September 21, 2026
Amanda-Erickson-avatar-staff-412x412
News Editor

I asked and you delivered ... some great reading recommendations, including “Legacy” by Uche Blackstock and “Healing” by Theresa Brown. I’m adding both to my list, along with “The Emperor of All Maladies” (which has four new final chapters!). My own suggestion in return: I recently finished “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” a deep dive on a Laotian family trying to navigate the American medical system.

In today’s newsletter: new vaccine "demands" from Trump and a relatively simple way to gather more information on drug safety during pregnancy.

the midterms

Can RFK Jr. help Republicans win in November? GettyImages-2294075430-1600x900

Blake Fagan / AFP via Getty Images

To answer that question, STAT’s Chelsea Cirruzzo trained her gaze on Iowa, where the health secretary campaigned with gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn. Lahn, who is running behind in the polls, has been touting Kennedy’s recent visit, saying “RFK Jr.’s story is one that I have long admired.”

Kennedy has stopped in other states too. It makes sense, Chelsea explains, because Kennedy is one of Trump’s most popular cabinet secretaries, and his Make America Healthy Again agenda could cut through voters’ dissatisfaction about the economy and the war in Iran. “Kennedy has made clear that his mission could be threatened by the upcoming elections, and he has been trying to bring his message to voters,” Chelsea writes. Could it work? Read on. 

addiction

The gas station drug creating a withdrawal crisis

Stop off at a gas station and you’ll likely find kratom on the shelves. The drug is often sold as a powder made from dried leaf, and promises better mood and pain relief.

But a new, potent version is sweeping the streets, redesigned to act more directly on the brain’s opioid receptors. The result is a much more addictive substance with more intense withdrawal symptoms. “We’re basically treating it as if it’s fentanyl or oxycodone or heroin,” said Myles Jen Kin, who runs two inpatient recovery centers. How are Jen Kin and others dealing with an “explosion” in new cases at their clinics? Read more from fellow Morning Rounder Theresa Gaffney.

confessions

‘I know what it means to be searching for an explanation’

nick-1600x900

Camille MacMillin/STAT 

In a provocative new essay for STAT, reporter Nick Florko gets personal. “When health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks about the chronic disease epidemic ravaging America’s young, I am one of the people he is speaking about,” he writes, explaining that at 34, he is overweight and already suffering from high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and “ADHD so bad I often forget to brush my teeth in the morning.”

Nick writes that his own sometimes desperate search for answers has helped him understand what drives people to become skeptical of — and alienated from — the health system. “The more illuminating question isn’t whether people trust scientists,” he writes, “but rather what happens when scientific knowledge collides with emotions like fear, confusion, and frustration.” Read more on how Nick’s experience will inform his work as STAT’s first trust-in-science reporter.

And check out a new STATus Report on why trust in science matters, anyway.

vaccines

President Trump's newest vaccine 'demands'

A day after health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised that parents concerned about vaccines had a “friend” in the White House, President Trump said he’ll be “demanding” that drug companies split up their combined vaccines.

“I think we are going to see a massive reduction in autism,” Trump said in the Oval Office Friday, repeating the debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. 

Last month, Trump signed an executive order recommending fewer pediatric vaccines and calling for the combined measles, mumps, and rubella injection to be split into three shots. But on Friday, he went further, saying drug companies should only have “20%” of their doses in their shots, suggesting that children receive up to five injections of a single vaccine over time.

He also teased a forthcoming announcement by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. — Chelsea Cirruzzo

Trials and tribulations

We need more information on medication in pregnancy. This fix could help

Nearly every drug trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the Phase 2 to 4 tests underway. It’s a helpful tool for patients seeking a trial to join. But right now, there’s no easy way for pregnant and lactating people to find trials that will accept them.

That’s a problem — we need more data on how drugs interact (or don’t) with pregnancy. In a new First Opinion, three Brown professors argue that ClinicalTrials.gov should add a field to the eligibility criteria that flags whether a study enrolls pregnant or lactating women. “Improving ClinicalTrials.gov isn’t a panacea for the gaps in pregnancy data,” they write. “But it’s a straightforward and inexpensive improvement.” Read more.

More around STAT