‘Nursing homes are about to get a lot worse, thanks to Trump and RFK Jr.’

Sean C. Domnick at The Hill

For “years, families assumed that if a loved one lived in a nursing home, someone qualified was always watching,” says Sean C. Domnick. But “beginning Feb. 2, 2026, the federal requirement that nursing homes maintain a registered nurse on-site around the clock will no longer exist.” RNs “are the only ones with the training to identify subtle but serious declines,” and “missed diagnoses lead to preventable deaths.” This “takes us backwards at the exact moment we needed a stronger system.”

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‘On reparations for Black residents, the time for action in San Francisco is now’

Amos C. Brown at the San Francisco Chronicle

Rosa Parks “refused to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama,” because the “time for waiting for things to change was over,” says Amos C. Brown. San Francisco wants to “address discrimination and inequities that have affected the city’s Black community for generations,” but has “allocated not a penny.” An “apology without action and a fund without an allocation are not reparations.” The “time for waiting is over. The time for action has arrived.”

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‘Christmas is not a Western story — it is a Palestinian one’

Munther Isaac at Al Jazeera

Christmas traditions “have become so common that many assume, almost automatically, that Christianity is inherently a Western religion — an expression of European culture, history and identity,” but “it is not,” says Munther Isaac. Christmas has “become a performance of abundance, nostalgia and consumerism — a holiday stripped of its theological and moral core.” But the holiday is a “story of empire, injustice and the vulnerability of ordinary people caught in its path.” This “disconnect matters.”

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‘Walmart worship’

Michael Massing at The Nation

Since his “announcement in mid-November that he plans to retire early next year as the chief executive of Walmart,” Doug McMillon has been “basking in tributes,” says Michael Massing. During “his 12-year reign atop the world’s largest retailer, Walmart’s annual revenue has increased by nearly $200 billion,” but “what those numbers conceal is Walmart’s contribution to the nation’s stark economic divide.” And the “press has blithely ignored it.” This is “shareholder-driven capitalism at its most grotesque.”

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After decades of progress, more children under the age of 5 are at risk of death than in previous years. Many of these deaths are preventable, given proper funding and resources. But international cuts to health and development aid have endangered millions of lives.

A rising toll

Society made significant progress on child mortality throughout the 21st century. Between 2000 and 2020, the “number of children who die before they hit their 5th birthday dropped by half” from “nearly 10 million deaths a year to under 5 million deaths a year,” said NPR. However, by the end of 2025 approximately 4.8 million children are expected to die before they turn five, according to a report by the Gates Foundation.

This is an increase of about 200,000 from the 4.6 million deaths in 2024. “By far, the largest single cause of death is the cuts in international aid,” Mark Suzman, the CEO of the Gates Foundation, said to The Independent. “When you pull back at short notice, that has consequences, and sadly, those consequences are measured in human lives.”

Just between this year and last year, global health assistance dropped from $49 billion to about $36 billion, which is more than a 25% decline. The U.S. has led the charge on funding cuts, as it has historically been the largest contributor of global aid in the world. But the U.S. was not the only country to reduce aid. Other high-income countries, including the U.K., France and Germany, “have also been making significant cuts as priorities have shifted,” said NPR. “While some countries have stepped up,” it unfortunately “does not make up for the cuts.” If funding cuts continue, between 12 million and 16 million more children could die by 2045, per the report.

Less money, more problems

Many of these deaths are the result of preventable or treatable conditions, including malaria, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia and diarrhea. In order to prevent further deaths, it is necessary to “double down on the most effective interventions,” including building “strong primary health systems and lifesaving vaccines,” Bill Gates, the chair of the Gates Foundation, said in the study. It is also important to “prioritize innovations that stretch each and every dollar,” as well as “continue to support the development of next-generation innovations.” This includes vaccines with fewer dosage requirements and better use of data for disease intervention.

The countries most reliant on foreign aid and development assistance are “grappling with increasingly fragile health care systems and mounting debt as they try to tackle the leading causes of child mortality,” said CNN. President Donald Trump’s cuts to USAID have directly contributed to the deaths, as the U.S.’s funding for global health “remains two-thirds below where it stood in 2024,” said The Independent. If the world returned global health funding to its 2024 levels, though, “health innovations in the pipeline — like new vaccines, malaria control interventions, new maternal and neonatal care strategies — would save 12 million additional children by 2045,” said NPR.

“Over the last 25 years we’ve made incredible progress in global health, specifically for children,” Margaret Miller, a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, said to The Washington Post. “It’s really tragic that it’s now at risk.”

Multi-drug antibacterial resistance caused by the war in Ukraine is now “on the doorstep” of western Europe, according to an Australian clinician who has worked in the war-torn country.

Potentially lethal infections in Ukraine have increased 10-fold since the start of the war, Hailie Uren told Vaccines Work, and this “really frightening” level of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) there is on the march beyond its borders.

Invisible threat

Humans are “host” to over a thousand species of bacteria, including some superbugs that are “deemed critical threats”, said The New York Times. Normally, they don’t “become pathogenic in healthy people” but “war changes that”. War “deprives people of food, clean water and sanitary living conditions”, and “when bombs and bullets fly” wounds become “perforated with shrapnel, debris and soil teeming with microbes”. Even before the war, Ukraine had a high rate of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, which can spread even more easily in barracks, bomb shelters and refuge centres.

A “rising number of wounded soldiers” in Ukraine are being infected with microbes that are “extensively drug-resistant” or which “withstand most or all antibiotics thrown at them”, said Vaccines Work. Doctors and scientists in Ukraine are waging a “shadow war” against this rising tide of “pernicious infections”, which have also “begun circulating in the general population”, including children.

The Lviv region, on the “doorstep” of the European Union, has “some of the highest multi-drug resistance levels” in all of Ukraine.

In Estonia, drug-resistant pathogens are already being “brought in” by Ukrainian refugees, said ERR News.

Pernicious threat

A “growing body of research” suggests that the “21st-century way of warfare has become a major driver” of AMR, particularly in the Middle East, said The New York Times. In Syria, “protracted” fighting has “exacerbated existing drivers of antimicrobial resistance and introduced new ones”, representing a “rising threat” to the country’s health system, according to a study published in Nature.

Before the Second World War and the “advent of antibiotics, infections routinely killed more soldiers than combat itself”, said the Financial Times. Today, AMR has become a “different and arguably more pernicious kind of threat” and one that “could continue to claim lives long after conflict is over”.

Last year, England’s former chief medical officer warned that the rise of superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics poses a greater threat to humanity than climate change. A paper published in The Lancet last September estimated that AMR could contribute to the deaths of 8.22 million people per year by 2050 – more than the number currently killed by cancer.

‘Donald Trump’s reaction to Rob Reiner’s death is vile, even for him’

Bruce Arthur at the Toronto Star

It “feels like a sin to make the death of Rob Reiner about something other than Rob Reiner,” but we “live in a world dominated to an unreasonable degree by Donald Trump, and the American president’s reaction was vile, even for him,” says Bruce Arthur. The “death of Rob Reiner, at age 78, was a tragedy,” but Trump “blamed Reiner for his horrendous, awful death” in a “celestial level of narcissism, and another implicit call to political violence.”

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‘The West needs to open its eyes to honor killing’

Kevin Cohen at The Wall Street Journal

There is a “blind spot in Western risk-assessment frameworks,” says Kevin Cohen. Domestic violence “models assume gradual escalation and individual actors,” but “violence can erupt suddenly, collectively and in response to one perceived moral transgression.” When “Western institutions misread these signals, even a well-designed system can fail when it’s needed most.” When a “young woman’s autonomy conflicts with an inherited code of obedience, geography alone doesn’t prevent violence.” These “patterns endure” in “several countries.”

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‘Nigeria must not become America’s next battlefield’

Tafi Mhaka at Al Jazeera

There is a “pattern that has become increasingly familiar across northern Nigeria: mass kidnapping for ransom, striking opportunistically rather than along religious lines,” says Tafi Mhaka. But “with a few lines of incendiary rhetoric, a country grappling with criminal insecurity and institutional collapse is recast as a front line in a civilizational struggle.” Once “framed that way, Nigeria is no longer a society in need of protection and repair, but a battlefield-in-waiting.” That “shift matters.”

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‘They power the US economy, but will struggle to afford health care’

Elizabeth Aguilera at Capital & Main

The loss of enhanced tax credits will be “especially tough for the millions of small business owners and self-employed workers across the U.S.,” says Elizabeth Aguilera. The “consequences will ripple through communities and we all stand to lose,” as “small business owners are the country’s biggest job creators and power local economies.” They “preserve neighborhood culture, prepare our food, care for our children, create entertainment and build community,” but “now face choosing between health care and their livelihoods.”

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There may soon be a new way to limit deaths caused by fentanyl. A preventative vaccine for fentanyl exposure is set to begin human trials and could change the landscape of drug overdoses in the U.S.

A stab at a solution

Exposure to even small amounts of the synthetic opioid fentanyl can be deadly, and action to stop an overdose can only happen after the drug has been consumed. But ARMR Sciences, a New York-based biotechnology company, may have designed a vaccine to counteract fentanyl overdose. “It became very apparent to me that as I assessed the treatment landscape, everything that exists is reactionary,” Collin Gage, the cofounder and CEO of ARMR Sciences, said to Wired. “I thought, why are we not preventing this?”

The new vaccine works differently from naloxone, which is currently used to reverse the effects of drug overdoses. Instead, the vaccine is “similar to a suit of armor,” said The Independent. “Receiving it first will, in theory, protect an individual from danger if they encounter fentanyl.” The shot “pairs a fentanyl-like compound with a deactivated diphtheria protein that kicks the immune system into high gear,” said The Tech Buzz. “When antibodies latch onto fentanyl, they make the drug molecules too large to cross the blood-brain barrier.”

Because the drug would not reach the brain, the vaccine would “prevent the drug from causing respiratory failure and death,” as well as “prevent the extreme highs that come from using fentanyl,” said The Independent. If effective, the vaccine will offer protection for approximately a year.

ARMR Sciences is launching a human trial of the vaccine in the Netherlands next year using 40 healthy adults. It will be conducted in two phases. In the first, volunteers will “receive a series of two shots in varying doses, and researchers will measure their blood antibody levels,” said Wired. In the second, a “small group of participants will receive a medical dose of fentanyl so that investigators can study how well the vaccine blocks its effects.”

A point of contention

This is not the first attempt at an opioid vaccine. One was proposed in the 1970s as a way to combat heroin overdoses. However, that vaccine largely failed, and the research was abandoned. The recent opioid crisis “led to a resurgence of interest, with backing from the U.S. government,” said Wired. In 2023, researchers developed an anti-fentanyl vaccine that worked positively on rats, according to a study published in the journal Pharmaceutics. The ARMR Sciences vaccine is based on this previous vaccine iteration.

Fentanyl is the number one cause of overdose deaths in the U.S., accounting for just over 48,000 deaths in 2024, according to the CDC. Most exposure is accidental, with the synthetic opioid being added to other substances. A vaccine could help the most vulnerable populations, including adolescents and teens, but many are concerned about the safety and effectiveness.

When parents were asked about whether they would get their kids a potential fentanyl vaccine, many were worried it might “interfere with the brain’s natural ‘pleasure and reward’ center and negatively impact mood or the developing adolescent brain,” said a study published in the journal Vaccine. However, “parents who had lost kids to overdose were especially enthusiastic,” Elissa Weitzman, the director of research for Boston Children’s Division of Addiction Medicine and lead author of the study, said in a statement.

Even if an effective vaccine is made available, it will not end the opioid epidemic or stop people from seeking out the drugs. But it could save some lives. “What we’re trying to do is put some innovation and new, newfound technology behind this problem,” Gage said. “I think we’re in desperate need of it.”

“A seismic shift in the nation’s approach to public health occurred,” said Leana S. Wen in The Washington Post, and American children will suffer for it. Since 1991, the Centers for Disease Control has recommended all babies be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a virus that attacks the liver. About 90% of infected babies develop the chronic version of the disease, which often culminates in fatal liver cancer. Under the CDC’s “universal birth dose” policy, mercifully, pediatric cases of hepatitis B have fallen from 18,000 in 1991 to only 20 a year now. But the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices—packed with anti-vax allies of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—voted 8-3 to undo this miracle of public health. If acting agency director Jim O’Neill accepts the panel’s decision, the CDC will recommend that only the babies of mothers who test positive for hepatitis B be vaccinated at birth. Those who test negative will be advised to talk with their doctors about “when or if” to vaccinate and will have to wait two months to start the three-dose regimen. “Why change a policy that has been so effective?” Because Kennedy and his allies share a gut feeling, unsupported by science, that vaccines are not “lifesaving tools” but rather “a source of harm.”

Kennedy has claimed that hepatitis B is spread only through sexual activity and needle sharing, said Jonathan Cohn in The Bulwark. If true, that would obviously reduce the urgency of vaccinating newborns...but it’s not true. This highly contagious virus can survive up to a week on surfaces, and infants contract it by sharing toys or utensils with infected family members. Other critics of the current CDC guidelines, including members of the panel, also cite the example of Denmark, which recommends vaccination at birth only for babies of infected mothers. But unlike the U.S. (population 340 million), Denmark (population 6 million) has a “well-tended universal health care system” that can identify those infected mothers before they give birth. 

Expect to hear more about Denmark, said Lauren Gardner in Politico. After the vote, Trump ordered Kennedy to review “best practices” in “peer, developed countries” and to update the U.S. vaccine schedule accordingly. No prizes for guessing what this review will conclude, said Tom Bartlett in The Atlantic. Among the supposed experts who presented to the panel last week was Kennedy ally Aaron Siri, a lawyer who has petitioned the government to stop distributing the polio vaccine. “He used his time to spell out his doubts about the childhood-vaccine schedule.” And the panel has other ways to weaken childhood vaccinations: Its chair said it will examine the aluminum salts added to many vaccines to trigger a stronger immune response. The amount of aluminum in shots is paltry, less than what naturally occurs in breast milk, and a ban would “upend childhood immunization in the U.S.” But that, of course, is what Kennedy and his “allies have wanted all along.” 

It isn’t just children, said Dylan Scott in Vox. The CDC has already “walked back” its recommendation that most adults get Covid shots, and the FDA announced this week it was investigating “deaths potentially related to Covid vaccines.” Is there evidence of such deaths? Not that the FDA has shared. But evidence hardly matters to people whose goal is the dismantling of medical science. Maybe a surge in pediatric hepatitis cases will spark a backlash and end this nightmare. For now though, “America’s vaccine playbook is being rewritten by people who don’t believe in them.” 

‘I lost my friend to cancer. EPA rollbacks make more losses inevitable.’

Cynthia Palmer at Time

Stripping the Environmental Protection Agency of the “legal basis for controlling climate pollution would put floods, fires, and hurricanes on steroids,” says Cynthia Palmer. Many “chemical disasters last for years or decades, and can end in cancers and other serious illnesses.” These “moves would usher in a future of chemical leaks, explosions, and fires, melting pipelines, and other chemical disasters,” and it “takes only tiny amounts of these super-toxic chemicals to trigger life-altering and sometimes life-ending conditions.”

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‘The ambition gap is growing’

Beth Kowitt at Bloomberg

A “new study looking at the state of female white-collar workers confirms something many women have been feeling in their bones lately: the corporate ladder is not designed for them,” says Beth Kowitt. Women are “still just as motivated and committed to their work as their male counterparts,” but in the “last year, the workplace has become a more hostile place for women — not that it ever particularly embraced them.” It is “relentless and crazymaking.”

