{"id":604568,"date":"2026-04-24T23:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604568\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:54:19","slug":"big-catch-up-campaign-targets-childhood-vaccines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/604568\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Catch-Up campaign targets childhood vaccines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT\u2019s free newsletter Morning Rounds.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my birthday tomorrow.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite off-the-wall rendition of a birthday anthem? I love this version<\/a> from Black Country, New Road that I heard the other day.<\/p>\n

Trump moves on weed, psychedelics signal new era in GOP drug policy<\/p>\n

\"\"Jim WATSON \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

In the last week, President Trump has upended United States drug policy<\/a>, increasing the availability of certain psychedelics and, in a major policy shift long sought by advocates, reclassifying medical marijuana.<\/p>\n

The president did not legalize psychedelics or weed, but his orders change the way these drugs will be regulated. For weed, the move shifts state-licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I \u2014 reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse \u2014 to the less strictly regulated Schedule III. It also eases some barriers to researching cannabis. For psychedelics, the changes will also bolster research access to these substances, which have shown promise in treating various mental health conditions.<\/p>\n

Is this the most pro-drug administration? Did this all start with a text from podcaster Joe Rogan? Read more<\/a> from STAT\u2019s Lev Facher and Isabella Cueto.<\/p>\n

CMS, FDA fast-tracking reimbursement for medical devices<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just drug policy that got a big shake-up yesterday. Federal regulators announced a new Medicare coverage pathway<\/a> for devices deemed breakthroughs by the Food and Drug Administration, a bid to address long-standing industry complaints that it takes too long for Medicare to pay for innovative technology.<\/p>\n

The new pathway aims to sync the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s premarket review process, which determines whether products are safe and effective, with Medicare\u2019s independent process, which determines whether paying for devices is reasonable and necessary. If finalized, the pathway will create a quicker path to permanent coverage for device developers while addressing concerns about Medicare paying for unproven technology.<\/p>\n

But not everyone was mollified by the announcement. Read more<\/a> from STAT\u2019s Mario Aguilar and Katie Palmer, who break down the new pathway and why some experts are skeptical that it will ameliorate the problems in the medical device pipeline.<\/p>\n

I keep beating \u2014 keep, keep beating<\/p>\n

Why does cancer rarely settle in the heart? Peep the beats<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The constant pressure that the organ is under from beating thousands of times a day and pushing gallons of blood might be creating an environment that is hostile to cancers, according to a preliminary study in mice.<\/p>\n

To test their hypothesis, researchers transplanted a second heart into mice. Yes, you read that correctly: two hearts, one mouse. The transplanted heart had less mechanical stress, i.e., was pumping less blood. They then injected cancer cells into both hearts and found that cancer spread quickly in the transplanted heart, which was under less stress, but cancer rarely spread in the native heart.<\/p>\n

STAT\u2019s Anil Oza with a great write-up<\/a> of this study, whose findings could generate new approaches for cancer treatments.<\/p>\n

Molly, mushrooms, ibogaine \u2014 oh my!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Before watching this video, I had no idea how to pronounce \u2018ibogaine,\u2019 the psychedelic that has Joe Rogan in a tizzy. Do you also want to learn how to pronounce words favored by podcasters? Or, maybe more importantly, understand what\u00a0Rogan is texting Trump about? The latest STATus Report<\/a> has you covered. Alex Hogan and Daniel Payne dive further into Trump\u2019s recent actions on psychedelic policy, and what it means for mental health treatments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regeneron signs drug pricing deal, secures gene therapy approval<\/p>\n

Regeneron had a busy Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The drugmaker struck a private drug pricing deal with the Trump administration to reduce prices on drugs to Medicaid, the last of 17 deals initially sought by the White House last year. The company also agreed to invest $27 billion in drug development in the United States. Health officials promised more drug pricing agreements in the near future, specifically targeting smaller pharma companies.<\/p>\n

Regeneron also announced FDA approval of Otarmeni, the first gene therapy to be greenlit under the agency\u2019s new National Priority Voucher program. In early trials, the drug provided modest hearing gains for people with a rare type of hearing loss, though its development has received pushback<\/a> from parts of the Deaf community. Regeneron plans to offer the drug at no cost to American patients.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a> from STAT\u2019s Daniel Payne and myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

International childhood vaccine campaign grows<\/p>\n

A multiyear campaign to rectify the damage the Covid-19 pandemic did to immunization efforts in developing countries has delivered more than 100 million vaccinations to 36 countries.<\/p>\n

New data released Thursday suggest the Big Catch-Up campaign has vaccinated at least 18.3 million children under the age of 5, and appears to be on track to hit its goal of 21 million children when the final tally is calculated. Importantly, 12.3 million of them were what are known as \u201czero dose children\u201d \u2014 kids who\u2019d previously received no vaccinations. The program, which began in 2023, was conducted by the WHO; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and UNICEF.<\/p>\n

Kate O\u2019Brien, WHO\u2019s director of immunization, vaccination, and biologics, said one of the pluses of the campaign is that countries are now monitoring vaccination coverage in kids up to the age of 5. Previously monitoring stopped after the age of 2 in many countries, an approach that all but assured that children who were missed in their first two years of life would remain unvaccinated. \u2014 Helen Branswell<\/p>\n

What we\u2019re reading<\/p>\n

The \u2018Make America Healthy Again\u2019 movement is cooling on Trump and Republicans, New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Weekly ER visits for tick bites higher than usual, CDC<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA punch in the gut\u201d: After years of waiting, many opioid victims will be shut out of Purdue settlement, ProPublica<\/a><\/p>\n

Food stamp work rules don\u2019t increase employment, researchers say,\u00a0KFF Health News<\/a><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the word? Test your knowledge with today\u2019s STAT Mini crossword<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get your daily dose of health and medicine every weekday with STAT\u2019s free newsletter Morning Rounds.\u00a0Sign up here.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-604568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}