com/2026/01/29/p...
This is a targeted attack on science media.
Bhattacharya has slammed science media for what he calls biased coverage, but how are our readers — the global scientific community — supposed to understand his new agency priorities if we can't even get in the door?
ICE used facial recognition software on a MN resident who was trailing agents in her car. Three days later she received an email from DHS saying her Global Entry and TSA travel privileges had been revoked. No explanation was provided.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/t...
Even when I started grad school, armed with a #NSF GRFP like the student in the beginning of this story, finding an advisor felt like being on the Bachelor, or maybe Survivor. I can't imagine what it's like now.
From @jonathanwosen.bsky.social, who also knows this scramble firsthand:
#phdchat #stem
