Opinion: The U.S. should follow California’s lead on banning toxic chemicals in IV bags and tubes
In 2017, at the age of 42, Susan Whitehead was diagnosed with an early form…
Category: First Opinion
Opinion: Tested in Africa, used in America
At the recent annual International AIDS Conference, a startling presentation about the newest wonder drug…
Opinion: WHO pandemic threat director: Here’s what needs to happen to combat mpox
There is a pervasive myth that the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries…
Opinion: End the ‘forced swim test’ on mice for antidepressant research
In 2022, more than 22 million Americans had serious thoughts of suicide or had made…
Opinion: What the doctors’ protests in India are missing
In early August, a doctor was raped and murdered in a Kolkata public hospital by…
Opinion: STAT+: What does the presidential election mean for ICHRA and the health insurance market?
Over the past two presidential administrations, the health care market has changed dramatically with the…
Opinion: Compounded semaglutide is an ill-defined public health crisis
I first met Jane (not her real name, of course) on a Friday afternoon in…
Opinion: STAT+: How to keep the BIOSECURE Act from hobbling U.S. biotech and pharma
In a rare display of bipartisan agreement, Congress is getting serious about addressing China’s influence…
Opinion: The surgeon general’s warning on parental mental health doesn’t go far enough
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s latest warning unearths concerning statistics about the mental health and well-being…
Opinion: Why so many patients are confused about CPR and do-not-resuscitate orders
When a patient is admitted to the hospital in the U.S., there’s a standard question…
Opinion: How much does it cost to give birth in the U.S.?
What does it cost to have a baby in the United States? This question has…
Opinion: How Pfizer ended up passing on my GLP-1 work back in the early ’90s
One of the biopharma industry’s marvels of the 2020s has been the enormous medical and…
Opinion: Breakthrough therapies have given Duchenne muscular dystrophy families like mine hope — and new fears
Duchenne muscular dystrophy has seen more progress in the past 15 months (give or take)…
Opinion: First Opinion readers on cancer screening, mpox vaccines, and more
First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and provocative articles about the life sciences…
Opinion: Gaza polio vaccination drive must include measles shots
We have each worked on childhood vaccination programs in both development and humanitarian emergency settings…
Opinion: Presidential debate moderators should ask about mental health policy
As the mom of three young adults, I am worried about their economic future —…
Opinion: The truth behind that viral study on fluoride and IQ
A version of this essay first appeared in Jess Steier’s newsletter, “Unbiased Science.” Fluoride is…
Opinion: Eight former CDC directors: Hollowing out the CDC is a prescription for disaster
As former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we are deeply concerned…
Opinion: The Snoo can’t help the people who need it most
When you have a baby, sleep becomes the holy grail. You become convinced that getting…
Opinion: Letting funding for the All of Us research program lapse will cost the U.S. far more than it saves
I was in high school when I first encountered the ruthlessness of the number one…
Opinion: The alliance between RFK Jr. and Trump all comes down to their health-related worldview
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s priorities may seem like a random grab bag of contrarianism, conspiracies,…
Opinion: Health care price regulation is undemocratic
The Biden administration recently announced that it will use taxpayer dollars to “stabilize” Medicare Part…
Opinion: Conversations about improving prenatal care must include transgender and gender diverse birthing people
I dreamed of having children from a young age — so much so that I…
Opinion: Medicare’s new transitional coverage of emerging technologies program doesn’t go far enough
Included in the original law that established Medicare in 1965 was a short but consequential…
Opinion: To stop mpox from becoming the next pandemic, we must address global vaccine inequities
In early 2022, I cared for one of the first patients with mpox in Massachusetts….
Opinion: The importance of reducing the financial burden of participating in clinical trials
Scientific advancements have helped millions of people living with cancer, heart disease, arthritis, obesity, and…
Opinion: Why Harvard, Penn, and Columbia have turned to M.D.s for leadership in troubled times
Recently, Columbia University’s president resigned after months of chaos, following in the footsteps of Harvard…
Opinion: Who should get to see the neurologist first: the sick or the at-risk?
Once a year, Jessi Keavney goes to see her neurologist. During the visit, the doctor asks if…
Opinion: STAT readers on mask bans, cancer screening, and empathy and AI
First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and provocative articles about the life sciences…
Opinion: A harm-reduction approach to eating out
Several years ago, while on a road trip, I ordered the now-discontinued spaghetti and meatballs…
Opinion: Why you may not need a checkup every year
I’m a doctor and epidemiologist, so you might expect me to be religious about preventative…
Opinion: In drug development, diversity must be extended to preclinical research
The pharmaceutical industry has long operated on a one-size-fits-all model, developing drugs primarily tested on,…
Opinion: Doing more cancer screening won’t reduce Black-white health disparities
For years, Black Americans have been more likely to die of cancer than white Americans….
Opinion: What’s going on in Joe Biden’s brain?
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday night, President Biden took the stage…
Opinion: Mask bans disenfranchise millions of Americans with disabilities
Last week, a mask ban in Nassau County, New York was signed into law. If…
Opinion: Improving the FDA-EMA parallel scientific advice program to advance complex generics
Off-patent medicines provide people with access to high-quality essential treatment options that can be significantly…
Opinion: Graphic mpox images to educate the public are deeply problematic
For the second time in three years, the WHO has declared an mpox outbreak a…
Opinion: Private equity: health care’s vampire
Private equity firms are sucking the resources out of America’s hospitals and nursing homes, and…
Opinion: First Opinion readers on Noah Lyles and Covid-19, the dearth of geriatricians, PBMs, and more
First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and provocative articles about the life sciences…
Opinion: STAT+: What the newly released Medicare prices for 10 drugs do and don’t tell us
For many of us, Thursday was Health-Policy-Wonk Festivus. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services…
Opinion: Gilead must be held accountable for the harm caused by ‘patent hopping’ an HIV treatment
Gilead Sciences, a pharma company that dominates the market for HIV treatments, agreed in June…
Opinion: HHS says it is working against climate change. But it’s really climate washing
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has stated it will do all that…
Opinion: Can AI help ease medicine’s empathy problem?
Modern medicine has an empathy problem. Artificial intelligence — done right — might be able…
Opinion: Ultra-processed foods: the tobacco of the 21st century?
At the start of the clinic where I see patients with colorectal, stomach, pancreatic, and…
Opinion: Better safety studies could restore America’s confidence in vaccines
In February 2021, I received my second Covid-19 shot — the newly developed vaccine that…
Opinion: Aspirin after a broken bone: health equity in a $5 bottle
There are few things more exciting for researchers than to mount and complete a clinical…
Opinion: Some ‘inconvenient’ truths about pharmacy benefit managers
Pharmacy benefit managers have been in the crosshairs of late, as the focus of media…
Opinion: Getting to ‘Plan B’ for psychedelic medicine: Lessons from reproductive health
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision not to approve Lykos Therapeutics’ application for MDMA (a…
Opinion: Controlling obesity is a noble goal. Controlling mpox is a far more urgent one
As a global health investor and public health advocate, I understand the benefit of weight…
Opinion: First Opinion readers respond to essays on right to try lies, pharma execs, and more
First Opinion is STAT’s platform for interesting, illuminating, and maybe even provocative articles about the…