June 18, 2025
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Morning Rounds Writer and Podcast Producer
For women, Audre Lorde wrote, poetry is not a luxury. Rather, it is "a vital necessity of our existence." Here's a poem I read this week: "Overwhelm" by Joy Harjo, in the New Yorker. Tomorrow is Juneteenth, and the newsletter is off. I hope you read a poem instead. The newsletter is back on Friday, and I'll be back next week.

politics

CDC leaders tout ‘myth-busting’ and ‘resilience’ at first all-hands meeting

In their first all-staff meeting since the start of the Trump administration, interim leadership at the CDC attempted to sidestep controversy and rally troops at the demoralized agency yesterday, STAT’s Helen Branswell reports. 

Staff were told that the nominee to lead the agency, Susan Monarez, has begun meeting with senators in advance of a still-unscheduled Senate confirmation hearing. They were also informed that the June ACIP meeting will be shorter than anticipated because the eight new members of the vaccine advisory committee are not yet in a position to deal with all the agenda items. Read more on what was discussed from Helen, who got a full recording of the tightly scripted hour-long meeting.

environment

More microplastics, more problems

If you’ve been worried about reports that human brains contain microplastic particles that may be causing harm, there’s more to be concerned about. A new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association finds that living near the ocean — because of the microplastics in sea air, in groundwater sources near the sea, and in seafood — may increase your risk of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke. 

Researchers analyzed the concentration of microplastics in 152 coastline counties in the U.S. and found that residents living in counties with the highest plastics contamination had higher disease rates. The finding is supported by research that shows that micro- and nanoplastics can damage health by causing oxidative stress, inflammation, and cell death. People with high exposure to microplastics have been found to have decreased cardiac output and excessive scar tissue formation in the heart. While the study authors aren’t warning people away from the beach, they said future research could investigate what levels of plastic exposure could lead to highest risk and could help mitigate what they call an “emerging environmental hazard.” — Usha Lee McFarling 

food

Kraft Heinz yields on artificial dyes

Kraft Heinz will pull artificial dyes from its U.S. products starting in 2027, AP reports, and will also stop making new products with the dyes. The company said yesterday that almost 90% of its products here already avoid food, drug, & cosmetic colors — the synthetic additives approved by the FDA for use in those products — and those that do will have them removed by the end of 2027.

It’s a short timeline compared to the five to 10 years that many companies and industry representatives have said it would take to build up the supply of natural dyes, STAT’s Sarah Todd pointed out to me. Companies have also said changes like these would lead to even higher food prices, since natural dyes are more expensive. Sarah will be tracking how it all plays out, so keep an eye out for future reporting. For now, read more on the announcement from AP. 

policy

Trump officials say they support psychedelics. So what will they do?

Magic mushrooms on a white surface

Adobe 

In the lead up to the presidential election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared online that the FDA’s “aggressive suppression of psychedelics” was about to end. Now, he and several influential players in the Trump administration who have voiced support for psychedelics as a potential mental health treatment are in a position to make that happen, and their comments have buoyed hopes among companies, advocates, and investors in the field. But whether statements of support will translate into actual FDA approvals is up for debate, STAT’s Olivia Goldhill and Meghana Keshavan report.

“There’s a variety of things they could do, but I’ve no idea what they will do,” Mason Marks, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, said of administration officials. Read more from Olivia and Meghana on some of the possibilities, including the acceleration of approval for MDMA as PTSD treatment, the issuance of emergency use authorizations for psilocybin, and even the rescheduling of the drug to a less restrictive level. 

emergency care

CPR works differently for people who overdose, study says

People who enter cardiac arrest in connection with an opioid overdose may have better neurologic survival after receiving CPR that includes mouth-to-mouth rescue breaths, as opposed to compression-only CPR, a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open has found.

If you’ve gotten CPR-certified in the last 15 years, you know that chest compressions have been increasingly prioritized over mouth-to-mouth breathing assistance. International guidance now recommends bystanders initiate compression-only CPR when someone nearby enters cardiac arrest. But in recent years, some experts and organizations like the American Heart Association have recommended that CPR on someone who has overdosed actually should include those rescue breaths, due to the way overdose can induce respiratory arrest and low levels of oxygen in the blood. But there’s been little to no research to provide evidence for this proposal.

For the new study, researchers analyzed almost 11,000 episodes of cardiac arrest that occurred outside hospitals in British Columbia. CPR including both compressions and breathing was associated with better outcomes in opioid-associated cardiac arrests, but not in other instances of cardiac arrest. More research is needed, and potentially more education — as the authors point out, making CPR recommendations more complicated could potentially mean fewer bystanders will intervene at all.

inequality

Federal records have been miscounting Native American & Alaska Native deaths

The gap between the overall U.S. life expectancy and that of Native American and Alaska Native people is even wider than official statistics from the Census and CDC have calculated, a study published earlier this week shows. In reality, Native Americans and Alaska Natives have a life expectancy of under 73 years, which is closer to how long somebody in El Salvador lives (to age 72) than the overall life expectancy in the U.S. (which is 78).

The difference, STAT’s Marissa Russo explains, is a result of race and ethnicity data being misreported on death certificates. “What you have is the statistical equivalent of unmarked graves for thousands of American Indians who have died but are not observed in vital statistics as having died as American Indians,” said Jacob Bor, an associate professor at Boston University School of Public Health. Read more from Marissa.

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What we're reading

  • A brain-dead Georgia woman is set to be taken off of life support after her baby was delivered, The 19th

  • Thousands, including my husband, died because of tainted blood. I’m afraid it could happen again, STAT
  • How Trump's travel ban could disrupt the way knowledge about health is shared, NPR
  • George W. Bush drops by BIO, and so does the FDA commissioner, STAT

Thanks for reading! More next time,