Leslie E. Wolf, JD, MPH

Using FDA Law to Threaten Medical Practice | NEJM Though recent subpoenas from the U.S. DOJ target providers of gender-affirming care, the legal arguments behind them could affect physicians prescribing off-label treatment for any reason.

Using FDA Law to Threaten Medical Practice | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

The expert authors (Lewis Grossman, @nathancortez.bsky.social & @pzettler.bsky.social) explain why this is troubling and may have implications far beyond the treatment of gender-affirming care.

The U.S. government’s failure to acknowledge World AIDS Day takes us back to a troubling time Perhaps AIDS activists’ famous slogan, “Silence = Death,” needs an update for this troubling moment.

Gavin Hart updates the mantra from the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic to "Silence (+ Slashed Funding) = Death" as recent policies take us backwards.

The U.S. government’s failure to acknowledge World AIDS Day takes us back to a troubling time www.statnews.com/2025/11/29/w... via @statnews.com

Powerful story about the impact of journalism and lawyering in calling attention and making a difference . . . eventually. But these individuals deserved justice sooner than 22 years. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/n...

If you haven't seen it, NIH is again receiving applications for Certificates of Confidentiality for non-federally funded research. It is a relief to see this option available again.

grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

Florida Says It Plans to End All Vaccine Mandates

Broader access to effective vaccines significantly improved the health and life span in the 20th Century. Florida has just taken a big step back in time.
Florida Says It Plans to End All Vaccine Mandates www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

California, Oregon, and Washington to launch new West Coast Health Alliance to uphold scientific integrity in public health as Trump destroys CDC’s credibility | Governor of California

Here’s the text of the joint press eelease describing how CA, OR & WA will coordinate their review & incorporation of private medical organizations’ guidelines into state immunization recommendations that each state will develop & promulgate in line with its own laws

www.gov.ca.gov/2025/09/03/c...

Big shakeups to the childhood vaccination schedule could be nearing Big shakeups may be coming to the childhood vaccination schedule. Here's a look at some of the shots that could be subject to shifting U.S. recommendations.

Pediatricians fear sweeping changes to long-standing childhood vaccines — from hepatitis B to RSV — as Kennedy reshapes CDC policy.
www.statnews.com/2025/09/03/c...

Viewpoint: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)'s draft guidance for Medicare's Drug Price Negotiation Program addresses concerns that manufacturers might use combination drugs to evade price negotiations.

ja.ma/3USf7O4

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

Fear and trembling at NIH as administration moves to weaken peer review of research grants. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

House Republicans add to support for maintaining NIH budget in 2026 Both chambers of Congress have now rejected Trump’s proposed 40% cut

House Republicans add to support for maintaining NIH budget in 2026: Both chambers of Congress have now rejected Trump’s proposed 40% cut | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Trump Wants Proof That Covid Vaccines Work. It’s Easy to Find.

This headline tells the tale.

Trump Wants Proof That Covid Vaccines Work. It’s Easy to Find. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/h...

Excited that my most recent article (with Samantha Kench (former GSU student) and Marielle Gross ) was published last week in Science - Disrupting the biospecimen “treasure trove”: Practice, precedent, and future directions | Science www.science.org/doi/full/10....

JAMA Special Communication: Reducing Barriers to Mental Health Care for Physicians. Overview & Strategic Recommendations. Published online August 14, 2025. Discusses challenges and initiatives.

Eliminating barriers to #mentalhealth care for physicians is essential to prevent untreated conditions and suicides, improve well-being, and maintain high-quality patient care.

ja.ma/4moVdGo

JAMA Research Letter: Trends in US & International Medical Graduates at County Level. Figure 1 shows unadjusted mean physician count for USMGs/IMGs (2010-2022). USMG count higher than IMG. National mean count for both graduates increasing with time.

From 2010 to 2022, international medical graduates made up approximately 18% of the US #physician workforce, particularly in underserved urban areas, despite growing numbers of US medical graduates.

ja.ma/4lzGxTr #MedEd

‘A whole body of health-equity research is being disappeared’ — why I resigned from the NIH As federal support vanishes for research addressing the root causes of health disparities in the United States, we are left with a dangerous void and an urgent need to rethink science funding.

Vani Pariyadath: ‘A whole body of health-equity research is being disappeared’ — why I resigned from the NIH. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Today's @kffhealthnews.org haiku:

UNWAVERING SUPPORT

Dear CDC staff:
All of us in public health
stand strong with you now.

- Kristi Jones

Great article @michaelrulrich.bsky.social!

