Not all heroes wear capes. local12.com/news/local/n...

NEW: A Bay Area startup plans to grow nonsentient "organ sacks" as a replacement for animal experimentation. But the plans don't stop there. “If we can create a nonsentient, headless bodyoid for a human being, that will be a great source of organs,” one investor tells @emilymullin.bsky.social.

NEW from me and @leahfeiger.bsky.social: ICE is in the airports as funding for TSA remains frozen. And like I said in an earlier post: if you're at the airport and seeing ICE, @wired.com wants to know. DM me here or on Signal at Vittoria 89.82 www.wired.com/story/ice-in...

SCOOP: Biotech startup R3 Bio has a bold idea for replacing lab animals: genetically-engineered 'organ sacks' that lack a brain. The long-term goal, says one of the company's cofounders, is to make human versions. www.wired.com/story/a-bill...

Back in the fall, we wrote about biotech entrepreneur/former Thiel fellow Cathy Tie's new company to edit human embryos: www.wired.com/story/startu... Now she's apparently shut down that company due to a "cofounder conflict" and created a new one: www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...

@statnews.com conducted a national survey of NIH-funded researchers and found that, a year after Trump's return, many scientists are reeling, with some closing labs entirely. ‘This is like the Titanic,' one respondent told me. For full details, see our special report www.statnews.com/2026/03/19/n...

This is why it’s important to have a very high measles vaccination rate within a community. This immunocompromised teenager, who was fully vaccinated, ended up on life support after getting measles. abcnews.com/Health/teen-...

Huge thank you to all *checks notes* 200,000 of you who subscribed in the last year! Extremely proud of my colleagues and to be part of Team @wired.com www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/b...

An HHS official tells me that this week's ACIP meeting is postponed due a federal judge's ruling that blocks RFK Jr.'s vaccine changes. www.prnewswire.com/news-release...

Believing the point of Wired—or journalism at large—is to give ideas for venture capitalists to invest in is bafflingly ahistorical and narcissistic.

Is America healthy yet? www.usatoday.com/story/money/...

"Russian flu," the pandemic that hit in 1977, bears an evolutionary signature of having emerged from a lab, perhaps as part of a failed vaccine effort. Covid, mpox, Ebola, and other influenza pandemics don't. Here's my story on a new way to trace the origins of pandemics. Gift link: nyti.ms/46N0W33

Costco is partnering with telehealth company Sesame (where Marty Makary was an exec before joining the FDA) and fertility group IVI RMA North America to offer IVF medications to members at an 80% discount: www.glamour.com/story/costco...

The number of people employed at the NIH is at its lowest level in at least two decades. Hear from six scientists run out by Trump and the work they left behind on cancer research, tick-borne diseases, and more. Me + @k-hought.bsky.social @kffhealthnews.org for @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/03/05/h...

Exactly: "shared clinical decision-making" arose in the 1980s in reaction to paternalistic med. Typically used for complex med. decisions, not safe & effective vaccines. Annenberg poll in Aug.: 1-in-5 thought it means "taking the vaccine may not be a good idea for everyone but would benefit some."

This is the most bizarre interaction I've ever had with an HHS spokesperson. From my story on CDC's pivot to "shared-decision making" for vaccines, with insight from @jennifernuzzo.bsky.social and @jakescottmd.bsky.social: www.wired.com/story/why-rf...

I would just like to state, for the record, that I am in no way related to Markwayne Mullin.

there's a lot going on right now but did you know a massive amount of the world's fertilizer flows through the middle east, and did you know that that fertilizer needs to be shipped to the us *right now* for planting season, and uh did you know we are at war with iran

Autism researcher Uta Frith no longer believes that autism is a spectrum. "Because of various cultural factors, the spectrum has gone on being more and more accommodating," she says. "And I think now it has come to its collapse." Really interesting interview: www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

Rodney Gorham recently passed a milestone that few people have reached. He’s had an implanted brain-computer interface for five years. Gorham is now the longest-implanted participant in a trial by Neuralink competitor Synchron. My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/synchr...

“Almost all of the most viral posts reviewed by WIRED on Saturday came from accounts with blue check marks, meaning they…could be eligible to earn money based on how much engagement their posts generate, even if the content is false.” From @davidgilbert.bsky.social

Journalism job alert: @wired.com is hiring an experienced politics writer. I might be biased, but WIRED is doing some of the best political coverage out there. This is your chance to join our amazing newsroom! condenast.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/CondeC...

Every time I write about measles, experts warn that polio is next. But it's been so long since we had polio outbreaks, there are very few doctors who even know how to treat its long-term health issues. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

RFK Jr.’s Deputy Director of the CDC, Ralph Abraham, who said that the measles outbreak was merely “the cost of doing business” has just stepped down from his position. Before being installed at the CDC, he ordered the Louisiana Health Department to stop promoting vaccination.

