— A weekly roundup of how public health policy is shaping practice
October 14, 2026 • 2 min read
Steven Quay, MD, PhD, a biopharma executive with no background in infectious diseases, is no longer being consideredopens in a new tab or window for director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (STAT)
The CDC is allocating new grant fundingopens in a new tab or window to a controversial and formerly suspended hepatitis B vaccine trial in Guinea-Bissau that experts say is unethical. (Rolling Stone)
A group of 31 Senate and House Democrats sent a letteropens in a new tab or window to CDC director Erica Schwartz, MD, MPH, JD, saying that her leadership "raises serious concerns" about her ability to fight back against unscientific healthcare decisions by the Trump administration.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is forming a workgroupopens in a new tab or window of experts to discuss how to insulate the CDC from political influence once the current administration is out of office. (New York Times)
Finally, the agency will deploy additional resourcesopens in a new tab or window to Pennsylvania to further investigate the measles outbreak there. (Reuters via MSN)
The Trump administration violated federal lawopens in a new tab or window when it withheld $78 million in research funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a Government Accountability Office report concluded. (The Hill)
The Federal Trade Commission and seven states have asked a New York judgeopens in a new tab or window to hold "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli in contempt for violating a 2022 court order banning him for life from the pharmaceutical industry. Shkreli has allegedly traded in at least 60 pharmaceutical stocks. (CNBC)
An ongoing legal battle in West Virginiaopens in a new tab or window over religious exemptions to vaccination -- with Aaron Siri leading the charge -- could be "as earth shaking as the reversal of Roe" v. Wade, should it reach the Supreme Court, experts say. (Rolling Stone)
The Trump administration has broken more than 85% of its promisesopens in a new tab or window regarding food, agriculture, and pesticides, according to a scorecard released by the Make America Healthy Again movement. (NBC News)
Investigators in HIV research networks face an uncertain futureopens in a new tab or window amid delays by the Trump administration in starting the grant renewal process. (New York Times)
The Labor Department is investigating nine universitiesopens in a new tab or window for alleged fraud related to visas for postdoc students, who make up a large part of the biomedical workforce. (STAT)
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaccine views helped kill an Agriculture Department planopens in a new tab or window to fight bird flu. (Politico)
The American Public Health Association is partnering with the Epstein Becker Green law firm to catalogue immunization lawsopens in a new tab or window across all 50 states.
Medicare beneficiaries have better access to healthcare than their peers in other countries, but more problems with affordability, according to a report from the Commonwealth Fundopens in a new tab or window.