Skrmetti and Supreme Court–Sanctioned Intrusion on the Practice of Medicine url:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2837433?utm_source=bluesky&utm_campaign=content-shareicons&utm_content=article_engagement&utm_medium=social&utm_term=080725

Dismantling Public Health Infrastructure, Endangering American Lives | NEJM The extreme reductions that the Trump administration is making at the vital, mission-driven Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amount to unilateral disarmament against health hazards.

"The CDC is at particular risk because its role is poorly understood, is often misrepresented, and, though traditionally nonpartisan, has tepid congressional support."
Dismantling Public Health Infrastructure, Endangering American Lives | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Progress Lost — The Unraveling of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act | NEJM Making it harder to qualify for and stay enrolled in Medicaid or subsidized ACA coverage, the 2025 budget reconciliation act represents the largest rollback of health insurance coverage in U.S. his...

"After a 15-year struggle to repeal Obamacare, the GOP has succeeded in enacting policies that could reverse many of the coverage gains made under the ACA."

Progress Lost — The Unraveling of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act | New England Journal of Medicine www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Trump administration halts, then releases, NIH research funding The decision temporarily froze $15 billion in federal funding, according to one senator. It came as Trump officials wrestle over federal spending levels.

A senior leader at one NIH institute said: “At my level we are legitimately trying to figure out how to keep funding high-impact science given what we expect will happen.”
The senior leader added: “Our grants people are barely holding it together because they are at the center of this chaos.”

Tribal Groups Assert Sovereignty as Feds Crack Down on Gender-Affirming Care - KFF Health News Native American groups declare that tribal sovereignty trumps state and federal efforts to restrict or ban gender-affirming care for two-spirit and LGBTQ+ tribal citizens. Tribes are analyzing the ris...

Two-spirit and LGBTQ+ Native Americans are in “panic mode” amid federal rollbacks of discrimination protections and gender-affirming care, said Itai Jeffries of the Raven Collective, a Native public health consulting group.
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Thank you @statnews.com for keeping the research community (and others) informed when things change so very quickly!

We're hiring! Georgia State Law's nationally-recognized Center for Law, Health & Society is recruiting for a health law faculty member with a focus on health care business, financing and/or regulation to join us in Atlanta! Open-rank, apply by Sept. 1, 2025.

facultycareers.gsu.edu/postings/5807

Senate passes Trump’s tax-cut bill that would slash Medicaid spending The Senate has passed a $4.5 trillion tax cut bill after last-minute changes to its health care provisions, as Republicans scrambled to get their party on board.

"Altogether, the bill would enact the largest cuts to federal health care spending in history. . . lead[ing] to 11.8 million people losing health insurance over the next decade"

Senate passes Trump’s tax-cut bill that would slash Medicaid spending www.statnews.com/2025/07/01/s... via @statnews.com

Promise of Victory Over H.I.V. Fades as U.S. Withdraws Support

A new twice yearly drug could significantly reduce HIV infections, but because of US funding cuts "we’re moving backwards at warp speed"

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/h...

Federal budget cuts slow pace of breakthrough autoimmune therapies Federal budget cuts have created "a climate of anxiety" among medical researchers, says Maximilian F. Konig, a rheumatologist at Johns Hopkins. But those who live with autoimmune diseases could suffer...

Threats to federal funding have created 'a climate of anxiety' among medical researchers, says Maximilian F. Konig, a rheumatologist at Johns Hopkins. But those who live with autoimmune diseases could suffer the greatest consequences. | Hub hub.jhu.edu/2025/06/24/n...

What RFK Jr. Isn’t Talking About: How To Make Vaccines Safer - KFF Health News Vaccines are under fire from the top of the Trump administration. Federal programs to monitor them and make them safer have always been underfunded.

Is RFK Jr. interested in making vaccines safer? If so, safety scientists say he knows how to reach them. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

My latest article with Laura Beskow, Equal Rights and Protections for Human Subjects Research: A Call to Action, is now out in the University of Maryland Carey School of Law's Journal of Health Care Law & Policy.

digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcont...

U.S. researchers are speaking up for science in local newspapers Through two grassroots efforts, more than 80 op eds have been published in news outlets across the country

Countering misconceptions about science via op-eds - “Let me tell you, as a federally funded scientist, what it is that I do, why it’s important, and why it helps our community.”

U.S. researchers are speaking up for science in local newspapers | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

How physicians like me are grappling with requests for unvaccinated donor blood As a transfusion medicine physician, Jeremy W. Jacobs has increasingly faced requests for “unvaccinated donor blood.” So he and colleagues looked closer at what the data say.

Given the political climate and ubiquity of misinformation, I suspect that requests for unvaccinated blood will continue apace or even increase. Patients think it’s safer — but my research suggests it’s quite the opposite

www.statnews.com/2025/06/11/u...