The CDC has had a Senate-confirmed director for all of one month of Trump's second term. NIH director Jay Bhattacharya will now run both temporarily. One source I spoke to said that's like “asking someone to manage live flight traffic while also designing the planes.” www.wired.com/story/the-cd...

This is the unfortunate fallout when a major magazine fails to label fiction as such. Rogers is a member of RFK Jr.'s new autism committee.

A 2023 law change made the CDC director position subject to Senate confirmation starting January 20, 2025. If the administration just keeps cycling through temporary leaders, they don't need Senate confirmation and can keep pushing through their vaccine agenda. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...

Diabetes and obesity meds are a rapidly increasing health care expense for employers. Some are looking for alternatives to help workers go off pricey GLP-1s or avoid them altogether. Enter the AI digital twin. www.wired.com/story/ai-dig...

NEW: Another NIH institute director hasn't been renewed — the director of NIAMS (arthritis, musculoskeletal and skin diseases institute). That leaves a whopping 15 of 27 institutes and centers without a permanent director.

I checked out realfood.gov, the new government website from Mike Tyson's Super Bowl ad. It encourages people to use Grok to "get real answers about real food," yet Grok's advice conflicts with the administration's own nutrition messaging. My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/rfk-jr...

I talked w/ uniformed health workers about their deployments to prisons where ICE holds immigrants. ICE's operation is especially secretive at Guantanamo -- the place where America flouted its own rules to torture detainees post 9/11. @wired.com and @kffhealthnews.org (no paywall)

While reporting this, I had something happen that's never happened. A comms rep for one of the co's disputed my reporting and said what I was telling them was untrue because it was not in Grok, xAI's chatbot. I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.

One thing to keep in mind: We don't know how many hospitalizations and cases of encephalitis there are because South Carolina doesn't require those to be reported, only measles cases. The state *knows* about 19 hospitalizations (out of 876 total cases) but that could be higher.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has issued an epidemiological alert about measles outbreaks, including ours. PAHO is “calling on countries to intensify epidemiological surveillance, vaccination, and rapid outbreak response…to interrupt transmission and protect vulnerable populations”.

NEW: South Carolina's measles outbreak has reached 876 cases, and for the first time, the state has confirmed encephalitis—brain swelling—in some children who have gotten measles. Encephalitis can cause long-term neurological damage, including intellectual disability. www.wired.com/story/measle...

NEW: HHS is working on an AI tool to find patterns in VAERS—the national vaccine injury claims system that allows anyone to submit a report—and generate hypotheses. RFK Jr. has repeatedly made calls to reform VAERS, including in his book. My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...

As Trump’s mass deportation program unfolds, immigration policy and enforcement is shifting fast. That’s why we’re launching Tracker, a limited-series newsletter navigating what’s happening and what’s next. Sign up for free: www.wired.com/newsletter/I...

SCOOP: Palantir's AI has been deployed at HHS since last March to audit grants, grant applications, & job descriptions for anything related to "DEI" or "gender ideology" The goal was to ensure compliance with 2 of Trump's executive orders: www.wired.com/story/hhs-is...

In 16 weeks, the South Carolina measles outbreak has surpassed the total number of cases reached in the West Texas outbreak over the course of seven months.

NEW: China's brain-computer interface industry is growing fast. For @wired.com, I got the scoop on the country's latest startup: www.wired.com/story/this-c...

Palantir employees are pressing company leadership over its work for ICE in internal company Slacks obtained by @wired.com "In my opinion ICE are the bad guys. I am not proud that the company I enjoy so much working for is part of this." Scoop from @makenakelly.bsky.social

The South Carolina measles outbreak is now up to 700 confirmed cases since October. Another 485 people are in quarantine: dph.sc.gov/news/friday-...

2026 is likely to be another bad year for measles. South Carolina has already reported 400+ new cases in January, stemming from an outbreak that began in October. For comparison, the US logged 32 cases of measles in January 2025. My latest for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/the-us...

Nobody asked for this. www.theinformation.com/articles/app...

NEW: ICE documents reviewed by @wired.com show plans to open a detention center in Appleton, MN, to detain people from five states. @dell.bsky.social reports: www.wired.com/story/ice-de...

In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jiankui shocked the world when he revealed that he had made the first gene-edited babies by altering their DNA at the embryo level. Now, He wants to do more human embryo experiments. I interviewed him for @wired.com's new China issue: www.wired.com/story/china-...

Sam Altman's Merge Labs has launched with $252 million in funding. Merge will use ultrasound to interpret brain signals—without sticking implants in the brain tissue. My story for @wired.com: www.wired.com/story/openai...

SAME. Please apply!!