In the 200th episode of Health & Veritas, Harlan offers end-of-the-year reflections on medicine drawn from his editor's notes in JACC (the Journal of the American College of Cardiology), and Howie provides updates on gun violence, flu, measles, and the health benefits of yoga.

Show notes:

Editor's notes by Harlan Krumholz

"The Day I Became a Doctor"

"When Your Patient Dies"

"Rethinking Physician Certification: A Call for a Modern, Meaningful Standard"

Gun violence, flu, and measles

"Mass shootings outnumber annual days in U.S., children are missing school due to measles, Covid-19 is peeping around the corner, and some hope"

"Measles outbreaks worsen in South Carolina, Arizona and Utah"

"Connecticut reports first measles case in years"

"New Flu Variant May Be Triggering Spike in Severe Disease"

"High-Dose Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness against Hospitalization in Older Adults"

"Pfizer Reaffirms Full-Year 2025 EPS Guidance and Provides Full-Year 2026 Guidance"

The benefits of yoga

"Yoga for chronic non‐specific low back pain"

"Yoga-based interventions may reduce anxiety symptoms in anxiety disorders and depression symptoms in depressive disorders: a systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-regression"

"Effect of Yoga on Frailty in Older Adults"

"Yoga in autoimmune disorders: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials"

"Long-term effects of yoga-based practices on neural, cognitive, psychological, and physiological outcomes in adults: a scoping review and evidence map"

"Yoga isn't just for flexibility. It may also protect brain health."

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

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Howie and Harlan are joined by Basmah Safdar, a Yale School of Medicine emergency physician and an expert on sex-specific differences in cardiovascular and microvascular health, which have important implications for the understanding and treatment of heart attacks, long COVID, and other conditions. Harlan reports on Australia's ban on social media for kids, and a Medicare pilot program that will pay providers based on improved outcomes in chronic conditions. Howie unpacks the consequences of the CDC's change to its recommendations for newborn hepatitis B vaccination.

Show notes:

Social Media and Kids

"Australia's Social Media Ban for Children Takes Effect"

Health & Veritas Episode 197: Peter Hotez: Mapping the Anti-Science Machine

Medicare's ACCESS Payment Model

CMS: ACCESS (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions) Model

Basmah Safdar

"Medical School Enrollment Reaches 100,000 Students for the First Time"

Health & Veritas: Episode 176: Live at the Yale Innovation Summit 2025

"Myocardial ischemia in women: lessons from the NHLBI WISE study"

"Sex Differences in COVID-19 Immune Responses Affect Patient Outcomes"

"Scientists unravel mystery of sex disparities in COVID-19 outcomes"

Health & Veritas Episode 192: Akiko Iwasaki: What Have We Learned About Long COVID?

"Basmah Safdar, MD, FACEP, Appointed Director, Women's Health Research at Yale (WHRY)"

Women's Health Research at Yale

"Women's Health Research at Yale: The Prologue"

"History of Women's Participation in Clinical Research"

"Policy: NIH to balance sex in cell and animal studies"

"Heart attack symptoms often misinterpreted in younger women"

Harlan Krumholz: "Sex Difference in Outcomes of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Young Patients"

"Women's Health: More Than 'Bikini Medicine'"

"Celebrating Carolyn Mazure"

"Women's Health Research at Yale: Our Research"

"Current Status of Gender and Racial/Ethnic Disparities Among Academic Emergency Medicine Physicians"

"New Women's Health Fund of Funds Launches to Activate $60B in Life Sciences Capital"

"Closing the women's health gap: A $1 trillion opportunity to improve lives and economies"

"Blueprint to close the women's health gap: How to improve lives and economies for all"

"Gates Foundation pledges $2.5 billion to women's health initiatives"

"Milken Institute Launches New Women's Health Network, Former First Lady Jill Biden Joins as its Chair"

Women's Health Research at Yale: Pilot Project Program Funding

Note: Deadline is December 22.

Women's Health Research at Yale: Collaborative

CDC and Hepatitis B

"Panel Votes to Stop Recommending Hepatitis B Shots at Birth for Most Newborns"

CDC: Hepatitis B Vaccine Safety

WHO: Hepatitis B

"New review finds no evidence to support delaying universal hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination"

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Sudhakar Nuti to discuss his work improving healthcare for homeless New Yorkers, as a street-medicine doctor and a population-health leader at NYC Health + Hospitals. Harlan reports on a proposed law that would cut off funding for U.S. scientists who collaborate with colleagues in China; Howie provides updates on the measles outbreak and a leaked FDA memo claiming that COVID-19 vaccines have killed 10 children.

