Are tweets free speech? Plus, adult vaccinations, ancient DNA, and more.
It’s been two days — did you miss us?
Ryan and Alexander here with your regularly scheduled “Weekly Update.” We have lots to cover so let’s hop to it…
Adult vaccinations
The complexity of adult immunization delivery may be hindering vaccine uptake, our colleague Helen Branswell writes this week.
“Beyond the cacophony of pro-vaccine and anti-vaccine arguments on Twitter, most of the country doesn’t actively think about vaccines, period," said Saad Omer, a vaccine expert who is dean of the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at the University of Texas Southwestern.
Hospital reform
Democrats have campaigned on passing health insurance reform, and then protecting it. After 20 years, they finally delivered on a promise to empower the federal government to lower drug prices in 2022. The big health care issue Democrats can’t solve? Hospital reform.
Future antibiotics in the DNA of extinct creatures
Here's a very cool story — one scientist believes the next breakthrough antibiotic might come from animals that have been dead for thousands of years. We're talking Neanderthals, giant sloths and woolly mammoths.
Cesar de la Fuente and his team use an approach called “molecular de-extinction” — a much safer, more feasible and perhaps less lucrative version of Jurassic Park. Our colleague Jason Mast takes you on this journey through time.
Are tweets free speech?
Pioneering life sciences journal eLife finds itself at the center of a white-hot furor after its governing board fired editor-in-chief Michael Eisen following his endorsement on social media of a satirical article expressing sympathy for Palestinians caught in the escalating violence in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
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At-home flu vaccine
Flu shots are totally last season. Now, it’s all about the nasal spray. People eligible to use the only needle-free flu vaccine available in the United States may be able, next year, to give it to themselves or to eligible children at home.
Rationing RSV vaccines
The CDC has recommended rationing an important monoclonal antibody product to protect young infants from RSV due to strained supply of the new product, Sanofi’s Beyfortus. The CDC alert comes as reports suggest RSV activity in the southern part of the country has reached seasonal epidemic levels, an indication that transmission elsewhere will likely climb in the coming month or two.
The Apple Watch and Parkinson’s
There is no cure for Parkinson’s disease, and treatment options can be daunting. But people with Parkinson's can now turn to technology spawned by...the Apple Watch. Over the past year, the FDA has cleared three Apple Watch apps from independent developers to track symptoms associated with the disease that can help inform treatment decisions for people and their doctors. Our colleague Mario Aguilar with a STAT special report.
$245 million for new biotech start-up
A new biotech has raised $245 million to test a new asthma medication that could compete with one sold by Amgen and AstraZeneca. The startup, Aiolos Therapeutics, was founded by former Genentech colleagues Khurem Farooq and Tony Adamis after they stumbled upon a drug being developed by Chinese pharma company Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. The two men believed there was an unmet need in asthma, and in Jiangsu’s drug, a potential game-changer.
That's all we have this week!
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