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Hello, Morning Rounds readers! It’s officially June, which means we’re now in my birthday month. Stop, stop, don’t all rush in to wish me a happy birthday!
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover today, including news from my world — the drug industry — about how much a forthcoming Medicare program for GLP-1 medications will cost, as well as updates on Ebola from Helen Branswell, Daniel Payne, and Chelsea Cirruzzo.
Trump administration proposes overhaul of grant-making process
The Trump administration has released a sweeping proposal to overhaul the bedrock regulation for all federal grants, and in doing so is seeking to codify tighter political control of federally funded research.
STAT’s Anil Oza digs into the proposed changes, which would deemphasize the role of peer review in determining what work to fund, limit the ability of scientists to use federal funds to publish their research or travel to conferences, and offer political appointees more latitude to terminate grants at will.
Administration officials have said the changes are necessary to make government-funded science more transparent and to cut back on waste, fraud, and abuse. Many in the scientific research community disagree, characterizing the changes as the White House attempting to usurp autonomy from scientists and career civil servants.
CDC says containing the spread of Ebola is top priority
Top officials in the Trump administration have made clear that their priority in the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has been ensuring Ebola patients — or even people at risk of having contracted the virus — do not set foot in the United States, even if they are American.
But during a press conference on Friday, the CDC struck a different tune.
Helping to contain the spread of the dangerous virus at the source is the agency’s key priority, incident manager Satish Pillai told reporters. Supporting the affected countries and neighboring nations at risk was No. 2 on Pillai’s list. In position No. 3 was shoring up U.S. domestic readiness, should an Ebola case arrive on U.S. soil. Pillai described the risk to Americans as “very low.”
He said 236 CDC staff are involved in the response at present and many more have expressed eagerness to volunteer. “People want to help,” Pillai said. As of Friday, there have been 1,040 confirmed and suspected cases in the two countries — the lion’s share in the DRC — and 251 deaths. — Helen Branswell
Trump administration disregarded infectious disease playbook addressing Ebola
When President Biden left office in January 2025, his administration left behind an extensive plan for how the federal bureaucracy should address and work to prevent future disease outbreaks, including Ebola. The Trump administration, though, has disregarded the plan in favor of its own game plan, which officials said has led to a faster, more comprehensive response than any other country.
The shift in federal planning probably slowed the response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak, former officials said, at a time when speed is critical to saving lives and containing the disease.
Here’s an example: Three senior Biden officials — Maj. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, Raj Panjabi, and Stephanie Psaki — pointed to Trump’s intention to quarantine and treat American citizens in Kenya as a key deviation from the earlier plans, which focused on how to bring Americans home for treatment, as happened in the past. Read more from Daniel and Chelsea.
CEPI offers up funding for three vaccine candidates
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations this morning said it had allocated funding to three efforts to develop a vaccine for the Bundibugyo Ebola strain that is behind the current outbreak. The support will help the preclinical work, early clinical testing, and manufacturing of the vaccine candidates.
The three groups behind the vaccines are IAVI, which is designing an immunization similar to an approved vaccine for Ebola Zaire; Moderna, which is working on an mRNA shot; and the University of Oxford, which has a manufacturing partnership with the Serum Institute of India. Some of the Oxford scientists working on the Ebola vaccine were also behind a Covid-19 shot that was developed with AstraZeneca.
Medicare still won’t say how much covering obesity drugs will cost
Medicare is advertising that adults 65 and older can get Wegovy and Zepbound, specifically for weight loss, starting in July for $50 a month. But the agency still is not sharing how much this will cost taxpayers, who will foot most of the bill.
The drugs’ coverage comes through an 18-month-long program that kicks off on July 1. It’s expected that the temporary coverage of obesity medications, which sidesteps federal law, will unleash millions of new patients and billions of dollars in revenue for the drugs’ manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
My colleague Bob Herman has been asking the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services multiple times how much the agency’s actuaries and experts predict the program will cost over its 18-month duration. But so far, officials haven’t given an estimate.
Where are all the diverse doctors?
For more than two decades, medical schools have worked hard to diversify their student base. So, why aren’t we seeing more diversity among physicians? Vanessa Grubbs, a nephrologist and internist and founder of the nonprofit Black Doc Village, writes in a First Opinion column that the problem may lie with residency programs.
A national study of more than 1,700 resident physicians led by Grubbs found that Black trainees were significantly more likely than their non-Black peers to report negative disciplinary experiences. She contends that program standards are often applied more harshly to trainees from diverse backgrounds.
Avid STAT readers will recall our former colleague and friend-of-STAT Usha Lee McFarling’s excellent reporting on how Black doctors are forced out of training programs at much higher rates than white residents. Grubbs’ First Opinion is a must-read follow-up on the subject.
Malaise grips recruitment of military doctors
A critical component of American military readiness is being overlooked: the supply and recruitment of military physicians. The Army, Navy, and Air Force medical corps have struggled to recruit enough medical professionals to replace those leaving service. And a 2024 study found that a larger-than-expected proportion of physicians are leaving after fulfilling their service obligations, citing pay disparity, administrative burden, and clinical skill degradation as key drivers.
Robert Krasner proposes reforming the system to help recruitment and retention. Lest you forget, the Association of American Medical Colleges is projecting a physician shortage of up to 86,000 by 2036. So, the military is competing over a shrinking pool of talent. Read more here.
What we’re reading
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‘Devastating impacts’: Mass. scientists urge state to invest millions to help offset federal cuts, The Boston Globe
- The hidden history of BPC-157, a favorite MAHA peptide, STAT co-publishing with Undark
- Carbon health approved for AI-focused bankruptcy turnaround plan, Bloomberg