FDA CBER, ACA grant impact, cyclosporosis: morning rounds
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Good morning. I dedicate the first article of today’s newsletter to a friend who suffers from what she suspects is cyclosporosis. Please feel free to forward this email to your friends who need information but are afraid to engage in online discussions about the outbreak.
What you need to know about the parasitic diarrhea epidemic
You’ve probably seen the memes about a parasitic disease called cyclosporosis, better known for its intestinal upset and diarrhea. As of yesterday, 1,645 cases were laboratory-confirmed in the United States, and more than 5,100 are awaiting further analysis, according to the department. CDC — significantly higher than normal. Federal health officials still don’t know what type(s) of products or suppliers the outbreak may be linked to, but they will now offer updates “at least weekly,” according to Gwen Biggerstaff of the agency’s Division of Food, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases.
Part of the difficulty in tracing potential sources of illness is that it can take up to two weeks after exposure for symptoms to appear. Officials in Michigan (one of four states the CDC suspects of being part of a major cluster in the outbreak) issued a tentative warning this week that lettuce or green salad may be involved. THE Washington Post reported yesterday that Taco Bell was under investigation. Typically, federal officials advise people to rinse and cook their fresh produce before consuming it to stay safe. Learn more in a new first-opinion essay explaining why we still don’t know the source of the outbreak and how consumers can randomly fill the information gap.
The consequences of ending ACA supplemental subsidies
The nation’s largest hospital chain yesterday lowered its profit outlook for the year after treating more uninsured patients than expected in the second quarter. Many of those patients had dropped out of their Affordable Care Act plans after losing the enhanced subsidies, HCA Healthcare said, an early indicator of the fallout from the expiration of the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits in January.
The company said it lost about $400 million in revenue due to the expiration of ACA subsidies in the second quarter alone. Learn more from STAT’s Tara Bannow on what this means for hospitals’ future profits, especially with looming Medicaid work requirements.
“I am with you on planet Earth”
It was Karim Mikhail, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, speaking to staff at a recent town hall meeting. It’s not something a federal official would normally need to say explicitly, but former CBER leader Vinay Prasad was a happy-go-lucky leader who operated decidedly outside the norm. Learn more from STAT’s Lizzy Lawrence on Mikhail’s more balanced approach to drug regulation and how he’s been received by staff so far.
Scientists reject proposed changes to grant funding
In late May, the White House released a radical proposal to overhaul the way federal grants and contracts are distributed. The new rules would allow the Trump administration to ignore the recommendations of peer reviewers, end grants at will and exercise more discretion in the type of research supported by federal agencies. Nearly half a million public comments were submitted on the proposal before Monday’s deadline. An analysis of some of those comments, conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina in partnership with STAT, found that 95 percent of them opposed the changes.
“When you find yourself in a place where with every new administration you’re going to start all over again based on your priorities, you’re not going to be able to catch up with China,” said Sudip Parikh, head of a prominent advocacy group. “You will not be able to cure the disease and you will not be able to grow the economy. » The administration is required to respond to substantive public comments, although it is not required to incorporate those comments. Learn more from STAT’s Anil Oza and J. Emory Parker about the overwhelming opposition to the proposal and what could happen next.
90%
This is the percentage of infants worldwide who received at least one dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine last year, according to annual estimates from WHO and UNICEF. Eighty-five percent completed a full three-dose series. Both figures represent a slight increase from 2024, but remain below 2019 levels. Even though fewer children received no injections, more children started the series but did not complete it.
What we read
- Majority of new Ebola cases in eastern Congo come from unknown channels, as outbreak outpaces response, AP
- Tia promises women better, personalized healthcare. Patients report missed pregnancies, surprise bills and alternative medicine upsells, LA Public Press
- A new biotech startup is trying to fight obesity, but not in the way you might expect, STAT
- Could this mysterious, disappearing organ hold the key to longevity? Nature
- Exclusive: Medicare Advantage Insurers Face New Bipartisan Scrutiny Over AI and Care Denials, STAT
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
