A small study helps explain why some people taking Wegovy and similar weight-loss drugs cut back on alcohol, offering insight into potential new addiction therapies

This is both discouraging, and also should be a warning of how easily infectious disease can come roaring back – Canada has far less vax skepticism than its southern neighbour ... www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/w...

A new NEJM study reports results from a phase 1 trial of a Lassa virus vaccine, a recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vector engineered to express the Lassa glycoprotein (the same platform as the approved Ebola vaccine, ERVEBO). It was safe and immunogenic. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Interesting piece: "Beware the financialization of the global health industry - Complex banking instruments designed to generate money can’t make up for global health shortfalls" www.statnews.com/2025/11/05/f...

They’re invading journals “like Omicron,” Dr. Chaccour said...

If you work with or rely on academic journals - don't miss this strange, funny, horrifying story about what happened when @carloschaccour.bsky.social published a paper on a malaria breakthrough in a prestigious journal – and AI came for the letters page. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/s...

A Somali Hospital Closed After U.S. Aid Cuts. “After the Trump administration stopped funding a medical center for women and children, a determined group of health care workers refused to let it shutter.” @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/h...

Going to re-up this on the off chance that anyone besides me could use a tiny fragment of good news today. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/h...

"There are large diphtheria outbreaks now in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Chad — countries with civil wars or large populations of refugees where vaccination coverage is low, surveillance is weak and frail health systems leave children undiagnosed or treated too late."

In Somalia a few weeks ago, I found myself in a hospital ward packed with children (and some adults) gasping for breath, infected with diphtheria. It was like time travel to the Victorian era. But diphtheria is no longer a relic of your granny's stories – it's back. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/h...

Appreciated this ray of sunshine in these dark days.

Excellent reporting by @stephanienolen.bsky.social on the resurgence of #Diphteria in displaced populations, with a focus on #Somalia. The resurgence of this infectious disease is happening globally due to declining vaccination rates. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/h...

"Treating baby wraps with a mosquito repellent shows promising protection against a top killer of children."

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Diphtheria, a Once Vanquished Killer of Children, Is Resurgent. A Somali hospital ward packed with gasping children shows how war, climate and mistrust of vaccines is fueling the disease’s return, by @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/h... via @nytimes.com #GlobalHealth

Measles is back Whooping cough is back Now, diphtheria is staging a return with large outbreaks now in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Chad — countries with civil wars or large populations of refugees where vaccination coverage is low... www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/h... @stephanienolen.bsky.social

And now for something totally unexpected: some good news! Turns out you can make big, big strides in protecting kids from malaria using the lowest possible, cuddliest piece of technology. (open link) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/25/h...

Yet another starting example highlighting that countries and communities continue to suffer as foreign aid depletes, first with US cuts and then by other developed countries. Thanks for your relentless reporting on this topic @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/h...

When US aid ended earlier this year, a Somali maternity hospital had to fire staff + close. But not everyone got the news. When one woman arrived in late stage labor + gave birth outside the locked gate, the staff came back to work. They're still working for free. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/h...

“The World Food Programme said that starting next month, it would be forced to reduce the number of people who receive emergency food assistance in Somalia to just 350,000, down from 1.1 million in August — fewer than one in every 10 people who are in need of food aid for survival.”

America’s Retreat From Aid Is Devastating Somalia’s Health System Hunger and the diseases that stalk small children have surged in Somalia after the U.S. slashed its aid to the country. @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/h...

I reported recently from Somalia, as part of our ongoing effort to document the effect of the major cuts to U.S. foreign assistance. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/h...

1/Stop everything and read/watch/bookmark this massive investigation between @motherjones.com @lighthousereports.com Le Monde, Der Spiegel, Paper Trail Media a vast global surveillance empire used to target politicians, journalists, tech CEOs, and... Jared Leto. ow.ly/2LUF50Xb7KE

his summer, I went to Panama and met Jharana, a 33-year-old from Nepal who had been deported there in a group of 300 others — the 1st group to be sent to a third country. I wrote about what happened to her and others over the year for @nymag.com --> nymag.com/intelligence...

NEW: The military says it has taken over in Madagascar after President Andry Rajoelina fled the country following youth-led anti-government protests.   The military leaders responsible for the takeover must respect and protect the rights of all Malagasy people.

New! World Health Organization releases new guidelines on tuberculosis and undernutrition www.who.int/publications...