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‘Two barge failures, one outdated law’

Colin Grabow at Newsweek

A “barge carrying almost 200 containers from Florida to Puerto Rico ran aground recently,” and these “incidents expose a deeper and preventable weakness: vital U.S. supply chains have become overly dependent on slow, weather-sensitive barges rather than modern self-propelled ships,” says Colin Grabow. These “mishaps are symptoms of a supply-chain strategy warped by a century-old law that makes the most efficient vessels unaffordable.” America’s “supply chains are too important to be left tethered” to “outdated maritime policy.”

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‘Doctor shortage has RFK Jr. facing music of anti-vaccine noise’

Morgan Goheen at USA Today

The Trump administration “does not value infectious disease experts,” and “these attacks are coming at a time when the health care community is facing a huge infectious disease physician shortage,” says Morgan Goheen. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is “about to face the consequences of his rhetoric, and members of the general public will be casualties.” The “declines in the infectious disease training pipeline are going to have a devastating impact on our workforce.”

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Cases of the new “subclade K” super-flu are “ballooning” in the UK, said NHS England. Its latest figures show that the number of flu patients admitted to hospital is up 50% on the same period last year, and an “incredible” 10 times higher than in 2023.

This “troublesome mutant” flu virus is a variant of influenza A H3N2, said London’s The Standard. And H3N2 generally tends to cause more severe illness and hospital admissions than influenza A H1N1, which has been more dominant in the UK in recent years. Subclade K of H3N2 is now the predominant flu virus in the UK and Japan, and samples taken in the US and Canada seem to show a similar trend.

What exactly is subclade K?

It’s part of the H3N2 flu virus “family” but it has undergone several mutations that have caused a distinct “genetic drift”. This means it’s “differentiated” from the reference strain of H3N2 chosen for use in this season’s flu vaccine – and could have “changed sufficiently to escape the immunity that has been built up from previous infections and vaccinations”, said Antonia Ho, a consultant in infectious diseases at the University of Glasgow, on VaccinesWork.

“The good news” is that, this subclade K variant “does not seem to be more virulent or cause more severe disease” than other H3N2 strains, said microbiologist Ignacio López-Goñi on The Conversation.

So why the rise in cases?

H3N2 flu waves are “always hotter and nastier” than those caused by other strains, said The Telegraph’s science correspondent Joe Pinkstone. H3N2 is “inherently more severe and infectious than other types of flu, owing to more potent genes and a bigger ‘R rate’ – the number of people one infected person will pass the virus on to, on average”.

And then, as subclade K of H3N2 is different from previous strains and from the strain in the flu vaccine, people may be more “susceptible” to it, Giuseppe Aragona, a GP and medical adviser for an online pharmacy, told The Independent. In other words, our herd immunity and the NHS vaccine may offer us less protection than usual against this new flu strain.

Other factors that have contributed to the spike in UK cases include the flu season starting earlier this year, giving the virus more time to spread, and the fact that “fewer people have been exposed to flu in recent years, especially children, which leaves more people vulnerable”.

What should you do?

NHS bosses, warning of “a tidal wave of flu” in the run-up to Christmas, are encouraging everyone who is eligible to get the free NHS flu vaccine – including children (who can take it in the form of a nasal spray). You can also pay to get the vaccine privately at most pharmacies.

Data published by the UK Health Security Agency shows that the current vaccine is 70%-75% effective at preventing hospital attendance in children aged two to 17 years, and 30%-40% in adults. However well-matched to subclave K of H3N2 or not, it’s still “the best form of defence”, said Thomas Waite, UKHSA deputy chief medical officer.

There are three times as many people hospitalised with flu in London than at this time last year, said NHS England – and yet fewer than half of Londoners who are eligible for the flu vaccine have taken it up.

Using popular weight-loss drugs like Ozempic during pregnancy is not recommended. But stopping the medications just before conception or in the early stages of pregnancy may come with some risks, according to a new study. And without further research, say experts, the data paints a complicated picture of the relationship between GLP-1s and pregnancy.

What did the study find?

Discontinuing GLP-1s before or during pregnancy is associated with more gestational weight gain when compared to not taking them, according to the observational study published in JAMA. It also results in a higher risk of preterm delivery, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, and gestational diabetes, which is linked to a greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes later in life.

Researchers from Boston’s Mass General Brigham reviewed medical records from almost 150,000 pregnancies between June 2016 and March 2025. Among the 448 who had taken GLP-1s, 65% were more likely to gain more weight than recommended during pregnancy, compared with 49% of 1,344 pregnancies that did not take GLP-1s.

But the analysis has “key limitations,” said Live Science. Women who did and did not take the drugs “may not have been completely comparable,” and the study was “not designed to capture potential benefits of taking Ozempic or a similar drug before pregnancy.”

Due to the documented weight gain associated with discontinuing the drugs outside of pregnancy, the increases shown in the study are not surprising, pediatric endocrinologist and lead study author Jacqueline Maya said to Medscape Medical News. The team was “reassured that there were no changes in infant birth weight,” but they were “concerned that there were increases in the risk of obstetric outcomes,” said Maya. Still, given the limitations of observational studies, they could not determine whether stopping the medications directly caused the adverse outcomes.

What remains unanswered?

According to Maya, the study points out potential risks that need closer monitoring and “underscores the need for new strategies to support patients during the transition off these medications,” said The Washington Post. The findings highlight critical gaps in care and can help influence future studies, clinical counseling and approaches to weight management during pregnancy.

Some experts believe the study should clarify who actually used the medication, since the study relies on medical records of people who were prescribed the drug but does not “confirm whether they took the medications,” said the Post. Another limitation noted in the study is that researchers measured the degree of obesity among the women based on their weight after GLP-1-related weight loss rather than at their initial higher weight.

This approach of comparing different cohorts of patients is “not matching apples to apples” and may underestimate the benefits of reducing obesity before pregnancy, Taraneh Soleymani, an associate professor of medicine and the director of obesity medicine at Penn State College of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, said to the Post. While safety concerns based on animal studies mean GLP-1 drugs must be stopped before pregnancy, that does not diminish the benefits they have on obesity before conception, she added.

One question that still needs to be answered is the optimal timing for discontinuing GLP-1s to ensure optimal pregnancy outcomes, said Maya to Medscape Medical News. Experts should “exclude any potential long-term impact on childhood metabolic health,” she added. These medications are known to be “beneficial for weight, blood sugar and cardiovascular health,” so the focus must be on “finding ways to support women who come off these medications for pregnancy.”

There's emerging evidence that a compound called choline could play an under-appreciated role in our health – and particularly in the functioning of our brain.

New research suggests low blood levels of choline in obese people could contribute to brain ageing and potentially trigger the kind of neurodegenerative changes that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

This study finding, along with others looking at choline’s role in preserving memory and bone health, and avoiding depression and anxiety, has led some scientists to class choline as a “wonder nutrient” that “has been hugely overlooked”, said BBC Future.

What is choline?

Choline is a nutrient that essential to our health. It’s not a vitamin or a mineral but an organic compound that’s closely related to the B-vitamin group.

We need it for “numerous functions in our bodies”, says BBC Future. These include liver function, synthesising phospholipids (key components of cell membranes), and producing acetylcholine, a brain chemical that plays a major role in memory, thinking and learning processes. Scientists have also linked good levels of choline to higher bone density and better mental health.

We produce small amounts of choline in our liver but, to get enough, we also need to consume it in food. The most common dietary sources of choline are eggs, red meat, chicken, potatoes, yoghurt, fish, leafy green vegetables, peanuts, kidney beans and mushrooms. Of these, animal-based foods tend to contain more choline than plant-based ones.

What did the recent study find?

Researchers from Arizona State University recruited 15 people with obesity, analysed key chemical levels and biomarkers in their systems and then compared them to those of 15 people of a healthy weight. The results, published in Aging and Disease, show that the people with obesity had less circulating choline, more biomarkers associated with inflammation and higher levels of blood proteins indicating neuron damage.

It is only a small study, and it didn’t prove cause and effect, but the “big picture” is that obesity, choline, and the accelerated brain ageing that could lead to dementia “could all be connected”, said Science Alert. And that means low circulating levels of choline could be an “early warning sign” of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and that maybe a “boost” in choline levels could be an effective “preventive measure”.

What about other studies? 

Low levels of choline have been identified as having “a significant link” with anxiety disorders, according to a meta-analysis published last month in Molecular Psychiatry.

University of California researchers analysed data from 25 studies and found that levels of choline were 8% lower in the brains of people with anxiety disorders. An “8% lower amount doesn’t sound like that much, but, in the brain, it’s significant”, senior author Richard Maddock told New Atlas.

Other studies have shown that people with higher choline intakes from their diets tend to have a higher bone density – “an indicator of strong, healthy bones with a lower risk of being fractured”, said BBC Future. There has also been a large study suggesting that people with a higher choline intake tend to have better memories.

How can you make sure you get enough choline?

Choline is very easily absorbed into our blood from foods containing it but there has been some research, published in the British Medical Journal, suggesting that some people aren’t getting enough.

We need about 425mg of choline a day, which is the equivalent of about three eggs or seven potatoes. Pregnant women need 450mg and breastfeeding women need 550mg. It’s “particularly important” for pregnant and lactating women to get enough choline because it “plays a key role” in building and maintaining a baby’s healthy brain, said The Telegraph.

Choline supplements are generally considered to be safe, as long as they’re made by a trusted brand and don’t contain more than the recommended daily amount. The NHS does not currently specifically recommended choline supplements during pregnancy or lactation, so if you’re expecting or breastfeeding a baby, you should always seek advice from a healthcare practitioner before taking them.

A man has been declared HIV-free, in a case that “upends our understanding of what’s required” for a cure, according to The New Scientist. He was the seventh patient found to be clear of the virus after receiving a stem cell transplant – and, significantly, the second of the seven to receive stem cells that were not actually HIV-resistant. If HIV-resistant cells aren’t necessary to destroy the virus, then scientists have greater options in their search for an effective but less risky cure.

And yet, just as medics make such leaps forward in HIV/Aids treatment, access to both preventive care and medicine for infected patients “remains far from universal”, said The Guardian. Foreign aid cuts have shaken “to its core” the “complex eco-system that sustains HIV services in dozens of low to middle-income countries”.

How close are we to a cure?

The signs are increasingly positive. In addition to the stem-cell study, research released this week highlights another of “the paths scientists are pursuing towards finding an HIV cure”, said The Washington Post. The study, published in Nature, “shows a glimmer of hope” for controlling HIV without the current daily regimen of pills. A small group of patients were given a “experimental immunotherapies” and then taken off their pills; the majority were able to keep the virus “at a low level for months” afterwards.

The standard daily antiretroviral therapy has had a “transformative” effect on managing HIV since its nadir of the 1980s. It works by preventing the virus from multiplying in the body. For many people with HIV, their “viral load” becomes so low as to be undetectable, hugely lowering the risk of them transmitting the virus to somebody else. But, although antiretrovirals can keep the disease in check, it is not a cure.

How have aid cuts impacted HIV/Aids treatment?

Multiple nations are cutting foreign aid funding, on which many lower-income countries depend to deliver health services. For 2025, “external health aid” is expected to have dropped by 30% to 40%, compared with 2023, said the World Health Organisation. “The impact of a sudden acceleration of cuts” to international HIV funding has had a “devastating” impact in the fight against the disease, said a UNAids report published, to mark World Aids Day, on 1 December.

The drop in access to PrEP, a medication that reduces the risk of getting HIV when taken by people at high risk of exposure to the virus, has been “substantial”, said the report: 2.5 million people who used PrEP in 2024 lost access to it in 2025. The number of people treated with PrEP has fallen by 64% in Burundi, 31% in Uganda and 21% in Vietnam. Such failure to meet 2030 global HIV targets could see an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.

The massive cuts to global health spending made by the US, in particular, has “disrupted HIV/Aids care in many parts of the world”, said NPR. Since Donald Trump began his second presidential term and took an “America First approach”, his administration has slashed international aid programmes. This year was the first year that the US did not formally commemorate World Aids Day.

‘America is losing scientists. Here’s one solution for that.’

Chris R. Glass at The Washington Post

America’s “scientific dominance was never inevitable,” but “policymakers grasped a crucial insight: they were investing in people, not just research,” says Chriss R. Glass. Our “advantage persists. But bureaucratic ossification now threatens it, as our global rivals pick off the best and brightest that we have trained but can’t retain — unless we change our visa system.” America’s “policy assumes that top researchers will endure any visa lottery or processing delay to stay in the U.S. That assumption is obsolete.”

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‘Pharmacy deserts make staying healthy harder’

The Boston Globe editorial board

Pharmacy closures “reflect changes in purchasing patterns, as more people turn toward mail-order prescriptions,” says The Boston Globe editorial board. But having a “physical pharmacy nearby provides health care access that mail order can’t always duplicate.” One “way to prevent closures is through payment reform to ensure that insurers compensate pharmacists — regardless of whether they are independent or part of a chain — a fair amount for dispensing drugs.” But “payment reform can’t be the only solution.”

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‘Europe needs a plan for decoupling from America’

Martin Sandbu at the Financial Times

Europeans are “facing the choice between being in control of their own affairs, and their long-standing partnership with the U.S.,” says Martin Sandbu. President Donald Trump has “tried to bounce Ukraine into conceding to Russian demands for the sake of a superficial and unjust peace,” while the “Europeans have scrambled to change the U.S. president’s mind on something they rightly see as existential. How many more lessons do they need to conclude that the transatlantic relationship is over?”

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‘The only sensible answer to Netanyahu’s pardon request: a resounding “no”’

Haaretz editorial board

The “pardon request that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu submitted to President Isaac Herzog stands out for its chutzpah,” says the Haaretz editorial board. Netanyahu “isn't willing to admit anything, and he doesn't accept responsibility for anything.” Even “while he is asking the president to pardon him, he continues to imply that the cases against him were fabricated and to depict the law enforcement system as criminal.” Netanyahu “seeks to exploit the institution of the pardon to abolish justice.”

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In line with his claim that there could be a link between vaccines (and other medications) and autism, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has turned his attention to a class of drugs he believes could be linked to acts of mass violence. He intends to study antidepressant medications, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

Why is Kennedy scrutinizing antidepressants?

In November, Kennedy said that he would direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the “long-taboo question of whether SSRIs and other psychoactive drugs contribute to mass violence,” in a post on X. It was not the first time he insinuated a connection between antidepressants and violence. In late August, following a mass shooting at a school in Minnesota that led to the death of two students and dozens of injuries, Kennedy evoked this purported link. He promised to launch studies on the “potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs, and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence,” he said on Fox News. He also made similar claims during a conference announcing his “Make America Healthy Again” report on children, saying the National Institutes of Health would oversee the planned research.

Health officials have “long monitored the side effects of such drugs, which millions of people use,” said Politifact. While new research could supply fresh findings, “existing data points don’t reflect that SSRIs cause mass violence.”

The idea that psychiatric medications can “set off mass shooters certainly isn’t new,” said Gizmodo. While Kennedy has claimed “scientists are afraid to study the topic,” several studies have “tried to look for a possible association between the use of these drugs and mass violence.” While none of the existing data support a causative link between the drugs and violence, suicidal ideation does appear to be a “substantial mental health factor.”

That could explain why some research has found a potential link between antidepressant use and violence in general, said Ragy Girgis, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, to Gizmodo. They find a close relationship because “people who are suicidal or violent also have much worse depression.” People with worse depression are “more likely to be treated with antidepressant medications,” Girgis said. “But it’s not causative.”

