Andrea Pauls Backman

A running list of senior FDA officials who have left the agency Here is a running list of senior FDA officials who have left the agency recently.

As we close out the year, wanted to share this running list of FDA leadership departures one last time. Some new names on there include digital health director Jessica Paulsen, and director of clinical policy in the chief medical office Shari Targum.
www.statnews.com/2025/04/03/f...

How the Scientific Community Can Defend Itself — and Our Democracy Science is not an apolitical enterprise sealed off from society; it is an independent one, and fiercely so.

As we rejuvenate and regroup after a very long year, the Union of Concerned Scientists offers actionable steps to defend science, medicine and public health.

#StandwithScience

blog.ucs.org/guest-commen...

Congratulations to Dr. Phillip Van Damme of ALS Liga in Belgium on the Forbes Norris Award! #alssymp

The new heartbreaking reality...👇

“CDC Cannot Currently Be Trusted as a Scientific Voice”

conscienhealth.org/2025/11/cdc-...

And American parents should be terrified also.

And the brain drain begins.

Trump and RFK Jr. are mulling their most disruptive vaccine policies yet — alarming manufacturers Trump and Kennedy are considering removing aluminum from vaccines and breaking up shots that protect against multiple diseases.

Trump and RFK Jr. are mulling their most disruptive vaccine policies yet — alarming manufacturers www.statnews.com/2025/11/18/t... via @statnews

🚨 Key: Suggested policy changes, about schedule & ingredients, "run contrary to evidence around their safety and efficacy."

#ScienceMatters

The Young Women Grappling With an ‘Old Man’s Disease’

Great article describing how young women cope with ALS in their own way. The Young Women Grappling With an ‘Old Man’s Disease’ www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/h...

Nice rebrand for NEALS!

Tom Frieden, former CDC director: 'The US is dismantling its own health infrastructure and retreating from global health leadership' OP-ED. The physician and former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that by 2030, the new US health policy could cause the deaths of more than 14 million people.

The United States has swiftly retreated from global health leadership. In @lemonde.fr, I share why this retreat will have serious repercussions worldwide.

Inside the CDC director's ouster: Kennedy demanded acceptance of new vaccine policies; Susan Monarez refused Susan Monarez’s resistance to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s moves to assert control over vaccine guidance is at the center of her dismissal as CDC director

However bad you think things are at the CDC they are worse.

That's the takeaway from this well-reported story from Daniel Payne w/back-up from an all-star STAT team.

Must-read.

www.statnews.com/2025/08/28/c...

I was delighted to have another opportunity to speak with @RepMikeQuigley today about the reauthorization of the #ACTforALS.

Stay tuned for more to come on this important piece of #ALS legislation.

We will not stay silent on vaccines, say leaders of five major U.S. medical associations “We cannot and will not gamble with our patients’ health or the health of our communities,” write the presidents of the AAFP, AAP, ACP, ACOG, and IDSA.

www.statnews.com/2025/06/26/v...

What a great meeting!! I’m honored to be on the ALL #ALS Steering Committee and delighted to see the progress and innovations this natural history study is making.

Learn more at all-als.org

In honor and memory of all those we have lost to #ALS this #2025MemorialDay.

Have you ever had a vaccine-preventable illness? I'm collecting stories for First Opinion on @statnews.com. Email me a paragraph about your experience at first.opinion@statnews.com.

Inside the C.D.C., a Final ‘Love Letter’ Before Mass Layoffs (Gift Article) The agency’s injury center was among the departments that were largely gutted in Tuesday’s wave of dismissals. Read a staff member’s letter to colleagues while they awaited their fates.

Each of us working in public health is motivated by a drive to make the world safer and healthier. Never lose that core purpose. Hold true to the personal stories that have inspired you.

Looks like the CDC National ALS Registry will become part of the Agency for a Healthy America (AHA).

Peter Marks, FDA’s top vaccine regulator, forced out Top FDA official Peter Marks was forced to resign as the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

#Breaking: Top FDA official Peter Marks was forced to resign as the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

‘We’re living in the Twilight Zone’: Researchers decry Trump administration assault on science At the STAT Summit on Thursday, researchers called for a "full-throated defense" of university research again the attacks by the Trump administration.

Do scientists put themselves at risk by speaking out against the Trump administration?
“Hell yes,” said Jonathan Jackson.

graph of NIH basisfor new drugs

A pie graph worth keeping in mind as the NIH budget plummets jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... for 356 new FDA drugs approved

And the snuffing out of scientific research continues…

a green leprechaun hat with clovers coming out of it and the words happy st. patrick 's day on the bottom ALT: a green leprechaun hat with clovers coming out of it and the words happy st. patrick 's day on the bottom

Happy St Patrick’s Day, everyone, whatever your nationality, so long as you stand up for truth and decency.

Showering you with good luck and joy

WHO issues starkest warning yet on fallout from U.S. withdrawal of aid for global health Breaking: The WHO issued its starkest warning yet on the consequences of the abrupt cessation of U.S. global health funding, saying it is threatening to reverse years of progress worldwide.

#Breaking - WHO issues starkest warning yet on fallout from U.S. withdrawal of aid for global health

Don’t wait out four hard years: speak truth to power The importance of diversity in science is an unshakeable reality that the scientific community must stand by.

An important read in @nature.com from Dr. Arthur Caplan on the importance of #DEI in science. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What a beautiful calling. Bless these death doulas who help the last stage of life go more smoothly.

RFK Jr. says measles vaccine routinely causes deaths. That's not true RFK Jr.'s claims on the safety of vaccine safety aren't backed by the data.

RFK Jr. misleads, deceives or simply lies when he claims the measles vaccine "routinely" causes deaths. IT DOES NOT.
@matthewherper.bsky.social lays out the facts.

www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/r...

Take action today to call your Member of Congress to demand the reinstatement of the CDMRP.

NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake The order covers more than 40 awards to researchers around the country seeking to understand why vaccine acceptance has declined.

Are we surprised? No.

Horrifying? Yep.

Dark Age 2.0.

NIH to terminate or limit grants related to vaccine hesitancy and uptake wapo.st/3Dw7WG0