As U.S. Covid deaths officially hit 1 million (a grim milestone that likely happened a few months ago), I talked with Alex Goldstein, founder of the moving @FacesOfCovid Twitter feed, this week on STAT First Opinion Podcast. bit.ly/3FZeSrT

Technology may someday eliminate barriers to health care, but it won't help the billions of people without broadband internet access or digital literacy. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Ann Aerts, MD explain how to ensure equitable access. bit.ly/39vWLOF

Scheduling an appointment at a hospital should be a private undertaking. A disconcerting analysis shows it may not be, with some hospitals sending Facebook a packet of sensitive data each time an appointment is made. bit.ly/3xqhD1y

“What’s painful is I wasn’t allowed to make that choice for myself, ... It was stolen from me.” A STAT investigation found that Black residents either leave or are terminated from training programs at far higher rates than white residents. buff.ly/3y6cihA

Vaccination against smallpox was an important advance in public health made possible in part by the exploitation of enslaved people, writes Dr. Jim Downs in a timely First Opinion essay. bit.ly/3QDQFN4

The Americans with Disabilities Act is being used to help reduce discrimination against people with substance use disorders, writes my colleague Andrew Joseph in a special report for STAT bit.ly/3OrczkM

Calling all readers and listeners: If you have a minute to share with a good book or podcast related to medicine, biotech, or the life sciences writ large for the STAT annual summer roundup, please drop it here. bit.ly/3y6Ketp

And that's before the Orange Line shutdown!

Today's First Opinion, on the culture of silence surrounding errors in medicine, marks the 3,000th STAT First Opinion 🎉 statnews.com/2022/08/17/med…

In a poignant First Opinion essay for STAT, physician Christopher Hartnick explores the wrenching choice pregnant people sometimes have to make: Do I prioritize my baby's life or mine? bit.ly/3q2gBWp

In a few weeks, the U.S. will enter its third autumn with Covid-19. STAT's Andrew Joseph and J Emory Parker is on BlueSky offer a look ahead. statnews.com/2022/09/01/a-t…

Karen Quandt's son Ty died of a rare disease before he could finish a clinical trial testing a treatment for it. She argues that the FDA needs a different mindset for evaluating rare disease trials. bit.ly/3D7eFn9

Preterm births, maternal deaths, and C-section rates are far higher in the U.S. than they should be. One way to fix that: Call the #midwives American College of Nurse-Midwives bit.ly/3MotuVd

In March 2023 I retired from STAT and the 9-5 working world. But I'm back at First Opinion for a few months while the amazing Torie Bosch Torie Bosch is out on leave. I'm on the lookout for strong op-eds focused on biotech, pharma, health care , and the life sciences.

On tax deadline day 2024, Johns Hopkins professor Marty Makary MD, MPH makes the case in a STAT First Opinion essay that nonprofit hospitals that make profits should pay taxes on them. He's got a point! statnews.com/2024/04/14/non…

Does the NIH need to be restructured? Key chairs of two Republican House committees believe so, and offer a reform and restructuring plan statnews.com/2024/06/14/nih…

Biden and Trump have avoided official cognitive testing. If the moderators of the CNN debate do their jobs well, they could reveal "major cognitive and behavioral limitations," writes the past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. statnews.com/2024/06/25/bid…

If you are a fan of The Bear and work in medicine, or know someone who does, check out the First Opinion essay today in STAT by Abraham Nussbaum on how working in a hospital is like working in a restaurant. statnews.com/2024/08/06/res…

Noah Lyles collapsed after running the 200-meter dash even though he knew he had Covid. That shouldn't have happened says bioethicist Arthur Caplan in a First Opinion for STAT statnews.com/2024/08/09/noa…

Most people volunteer, donate money or do other "prosocial" activities to help others. But it may also help the doers. I'm moderating panel on the topic at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Studio on December 5 from 1pm ET to 1:30 pm. Register here: hsph.me/altruism