What do experts think of RFK Jr.’s claims?

SSRIs are “generally safe and effective medications,” and there is “no overwhelming evidence that these drugs alone would cause patients who are taking them to commit acts of violence,” said Gregory Scott Brown, the chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Communications, to Gizmodo. The California State Association of Psychiatrists issued a rebuttal of RFK Jr.’s attempt to link SSRIs to mass shootings after he made remarks in September. “This is simply not true,” the CSAP said in a statement. What’s most worrying is that “such statements can scare people away from getting the care they need and deserve.”

Sensationalism may lead people to try to blame SSRIs for mass shootings, Girgis said to Gizmodo. Reports of shooters taking psychiatric medication “tend to make the event more of a headline and more attention-grabbing.” That’s “one reason there’s this attention bias to it.”

Equating SSRI users with violence risks unnecessarily stigmatizing mental health conditions, said Keith Humphreys, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, to Axios. There are “depressed people, people with schizophrenia, anxious people in every other country,” but they cannot “get guns as easily as you can get them here,” he said. It’s a “distraction from the real issue.”

A small but growing number of pregnant women are choosing to give birth without any assistance from a midwife or doctor, trusting instead in influencers’ tales of the “euphoria” of a “free birth”.

A year-long investigation into the Free Birth Society by The Guardian has uncovered a multimillion-pound organisation that encourages pregnant women to give birth alone or only with a doula (a non-medical birth companion) – sometimes with dangerous or deadly results.

What is the Free Birth Society?

Founded by former doula Emilee Saldaya, the FBS promotes an “extreme” version of home birth that dispenses with all medical support, said The Guardian. Calling itself a “birth liberation movement”, it presents “free births” to expectant mothers as “returning something sacred that had been stolen from them”. It talks of the “violence” of modern obstetrics, “downplays” serious pregnancy complications and even advises expectant mothers to avoid all prenatal checks and care, including ultrasound scans, which it falsely claims can harm unborn babies.

Most women find out about the FBS through its popular podcast, its Instagram account or its YouTube channel (which has nearly 25 million views). A bestselling video course called “The Complete Guide to Freebirth”, co-created by Saldaya and fellow ex-doula Yolande Norris-Clarke, can be downloaded from the “slick” company website. Saldaya – who, like Norris-Clarke, is not a midwife and has no medical qualifications – has become the “apex influencer of the freebirth world”, appearing in glossy marketing materials “half-naked”, wearing a crown and “posing in a meadow”.

How common are free births?

Free births are not usual but “they are increasing across the UK”, according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Several NHS trusts were reporting it as a “growing trend” in 2023 and 2024, said The Health Services Journal, with “several” in their area each year.

No official figures are collected on free births but the percentage of UK home births (which includes free births) has increased from to 2.1% in 2016-19 to 2.5% in 2021 (the most recent available figures) – that’s about 17,400 births. Around 6% of queries received by the AIMS birth charity in 2023 were about free births, said The Health Services Journal – before then, it only “a handful a year”.

Amid multiple recent NHS maternity care scandals, interest in free births has risen as “women lose trust in professional maternity services”, Soo Downe, a midwife and professor at the University of Lancashire, told The Guardian. Some will already have experienced trauma or inadequate maternity care during a previous birth. The suspension of home birth services during the pandemic may also have encouraged some, determined to avoid giving birth in hospital, to opt for a free birth.

What do the medical professionals say?

During its investigation, The Guardian identified 48 cases of late-term stillbirths, neonatal deaths or other forms of “serious harm” involving births that appeared to be linked to the FBS. In 18 of those cases, evidence has emerged to show that “FBS played a significant role in the mother or birth attendant’s decision-making, leading to potentially avoidable tragedies”.

When free births go wrong, it is “impossible to say whether the outcome would have been different with medical support” but experts who reviewed the FBS material concluded that the content was “medically illiterate, misleading or dangerous”, said the paper in a follow-up report.

One of the factors that worries obstetric experts most about free births is the rejection of antenatal care. This can mean that “risk factors, such as twins and breech presentations (the baby presenting bottom first) aren’t detected beforehand”, said Hannah Dahlen, a professor of midwifery, on The Conversation. This can lead to unforeseen complications during the birth and, even if a doula is present, they “don’t have the training, regulation or medical equipment and skills needed to manage emergencies”.

A senior obstetrician told the BBC’s health correspondent she was “terrified” by the idea of women giving birth “in medically unsupervised environments” without a midwife. “I think it’s reversing back to the Middle Ages.”

But Saldaya is defiant in her defence of free birth. Following publication of The Guardian’s investigation, she posted a message to her 133,000 Instagram followers: “They will try to discredit you. They will lie about you. They will attempt to silence what they don’t understand.”

Playing calming instrumental music during surgery can help patients recover more quickly, according to a new study.

“Music seemed to quieten the internal storm”, according to researchers who tested 56 people, said the BBC, and the results “could reshape how hospitals think about surgical wellbeing”.

Lower stress

Experts at the Lok Nayak Hospital and Maulana Azad Medical College in India studied patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgery, the standard keyhole operation to remove the gallbladder.

Patients undergoing this procedure are generally given the anaesthetic propofol, which brings on a loss of consciousness within seconds and produces a swifter and more clear-headed awakening.

All 56 patients were given the same anaesthetic regimen and all wore noise-cancelling headphones, but only one group listened to music. The patients who listened to music required substantially less propofol – on average, 6.7mg per kg of body weight per hour compared with 7.86mg for the control group.

There were further positive outcomes for the music-listening group. They also required fewer additional doses of fentanyl, the opioid painkiller used to control spikes in blood pressure or heart rate during surgery.

“Crucially, the physiological stress response to surgery”, which is measured through serum cortisol, the level of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood, was “markedly lower” in patients listening to music, said The Independent.

Humming truth

Using music therapy during medical treatment is “not new”, said the website – it’s long been used to reduce stress, anxiety and pain before and after various procedures, including in cancer care, mental health, palliative care, physiotherapy, and post-operative recovery.

Medics aim for “early discharge after surgery”, Dr Farah Husain, senior specialist in anaesthesia and certified music therapist for the Indian study, told the BBC. “Patients need to wake up clear-headed, alert and oriented, and ideally pain-free,” and music could soon be used for this end in hospitals around the world.

The research team is preparing a further study which will build on the earlier findings, but “one truth is already humming through the data”, said the broadcaster: “even when the body is still and the mind asleep, it appears a few gentle notes can help the healing begin”.

The Department of Education’s decision to exclude several professions from being considered professional degree programs, most notably nursing, has drawn outcry from nurses and nursing groups. The declassification, which restricts funding for students seeking graduate education, is a part of the department’s implementation of various student loan-related measures. Experts and nurse advocacy groups note that the industry is already suffering from a nursing shortage.

Why will nursing be excluded?

As part of the Trump administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the Grad PLUS program, which helped graduate and professional students secure funding for educational costs, is being eliminated. The bill also creates a new Repayment Assistance Plan, under which new annual loans for new borrowers are capped at $20,500 annually for graduate-level students and $50,000 a year for professional students. Once the new measures are implemented on July 1, 2026, students enrolled in professional degree programs will be restricted to a $200,000 lifetime cap, while non-professional students will be subject to a lifetime limit of $100,000.

To clarify who had access to that money, the Department of Education determined the following programs as professional: medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, law, veterinary medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, chiropractic, theology and clinical psychology. Nurse practitioners, along with physician assistants, audiologists and physical therapists, were omitted from that list. The goal of the changes is to ensure that borrowers will not face “insurmountable debt to finance degrees that do not pay off,” said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in a statement.

What could this mean for the future of nursing?

The changes have prompted pushback from nursing professionals and organizations, who say the funding cut will negatively impact an already strained industry. The proposed cap on federal student loans is “undermining efforts to grow and sustain the nursing workforce,” the American Nurses Association (ANA) said in a press release.

Nurses are the “largest segment of the health care workforce and the backbone of our nation’s health system,” said Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, the president of the ANA. At a time when the country “faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands,” limiting access to funding for graduate education “threatens the very foundation of patient care.” For many underserved communities across the country, “advanced practice registered nurses ensure access to essential, high-quality care that would otherwise be unavailable.”

This is a “gut punch for nursing,” said Patricia Pittman, a professor of health policy and management and director of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University, to Newsweek. Education is the “single best way to retain nurses, especially in rural and underserved communities.” Symbolically, the move is also “deeply insulting to nurses who have fought so hard to be recognized for their critical contributions to health care.”

The reaction to the declassification is “fake news at its finest,” said Department of Education Press Secretary for Higher Education Ellen Keast to Newsweek. The department has had a “consistent definition of what constitutes a professional degree for decades,” and the “consensus-based language aligns with this historical precedent.” It is not surprising that “some institutions are crying wolf over regulations that never existed because their unlimited tuition ride on the taxpayer dime is over.”

What happened

The Health and Human Services Department confirmed Tuesday that Louisiana’s surgeon general, Dr. Ralph Abraham, has been hired as principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HHS “did not announce the appointment,” though Abraham’s start date was listed as last Sunday in a CDC database, The New York Times said, and “many CDC employees seemed unaware” the prominent vaccine skeptic had been named as the agency’s second-in-command.

Who said what

Abraham joins other “vaccine critics working at the CDC” under longtime “prominent anti-vaccine activist” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Washington Post said. Abraham ordered Louisiana’s health department to stop promoting vaccinations after being appointed surgeon general last year, and under his leadership the state “was slow to react” to its “worst whooping cough outbreak in three decades, waiting months to alert physicians and residents.”

With a virus like pertussis, or whooping cough, the Times said, “health departments typically quickly alert the public about outbreaks and set up mass vaccination campaigns.” A “large part of the principal deputy’s portfolio is emergency response,” Dr. Nirav Shah, who held that job until resigning earlier this year, told the Times. “Delayed notifying of the public of at least two pertussis deaths is not just unacceptable, it’s shameful.” Shah said Abraham, a family-medicine doctor and veterinarian, was “unqualified” for the position, adding that his “jaw hit the ground” when he learned of the appointment.

What next?

The CDC has been without a permanent director since Kennedy fired Susan Monarez in August over vaccine policy disagreements, so Abraham will “essentially be running the agency,” the Post said.

‘Attempts to demonize the Taj Mahal damage more than history’

Rana Ayyub at The Washington Post

For “much of the world, the Taj Mahal is a place of wonder,” but the “Taj has also become a contested site, targeted by those determined to recast India’s pluralist history,” says Rana Ayyub. The “symbol of love is now a flash point in India’s historical antagonism between Hindus and minority Muslims.” The Taj Mahal is “part of the world’s shared cultural heritage.” Attempts to “demonize it do not merely distort history; they damage India’s international reputation.”

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‘It’s getting harder for governors to run for president’

David M. Drucker at Bloomberg

Governors have “proven incapable of weathering the intense public scrutiny and navigating the media barrage of gotcha questions that accompany running for president,” says David M. Drucker. They “might enjoy the freedom to maneuver, politically and legislatively, without the biblical flood of questions from reporters.” But it’s “cost them valuable experience dealing with pressure from an often-hostile media that picks apart every nook and cranny of a candidate’s personal life, political service and private-sector career.”

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‘Federal funding cuts hinder lifesaving brain research’

Michelle Heritage at USA Today

Americans should “support brain research, however you can, and resist efforts to undermine or stop it,” says Michelle Heritage. But “funding suspensions and cuts at the National Institutes of Health, the global powerhouse of medical research, have introduced chaos into a field that thrives on stability.” Cutbacks to “research mean thousands of real patients are losing their chance at treatments, and millions more will have hope of a cure or treatment delayed or quashed entirely.”

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‘Trump’s terrorist designation of Muslim Brotherhood sends right message’

National Review editorial board

The “Trump administration has announced a plan to designate various subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations,” a “welcome development that conveys the right message about the organization,” says the National Review editorial board. A “sweeping designation of the Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization could significantly interfere in relations between our government and cooperative Muslim regimes,” but “ignoring the Brotherhood would fail to recognize the menace it represents and impede enforcement actions.”

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More deaths can likely be attributed to opioids than previously thought, and that is largely thanks to a substance called nitazene. The synthetic drug can be five to nine times stronger than fentanyl, which is already approximately 25 to 50 times stronger than heroin. Nitazene is often hidden in other products and difficult to test for, so it often goes undetected.

How prevalent is nitazene?

Nitazene was first developed in the 1950s as an analgesic, but was never approved for medical use. Instead, it was “limited to those researching opioid pharmacology,” said Rolling Stone. Nitazene’s presence mostly remained that way until 2019, when the drug emerged on the street market in Europe and the U.S. From there, its presence accelerated. In 2023, 20 different nitazenes were reported by 28 countries to the UN, according to the World Drug Report 2025. Then in 2024, “more new nitazenes than new fentanyl analogs were being reported,” accounting for “almost 50% of all reported opioid NPS (novel psychoactive substances).”

In the U.S., 320 overdose deaths in 2023 reportedly involved nitazenes, according to the World Drug Report. However, this number is likely understated. The country still mostly “relies on toxicology panels built for yesterday’s drug supply,” said Time. The antiquated panels can “reliably identify heroin, oxycodone and fentanyl,” but they “fail to catch nitazenes, brorphine or other new synthetic analogs.” Without proper identification, “policymakers and public health professionals chase outdated trends.” A “person who dies with both cocaine and a nitazene in their system might still be coded as a ‘cocaine death.’”

Fentanyl is still considered the number one cause of opioid deaths, accounting for 48,422 deaths in the U.S. in 2024. But there have been “reported signs of a declining fentanyl market” within the country, with “declining purity and a smaller number of seizures of fentanyl pills.” The rise in nitazenes “may be a response to efforts to reduce the supply of other opioids,” said Ryan Marino, a toxicologist and expert in addiction medicine at University Hospitals in Cleveland, to Rolling Stone. “In almost every case where nitazenes are found, they are added to other drugs, primarily fentanyl, and not advertised as containing nitazenes when sold.”

How dangerous is it?

Even very small doses of nitazene can be deadly. The lethality of fentanyl is “anywhere between 10 and 20 grains of salt,” said Frank Tarentino, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York lab, to CBS News. With nitazene, “we're talking about anywhere from one grain or less.” Much of the exposure to nitazene comes inadvertently. It has been found in “vapes sold as containing cannabis, in pills shaped as teddy bears supposed to be MDMA, in powder trafficked as cocaine, in counterfeit pain medication,” said The Guardian.

Synthetic opioids are so dangerous that first responders have to avoid inhalation when addressing an overdose situation. The drugs “slow down the part of your brain that tells you to breathe,” said Dimitri Gerostamoulos, an associate professor and the chief toxicologist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, to The Guardian. “This is what causes respiratory depression. We sometimes refer to this as the ‘sleepy death.'” It can also cause paralysis and seizures. Luckily, nitazene is an “opioid, and naloxone blocks opioids,” said Chinazo Cunningham, the commissioner of the New York State Office of Addiction, Services and Supports, to CBS News. “If it's a very powerful opioid, it may take a couple of doses.”

“Maybe in 20 years, every one-year-old will have a beauty routine,” said Ally Nelson, host of the “UnTrivial” wellness podcast. She was “joking, mostly”, said The New York Times. But, in the same week, social media went into meltdown when “Pretty Little Liars” actor Shay Mitchell launched Rini, a new skincare line for children aged three and up.

