policy
A suppressed federal alcohol report
Antoine Boureau / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images
A federally-commissioned study on the health effects of alcohol was published today in an independent journal. The research, which ultimately found that even low levels of drinking may increase disease risk, started as part of an update to U.S. dietary guidelines. But the work sparked controversy when some lawmakers — along with alcohol industry trade groups — claimed the scientists were biased against alcohol and would reach a conclusion with draconian implications.
The Trump administration never released the final report. As STAT’s Isabella Cueto writes, the suppression of research that was commissioned by Congress and paid for by taxpayers raises more questions about the independence of scientists under a second Trump administration. Read more about the study’s results and its wider implications.
public health
What’s changed since the last major Ebola outbreak
Health care workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo are treating patients with Ebola with little to no food, rest, and even pay, the AP reports. “During the first week, we did not even have time to go home and eat,” nurse Alice Bamuhinga said. “We only eat once a day, what amounts to breakfast in the evening.” Read more about the hard conditions that people are enduring.
Much about the current situation in DRC and Uganda is different from the last major Ebola outbreak, over a decade ago. Susan Reichle, who was the counselor to USAID in Washington, D.C., at the time, spoke yesterday with STAT’s Annalisa Merelli about the dangerous differences this time around, including the dismantling of USAID and the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO.
“There was a lot of innovation that happened in 2014, and so obviously when there were other outbreaks that happened over the years since, we used those lessons,” Reichle said. “Unfortunately right now, so much of that is lost because we lost the people.” Read more.
be sweet
(Don't) Pour Some Sugar On Me
About half of countries in South, Southeast, and East Asia have adopted taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a new paper from The Lancet Global Health. That's a striking contrast to the U.S., where taxes on soda and the like are still relatively rare, though the handful of cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle that have implemented them have seen success in driving down purchases of beverages associated with higher rates of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Overall, the Lancet Global Health study found that 29% of high-income countries have taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, based on global datasets from 183 countries between 1990 and 2024. Countries were more likely to introduce taxes if they had higher rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes; surprisingly, higher consumption levels of sugary drinks didn't predict adoption of the policy. A 2025 study published in Nature Medicine estimated that 10% of new type 2 diabetes cases and 3% of new cardiovascular diseases worldwide were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages. — Sarah Todd
