BIAS

Trump administration targets another scientific journals

Adobe

Last week, STAT’s Anil Oza reported that the Trump administration had targeted a scientific journal for its editorial practices. That ire has now extended to one of the nation’s top medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine.

The journal’s editor in chief, Eric Rubin, received a letter from the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in which the prosecutor asked six questions, largely about alleged bias in the decision to publish unspecified content. The strategy would be in line with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who previously floated the idea of prosecuting journals, including NEJM, before taking office. 

Experts who spoke with STAT about this issue suspect that more journals may have received such letters and worry they could have a chilling effect on academic journals and publishers. Read Anil’s scoop here.

REALITY SHOW

Nora Volkow, shantay, you stay! 

The nation’s top addiction researcher can breathe a sigh of relief — for now. 

The director of the National Institutes of Health gave Nora Volkow a ringing endorsement this week at the Rx and Illicit Drug Summit in his first public remarks on the drug overdose crisis — a potential signal that her position as leader of the National Institute on Drug Abuse is secure. 

While the Trump administration has never specifically called Volkow’s credentials or job security into question, Jay Bhattacharya’s remarks come at a time of deep uncertainty for the agency. The Trump administration has dismissed the directors of five of the NIH’s 27 institutes, often via reassignment to obscure roles in different federal agencies. It dismissed numerous senior officials in the director’s office, many of whom had served for at least a decade.

The indefatigable Lev Facher has the readout on Bhattacharya’s comments. Read the story here. 

BUGS

Good news for people with Lyme disease

As someone whose life was just upended by bed bugs, I needed this story about ticks and Lyme disease from STAT’s Elizabeth Cooney. 

Lyme disease is tricky to study, tricky to treat and rapidly expanding its footprint in the United States. The hallmark chronic fatigue and brain fog of long-term Lyme disease or the joint pain of Lyme arthritis are a nightmare for the nearly 1,200 people in the U.S. who develop the disease every day. 

Two new research papers published Wednesday may offer better recognition and potentially lead to alternative treatment choices. Some cool science going on here, including how sugar carried by the ticks keeps the immune system on red alert. For further nuggets and coverage of the studies, read the story.