‘Pernicious’ strategy

The Rini website features “pictures of poreless children” who looked 10 years old or younger, “beaming from behind jelly-like face masks”, said the NYT. Skincare lines for “pre-teens” and younger “have become a robust product category” – and “a battlefield for parents and critics”.

A “growing list” of companies sell skin products for pre-teens that are packaged to “look like candy dispensers” and are marketed with “soothing assurances about gentle, dermatologist-approved ingredients”. The advertising works: in the US, households with children between the ages of seven and 12 spent almost $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) on skincare last year, according to Nielsen IQ consumer research.

The brands say their tween-orientated wares are “safer alternatives to adult products that can damage sensitive, prepubescent skin”. But some critics see “something more pernicious”: a strategy to “hook children on unnecessary products, laying the groundwork for ever-earlier anxieties about their appearance”.

Children’s growing interest in beauty products already has a “catch-all” name: “Sephora kids”, after the beauty store chain, said The Guardian. Shop-floor employees say young children are “filling shopping baskets to the brim with testers” while their parents are “elsewhere in the store”.

‘Overblown’ reaction

“In the rage-bait frenzy” that followed the Rini launch, the line’s “mission statement” was “missed”, said Ariana Yaptangco in Glamour. It’s “play skincare”. The products are “similar to the play make-up I used as a child”, and probably an improvement on “Claire’s palettes made with god-knows-what ingredients that I happily smeared onto my entire face and body”.

The “uproar” against Rini is “misplaced at best and overblown at worst”. It’s not about whether a skincare routine for tweens is “necessary” or not, but rather about children being “able to experiment with products responsibly and safely”. There are “many things to be upset over in this world” but kids using a £4.50 “panda-shaped face mask is not one of them”.

That said, the day after Nelson’s quip about one-year-olds, the podcast host said she came across a Fisher-Price teething set that included a toy face mask and a rattle shaped like a wrinkle-smoothing jade roller.

Experts warn that flu season, which typically runs from October to May in the U.S., is slated to be worse than usual this year because of a new subvariant of the virus called H3N2 subclade K. This version is not reflected in the flu vaccine, which will likely lead to more cases and hospitalizations. The subvariant can cause similar symptoms to other flu viruses, including a sore throat, runny nose, muscle aches and fever.

‘Rapidly spreading’

Subclade K first appeared in June, four months after the makeup of this year’s flu shots had already been decided. The subvariant likely emerged while “circulating in the Southern Hemisphere,” where it “picked up seven new mutations,” said Forbes. Australia has had the “worst flu for seven years,” said Dr. Hilary Jones to The Independent. “What tends to happen there in their winter tends to follow here.”

There has already been an increase in hospitalizations for the flu in the U.K. and Canada, as flu season got off to an early start. The virus strain is “rapidly spreading and predominating in some countries so far in the Northern Hemisphere,” said Dr. Wenqing Zhang, the head of the World Health Organization’s Global Respiratory Threats Unit, during a media briefing. In the U.S., “seasonal influenza activity remains low nationally but is increasing,” said the CDC.

Unfortunately, there is not much data in the U.S. regarding cases of subclade K, largely because of the government shutdown. Even now that the government has reopened, the “hollowing out” of the CDC through layoffs could continue to delay data collection, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, to NBC News.

A ‘very bad season’

Because of its various mutations, the “H3N2 strain that’s in the flu vaccine this year may not match this subclade K very well,” said Forbes. Instead, the level of protection of the vaccine is closer to what experts usually “expect to see at the end of a flu season,” after the virus has had time to mutate, said Time. This year’s vaccine will recognize J versions of the flu virus; however, “since the circulating H2N2 strains have basically rolled over to subclade K version, your immune protection from the vaccine may not recognize the new H3N2 as well,” said Forbes.

As a result, this could be a “very bad season” for the flu, said Jones to The Independent. An earlier flu season with a new subvariant could lead to higher infection rates and more cases resulting in hospitalization. This could “overwhelm clinics, emergency rooms and hospitals, impeding the care of other health conditions,” said Forbes. Other respiratory diseases, including Covid-19, are also circulating.

‘Make your own way’

Despite the vaccine’s reduced effectiveness, it is still one of the best ways to protect yourself against the virus. Generally, the flu shot does not prevent infection but rather reduces its severity. When there’s a “good match” between the strains in the flu vaccine and what’s circulating, the vaccine can be around 60% effective, said Forbes. In seasons where there is a bad match, it can be as low as 30% effective. However, even 30% effectiveness is better than the 0% effectiveness of not getting the vaccine at all.

The flu kills thousands of people per year, and it is particularly dangerous to children, the elderly and the immunocompromised. Along with vaccination, frequent handwashing, disinfecting surfaces and staying home when presenting symptoms can help keep you and others safe. Without proper CDC reporting on the flu, “things are in disarray,” said Forbes. “That means you may have to make your own way with influenza H3N2 subclade K.”

President Trump wants to “make America slim again,” said Kara Kennedy in The Free Press. Standing beside drug execs in the Oval Office earlier this month, Trump announced deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will cut the price of their GLP-1 weight loss medicines, Zepbound and Wegovy, in return for a three-year exemption from his 100% pharmaceutical tariffs. Medicare recipients will pay a $50 monthly co-pay for the drugs, which will also be available on TrumpRx.gov—a government-run site—for $350 a month. That’s a steep discount on current list prices, which top $1,000, and will expand access to the “single most effective intervention we have against obesity,” a disease that kills up to 500,000 Americans and costs the U.S. health care system some $173 billion every year. With Trump, “it’s always hard to separate hype from substance,” said Larry Edelman in The Boston Globe, and wide coverage gaps remain. Medicare is barred from covering weight loss drugs, so patients must have a related health condition such as prediabetes or hypertension to be eligible. Still, Trump “deserves credit” for tackling the cost issue.

Lower GLP-1 prices “could benefit millions of Americans,” said The Washington Post in an editorial, but this is the wrong way to cut costs. Trump’s ultimate goal is to peg U.S. drug prices to “the lower levels seen in other developed countries.” That “might sound appealing,” except that if a government has a heavy hand in drug pricing and distribution, it can also ration who gets it. In the U.K.’s socialized system, for example, obesity meds cost under $200 a month—but “your BMI must hit 40, and you must have an additional four health conditions, to become eligible.” And it’s easy to imagine a future Democratic president using the TrumpRx precedent to force companies to adopt “their own ideological agenda.” That would be “a disaster for innovation and consumer choice.”

For Americans forced to pay out of pocket, “any price cut is welcome,” said Lisa Jarvis in Bloomberg. And getting Medicare to cover obesity drugs, even in a limited way, “is a positive step toward acknowledging and treating obesity as a disease,” not a lifestyle choice. But even $149 a month, the advertised price for a starting dose of a still-in-development GLP-1 pill on TrumpRx, will be too big a burden for the many Americans “struggling to afford groceries.” For now, it’s too early to tell whether this deal “will actually change people’s lives” or whether the balance of benefits will ultimately favor Big Pharma or patients and taxpayers.

Beans are “having a moment”, said Andrew Ellson in The Times. “Small, dry and often flavourless”, the humble legume has never been particularly “glamorous” – but its fortunes have changed of late.

Major supermarkets have seen “soaring” demand, with Waitrose’s canned beans sales up 122% year-on-year.

A major “culprit” for the bean renaissance is newcomer to the market, Bold Bean Co, said Charlotte McCaughan-Hawes in House & Garden. The brand’s butter beans are “fat, creamy, wonderful nuggets of joy”: it’s no surprise the company has amassed a dedicated online following.

Beans are certainly making “waves” among foodies, and it’s clear the enthusiasm is “here to stay”. There are so many benefits to integrating beans into your diet: “they’re a healthy source of protein for anyone trying to cut out meat”, low in fat, high in minerals and a “very sustainable” food source.

But “versatility” is what really makes beans stand out. On the one hand, they can be “an excellent foil for fatty meats like hunks of pork or as a purée with lamb”, but they also make a good pasta substitute. You can happily “chop and change” ingredients based on what’s in the fridge – “there is, simply, no right way to cook a bean dish and the fun, for me at least, has been in the process”.

The simplest recipes can pack the biggest punch, and charred tomato beans are as simple as they sound. Easy to fix in a rush, just add stock and pan-softened tomatoes with chilli and garlic to a tin of beans for a “hot, tasty, nourishing bowl of food on the table in 15 minutes”.

The nutritional value doesn’t just help us: growing beans alongside other crops can be brilliant for the environment. Many beans are “nitrogen fixers”, converting nitrogen from the atmosphere into the ground, which ends up making the soil “more fertile for other crops”, food writer Eleanor Maidment told The Guardian.

Beans can quickly become the “bedrock” of your cooking, Jenny Chandler, author of "Super Pulses”, told the publication. “Salads, soups, purées, curries, stews and even puddings” can be heightened by the addition of legumes.

Best of all, they are faff free. There is a common misconception that pulses have to stew for hours: this is simply not the case. Don’t be “put off by the idea that you have to soak dried pulses in advance”, said Maidment. “I am rarely organised enough to do so, but thankfully there’s a huge range of jarred and canned varieties that require no prep and are hugely convenient.”

Many in the U.S. are not living long enough to receive Medicare health — especially marginalized communities. The disparity between those who pay into the benefit and those who live to use it is growing and also highlighting the inequality central to the health care system.

Pay to not play

Premature mortality increased in adults aged 18 to 64 by 27.2% between 2012 and 2022, according to a study published in JAMA Health Forum. The increase was 10% higher in Black adults compared to white adults. In addition, “states such as West Virginia, New Mexico and Mississippi had the nation’s highest premature-mortality rates, while Massachusetts and Minnesota fared best,” said The Washington Post.

The new study builds on previous findings regarding life expectancy in the U.S. Between 2009 and 2021, “avoidable mortality increased in all U.S. states, primarily due to increases in preventable deaths, while it decreased in comparable high-income countries,” said a March 2025 study. Then an April 2025 study found that while wealthier people tend to live longer than poorer people in the U.S., even richer Americans have a shorter average life expectancy than those in the top wealth quartiles in comparable European countries.

The findings of the new study also point to a disparity in access to Medicare benefits, which people are only eligible for once they turn 65. “These are people who contribute to Medicare their entire lives yet never live long enough to use it,” Irene Papanicolas, a professor at the Brown University School of Public Health and the lead author of the study, said in a news release. “When you look through the lens of race, it’s clear that one group is increasingly dying before they ever see the benefits of the system they helped fund.” Health care is needed sooner, and many do not have access.

Rigged game

The current Medicare system “effectively bakes structural inequity into a system that was meant to be universal,” Jose Figueroa, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of health policy at Harvard University, said in the news release. “What’s most troubling is that these inequities aren’t shrinking — they’re deepening across nearly every state.”

Black and low-wage workers “disproportionately have jobs that don’t provide health insurance, so they’re either covered by Medicaid, Affordable Care Act marketplace plans or they go without,” said the Post. These groups are more likely to be unable to catch and cure problems before they become deadly. Fixing the system will “require coordinated health and social policy reforms that ensure timely and equitable access to affordable health care coverage before 65 years of age,” said the new study.

Aside from genetics and individual behaviors, “societal factors like breathing polluted air or experiencing chronic — and ultimately corrosive — stress” can also affect how long someone lives, said the Post. “Sustained investments in factors that shape long-term health, such as housing, education and income security,” will reduce the amount of premature death, said the study. The “consequences of dying early ripple across generations, causing a loss of productivity not just from the deceased individual but from family members who provide care and support.”

What are ultra-processed foods? 

It’s a bit of a fuzzy area, but the gist is they’re refined foods made from ingredients not typically found in home kitchens. Brazilian researcher Carlos Augusto Monteiro popularized the term in 2009, when he classified food into four categories. At one end of the spectrum lie foods from the farm, such as vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, and meat; at the other, ultra-processed foods, including sodas and energy drinks, one-box meals, junk foods like chips, and fast food. The addition of high-fructose corn syrup is usually a hint that a food is ultra-processed. Eating these products has been linked to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, depression, and obesity. Given that nearly one-third of teenagers and almost half of adults are prediabetic or diabetic, ultra-processed foods have become a scapegoat for America’s health problems. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called them a “poison” that’s “driving our chronic disease epidemic,” and California just became the first state to regulate them. But public health experts disagree on the dangers they pose, with some arguing the category is meaningless because it can describe everything from corn dogs to canned black beans. “A whole lot of things that you could never imagine can be done [to food],” said University of North Carolina nutritionist Barry Popkin. “You can’t tell simply by the ingredients.” 

How much of these foods do we eat? 

About 70% of the U.S. food supply qualifies as ultra-processed, and these items made up 55% of the food Americans ate from 2021 to 2023, according to a new Centers for Disease Control report. They’ve been omnipresent in grocery stores for decades, with high-fructose corn syrup consumption increasing a hundredfold from 1970 to 1993 (see box). But Americans are actually eating less of these foods than in previous years. The mean percentage of calories consumed by adults from ultra-processed foods dropped 3 percentage points from 2018 to 2023, sinking to 53%. For kids and teens, it dropped by almost 4 points, to 61.9%. While the bulk of most people’s calories still comes from ultra-processed foods, “statistically, the decline is significant,” said the CDC’s Anne Williams. 

Are they unhealthy?

The most prominent study, by the National Institutes of Health, compared an unprocessed diet loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables with an ultra-processed diet, giving participants in both groups equal amounts of salt, sugar, and fiber. The people on the junky diet ate about 500 more calories a day and gained more weight. Energy density, or calories per gram of food, explained the difference. Ultra-processed food is nearly twice as fattening as fresh food—three cups of broccoli, for example, has 100 calories, the same amount as half a Hershey bar. A 2025 study also found a person’s risk of premature death rose almost 3% for every 10% increase in ultra-processed foods consumed. “No reason exists to believe that humans can fully adapt to these products,” said Monteiro. 

So why do we eat them? 

Partly, because they taste great. Ultra-processed foods are addictive, echoing the effect of a hit of nicotine on our dopamine systems. Studies show eliminating them can lead to withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety. They’re also cheap and easy. In the NIH study, the unprocessed meals cost 40% more and took longer to prepare. That’s why ultra-processed TV dinners became popular in the 1950s and ’60s, when more women were working but were still tasked with feeding their families. Nearly 19 million Americans now live in food deserts without access to healthy food and with little leisure time. “You have to be like, What am I going to cook? What am I shopping for?” said health policy expert Julia Wolfson. “It’s a lot of planning and cognitive functioning and mental energy, which is not time- or cost-neutral.” 

How are these foods regulated? 

Under California’s new bipartisan Real Food, Healthy Kids Act, the state will identify ultra-processed foods “of concern” and eliminate them from school lunches by 2035. The ban is expected to cover most foods that contain unnatural substances like emulsifiers and flavor enhancers, as well as those with high levels of saturated fat, added sugar, sodium, and certain sweeteners. “D.C. politicians can talk all day about ‘Making America Healthy Again,’ but we’ve been walking the walk,” said Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. On this issue, he’s aligned with Kennedy and his MAHA movement. Kennedy plans to release updated nutritional guidance prioritizing “whole foods, healthy foods, and local foods” and pinning down the definition of ultra-processed. 

Will that help?

