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As I pondered potential Halloween costumes, I was particularly tickled by an Instagram influencer dressed up as Elizabeth Holmes dressed up as Karen from Mean Girls (both of whom have been played by Amanda Seyfried). Send me your punny costume ideas, though no “You Can See Everything” spoilers until tomorrow.
Medicaid’s messy work requirements
Yesterday, I was in the Boston federal courthouse for a hearing on a case filed by two dozen states challenging the implementation of new Medicaid work requirements. The arguments presented echo a lot of other legal challenges to the administration’s health policy decisions.
The states argued that health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. exceeded his authority in determining who qualifies for exemptions to the work requirement, and that the way the rule was implemented is arbitrary and capricious (an argument that has also been used to challenge the administration’s vaccine policy changes and research grant terminations). The DOJ, in turn, said Congress’s writing of HR1 afforded Kennedy the latitude to make the determinations. The judge left the courtroom after an “interesting morning” saying he would rule in the coming weeks.
While I was in court, Isa Cueto was at a conference of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, taking the temperature of the people responsible for implementing those sweeping changes in just about 70 days. The vibes were frantic, she writes in a story with O. Rose Broderick. Part of the confusion lies with the fact that the midterm elections could change the makeup of Congress, which could lead to new policies or pauses. So, too, could the aforementioned lawsuit making its way through the court. The mood of the room was “very anxious,” one staffer told Isa.
A top MAHA adviser is leaving the White House
A top MAHA adviser to Kennedy is departing the Trump administration, reportedly over frustrations that the implementation of some of Kennedy’s initiatives were being stalled. Calley Means initially joined the administration to work with Kennedy at the Department of Health and Human Services, but more recently moved to a position at the White House.
“The past two years have seen historic policy and cultural change to confront the chronic disease crisis and healthcare incentives that profit from us being sick. This movement is in the first inning and just getting started,” he told Chelsea Cirruzzo. His departure just days before the midterms adds to the questions swirling around MAHA’s salience to the electorate. You may also want to revisit this profile by Isa about Means and his sister Casey (who was nominated for surgeon general before having her nomination pulled), which served as my introduction to the Meanses before they rose to MAHA royalty.
80%
That’s the percent of Americans who support an ultra-processed food labeling policy, according to an Annenberg Public Policy Center survey released yesterday.
And coincidentally, STATs Sarah Todd has a story on such a policy making its way through the Trump administration. Officials had scheduled an event in August to announce a proposed definition of ultra-processed foods, but cancelled it at the last minute. Now, more than 80 nutrition experts are signing a petition for the White House to release its definition.
The Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, led by cardiologist Dariush Mozaffarian, is scheduled to meet with the Office of Management and Budget on Friday to present the petition. Mozaffarian said that HHS wants to release a definition before the midterms, in part to notch a victory for the MAHA movement amid their aforementioned angst.
Data on Merck and Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine leaked ahead of ESMO
Our colleagues Drew and Adam are on the ground in Madrid for the European Society of Medical Oncology conference. Things are off to a quick start: an oncology news site published eagerly anticipated data from Merck and Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine trial two days before it was scheduled to be presented. The leaked numbers sent Moderna’s stock price tumbling 24%, even though the findings were generally good.
The site removed the report, and ESMO subsequently released the data, which Janice Mehnert, professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and an investigator in the INTerpath-001 study, told STAT was “very satisfying.” Beyond Adam’s story, you can revisit Jason Mast’s write up of a panel with Merck and Moderna from our STAT Summit last week, and sign up for our ESMO newsletter.
A new Huntington’s drug shows promising results
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals announced the results of a small but promising study, suggesting that its experimental drug for Huntington’s disease can partially silence the mutant gene that drives the neurological disorder. Huntington’s is the result of a three-letter repeat, and researchers have spent years attempting to lower the levels of the RNA and protein this gene produces. Several drugs have failed, and while the new drug from Alnylam seems to lower levels of that protein, it’s unclear if that will ultimately slow disease progression.
Jeff Carroll, an investigator at the Allen Institute who was not involved in the study, said the reduction in mutant huntingtin “looks great,” and “the safety signals so far look as good or better than” other similar drugs. Read more from Jason Mast and Elaine Chen here.
‘You Can See Everything’ that STAT has been thinking about this new movie
Lastly, a fun one to send you off into the weekend. It seems like everyone is talking about “You Can See Everything.” And as you can imagine, our staff had BIG feelings about the movie.
So resident cinematographer Alex Hogan brought together five of our colleagues to talk about the movie. “I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” he reports from outside his local AMC. Do watch his hourlong debrief of the movie (which I only started to avoid spoilers).
What we’re reading
Ebola outbreak in Africa reaches widest expansion ever, The New York Times
- First human death linked to recently discovered livestock virus in Europe, Science
The inherited disease my family called ‘it’ had a name, which changed everything, STAT
- This ‘living drug’ could change the course of autoimmune disease, Science News