On a trip to Washington D.C. for a Mother's Day family gathering, I fulfilled a small goal of mine: to get a Reader Card so I could use materials housed in the Library of Congress. Libraries are incredible places. From the Library of Alexandria, built in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago, to the Library of Congress, the 1,000+ Carnegie Libraries scattered across the U.S., and vibrant city library systems like the Boston Public Library, they are places of learning, of innovation, and sometimes of refuge. I'm not sure what project I'll delve into once Torie Bosch returns to captain the First Opinion ship and I wholeheartedly re-embrace retirement, but I'm sure I'll find something.
Libraries, of course, wouldn't be here — and neither would any of us — if it weren't for mothers. A shout out in praise of mothers past, present, and future.
When the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week. STAT's Bob Herman and Casey Ross were among the three finalists for their work uncovering how UnitedHealth Group used an unregulated algorithm deny care to some of the people the company insured, "highlighting the dangers of AI use in medicine." Great reporting rewarded!
On to this week's dozen First Opinions, which ranged from the latest episode of the First Opinion Podcast to essays about caring for young caregivers, the shocking ease of recreating the deadly 1918 flu virus, and more. You can read them all here.
