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Hello, I’m Amanda Erickson! For the past year, I’ve been editing Morning Rounds. Now, I’ll be writing the newsletter twice a week, on Mondays and Tuesdays. I’m very excited to share the latest health and science news. I’m also eager to hear from you: tell me what you like about the newsletter, what’s not working, and what you want to see more of. (If you have any favorite medicine memoirs, send those over as well! I’m still working on my fall reading list.)
In the meantime, read on for a fascinating new poll on trust in science, a story on heart health in space, and a big number that highlights how President Trump’s immigration policies may be impacting kids’ health.
RFK Jr. will speak at conference by anti-vax group
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will deliver a keynote address at the Children’s Health Defense conference in Washington, D.C., this week. It’s something of a full circle moment for Kennedy, who ran the anti-vaccine organization from 2015 to 2024 before leaving to campaign for president.
Since joining the Trump administration, Kennedy has tried to distance himself from the organization. As my colleague Isa Cueto explains, “the CHD conference will serve as the secretary’s first public embrace of the group since he took the helm of HHS — a marked shift from January 2025, when Kennedy promised senators he would not do anything to discourage Americans from getting vaccines.”
What patients want to hear from their doctors
In exploring why trust in science has declined, one question looms large: What can medical professionals actually do when patients choose to follow unscientific advice? Having those conversations is not easy – science is complicated, and primary care doctors typically get just 20 minutes with a patient. As a pediatrician in Florida recently told public broadcaster WLRN: “What’s happening now is kind of like being a pilot, and every passenger on the plane wants to know what every button on the console does.”
New polling data from the Edelman Trust Institute and the Yale School of Public Health underscore why those conversations are so crucial. The poll asked people across 13 countries what would be important to them if a medical expert wanted them to follow a recommendation about which they had doubts. The top five answers people most often ranked as critically important or very important included some things you’d expect a doctor to do, like explaining risks and benefits and using language patients can understand, but also listening “to make sure they understand me and my life situation” and welcoming doubts and addressing them “patiently and without judgment.”
Trust, in other words, isn’t just about reciting the facts. It comes from the types of exchanges that emerge during a long-term relationship. As the CEOs of the Greenwall and Dana foundations put it in a new First Opinion on this subject: “Messaging can’t substitute for the relational infrastructure needed for building and sustaining trust.” Expect to hear more from me soon on how I’m approaching my new trust in science beat. In the meantime, story suggestions are more than welcome at [email protected]. — Nick Florko
40%
That’s the proportion of doctors who say children in their care have skipped medical appointments over the last 12 months due to fears about immigration status, according to a survey of about 2,600 pediatricians by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Another 38 percent of respondents said they weren’t sure if immigration played a role in missed appointments, “suggesting an underestimation of the families affected,” the authors wrote.
As my colleague Daniel Payne laid out earlier this year, the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement actions have resulted in patients from immigrant communities — including mothers and parents with sick children — avoiding care. Across the country, no-show rates for appointments are rising, and the number of vaccines given to immigrant populations has declined. In Dallas, for example, the local health department’s clinics gave 50% fewer back-to-school vaccinations to Hispanic children in August 2025 compared to August 2024.
Why you shouldn’t skip leg day, even in space
Space isn’t easy on the body. The lack of gravity changes the heart’s shape, the flow of fluid, and even how blood is pumped. So what’s an astronaut to do? That question has long animated Benjamin Levine, NASA’s top consulting cardiologist. In a new paper, he explores how the heart could be impacted by a six-month trip to Mars. (This is especially important since, as Levine put it: “I love the crew and the astronauts; they’re wonderful people, but they’re not particularly remarkable physical specimens.”) In an interview with STAT, Levine laid out what he learned about keeping astronauts healthy on possible journeys to (and from) the red planet.
Businesses can now apply for NIH funding
Last week, the National Institutes of Health announced an expansion of the kinds of organizations eligible for grant funding to bolster research facilities. Previously, only institutions of higher education and nonprofits could apply for this money. But now, local governments, other federal agencies, community based organizations, and, notably, for-profit businesses may access facilities funds as well.
This is part of a larger push from the Trump administration to decenter academia in the conduct of scientific research. In a May Senate hearing, NIH director Jay Bhattacharya talked about finding ways to diversify the types of institutions that receive such funding. Generally, money to support research overhead is tacked onto grants as “indirect costs.” But, as Bhattacharya put it, in the current system, institutions need to have top notch equipment to attract talent that can then win grants. “This catch-22 guarantees that our investments in institutions will be concentrated,” he said at that hearing.
Beyond NIH, the National Science Foundation has also embraced a program, called “X-Labs” that prioritizes independent research organizations, and launched a Ph.D. program that combines academic experience with experience in industry. You can read more about that program from my colleague Jonathan Wosen here, or about the administration’s broader vision for science here. — Anil Oza
A new leading cause of death for Hispanic people in the U.S.
The “Hispanic paradox” has long held that Hispanic adults in the U.S. were less likely to die from cardiovascular disease despite a higher burden of higher risk factors. Not anymore, according to a statement from the American Heart Association published this morning.
In 2022, cardiovascular disease displaced cancer as the top cause of death among U.S. Hispanics. Risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure emerge at younger ages compared to other populations, the new call to action emphasizes.
“Although some CVD outcomes historically appeared favorable, a phenomenon referred to as the Hispanic paradox, emerging evidence indicates that rising cardiometabolic burden and acculturation-related risk factors may attenuate these advantages, particularly among U.S.-born individuals,” the AHA asserts.
Why was this missed before? Treating Hispanic people — who are not always well represented in research — as a monolithic group obscured differences across heritage groups, including limited access to care that might mean underdiagnosis, the AHA said. Other explanations include selective migration to and from the U.S., differences in social support, and data limitations. — Elizabeth Cooney