It’s debatable. Some experts argue the ultra-processed foods category is too broad to regulate. It contains Doritos and Coke, but also store-bought whole-wheat bread and hummus. Some highly processed products, such as certain breakfast cereals and yogurts, aren’t associated with poor health outcomes; others, like gluten-free bread, provide alternatives for people with allergies. A committee advising the federal government last year decided against taking a strong position on ultra-processed foods, saying the science just wasn’t sufficient to reach a definitive conclusion. “There are probably some subcategories that are perfectly fine—maybe even really good for you— and others that are particularly damaging,” said NIH researcher Kevin Hall. “I just don’t think we know which ones.”

‘The future of US-Canada defense: A new NORAD for the digital age’

Andrew Latham at The Hill

Threats “come through data cables, computer networks and supply chains,” and we must “build a new continental defense architecture that defends that space as effectively” as NORAD “once defended airspace above the continent,” says Andrew Latham. For “Canada and the U.S., that means reimagining continental defense as a single, integrated system.” The “Cold War division of labor, with Canada patrolling the northern skies while the U.S. focused on nuclear deterrence, does not meet today’s threats.”

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‘What if climate policy started with health — and grew the economy?’

Vanessa Kerry at Newsweek

In a “world with shrinking budgets and escalating climate impacts, we are still willfully ignoring the threat posed by climate change on our health,” says Vanessa Kerry. This “disconnect will cost us billions financially and in lives lost.” Health care “must be better integrated into climate policy because health is both the frontline experience of climate impacts and the foundation of economic growth.” Investing in “strong health systems” is the “best response to extreme weather.”

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‘The bipartisan comfort with Islamophobia harms us all’

Erum Ikramullah and Petra Alsoofy at Al Jazeera

Islamophobia “spikes not after a violent act, but rather during election campaigns and political events, when anti-Muslim rhetoric is used as a political tactic to garner support,” say Erum Ikramullah and Petra Alsoofy. These “attacks also reflect a general trend of rising Islamophobia.” This “can lead to devastating outcomes for Muslims: from job loss and inability to freely worship, to religious-based bullying of Muslim children in public schools and discrimination in public settings, to even physical violence.”

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‘As a palliative care specialist, I’ve witnessed the human tragedy of our end-of-life care crisis’

Rachel Clarke at The Guardian

For a “hospital palliative care specialist, abstract funding statistics take on daily, indelible form,” says Rachel Clarke. The “hard truth, in short, about underfunding palliative care is that people who are at their most vulnerable — the dying — suffer more pain, more indignity, less choice and less autonomy than they might have.” It “means that suffering at the end of life takes two forms: an inescapable part and an avoidable part.”

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The portfolio diet has been around for more than 20 years, but only recently have more people taken on this heart-focused regimen. The little-known diet has been found to reduce cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death in the U.S., responsible for over 683,000 deaths in 2024, according to the CDC. The key is to put your stock in plant fiber and protein while reducing animal-based foods.

What is the portfolio diet?

The diet was developed in 2003 by Dr. David Jenkins, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto. It was named as such because it’s all about “spreading out your risks and benefits and trying to maximize” nutritional returns, said Jenkins to The New York Times. It “discourages foods from animal sources, particularly red and processed meat, high-fat dairy, and eggs,” said Harvard Medical School. Instead, it prioritizes “viscous fiber, plant-based proteins, nuts, seeds, monounsaturated fats, and phytosterols, also known as plant sterols.”

The crux of the portfolio diet is nonmeat protein, including “nuts of all kinds, as well as chickpeas, lentils, tofu and other kinds of plant protein,” said The Independent. The diet recommends getting 50 grams of plant protein and 45 grams of nuts and seeds.

Viscous fiber also makes up a significant portion of the recommended diet. It’s “found in certain plant foods like oats, barley, okra, eggplant and chia seeds, and fiber supplements like psyllium,” said the Times. During digestion, the viscous fiber “turns into a gel-like substance in your intestines, where it binds to cholesterol to reduce its absorption.”

The third major component is phytosterols, which “exist naturally in nuts, soybeans, peas and canola oil” and have a “structure similar to cholesterol.” Those components limit the amount of cholesterol the body can absorb.

A diet rich in plant sterols, soy protein and viscous fibers could reduce levels of LDL cholesterol by approximately 30%, according to Jenkins’ original study from 2003. Since then, other research has corroborated the benefits. The portfolio diet is “associated with a lower risk of CVD, including CHD [coronary heart disease] and stroke, and a more favorable blood lipid and inflammatory profile,” said a 2023 study published in the journal Circulation. These results also held when analyzing a “national cohort of racially diverse adults in the U.S.,” said a 2025 study. “It’s the same effect as a first-generation statin,” said Meaghan E. Kavanagh, the lead author of the 2025 study, to Medscape.

How does it compare to other diets?

The portfolio diet is not the only option that may improve heart health. The Mediterranean diet, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, and the pescatarian diet have also been found to have extensive health benefits. While the portfolio diet is not as well known as these other diets, there are “significant overlaps,” said the American Heart Association. All three “emphasize eating whole grains, fruits, vegetables, plant protein, nuts and plant oils.” Where they differ is that the portfolio diet specifically focuses on plant-based food, making it vegetarian and vegan-friendly. Other diets also tend to include meat and/or fish in their recommendations.

What makes the portfolio diet favorable and sustainable is its “relative flexibility,” said the Times. “Contrast that with other diets that may be more restrictive, such as the keto and paleo diets.” Luckily, it is “not an all-or-nothing approach,” said Andrea Glenn, a registered dietitian and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to the American Heart Association. “You can take your own diet and make a few small changes and see cardiovascular benefits.”

Loneliness can be dangerous. And the holidays for many can be a breeding ground for the kind of aching loneliness that causes both mental and physical issues.

“Increased risk for cardiovascular disease, a 26% increase in risk of premature mortality, and poor mental health outcomes, especially depression,” can be the result of protracted loneliness, said Dr. Holly A. Swartz at Psychiatry Online. “Never married and divorced people were the most lonely during the holidays,” said Daniel Perlman, an emeritus professor of human development and family studies at UNC Greensboro, in a research paper on loneliness. Practical tools, though, can help soften or alleviate the solo pangs.

Get out into the world

“Awareness and self-reflection are the first steps,” said Jake Van Epps, a psychologist and well-being specialist at the University of Utah Health's Resiliency Center, to the University of Utah’s Health blog. When you notice that you are needing more social bonds, “dedicate time and energy into reaching out to people.” That might look like making plans with friends — ideally in-person — and sticking to them. Or throw an unexpected act of kindness someone’s way. Doing so feels even better for the giver than the receiver.

“Simple outreach to others can be a step toward better overall health,” said Dr. Amit Shah, a Mayo Clinic geriatrician and internist, to the Mayo Clinic News Network. Social media can also be a great mechanism to meet new people. Just be sure to connect in a true, honest way or the dearth of authenticity can exacerbate “feelings of loneliness and isolation.”

Jump across the generational divides

Meeting peers is (comparatively) easy. But there is power in connecting with people younger or older than you. Doing so can add “more richness and diversity to your relationships,” said Dr. Linda Fried, the former dean of the Columbia School of Public Health, to MSNBC.

Resolve to volunteer next year

“Helping others can lift your spirits and even introduce you to new people in your community,” said the Tufts Health Plan blog. Giving of yourself also helps you see the larger social picture. “Isolation and lack of fulfilling human contact can be gateways to loneliness,” said Fried. “What better way to connect with others than through a shared goal or passion?”

Relax, conscientiously

Loneliness can creep in even when your holiday season is busy and you’re regularly surrounded by people. That is why it is all the more important during the holidays to maintain your usual routines and make time for yourself — “even if it’s just 15 minutes at a time,” said the Tufts blog. Some examples of quick-fire ways to turn toward yourself: take a walk, meditate or do yoga, listen to calming music, sit outdoors for a spell, get a massage.

Some high-street clinics are putting lives at risk by allowing unqualified non-specialists to carry out pregnancy scans, an industry body has warned.

Demanding new regulation, the Society of Radiographers (SoR) said that anyone using an ultrasound machine can call themselves a sonographer and offer the service to mothers-to-be.

Dangerous advice

The SoR says these unregulated scan clinics sometimes offer “dangerous” advice. Pregnant women have been “incorrectly diagnosed with serious health conditions”, or told an “abnormality” meant they would need to end the pregnancy, “only to find their baby was completely healthy”, said the BBC.

A former hospital sonographer said one woman who was eight or nine weeks pregnant was referred for an induced miscarriage by a private clinic, which had told her there was no heartbeat for the baby and that the baby was “very, very malformed”. The woman was “in tears” as the NHS scan began, said the sonographer, but the process actually revealed a “beautiful nine-week pregnancy with a heartbeat”. The baby was “absolutely fine”, said The Independent.

The lack of regulation means that “major foetal abnormalities” such as spina bifida or polycystic kidneys can be missed, while potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, where the fertilised egg implants outside the womb, may not be picked up.

An SoR spokesperson said that although there were some “really great” private scanning services with correctly trained staff, she was concerned about the growth of pop-up clinics in shopping centres and on high streets, which sell souvenir images or scans to reveal the baby’s sex.

The union is calling for sonographers to have a “protected” job title, which could only be used by those with qualifications and who are registered with a regulatory body. People “don’t realise that anybody can buy a machine and call themselves a sonographer”, said the SoR president and a hospital sonographer, Katie Thompson.

Maternal fears

Some expectant mums choose to go to unregulated clinics for baby scans for a variety of reasons. Private scans are “often sold as a reassurance, souvenir or sexing” procedure, said the BBC.

Some mothers-to-be want detailed 3D/4D images or videos of their baby that hospital scans don’t offer. Or they are keen for a “gender reveal” earlier than the one usually offered by the NHS at the second routine 20-week scan.

Sometimes, people go private early in their pregnancy because they are anxious about their baby and want extra reassurance while they wait for the first routine NHS scan at 12 weeks.

Unregulated clinics are “making money out of maternal fears”, said Eva Wiseman in The Guardian. The fact that “now it is possible to witness, with your eyes, some proof of a future, is seductive”, and it’s “no surprise that private scanning businesses are multiplying”.

Scientists have sunk their fangs into a panacea for snake bites. The new antivenom can counteract the bite of several deadly species of snake with fewer side effects and easier storage. If made publicly available, it could save thousands of lives each year.

Not just snake oil

Scientists may have developed a snake bite antivenom that can be used for 17 different species of snakes, according to a study published in the journal Nature. The antivenom specifically targets species of snakes in the Elapidae family. There are approximately 360 species of elapids worldwide, and they are “among the deadliest because their venoms contain potent neurotoxins that act rapidly to induce paralysis and respiratory failure,” said Anne Ljungars, a biological engineer at the Technical University of Denmark and a study co-author, to Popular Science. The new antivenom is effective against 17 of 18 elapids found in the African continent, including cobras, mambas and rinkhals.

More than 300,000 snake bites are reported each year in sub-Saharan Africa, along with 7,000 deaths from those bites. While antivenoms have long existed, getting the correct one was dependent on the “victim knowing which species of snake delivered the bite — something that is not always easy to notice in the chaos of the moment,” said The Economist. In addition, the technology to make antivenoms has not changed much since the 1800s.

Current antivenoms are “produced by immunizing horses with snake venom and extracting antibodies from their blood,” resulting in a “large, undefined mixture of antibodies, only a small proportion of which target and neutralize the most dangerous toxins,” said a news release about the study. This creates a product with high levels of variation and potentially serious side effects.

For the new antivenom, researchers opted to use an alpaca and a llama, which have unique immune systems. Camelids, a group these animals are a part of, “naturally produce a special antibody variant known as heavy-chain-only antibodies,” which could be used to engineer nanobodies, said Popular Science. Nanobodies are “smaller and more stable than ordinary antibodies,” said the news release. They can also “bind strongly and precisely to many different similar toxins, which enables the antivenom to neutralize venom from multiple species.”

Once bitten, twice shy

The new multispecies antivenom appears to be safer than the current antivenoms being used. It “almost always prevented tissue death at the injection site,” a problem side effect of many other products that often led to limb amputations, said The Economist. Nanobodies also “penetrate tissue faster and deeper than the larger antibodies in current antivenoms,” said the news release. They can additionally be administered in more remote locations because they can survive being freeze-dried and do not require refrigeration.

While the new antivenom showed promise in mice, it has yet to be tested on humans, and it still needs improvement before it can be made widely available. Despite working for several species, the “effectiveness of the antivenom is limited when it’s given after venom exposure,” said the news release. Furthermore, the venom from certain species was “only partially neutralized.” Still, this study “provides clear evidence of the potential utility of mixtures of nanobodies as a new therapeutic modality for snakebite,” Nicholas Casewell, the director of the Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and a coauthor of the study, said to The Telegraph.

More women are getting testosterone therapy and touting improved libido and energy as a result. But the trend is complicated by many women taking more than may be optimal because of a lack of standard-dose products designed for female bodies. As of now, not enough research has been conducted on supplemental testosterone use by women.

Why are women using testosterone?

While testosterone is largely associated with men’s health, the hormone plays a crucial role in women’s health as well. Testosterone is produced by the ovaries and adrenal glands and “helps regulate sex drive, supports bone and muscle health, and contributes to mood and energy” in women, said National Geographic. Production peaks in women between their late teens and early 20s, then declines over time, reaching about half its starting level at age 60.

Now, many perimenopausal and menopausal women are taking testosterone and reporting its known benefits. But while this seems like a boon, many women are also taking doses that are “much higher than medical societies’ guidelines recommend,” said The New York Times. Women in their 40s and beyond are “experimenting with higher levels of the hormone than they produced naturally at any point in their lives,” with some “even approaching the levels of a teenage boy.”

What’s the state of testosterone therapy research?

The medical community does not “have a standard value for ‘normal’ testosterone levels” in women, said the Cleveland Clinic. And currently, the “only evidence-based use of testosterone for women is treating low libido after menopause,” said National Geographic. But there's “no standardized female-specific way to prescribe it.”

Restoring testosterone levels in women to those of when they were in their late 30s can improve sex drive without severe side effects, according to research, but no products exist that achieve this accurately. Women seeking testosterone support can “either purchase products intended for men and estimate the appropriate dose (about one-tenth of what’s recommended for men) or have prescriptions filled at a compounding pharmacy, which provides customized medications not regulated by the FDA,” said the Times. Taking too high levels of testosterone can cause women to “experience hair loss, a deepening of their voices, more facial hair or clitoral enlargement” — side effects that “may not be reversible.”

While improved libido has been evident, other benefits, like boosting energy or strengthening bones, have not been backed by science with long-term data. The Food and Drug Administration has not approved a testosterone product for women, despite the agency not requiring similar data for many approved male testosterone products. In 2004, the FDA rejected a testosterone patch submitted for approval. So women’s options to “pursue testosterone therapy are typically limited to more nontraditional avenues like wellness centers, nutritionists, med-spas and longevity practitioners,” none of which are covered by insurance, said Futurism.

Australia is the only country with a government-approved testosterone product made for women, with other countries working to make products available. In the U.S., several "large trials" of products — "patches, creams and gels" — have recently shown that testosterone improves "women’s desire, arousal, sexual responsiveness and even self-image,” said the Times. The hope is that government research will catch up to women’s ongoing testosterone needs.

The Covid-19 shot may have further-reaching benefits than previously thought, as mRNA vaccines appear to help increase the effectiveness of immunotherapy in cancer patients. Widespread use of the vaccine could lead to better medical outcomes for thousands, while still being low-cost and easily accessible.

