Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is scheduled to deliver a keynote at the Children’s Health Defense conference in Washington, D.C. The group is widely characterized as anti-vaccine, and Kennedy formerly ran the organization from 2015 to 2024 before leaving to run for president.
Since joining the administration, Kennedy has attempted to distance himself from the organization. STAT reporting notes this appearance will be his first public embrace of the group since taking the helm of HHS, a change from January 2025 when he told senators he would not discourage Americans from getting vaccines.
New polling from the Edelman Trust Institute and the Yale School of Public Health highlights components of communication people value when they have doubts about a medical recommendation. Top-ranked priorities included explaining risks and benefits, using language patients can understand, listening to patients’ life situations, and addressing doubts patiently and without judgment.
The polling underscores that building trust in science depends on relational exchanges over time rather than only on message delivery. Clinicians face practical constraints — for example, primary care visits often last about 20 minutes — which complicates in-depth conversations when patients follow unscientific advice. The reporting emphasizes that simple factual recitation is insufficient without a relational infrastructure that supports sustained, empathetic dialogue.
A survey of roughly 2,600 pediatricians, reported in Pediatrics, found that 40% said children in their care had missed medical appointments over the past 12 months because of fears related to immigration status. Another 38% of respondents said they were unsure whether immigration influenced missed appointments, which the study authors suggested could indicate underestimation of the affected families.
STAT reporting connects these findings to broader trends: aggressive immigration enforcement has been associated with rising no-show rates and declines in vaccinations among immigrant communities. One local example cited was a Dallas public-health clinic that administered 50% fewer back-to-school vaccinations to Hispanic children in August 2025 compared with August 2024.
Microgravity and long-duration spaceflight alter cardiovascular physiology: the heart’s shape can change, fluid distribution shifts, and pumping dynamics are affected. Benjamin Levine, NASA’s consulting cardiologist, examined potential cardiac impacts of a six-month mission to Mars in a new paper and discussed implications in an interview with STAT.
Maintaining cardiovascular conditioning and muscle strength is therefore important for astronaut health during extended missions. Levine emphasized practical concerns about protecting cardiac function in those environments, noting the unique physiological challenges that spaceflight poses.
The National Institutes of Health announced an expansion of eligibility for certain facilities funds intended to bolster research infrastructure. Historically, those facilities grants were available mainly to institutions of higher education and nonprofits. Under the new guidance, local governments, other federal agencies, community-based organizations, and for-profit businesses may now access these facility-support funds.
This policy change aligns with an administration priority to diversify where and how federally supported research is conducted, reducing the centrality of traditional academic institutions. NIH director Jay Bhattacharya has described the status quo as a “catch-22” in which only institutions that already have top-tier equipment attract talent that can win grants, thereby concentrating investment. The expanded eligibility is presented as an attempt to break that cycle and widen the pool of institutions that receive infrastructure support.
Complementary moves outside NIH include National Science Foundation programs that prioritize independent research entities, such as the “X-Labs” initiative, and an NSF-supported Ph.D. program designed to combine academic training with industry experience. These efforts together illustrate a broader shift in policy toward enabling nonacademic entities to play larger roles in federally funded research.
The American Heart Association issued a statement reporting that, in 2022, cardiovascular disease surpassed cancer as the leading cause of death among Hispanic people in the United States. The AHA highlighted rising burdens of obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure that appear at younger ages in this population, and noted that acculturation-related risk factors may be diminishing previously observed advantages sometimes referred to as the “Hispanic paradox.”
The AHA suggested that treating Hispanic people as a single group in research obscures differences among heritage groups, and that limited representation in research and barriers to care can lead to underdiagnosis. Other factors cited include selective migration patterns, social-support differences, and data limitations that may have masked earlier trends.
The roundup lists several items STAT and other outlets recommend: STAT reporting on problems with Medicare’s AI prior-authorization pilot; a Boston Globe feature on parents using AI to help diagnose a child’s illness; a new CDC report on Americans’ fruit and vegetable consumption; The Marshall Project’s reporting on changing ICE treatment of transgender women; and a STAT archive piece on hospitals preparing for Medicaid cuts.