An extraordinary story made possible by an unprecedented partnership between Washington Post reporters and readers. It takes immense trust to give a journalist access to your data and your story. My colleagues and I strive to earn and keep that trust every day. www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/int...

Lovely profile in courage from Rwanda's Marburg outbreak reported by @gabrielleemanuel.bsky.social www.npr.org/sections/goa...

If you want to understand open adoption, it makes sense to start with birth parents—yet studies of them are few. 2+ yrs ago, I began talking w/ birth mothers to try to understand what living in an open adoption is like for them, and what rights or options they might have if challenges were to arise.

Birth Control Among US Therapies Most At Risk From Trump’s 250% Tariff Threat www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Cutest, interestingest story you'll read today -- pygmy seahorses!! more genetic mystery magic from @carlzimmer.com www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/s...

"The Trump administration is ignoring a directive from Congress and refusing to fully fund a landmark H.I.V. program [PEPFAR] that is widely credited with saving millions of lives over the past two decades." Stephanie Nolen / NYT

More than 20 years after I first wrote about mass sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I set out to report a story about how care for victims has improved but the impunity that drives the crisis is unchanged. Then, care fell apart, too. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/h...

@stephanienolen.bsky.social got the scoop: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/h... Vought is blocking release of #PEPFAR funding, flagrantly defying Congress, which fully funded PEPFAR through the FY25 Continuing Resolution AND rejected Vought's move to rescind $400m in FY25 PEPFAR funding in July >> 2

The Trump administration is ignoring a directive from Congress and refusing to fully fund a landmark H.I.V. program that is widely credited with saving millions of lives over the past two decades. Story by @stephanienolen.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/461Vrxg

Can't say enough about this piece by my colleague and pal, photographer João Silva, about his return to the Afghan village where he lost his legs to a landmine. If you read one thing today ... www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/w...

A Debilitating Virus Surges Globally as Mosquitoes Move With Warming Climate. Chikungunya, which can disable victims for years, is spreading rapidly, to places that have not seen it before. Rarely, Chikungunya can kill children and adults. @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/h...

🦟" #Chikungunya: A Debilitating #Virus Surges Globally as #Mosquitoes Move With Warming #Climate" by @stephanienolen.bsky.social @nytimes.com #WorldMosquitoDay www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/h...

A Cancer Patient Chose Assisted Death. That Wasn’t the Last Hard Choice. Tatiana Andia knew Colombia would permit her a medically assisted death. She took her country with her on the journey to dying. @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/h...

🚨 “Women are going to die because they’ve not had access to those contraceptives.” Our Advocacy Director, Sarah Shaw, spoke to @stephanienolen.bsky.social & @jeannasmialek.bsky.social at the New York Times about the US plan to destroy $9.7 million worth of life-saving contraception: bit.ly/4m3TExg

Tatiana Andia, a professor and former Colombian health official with terminal cancer, decided that after a career of fighting for health care, she wanted to make herself an example to help Colombians embrace a better way of dying. She would bring the country with her and have the death she wanted.

I know NYT gets a lot of shit these days, but articles like this are why I’m still a subscriber. Absolutely gorgeous and touching story.

Yet another thought-provoking and important piece on assisted dying by @stephanienolen.bsky.social .

I was privileged to spend time with Tatiana Andia over a year as she made the hardest decisions. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/03/h...

Includes the immortal phrase "tick dick pic" FTW!

PEPFAR news: "The impacts are already clear and devastating." www.medpagetoday.com/spotlight/hi... And despite a last-minute reprieve from the Senate, @stephanienolen.bsky.social reports that the Trump administration is making plans to shut it down. Gift link: nyti.ms/4o2zzZX

👀"U.S. Quietly Drafts Plan to End Program That Saved Millions From AIDS - #PEPFAR, the campaign to end H.I.V. globally, would morph into an effort to detect disease outbreaks and sell American products" via @stephanienolen.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/h...

PEPFAR, the American H.I.V. response, earned a reprieve when Congress voted to restore $400 m in funding. But that may be short-lived: Officials at the State Department have been mapping out a plan to shut it down -- exiting some countries in as little as 2 years. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/h...

US quietly drafts plan to drop programme that saved millions from AIDS, reveals @stephanienolen.bsky.social @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/h...

Following reduced US support, renewed activism in South Africa to improve care for HIV+ individuals and support HIV prevention. Nice article by @stephanienolen.bsky.social.