A jab at cancer treatment

Covid-19 mRNA vaccines could help boost the immune system to fight off cancer, according to a study published in the journal Nature. The study looked at the clinical outcomes for over 1,000 patients with late-stage melanoma or lung cancer who were treated with a form of immunotherapy called immune checkpoint inhibitors. This is a “common approach doctors use to train the immune system to kill cancer” by “blocking a protein that tumor cells make to turn off immune cells, enabling the immune system to continue killing cancer,” the authors of the study said at The Conversation. The findings showed that “patients who received either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy were more than twice as likely to be alive after three years compared with those who didn't receive either vaccine.”

While those undergoing cancer treatment are more susceptible to contracting viruses like Covid-19, the extended lifespan was attributed to the mRNA in the vaccine, which appeared to “help the immune system respond better to the cutting-edge cancer treatment,” according to The Associated Press. “We are really tapping into that natural process that your body already knows how to respond to,” Jeff Coller, a professor of RNA biology and therapeutics at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said to NBC News. “You are using your body’s natural system to fight tumors.”

Another shot

“This data is incredibly exciting,” Adam Grippin, the lead author of the study, said to The Washington Post. “But it needs to be confirmed in a Phase III clinical trial.” The researchers hope that if the upcoming clinical trial confirms their findings, “this widely available, low-cost intervention could extend the benefits of immunotherapy to millions of patients who otherwise would not benefit from this therapy,” said the study authors. This is not the first time mRNA vaccines have been used to treat cancer, either. Scientists have “developed personalized mRNA cancer vaccines that are tailored to fight a person’s unique tumor, as well as ones that target genes that are commonly found in certain types of cancer, including pancreatic,” said NBC News.

Unlike other vaccine therapies, Covid-19 mRNA vaccines do not “need to be personalized” and “could be administered at any time during a patient’s treatment,” said the study authors. Despite this, the Trump administration has been openly wary of mRNA vaccines and vaccines in general. The administration “terminated 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data showed they failed to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like Covid,” said the Department of Health and Human Services in a recent statement to the Post.

“A woman gets to a certain age and all she wants is to be left alone,” said Viv Groskop in The Guardian. Well, no chance of that – because the “menopause gold rush” is in full flow.

Public awareness of menopause and perimenopause has improved in recent years but with that has come a “rapid expansion” of companies and individuals who “see menopause as a lucrative market”, said University College London researchers. The results of their survey of 1,596 women, published in Post Reproductive Health, suggests that women may be “vulnerable to financial exploitation” from the “marketing of unregulated menopause products”, and from menopause information on social media “that may not be grounded in evidence”.

Menopause has ‘hit prime time’

The menopause industry is now worth billions globally. Women are promised cures for some of the most debilitating symptoms – night sweats, hot flushes, fatigue, brain fog and anxiety – if they buy “specially branded supplements, teas and even pyjamas”, said Kirsty Wark in a BBC Panorama investigation last year.

Once something that women dealt with “in isolation”, menopause is now being experienced by a generation who are “less willing to suffer in silence” and more “proactive” about their health, said Courtney Rubin in Women’s Health. They engage openly with their symptoms. And when, all too often, their doctor dismisses their worries, they “ravenously” consume information online and demand “better solutions”.

“The slow-dawning realisation that women might be slightly underserved after centuries of demonising female ageing has unfortunately coincided with the high-water mark of aggressive capitalism”, said The Guardian’s Groskop. So the market is flooded with celebrity-endorsed menopause products, and treatments follow fads, rather than being rooted in science and tailored to a woman’s specific needs. "Menopause influencers” dominate Instagram timelines, the menopause “hits prime time” in special NFL Superbowl adverts, and Gwyneth Paltrow, Serena Williams and Drew Barrymore are all partnered with companies that sell menopause products.

The speed of change from taboo topic to something that’s constantly discussed can arguably make it harder to navigate the menopause. The streams of new opinion and “menopause management” products don’t make it easy to find accurate information or make helpful choices.

‘Happy medium’

Last week, the government announced that “menopause checks” would routinely be incorporated into the free NHS Health Checks for women, ensuring those “experiencing perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms get the right information and support”.

Perhaps, with this shift to make doctors actively address menopausal concerns that often go unrecognised, we can arrive at a “happy medium in the world of menopause, where it is a phenomenon that is neither constantly being marketed at us nor swept shamefully under the carpet”, said Groskop. As it is, “we have gone from a time when the word was barely spoken aloud to an era when it’s hard to find a podcast that is not discussing testosterone gel”.

Peanut allergies among children have dropped significantly over the past decade, and early introduction guidelines are likely the cause. Although food allergies can be deadly, taking steps to reduce the chances of them ever developing can lead to better health outcomes in the future.

Nuts numbers

Food allergies in children dropped by 36% over the past 10 years, a change mostly attributed to a 43% drop in peanut allergies, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics. Eggs also overtook peanuts as the number one most common allergen among children. This shift comes 10 years after a study found that early exposure to peanut products could cut the chances of developing a peanut allergy by 80%. In 2017, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases formally recommended and issued national guidelines for early introduction.

“Early allergen introduction works,” Dr. David Hill, the lead author of the new study, said to NPR. “For the first time in recent history, it seems like we're starting to put a brake pedal on the epidemic of food allergy in this country.” Peanut allergies occur when the “body’s immune system mistakenly identifies proteins in peanuts as harmful and releases chemicals that trigger allergic symptoms, including hives, respiratory symptoms and, sometimes, life-threatening anaphylaxis,” said CBS News. Because of this, parents were previously advised to avoid feeding their kids foods likely to trigger allergens before the age of 3.

The current guidelines, most recently updated in 2021, call for “introducing peanuts and other major food allergens between 4 and 6 months, without prior screening or testing,” said CBS News. It “doesn’t have to be a lot of the food,” just “little tastes of peanut butter, milk-based yogurt, soy-based yogurts and tree butters,” Hill said to CBS News. “These are really good ways to allow the immune system exposure to these allergenic foods in a safe way.”

Cautious optimism

The study looked at diagnosis codes and EpiPen prescriptions for 125,000 children across almost 50 pediatric practices. It did not “examine what infants ate, so it does not show that the guidelines caused the decline,” said The New York Times. However, it has been inferred that the guidelines are likely a contributing factor because of the timing of the drop. Also, since the study only followed children up until the age of 3, “it did not capture allergy rates in older children” or determine “if the drop in allergies would last into adolescence,” said the Times.

Approximately two-thirds of food allergies in children are diagnosed by the age of 3. Still, some experts are cautious of the results. Many families have not been “fully implementing the new guidelines, in many cases due to fear that exposing an infant to peanut products might also endanger a sibling or parent who’s allergic,” said Dr. Corinne Keet, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to NPR. It is also “simply difficult to conduct a high-quality study about food allergy prevalence” because of the large amount of data needed.

Despite this, researchers say there is reason for optimism. “We’re talking about the prevention of a potentially deadly, life-changing diagnosis,” said Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez, a pediatrician at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, to the Times. “This is real-world data of how a public health recommendation can change children’s health.”

Medical researchers are witnessing a rise in “imposter participants” taking part in surveys and trials, fuelling concerns for patient safety and the reliability of studies.

Imposters vary from automated bots to people lying about previous health issues or deliberately misleading researchers over their conditions and diagnoses.

A review published this year by the British Medical Journal looked at 23 studies and found that 18 contained compromised data sources, with infiltration rates ranging from 3% to as high as 94% of participants. This growing trend could “threaten the integrity of health research and, by extension, the policies and clinical decisions built on it”.

‘Seismic transformation’ from online practices

Academics are in the dark over the exact motivations of the imposters. When there isn’t a financial interest, feelings of “boredom” and “curiosity” are major players. In more serious cases, “an ideological intent to disrupt research” may be a factor.

Online recruitment methods have triggered a “seismic transformation” across the health landscape, said Bioengineer. The attraction is clear: the “expanded accessibility” has made it easier than ever to enrol in studies, but this has opened the door to individuals and artificial sources to “falsify data” or “mimic” authentic responses.

Most trials are secure but the move to online information gathering could exacerbate the latent problems in the industry, said The Times. “Survey-style studies”, which are one of the most common methods, and experience-related data gathered on health apps were “more at risk” of attracting “lying” individuals.

Other ways to detect whether a participant is credible is to submit them to “Turing tests”, which can differentiate between human and machine responses. If answers are recorded “between midnight and 4am”, or “filled out suspiciously quickly”, then a bot is likely to have been involved.

Researchers already have to walk a tightrope to gain credible and fair results, said Alan Martino and Arielle Perrotta on The Conversation. They must maintain a balance between providing “thorough vetting”, while simultaneously preserving the “ethical commitment to respect the autonomy of participants”.

Certain studies are more susceptible than others. For quantitative research, data collection usually allows “anonymous” entry points, with “minimal direct interaction”, such as filling in a form online. Interference can be greatly minimised by employing eligibility pre-screenings or “automated verification methods”.

This approach “doesn’t always translate well” to qualitative studies, which include more “personal” steps, such as one-on-one interviews, or extended observation sessions with the subject. Routinely requesting information can feel “intrusive or even alienating”, especially for “marginalised groups like those with intellectual disabilities”.

‘Systemic threat’

To combat the “systemic threat” from imposters, further action is urgently required, said the BMJ. Journals should “encourage consistent and transparent reporting” of safeguards and “acknowledge limitations”. Investors need to “keep pace” as the industry and tactics evolve, and policy makers should be “cautious” of results if imposter participant measures are not expressly addressed in the findings.

There is a fine line between ensuring the “validity” of data, but not “creating barriers for legitimate participants”, said Martino and Perrotta. If measures are too stringent, then credible concerns could be ignored. Even common “red flags” such as an unwillingness to be seen on camera, not being able to answer basic questions, or a preference for unverified payment practices can be explained away with “valid reasons” of “privacy concerns or technical limitations”.

“The key to success is balancing caution with empathy”, where patients’ experiences are weighed up, analysing the risks of including or excluding them. If recruitment processes are “clear and specific”, there is caution around compensation and interview practices are revised, there can be increased credibility among researchers.

Phone addiction is an increasingly common problem. But if the online world has a stronger hold on you than the offline one, there are tools and techniques that might help.

“Deliberate friction, like conscious slowdowns or additional steps before one can use certain apps, serves as a mindful pause, forcing users to rethink spontaneous digital engagement,” said UX designer Sarah Zaheer in her research paper, “Designing for Digital Well-Being Applying Behavioral Science to Reduce Tech Addiction.” Zaheer’s work references technology designers, but that friction is key to being in control of your technology use rather than the reverse.

Too much time online wears the body out. “On a biological level,” said Dr. Susan Albers to Cleveland Clinic’s Health Essentials, “you are feeding your brain a continual stream of cortisol, also known as the stress hormone.” With time, that cortisol may “exhaust your brain and body, leading to inflammation that can cause a variety of mental and physical health issues.” Here are some practical approaches to diminishing the grip of digital addiction.

Beat technology at its own game

It might seem counterintuitive to enlist an application to help you use your applications less. Yet applications that track and obstruct your time online can be effective.

Automatic scrolling is a mindless practice — hence its name. The app One Sec (available for iOS, Android and computers) aims to “break the habit,” said Android Police. You choose what distracting apps — ahem, Instagram and TikTok — you want One Sec to interact with. Then when you open said apps, a prompt appears, noting how many times you’ve attempted to open the offending app in the last 24 hours, plus a button to decide whether you truly want to engage with said app. If you decide to use the app, you can receive timed notifications so you’re not spending longer on it than you mean to. This forced “moment of reflection” can be, with regular use, the scissors that cut the tie. As a bonus, One Sec can be employed for websites as well.

StayFree, another app available for iOS, Android and computers, operates like a cousin to One Sec. It offers “detailed reports, custom usage limits and app-blocking features,” said Android Police. StayFree also provides motivational reminders, to “encourage you to stick to your goals.” Best of all, perhaps, is the app’s capability of zeroing in: If, say, Reels on Instagram is your kryptonite, StayFree has you covered, allowing you to “block certain aspects” of social media apps and streaming apps.

You vs. the online world

If you think you are steadfast enough to halt or diminish your online minutes without the help of outside apps, you can start by “localizing,” said Dr. Albers, which means “limiting a behavior to a specific time or place.” That might mean leaving your phone outside the bedroom when you go to sleep. (Yes, doing so requires purchasing a separate bedroom alarm.)

During the day, your efforts might include “putting your phone away, whether it’s on the other side of the room or in another room entirely,” said Albers. Exercise of any form is also a boon. Along with deep breathing, it helps “reconnect you with your body” and gives “your mind a rest.”

Let yourself function like a mindfulness app when you do use your phone. “Pause for a second and recognize what you’re doing,” said the Cleveland Clinic website. If you are unable to stop scrolling, “try to ease up on the pace.” Our attention spans are already short, and when we scroll quickly “we continue to shorten the length of time,” said Albers. “You need a solid attention span to help you concentrate and focus.”

With the red tape of health insurance already causing frustration for millions of Americans, doctors are helping to shed light on a common industry practice: downcoding. Insurance companies change claims to save money, and according to experts, it’s yet another way that health insurance plays into a rigged system.

What is downcoding?

When downcoding, insurance companies “automatically downgrade the claims a doctor sends them to a lower tier of reimbursement, without actually reviewing details about the visit itself,” said NBC News. For Dr. Terry Wagner, a family medicine doctor in Hudson, Ohio, this “means a ‘level four’ office visit that might yield $170 is being paid as if it’s a ‘level three’ for about $125.” This $45 difference may not seem like a lot, but “when it’s happening on dozens of claims, and to a physician-owned practice like Wagner’s, the damage mounts.”

“It’s blatantly disrespectful,” Wagner said to NBC. A “computer program is deciding what my level of care is. If they question my level of care, then ask for my notes. Look at the tests I ordered. Look at my charts.” Doctors who want to challenge a downcoding decision typically have to “appeal each claim with documentation.” And these doctors may have nowhere to turn, as most big health insurance players practice downcoding. Aetna and Cigna have both admitted to downcoding, and “other insurers including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Humana and Molina Healthcare have all acknowledged downcoding higher-level claims for certain office visits,” said NBC.

Why is it a problem in the health care industry?

Insurance companies have defended the practice. Cigna says the “goal is to fight upcoding and billing abuse, arguing that some physicians bill for more complex visits than were actually provided, such as charging for a 40-minute encounter when the visit lasted only 10 minutes,” said health care website Stat News. Companies have also argued that these patterns “drive unnecessary costs for patients and employers.”

But the codes that insurers use are “not based on time alone,” said Stat News. Under the current rules, physicians can bill “according to either total time or the complexity of medical decision making.” This means that a doctor who “legitimately spends half an hour or more untangling multiple conditions, reviewing medications and coordinating care could still be flagged as an outlier, triggering payment reductions.”

Doctors in smaller clinics are worried this could lead to higher operating costs. The “understanding of everyone who has been rallying the cry about this” is that the new policy “just says they are going to downcode everybody and it’s up to us to go back and fight and prove we are not doing it inappropriately,” Dr. Peter Hahn, a cardiologist in Uncasville, Connecticut, told The Connecticut Mirror of Cigna’s downcoding plan.

This could result in doctors having to “make choices that are inherently bad for patients, like cramming more patient visits into a single day to make up for lost revenue, dropping patients on certain insurance plans, or selling their practices altogether,” said NBC. There’s a “break point and it’s like you either see more” patients and “give them less time, or you just give up,” Wagner said. “It’s exhausting.”

Climate change has been wreaking havoc on our largest organ: the skin. Extreme heat, pollution and changing rainfall can worsen skin conditions. As a result, skin products have also had to evolve to keep up with changing demands.

