ByChelsea Cirruzzo,Helen Branswell, andElizabeth Cooney
Sept. 11, 2026
Chelsea covers the Department of Health and Human Services with a particular focus on power and influence at the top. Confidential tips can be sent via Signal at chelseacirruzzo.42.
Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development. Follow her onMastodonandBluesky. You can reach Helen on Signal at hbranswell.01.
Liz covers cardiovascular and metabolic disease, askingwhy we’re not doing betteror evenlosing groundagainst the world’s leading killer. Send tips on Signal at LizC.22.
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Good morning. Chelsea Cirruzzo here. Today we remember 25 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While I was too young to have many recollections of the attack, I did grow up in New York and vividly remember the impact it had on the people around me. So, I always take the time each year to reflect.
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Today, we’ve published aFirst Opinion essayby a thoracic surgeon in New York City who treats first responders still facing extraordinary health challenges after being exposed to the toxic aftermath of ground zero. I hope you spend time with it, too.
Trump’s $500 Obamacare promise
President Trump has promised to send $500 refund checks to nearly 1 million Americans on Affordable Care Act plans, who also happen to live mostly in swing states, with checks arriving ahead of the midterms.
The checks will only go out to people who don’t receive federal subsidies for their insurance plans — after Republicans declined to extend enhanced ACA premiums that expired at the end of last year.
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The White House said the money will help “Americans most exposed to the higher costs imposed by the Biden administration’s gross mismanagement of Obamacare.”
People are eligible for the $500 if they live in one of the30 statesthat use the federal government’s ACA marketplace, such as Ohio and Florida. It’s unclear whether only people with current coverage qualify, or whether people who had plans in the past may also get checks.
My colleagues Bob Herman and Tara Bannow havemore on the unclear legalityof the move.
Can AI catch a heart attack? The FDA thinks so
A number of artificial intelligence algorithms have promised to help identify and treat heart conditions early, but how about when a patient is actively having a heart attack? Last week, the Food and Drug Administration issued a rarede novo classificationto an algorithm from Powerful Medical that aims to help triage patients to the right care when they’re having chest pain. The vast majority of AI devices go to market through the FDA’s 510(k) clearance pathway; fewer than 10 each year receive de novo classification, which typically requires more clinical evidence.
Here’s how the new algorithm, Queen of Hearts, works:It can detect patterns indicating a patient is experiencing the most severe kind of heart attack, when a coronary artery, which supplies blood to the heart, is completely blocked off. In doing so, it can help doctors make sure a patient gets treatment as soon as possible to open up the blockage and restore oxygen to the heart.
My colleague Katie Palmerhas more on what it means for patients and doctorsif we can more quickly detect these ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction patterns with an EKG.
A valuable childhood cancer treatment with long-term implications
A platinum-based treatment for children with certain cancers can be a lifeline, but it can also cause healthy cells to mutate, potentially increasing the risk of new cancers later in life, my colleague Annalisa Merelli reports.
That’s according to a new studypublished Thursday in Science, seeking a clearer understanding of the long-term impact of platinum agents in children treated for hepatoblastoma, a rare cancer of the liver that is most commonly diagnosed in childhood.
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The study looked at children who had received platinum therapy followed by surgery to remove the tumor. Researchers sampled both healthy and cancerous liver tissue and blood from the patients and compared the results to samples from children given different treatments.
What they found were hundreds of mutations in the samples exposed to platinum, usually found in adult livers. In other words, platinum aged the liver cells of treated children, making them look more like adult liver cells.
Read onfor what this means for long-term monitoring and treatment.
Sorry to burst your (bouncy castle) bubble
What kid doesn’t love getting to carom around in a bouncy castle? But the inflated structures could be the source of skin infections, an investigation into a large outbreak of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — more commonly known as MRSA — in eastern Ireland reveals.
About four dozen children who attended a community party in August 2025 later developed skin and soft tissue lesions and abscesses caused by the bacterium, Irish public health officials reported Thursday in theonline journal Eurosurveillance.
The event, attended by about 120 adults and children, featured three bouncy castles. Many of the kids reportedly spent considerable time — hours, even — playing in them. About a quarter of the cases had symptoms beyond skin lesions, such as fever, nausea, or vomiting. Four of the infected kids were admitted to the hospital, though all recovered. One of the infected children hadn’t attended the party but had close contact with a child who had.
The MRSA outbreak is the largest on record in Ireland. —Helen Branswell
Boycott launched against Diabetes Association includes journal
In the latest escalation of members protesting how the American Diabetes Association hashandled the removal of membersfrom its June meeting, four editors of the ADA’s flagship journal will no longer review manuscript submissions. Their move is part of aboycott announced Thursdayagainst the professional organization.
Steven Kahn, the editor-in-chief ofDiabetes Care, is one of the five members who were ousted from the conference center in New Orleans for handing out copies of aneditorialpublished in the journal about federal cuts to research funding. The other editors are Cheryl Anderson of UC San Diego, John Buse of the University of North Carolina, and Elizabeth Selvin of Johns Hopkins. At issue are the expulsions, the immediate response by ADA leadership, and the summer-long review of what happened.
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“We are aware of the efforts taking place,” an ADA spokesperson said. “We remain focused on serving the millions of people counting on us to deliver on our mission.”
Kahn told STAT their actions are effectively “a strike against a major corporation.”
“Except we’re seeing this now as a boycott by members of a nonprofit organization, where the leadership of the organization is operating like a corporate board, rather than leadership of a membership organization, and the membership has said, ‘We’ve had enough,’” he said. —Elizabeth Cooney
What we’re reading
- Opinion: I’m a public health communications consultant. Pro-vaccine advocacy needs more fun,STAT
- Federal officials poised to declare end of U.S.’s largest known cyclosporiasis outbreak,the Washington Post
- Anthropic says it blocked possible efforts to build biological weapons,the New York Times
- Oz’s Medicaid fraud war room is prompting ‘aggressive’ state crackdowns,Politico
Washington Correspondent
Chelsea covers the Department of Health and Human Services with a particular focus on power and influence at the top. Confidential tips can be sent via Signal at chelseacirruzzo.42.
Infectious Diseases Correspondent
Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development. Follow her onMastodonandBluesky. You can reach Helen on Signal at hbranswell.01.
Cardiovascular Disease Reporter
Liz covers cardiovascular and metabolic disease, askingwhy we’re not doing betteror evenlosing groundagainst the world’s leading killer. Send tips on Signal at LizC.22.
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