New Covid vaccines and Harris presents her arguments

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Happy Friday! This is Isa. As a Floridian, my school year always started in mid-August, so my internal clock is set to consider this time the end of summer. I will treat this agony with mango ice cream until the pumpkin spice people kick down my front door.

Harris' “new way forward” in speech on health care reform

On Thursday, the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Harris took the stage to accept the party's nomination and mobilize voters for a “common sense” presidency that would protect health care freedoms.

“We're not going to go back to where Donald Trump tried to cut Social Security and Medicare. We're not going to go back to where he tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, when insurance companies could deny access to people with pre-existing conditions,” Harris said to applause from the crowd. (Trump has said he won't cut Social Security and Medicare and won't try to repeal the ACA “unless we can do something much better.”)

But as he did on the other nights of the four-day DNC event, Harris called voters to focus on abortion rights and Project 2025, which he has sought to distance himself from, and warned Trump that he would appoint a national abortion coordinator. “Let's be clear about how this came to be,” Harris said. “Donald Trump personally selected members of the Supreme Court of the United States to curtail reproductive freedom, and now he's bragging about it.” Read more about the upcoming battles over health care reform. —Sarah Owermohle

New Covid vaccines coming soon

The Food and Drug Administration approved the latest Covid vaccines yesterday. The widely anticipated decision comes as Covid is surging again in many parts of the country. The new vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna target the circulating omicron variant KP.2 (one of the “FLiRT” variants and a descendant of the JN.1 strain that was dominant earlier this year).

The updated Comirnaty and Spikevax vaccines have been approved for people 12 and older. Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines for children remain available under emergency use authorization for children ages six months to 11 years. Novavax is still awaiting an FDA decision on its Covid vaccine. It's worth noting that while the chances of getting long Covid have dropped since 2020 – vaccination helped – there is still a risk, including for children. Moderna and Pfizer said their updated vaccines would be available in the “coming days.”

A big number: $900 million

That's how much some major donors have given to Columbia University since 2010. Yesterday, the university announced that its medical school had received a $400 million donation to fund a new institute for basic biomedical research to be named after graduates Roy and Diana Vagelos — in addition to what the two had already donated previously. It's the largest single donation the university has ever received, STAT's Usha Lee McFarling reports.

The Roy and Diana Vagelos Institute for Basic Biomedical Science will support further research in areas such as cell engineering and gene therapy. The institute will also be another piece of Columbia that bears the Vagelos family name. Roy Vagelos, former CEO of Merck, is the child of Greek immigrants and received his medical degree from Columbia in 1954 on a fellowship. “That inspired my career, and I hope we can offer the same opportunities to others,” he said. Read more.

Unproven fibromyalgia test is taken off the market

In 2021, STAT's Eric Boodman told us about EpicGenetics, a company that used an aborted clinical trial at Mass General to sell a blood test for fibromyalgia. The FM/a test could diagnose the notoriously difficult disease with 99% accuracy, the company claimed. (Experts considered this doubtful, especially since there are no proven tests for fibro).

Three years and one lawsuit later, EpicGenetics has agreed to stop marketing and selling the FM/a test, along with another test that purported to diagnose “immunodeficiency disorders.” Fibromyalgia is very real. About 4 million adults in the U.S. suffer from it. Immunodeficiency disorders, on the other hand… not so much, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest's lawsuit. EpicGenetics invented the condition to sell its 100Sure test, the lawsuit claims. The company and its subsidiaries have denied any wrongdoing. However, there are a number of ventures associated with EpicGenetics' head Bruce Gillis' name that make particularly bold claims. Read more here.

Like clinicaltrials.gov, but for AI in healthcare

The use of artificial intelligence in hospitals is booming, but how it is monitored (if at all) depends entirely on individual health systems. Perhaps a federal registry would make sense. Some researchers want a platform like clinicaltrials.gov, but for AI tools, STAT's Casey Ross reports. The Biden administration also proposed something similar in a White House AI plan last year.

If you have seen my colleagues’ coverage of AI in healthcareyou can understand what is at stake here. The providers are trying to Automating time-consuming administrative tasks, such as documenting patient visits and responding to emails. But the next phase of AI adoption is expected to directly impact treatment decisions, an area where biases can exacerbate inequities and simple errors can lead to physical and financial harm. Without proper oversight, such use of AI tools, particularly by insurance companies seeking to increase profits, could lead to further limitations in care and even patient harm. So what would it take to build a registry and increase transparency? Casey tells us.

Just left Chow Town

Who among us hasn't ordered a large bowl of pasta (with the intention of taking a bag home) and then surprised themselves by wolfing down every single noodle? For Sophia Hua, an assistant professor of health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, the spaghetti surplus at a Denny's booth made her realize: People tend to eat and drink what's put in front of them, even if it's more than they actually wanted. For some, choosing a larger meal or drink is a way to get more for their money (RIP, endless shrimp).

This excessive consumption is a public health problem, writes Hua in a new essay in First Opinion. And it can be worked on, perhaps even to the benefit of the restaurant industry. “Although excessive weight gain is a complicated problem with myriad causes, reducing portion sizes is one harm reduction tool we have to address the problem,” writes Hua.

Pear is back on the menu

Remember Pear Therapeutics? The company pioneered FDA-approved prescription apps to treat psychiatric conditions, including substance use disorders. But Pear ran out of money and filed for bankruptcy last year.

Now the company's apps are getting a new lease on life, STAT's Mario Aguilar reports. Virtual addiction treatment company PursueCare has bought Pear's substance abuse treatment apps and is now offering them to its patients. From another perspective, tech-forward approaches like this could be part of the solution to the country's opioid epidemic, Mario says: “There's a sense that tools like apps can support people in treatment.” And tying them more directly to a treatment provider could work better than if the products were marketed individually. This takes some of the pressure off companies to make treatment apps stand-alone moneymakers. Read more.

What we read

• HIV-infected people cannot be categorically denied military service, judge rules, NBC News
• British cost-effectiveness agency gives Alzheimer's drug Leqembi a negative rating, STAT
• 9 hours of training, 24-hour shifts: Why Wisconsin struggles to find and keep assisted living workers, Journal Sentinel
• Tome Biosciences, once a successful gene editing startup, stumbles, STAT
• Nearly 60% of baby food in the US does not meet nutritional guidelines, according to a study by NPR
• Why you may not need a checkup every year, STAT