On the surface

Skin is “exquisitely sensitive” to climate and ecological changes, said Louise Andersen, the cochair of the International Society of Dermatology Committee on Climate Change and a dermatologist at Aleris-Hamlet Hospitals in Denmark, to Harvard Medicine. It is the first barrier against the environment, pathogens and UV radiation, so it is also one of the first organs to be affected by the rapidly changing climate. It is a “delicate system where the balance has shifted in recent years.”

Many different aspects of climate change can negatively affect the skin. Rising temperatures and extreme heat are one of the biggest risks. Heat can “get trapped in our skin, triggering several inflammatory issues,” said Women’s Health. Acne can worsen too, as “increased sweat can lead to more clogged pores.” Heat can also “increase heat rashes, particularly those in friction-prone areas like under the breasts, groin and inner thighs, as well as yeast and bacterial conditions that can occur with perspiration buildup on the skin.” Extreme temperatures additionally affect prior conditions, exacerbating “psoriasis and facial flushing from lupus,” said National Geographic. These symptoms are now “appearing earlier in the spring and later into the fall because hotter days are beginning earlier in the year and lasting longer into the fall.”

Along with heat, “many, if not all, inflammatory diseases will be affected by air pollution, including wildfire smoke,” Maria Wei, a dermatologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said to National Geographic. Wildfires release fine particulate matter that can “trigger oxidative stress” and damage the skin, the outlet said. In addition, “floods from changing rainfall patterns or severe storms carry the threats of chemical exposure, skin injury, fungal infections, and bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases with skin manifestations.” There is an elevated risk for children, as climate change “poses unique dermatologic risks” because of their “immature skin barrier function, weakened immune systems and dependence on caregivers,” said a study published in the journal Cureus.

Skin solutions

Our relationship to skin care is changing in response to the climate. For example, ozone depletion as a result of pollution is causing more exposure to UV radiation. Many are “buying more sun protection products now — both in their cosmetics and as standalone sunscreens — than they did five years ago,” said Beauty Matter. Warming temperatures are “driving demand for sweat-proof, cooling and anti-humidity solutions.”

Driven by newfound demand, “brands are launching hyper-targeted solutions designed to shield, adapt and defend against the elements in real time, addressing immediate concerns while enhancing long-term resilience,” said Beauty Matter. But not everyone can afford new skin solutions, and inflammatory skin conditions are “common in marginalized populations who may not have access to air conditioning, or who work outside all day, and extreme heat creates a favorable environment for bacterial growth, compromising the skin's natural defenses,” said National Geographic. “Monitoring air quality and preventing damage during those poor air quality days is key to protecting your skin.”

In a rare bit of bipartisan agreement in polarized times, ultraprocessed foods are under attack from both Democrats and “Make America Healthy Again” Republicans. This could change the way you eat.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed the country’s first law to “define and ultimately ban unhealthy ultraprocessed foods” from school lunches, said CNN. American kids get as much as two-thirds of their calories from foods “packed full of additives” and filled with “high-calorie sugars, salt and fat.” (The ban includes most “fast food, candy and premade meals” said CalMatters.) All but one member of the California State Assembly voted for the bill, said CNN. It is a sign that Americans “are waking up to the fact that we have chemicals in everything” and want to do something about it, said the Environmental Working Group’s Bernadette Del Chiaro.

The law arrives at the same moment Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is leading a revamp of federal dietary guidelines that put “ultraprocessed food in the spotlight,” said NPR. Kennedy has blamed such foods for the chronic-disease epidemic, but there is one challenge: There are “varied ways to define” ultraprocessed foods, making it difficult to “draw firm conclusions” about their actual health effects. The new dietary guidelines will focus on “whole foods, healthy foods and local foods,” Kennedy said.

What did the commentators say?

Focusing on ultraprocessed foods “repeats America’s missteps on nutrition,” Harvard Medical School’s David S. Ludwig said at The Washington Post. The federal government once “launched a massive public health experiment” to promote low-fat diets it said would “prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease” and some cancers. The result? “Processed carbs flooded the food supply,” obesity rates soared and now those processed foods are the “new dietary villain.” More “high-quality, long-term clinical trials” are needed to understand how such foods affect health. Otherwise, new measures “could cause more harm than good.”

“For decades liberals championed whole foods,” Nutrition Coalition founder Nina Teicholz said at The Wall Street Journal. Now they have “lost the Whole Foods vote” because they “championed ultraprocessed plant-based foods” as a replacement for meat, envisioning a world where “lab-grown meats replace real meat from real cows.” American voters increasingly favor foods that are “whole and ancestral, including meat.” It is a vision that can unite “Berkeley hippies and MAHA moms.”

What next?

The question of what foods will be banned from California schools is “complicated,” said the Los Angeles Times. “Minimally processed prepared foods” like canned vegetables will not count. The picture should become more clear over time: The law requires the state’s Department of Public Health to create a list of off-limits foods by 2028.

Kennedy’s MAHA movement crusade against ultraprocessed foods coincides with the Trump administration’s defunding of programs that helped “food banks, schools and child-care centers procure fresh food from local farmers,” said The New Yorker. The defunding will challenge cooks faced with making “hundreds or even thousands of servings per day” of school lunches required to be both cheap and healthy.

The running community has been caught in the middle of a bitter legal row between the twin titans of athletic technology.

Strava, the app widely known as the Instagram for exercise, is suing rival platform Garmin for allegedly copying its features, in a dispute that one runner on TikTok summed up as being “like Mom and Dad fighting”.

Segments and heat maps

Strava is a fitness tracking app with social features that allow users to record their times, race against others, find popular routes for runs or cycle rides, and share their progress. “Any tech-wearing athlete pushing themselves to the absolute limit just to get a ‘Local Legend’ wreath” on the app will “likely attest” that “if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen”, said CBC.

Garmin, meanwhile, specialises in GPS-enabled devices, with its smartwatches particularly popular among runners. And while the Strava app offers its own GPS tracking, many users like to use wearable technology, such as Garmin’s fitness watches, “because they think they are more accurate”, said The Guardian.

Until recently, a truce had prevailed, with Strava allowing users with Garmin watches to record data from its app. But now Strava claims Garmin has infringed on two of its copyrighted features: segments, which allow users to track their time in a particular section of a workout compared to other users, and heat maps, a visual representation of the popularity of different routes in an area. Strava says these features breach an agreement the two companies made in 2015 for Garmin “not to reverse engineer some of the Strava app’s features for its own purposes”.

Freaking out

Dedicated runners aren’t taking all of this particularly well. Running is enjoying a boom in popularity – “and like any cultural phenomenon, it’s taking place both IRL and online”. For the most devoted, the Strava app is “almost a cult”, with branded coffee mugs and T-shirts and “even people uploading their wedding photos” to share with followers.

But while Garmin’s decision to force customers to watermark their Garmin data on Strava has been met with dismay, “a lot of the reaction has actually been against Strava for bringing the case” in the first place, with some runners “freaking out” about the impact of the row on their fitness routines.

However, in a Reddit post entitled “Setting the record straight about Garmin”, Strava’s chief product officer, Matt Salazar, accused Garmin of initiating the conflict. New guidelines issued for app developers “required the Garmin logo to be present” on all Garmin data uploaded to third-party apps, like Strava. Those who do not cooperate by November risk losing access to any data collected by Garmin smartwatches from being uploaded to Strava.

When and how the stand-off is resolved remains to be seen. For now, amateur runners who have yet to enter the fitness tracking world “might want to wait and see” how this “dispute develops” before they commit to buying any pricey tech, said TechRadar.

At a military parade in Beijing in September, Xi Jinping, 72, was overheard saying to Vladimir Putin, then also 72: “these days they say that at 70 one’s still a child”. Putin replied that, thanks to biotechnology, “human organs can be continuously transplanted, and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality”. Xi responded that he’d heard there was a chance of living to 150 “this century”.

It was a reminder that many powerful people take the quest to slow or even reverse ageing very seriously – driven by a mix of real scientific momentum and techno-futurist hype.

Who wants to live for ever?

Stories about elixirs of life and fountains of youth are older than history. A plant with rejuvenating properties features in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was first written down in the second millennium BC. The first emperor of China is suspected to have died from drinking an elixir containing mercury in 210BC. In Christian Europe, it was thought that the philosopher’s stone would garner not only gold but immortality.

Since 1900, better sanitation, antibiotics and vaccines have more than doubled global life expectancy. The flipside is that we now mostly die of the diseases of old age: cancer, stroke, heart disease, dementia. Among some scientists and thinkers, this has led to a shift in mindset. Why research the various diseases caused by ageing, yet dedicate so little money to ending ageing itself? This is the argument of an influential 2005 allegory, “The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant”, written by the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. Why do we accept death, the dragon-tyrant, which demands a tribute of so many lives? Why not slay the dragon?

What sort of influence have such ideas had?

They have inspired tech moguls such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Google’s Larry Page and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who have brought start-up expertise – and billions of dollars in funding – to bear on the problem of death.

Many people with backgrounds in computer science see death as an engineering problem. Just as computer chips have doubled in power roughly every two years since 1965, so medicine, they think, might advance exponentially. And if you could extend your life by, say, 20 years, you could then use the new technologies discovered in that time to extend it by another 20, and so on – a state that futurists call “longevity escape velocity”, or LEV. A network of foundations and venture capital firms, mostly in California, is trying to make that happen.

What techniques do they use?

A few years ago there was a vogue for “young plasma” infusions. (Scientists had found that if you stitch an old and a young mouse together so that their circulatory systems are joined, the older mouse is rejuvenated.) Sadly, the US regulator found that young plasma gave no clear therapeutic benefits, and a real risk of toxic shock.

But now much “life extension” work is under way at organisations such as Google’s Calico, Altos Labs (part funded by Bezos), and the geneticist Craig Venter’s Human Longevity – looking at cellular regeneration, stem cell therapy, genetic editing, and metabolic therapies such as calorie restriction, among other ideas. The non-profit SENS Foundation is researching enzymes that remove waste in ageing cells. The Methuselah Foundation in Virginia has in the past funded a prize for the longest-lived mouse – a winner’s genetically modified mouse lived for almost five years, around 180 in human terms – and has sequenced the complete genome of the bowhead whale, the longest-lived mammal, which can reach beyond 200.

How are the results so far?

As well as their successes with mice, researchers have boosted the lifespan of roundworms (sixfold) and yeast (tenfold). However, these results have proved hard to replicate in humans, whose biological upper age limit is still around 125 years.

The problem is that both our bodies and the ageing process are very complex. A seminal paper in the journal Cell identified 12 hallmarks of ageing, such as DNA instability, chronic inflammation, cellular senescence (when cells stop dividing and secrete toxic sludge), mitochondrial dysfunction, and stem-cell exhaustion.

Aubrey de Grey, the Harrow-educated gerontologist who coined the phrase “longevity escape velocity” and co-founded the SENS Foundation, says the difficulty is that to stop ageing, every pathway to it “has to be delayed. If you delay changes in 90% of the pathways, you’re still going to die – and probably right on schedule.”

What other options are on the table?

Putin’s preferred method – organ transplants – is probably not a runner, as the surgery and immunosuppressant drugs needed are hard on ageing bodies. Many in Silicon Valley think the best bet is “whole brain emulation”: uploading the entire neural structure of your brain (and your consciousness) to a computer, leading to a transcendence of our biology sometimes known as the “nerd rapture”. This is entirely theoretical, for now. But Ray Kurzweil, Google’s “principal researcher and AI visionary”, has long predicted that it will be available by 2045.

How realistic is any of this? The field as a whole inevitably attracts hype, as well as cranks and quacks. But these foundations do fund serious research. By definition, though, it will take many years to bear fruit, unless AI can accelerate it vastly. As de Grey concedes, “If you want to reverse the damage of ageing right now I’m afraid the simple answer is, you can’t.”

This is not to say that what we do know – about the effects of sleep, diet, exercise etc. – can’t be carefully manipulated: witness the bizarrely youthful 81-year-old Larry Ellison, or another tech mogul, Bryan Johnson. But if you’re not a billionaire, then not smoking, taking exercise and following a low-meat Mediterranean diet is probably still the best advice.

A new way of getting high is “tearing the roof off” Fiji’s HIV infection rate, said The Fiji Times. “Bluetoothing” sees intravenous drug users “plunging a syringe” of methamphetamine into a vein, then withdrawing some of their drug-rich blood and injecting it into a second person, who does the same for a third – and so on.

Multiple people sharing a “hit” and a syringe like this saves money but, by sharing blood, users are greatly increasing their risk of HIV infection. And, in the past 10 years, Fiji has seen “an elevenfold leap” in the number of people living with HIV – from 500 people to 5,900. An assistant health minister last week warned that the tiny Pacific island may record more than 3,000 new cases by the end of 2025.

‘Surge in addiction’

Bluetoothing is particularly common among Fiji’s teenagers and young adults, with meth-filled syringes selling on the streets for “as little as 10 Fijian dollars” (£3.30), said ABC News. The “surge in addiction is overwhelming” the island’s health services and children “as young as 13” have been contracting HIV due to intravenous drug use.

“The intersection of meth use and HIV is particularly troubling” because meth users already tend to have weakened immune systems, said Massey University research associate Apisalome Movono on The Conversation. And “the stigma and discrimination associated with both meth use and HIV mean many are reluctant to seek help”.

With nearly 50% of people diagnosed with HIV in Fiji avoiding further treatment, bluetoothing is only going to get riskier, said the Fiji Sun – not to mention that the island nation is also grappling with “simultaneous outbreaks” of illness caused by two other bloodborne viruses, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

‘A perfect storm’

The government has taken some action, said The Telegraph, designating the spread of HIV infection a “national outbreak” in January, and authorising $10 million Fijian dollars (£3.3 million) in new funding for treatment, testing and an awareness campaign. But health experts say there is much more to be done. Many are pushing for a “needle exchange programme” and an official public health response to tackle meth addiction.

Grassroots activists are using Pacific cultural practices to work with those affected by HIV. Jokapeci Tuberi Cati, the first person in Fiji to “live openly” with HIV, promotes “talanoa”, the principle of “exchanging open conversation”, to share knowledge and offer support for those living with the disease, said SBS News.

There is “no quick fix” to this “perfect storm” of addiction, HIV and a struggling health system, said Movono on The Conversation. But “empowering local communities” will engender “more sustainable and culturally appropriate solutions”, particularly when it comes to “reducing the stigma and discrimination”. Other Pacific nations “will be looking to Fiji to tackle the issue head on and prevent the crisis spreading”.

Call him the Pharmacist-in-Chief. President Donald Trump last week announced the launch of TrumpRx, a website where Americans will be able to find discounted medicine. It is part of a “sweeping deal” with Pfizer to offer lower-priced drugs to the public.

The pharmaceutical company will highlight many of its brand-name drugs at a 50% discount on the new website, said CNN. (The site will not “sell or distribute medications” but instead let users find their meds and then be “redirected to manufacturers’ direct-to-consumer channels.”) The move ends “price gouging at the expense of American families,” said Trump.

The company said it will also expand its American manufacturing, a step in a broader agreement in which it gets a “three-year reprieve on certain tariffs on pharmaceutical imports,” said CNN. But experts are not sure if the discounts will mean much to most Americans, who “often depend on insurance coverage” to pay for their prescriptions.

“Meaningfully cutting U.S. drug prices can be difficult,” said The Washington Post. American officials last year negotiated lower prices for 10 of Medicare’s most expensive drugs, but the costs remained “twice as high as those in European and other comparable countries.” Any attempt to push prices still lower “must overcome the political might of the pharmaceutical companies,” which are armed with one of America’s “best-funded Washington lobbying machines.”

What did the commentators say?

The problem is “not greedy pharma firms,” said The Economist. American prescription drugs are costly for reasons found “further along the supply chain.” Most “excess profits” on medicines are taken by “hospitals and middlemen such as insurers, distributors and pharmacy-benefit managers.” If America threatens drugmaker profits, those companies will “take fewer risks on innovation.” Trump’s cure for high prices, then, is “worse than the disease.”

“Why does the federal government need to become a drug marketer?” said The Wall Street Journal. While TrumpRx will sell drugs like Xeljanz, Zavzpret and Eucrisa, the truth is that most Americans “pay far less out-of-pocket for medicines using their insurance cards” and that spending “accounts for a mere 1% of U.S. health care spending.” Rather than being a solution, TrumpRx “looks like a political branding exercise.”

Trump’s new website is a “pretend solution” for high drug prices, said The American Prospect. The administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill included a provision that protects “certain high-cost drugs” from Medicare’s price negotiations and thus “protects several billion dollars” in drugmaker profits. This means TrumpRx will offer “select discounts for a few while keeping the real price the same.”

What next?

Pfizer’s deal with Trump “caused an uproar within much of the pharmaceutical industry,” said Axios. The announcement puts pressure on other drugmakers to “fall in line” after “months of unified resistance” to Trump’s demands for lower prices. The president expects some of those companies to “make deals in the coming weeks” to offer lower prices or else face higher tariffs.

But the deal was “far less punishing” than the industry expected, said Reuters. The result? Stocks for pharmaceutical companies rose after Trump’s announcement.

What happened

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a second generic version of mifepristone, the drug used in combination with misoprostol to carry out roughly two-thirds of U.S. abortions, drugmaker Evita Solutions announced Thursday. The FDA approved mifepristone in 2000 and the first generic version in 2019.

Who said what

“Approval of a second generic is unlikely to affect access” to mifepristone, The Associated Press said, but the FDA’s quiet approval of Evita’s application “triggered pushback from anti-abortion groups and politicians aligned with the Trump administration.” Students for Life Action called the move “a stain on the Trump presidency and another sign that the deep state at the FDA must go.”

This was the “first significant pushback” President Donald Trump has gotten from his “otherwise loyal base of social conservatives,” The Washington Post said. Less than two weeks ago, anti-abortion activists celebrated a promise from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to review mifepristone’s safety. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said Thursday that “the FDA has very limited discretion in deciding whether to approve a generic drug.”

What next?

“I think the intelligent people in the pro-life movement don’t want to go to war with the administration,” a consultant for anti-abortion groups told the Post. “If you do something that embarrasses Trump and the HSS secretary and the high-profile people, then you wind up with Trump digging in his heels — and you don’t want that.” Evita said it expects its version of mifepristone to become available in January.

‘Why HHS is wrong to bring back the stigmatizing monkeypox name’

Nikki Romanik and Demetre Daskalakis at Time

The monkeypox name “carried stigma and confusion, making people less likely to get vaccinated, tested or seek treatment,” say Nikki Romanik and Demetre Daskalakis. The “modernized name, mpox, offered something rare in a health crisis — clarity and dignity for those over-represented in the outbreak.” HHS has “conveyed its intent to return to the old name, ‘monkeypox,’” but this “name was more than inaccurate, it was one of the foundational barriers to stopping the outbreak.”

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‘Insurers use cancer patients as leverage’

Selwyn M. Vickers and Scott M. Stuart and The Wall Street Journal

Despite “record profits, major insurers are using the threat of network termination as a bargaining chip in contract disputes with providers,” say Selwyn M. Vickers and Scott M. Stuart. The “negotiation tactic puts patients in the middle of corporate standoffs during serious, often life-threatening, illnesses.” Insurers “respond not with good-faith engagement but with delay tactics, public attacks and abrupt notices that force thousands of cancer patients to worry that they could soon lose access to their doctor.”

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‘“The Smashing Machine” is Dwayne Johnson’s big Oscar play, but it’s no typical biopic’

Dana Stevens at Slate

“‘The Smashing Machine’ deliberately sets out to subvert the expectations of audiences,” says Dana Stevens. It’s a “study of a flawed but admirably dedicated athlete.” The film is a “showcase for its star Dwayne Johnson, whose own history as a pro wrestler is an inextricable part of the screen persona he’s created.” But the film “winds up playing its cards too close to the vest, never really giving the star, or the movie, a chance to strut his stuff.”

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‘Why Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war simply won’t work’

Michael Ratney at Haaretz

Donald Trump’s “20-point plan for the end of the Gaza war includes some positive aspects,” but “none of the comments made by President Trump or Prime Minister Netanyahu on Monday should suggest that the plan will actually be implemented,” says Michael Ratney. And they “certainly shouldn’t be seen as a fundamental shift in the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The deal is “decidedly unpalatable to other, critically important partners in this process: regional governments in the Middle East.”

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A new strain of Covid, with an apparently telltale symptom, has reached the UK, and already accounts for a high proportion of new recorded cases in England. The arrival of the Stratus strain comes as levels of coronavirus infection reach their highest point so far this year, according to UK Health Service Agency data.

What is the Stratus strain?

This new Covid strain, a sub-variant of Omicron, is officially known as XFG, along with its own variant XFG.3, but has been nicknamed Stratus. It can trigger all the usual symptoms of Covid infection, including a cough, fever, sore throat and a change of taste and smell, but it has been, anecdotally, singled out for causing a particularly razor-blade-like sore throat.

Despite Stratus now accounting for a majority of new Covid cases in the UK, health experts are not concerned. Circulation levels are officially “low” and “current data does not indicate” that Stratus leads “to more severe illness than other variants in circulation”, said the UK Health Service Agency. Also, there is “no evidence to suggest the vaccines in current use will be less effective” against Stratus, Dr Alex Allen, the UKHSA’s consultant epidemiologist, told The Independent.

How has it become so dominant?

The World Health Organization has designated XFG a “variant under monitoring”, estimating that it now accounts for roughly 60% of Covid cases worldwide – although its global “additional public risk” is low.

Stratus “has become dominant because it is more infectious (able to bypass existing immunity to some degree) than prior variants”, Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told The Telegraph. “But its relative growth advantage is only about 31%, which is not that great”, compared with the 200% growth advantage of the Omicron variant which brought much of the world to a standstill in late 2021.

Why are Covid cases rising?

Covid spikes can happen at any time of year but history has shown us that the biggest waves tend to strike in the summer or early winter.

A likely major factor in the recent uptick in cases in the UK – and also in the US and France – is that population immunity to Covid is now relatively low, as the antibody “fighter cell” protection we acquired from previous infection or vaccination starts to fade.

The return to school earlier this month could well encourage a further spike in cases, Peter Openshaw, an immunology professor at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph. “It may be that, during October, we’re going to see a lot more Covid. There was quite a peak in October 2024 and then it settled around Christmas time and was replaced by influenza.”

Nightmare bacteria are very much the stuff of waking life. These microbes pose a “triple threat” to humanity because they are “resistant to all or nearly all antibiotics,” they have “high mortality rates” and they can “spread their resistance to other bacteria,” said the former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Tom Frieden in 2013. Nightmare bacteria infections have increased significantly since then and are likely to cause more deaths over time.

Drugged and dangerous

Infections from nightmare bacteria rose by almost 70% between 2019 and 2023 in the U.S., according to a report published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine by CDC scientists. The report specifically refers to the rise of infections from a certain group of bacteria called Enterobacterales. These bacteria are resistant to a wide range of antibiotics, including carbapenems, which are used to treat “severe multidrug-resistant bacterial infections,” said Scientific American.

Many of these bacteria are hard to treat because of what is called the “NDM” gene, which “creates an enzyme that destroys antibiotics,” said Axios. Bacteria with the gene can only be treated with two antibiotics, both of which are expensive and have to be administered through an IV. “The rise of NDMs in the U.S. is a grave danger and very worrisome,” David Weiss, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University, said to The Associated Press. While the rate of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) infections increased by approximately 69% between 2019 and 2023, the rate of CRE infections with the NDM gene jumped by a staggering 461%.

It is also likely that “many people are unrecognized carriers of the drug-resistant bacteria, which could lead to community spread,” said the AP. “That may play out in doctors’ offices across the country, as infections long considered routine” become more difficult to treat. CRE infections can include “pneumonia, bloodstream infections, UTIs, wound infections and meningitis,” said the CDC.

Growing resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide. “Bacteria with the gene were once considered exotic, linked to a small number of patients who received medical care overseas,” said the AP. There could be a few reasons for why this has since shifted. NDM-CRE can “spread from improper hand hygiene among health care providers or inadequate cleaning and disinfection of equipment,” said Scientific American. “Insufficient testing and limited access to detection tools” could also play a role. “When NDM-CRE infections are not identified quickly, earlier treatment with effective antibiotics and infection control interventions may be delayed, which can then create more opportunities for transmission from patient to patient,” Danielle Rankin, a co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, said to Scientific American.

Covid-19 may have also contributed to the rise of antibiotic resistance. “We know that there was a huge surge in antibiotic use during the pandemic, so this likely is reflected in increasing drug resistance,” Jason Burnham, a researcher at Washington University, said to the AP. It is important to take antibiotics exactly as prescribed to avoid promoting resistance.

‘The real problem with Tylenol (it’s not autism)’

Leana S. Wen at The Washington Post

Tylenol “remains a safe and appropriate choice, including for treating high fevers in pregnant women and children,” says Leana S. Wen. But “what’s missing from this debate is a far more pressing concern,” as Tylenol “carries very real risks when taken in higher-than-recommended doses.” Tylenol overdoses are “one of the leading causes of both accidental and intentional poisoning,” and “public health efforts should be targeting these dangers rather than stoking unfounded fears of neurological harm.”

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‘Bob Iger deserves credit for handling of Kimmel controversy’

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian at Newsweek

Disney’s “decision to reinstate Jimmy Kimmel, was not only CEO Bob Iger’s plan all along — it is the correct move,” say Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian. Iger “successfully defused a combustible, difficult situation through his pragmatic leadership, moving first to suspend Kimmel and then to reinstate him.” Kimmel’s “own return monologue following his reinstatement demonstrated Iger’s wisdom in charting this course.” Ultimately, politics “had nothing to do with what amounted to a business decision for Iger.”

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‘What the Trump regime doesn’t want you to know about Dallas ICE shooting’

Will Bunch at The Philadelphia Inquirer

The “blood hadn’t yet dried after a deadly Wednesday morning sniper attack on the ICE detention site in Dallas when top government officials started flooding the zone with the story they wanted to tell,” says Will Bunch. So “often these days, what the Trump regime says is highly predictable — but what’s much more revealing is what they don’t say.” The “‘thoughts and prayers’ that politicians effortlessly and often mindlessly spout for most mass shooting victims were few and far between.”

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‘A nation in pain: A silent crisis of trauma and addiction’

Shauli Lev-Ran at The Jerusalem Post

Israel is “facing a quieter, more insidious battle: an explosion of trauma, mental distress and addiction,” says Shauli Lev-Ran. Israelis “have lived through terror, displacement and the unbearable loss of loved ones.” More “have still been pierced by horror: graphic videos, endless news alerts and the dislocation of work, school and home.” When “trauma goes untreated, suffering seeks an outlet.” What “begins as a desperate attempt to dull the pain can quickly spiral into dependence.”

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Filtered air is a “human right”, the teenage activist Violet Affleck has told the United Nations.

Speaking from behind a large face mask and clear goggles, the daughter of divorced Hollywood stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner accused older generations of neglecting children who have Long Covid.

High neglect

Affleck joined global leaders, policymakers, scientists and health experts at the “Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action” event, to deliver an address about the effects of Long Covid among children and the need for clean air infrastructure.

“We are told by leaders across the board that we are the future,” she said, “but when it comes to our ongoing pandemic, our present is being stolen right in front of your eyes”.

Wearing an N95 mask, she criticised the “relentless beat of back to normal”, which is “ignoring, downplaying, and concealing both the prevalence of airborne transmission and the threat of Long Covid”. She went on to say that when there is access to technology to prevent airborne disease, refusing to use it to protect children is “neglect of the highest order”.

Affleck, who has suffered from Long Covid personally, said “filtered air” should be a “human right”, and we must “create clean air infrastructure that is so ubiquitous and so obviously necessary”, that “tomorrow’s children don’t even know why we need it”.

A Yale University student, Affleck has attended White House state dinners to advocate for clean air and the prevention of Long Covid, but not everyone is convinced by the attention she’s received.

Writing on X, the broadcaster Meghan McCain said that “every single thing about all of this is why people hate nepo babies so much,” adding that Affleck has “no business” speaking at the UN, said The Independent.

A hot issue

Nevertheless, air filtration has become a hot issue since the pandemic. Research carried out on Covid wards at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge during the “height of the second wave” suggested that air filter machines “removed almost all traces of airborne Covid virus”, said the NHS.

“We were really surprised by quite how effective air filters were at removing airborne SARS-CoV-2 on the wards,” said Dr Andrew Conway Morris, from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. And on the standards of air quality, Dr Vilas Navapurkar, a consultant in intensive care medicine, said: “We’re all familiar with the idea of having standards for clean water and of hygiene standards for food”, so we must agree “what is acceptable air quality”.

A July 2021 report from the Centre for Disease Control in the US also suggested that portable HEPA air cleaners could reduce exposure to SARS-CoV-2 indoors, after researchers focused on conference rooms, but said Which, ”there's a lot more real-world evidence needed”.

‘Congress should help air innovation take flight’

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) at Newsweek

It’s “time for Congress to build on a proud American legacy by spearheading the newest revolution in flight: Advanced Air Mobility, or AAM,” say Peter Welch and Ted Budd. This “isn’t a single technology — it’s a collection of technologies that will allow innovative aircraft, including electric, to integrate into our airspace system.” It’s a “new way to think about air transportation, from private and recreational aircraft to public services to large cargo delivery.”

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‘The meaning of the Comey indictment’

Elie Honig at Intelligencer

The “Trump administration has crossed a line,” says Elie Honig. The “wall of independence between the Justice Department and the White House, which has long stood to protect DOJ’s fearsome power to deprive individuals of their liberty, has been reduced to rubble.” Former FBI Director James Comey’s “prosecution marks a dark turn.” Nobody “can afford to be nonchalant about a federal indictment filed by prosecutors representing the United States of America.” This is “not about achieving just results. It’s about payback.”

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‘Sports are more than entertainment’

Danette Leighton at Time

Sports “build not only champions on the field, but leaders in business, government, and society,” says Danette Leighton. Decades of “evidence and lived experience make clear that when girls and women have access to sport, they gain invaluable skills and opportunities that ripple across all sectors.” The U.N. “should prioritize harnessing sport for equality worldwide.” That “means adopting policies that ensure equal access to sport, elevate women in leadership roles, and fund inclusive programs.”

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‘My sons have autism, and the stigma of blame must end’

Maura Sullivan at The Boston Globe

Parents “often search for clear, black-and-white answers on how to raise their children,” but “life, especially life with autism, is mostly lived in a gray area,” says Maura Sullivan. The “gray area of raising children with autism is not a place of division but of shared purpose.” Society can “acknowledge the experiences and fears of families by continuing to keep a wide lens on research,” but must “ensure that crucial federal funding for research and services continues.”

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