Show notes:

Science Across Borders

Subtitle C—SAFE Research Act

"U.S. Congress considers sweeping ban on Chinese collaborations"

Sudhakar Nuti

NYC Health + Hospitals

Street Medicine Institute

"Health Care beyond Clinic Walls—Sustaining and Scaling Up Street Medicine"

NYC Health + Hospitals: Street Health Outreach & Wellness Mobile Units

"Graduate and professional students tackle food insecurity"

California Depart of Public Health: Xylazine

Measles

CDC: Measles Cases and Outbreaks

"Tracking U.S. Measles Outbreaks"

World Health Organization: Weekly Epidemiological Record, 2025, vol. 100, no. 48

"Winning against measles: five charts that tell a remarkable 24-year story"

"Measles deaths down 88% since 2000, but cases surge"

FDA Leak

"Experts say top FDA official's claim that Covid vaccines caused kids' deaths requires more evidence"

"FDA's Prasad tells staffers agency plans to get tougher on vaccine regulation, blames child deaths on COVID shots"

"Thoughts on Vinay Prasad's Leaked Email"

"Myocarditis Cases Reported After mRNA-Based COVID-19 Vaccination in the US From December 2020 to August 2021"

"Fulminant Myocarditis and Cardiogenic Shock Following COVID-19 Infection Versus COVID-19 Vaccination: A Systematic Literature Review"

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert and an outspoken opponent of health misinformation, to discuss vaccine skepticism and the forces—from wellness influencers to HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—that amplify it. Harlan reports on research reinforcing the link between social media and mental illness; Howie highlights two potential areas of common ground with the administration's health policy.

Show notes:

Social Media and Mental Health

"Social Media Detox and Youth Mental Health"

"Study Finds Mental Health Benefit to One-Week Social Media Break"

Peter Hotez

Peter Hotez: Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces That Threaten Our World

Peter Hotez: Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad

"Scientist pressured by Musk and Rogan to debate RFK Jr over anti-vaccine misinformation says he won't be part of 'Jerry Springer' show"

Peter Hotez on X

"Kennedy Says He Told C.D.C. to Change Website's Language on Autism and Vaccines"

"Wakefield's article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent"

"Four vaccine myths and where they came from"

"Large-Scale Exome Sequencing Study Implicates Both Developmental and Functional Changes in the Neurobiology of Autism"

"Risk of Autism after Prenatal Topiramate, Valproate, or Lamotrigine Exposure"

"Data investigation: Childhood vaccination rates are backsliding across the U.S."

"South Carolina's Measles Outbreak Shows Chilling Effect of Vaccine Misinformation"

"How a measles outbreak overwhelmed a small West Texas town"

"How polio came back to New York for the first time in decades, silently spread and left a patient paralyzed"

"Third infant in Kentucky dies of whooping cough as national cases stay high for second year in a row"

"Kennedy minimizes measles outbreak in wake of Texas death"

"RFK Jr. claims 'leaky' measles vaccine wanes over time. Scientists say he's wrong."

"RFK Jr. claims measles can be treated with vitamin A, linked to poor diet. Here's what science says"

"The Surprise Ending to the Trump-Mamdani Buddy Movie Has Heads Spinning"

"Operation Warp Speed was one of Trump's biggest achievements. Then came RFK Jr. and vaccine skeptics"

Health & Veritas Episode 196: The Cost Curve, Flu, and Other News

"Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate"

ACA Subsidies

"Trump was going to roll out a health care plan. Then Republicans weighed in."

"Trump Is Considering a Push to Extend Obamacare Subsidies"

Site-Neutral Payment

"The Trump Administration Moves Forward with Medicare Site-Neutral Payment Reform"

"Five Things to Know About Medicare Site-Neutral Payment Reforms"

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan discuss the outlook for U.S. healthcare spending over the next five years, the state of seasonal and avian flu, and an expensive AI-based cardiac test.

Show notes:

Life expectancy and expenditures

"How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other countries?"

ACOs and cost savings

"After Fifteen Years, is Value-Based Care Succeeding?"

Health & Veritas Episode 115: Farzad Mostashari: Aligning Incentives to Fix Primary Care

World Prematurity Day

WHO: World Prematurity Day 2025

WHO: World Prematurity Day Key Messages

WHO: Preterm birth

AI concerns

"'It keeps me awake at night': machine-learning pioneer on AI's threat to humanity"

"Why neural net pioneer Geoffrey Hinton is sounding the alarm on AI"

"AI pioneer: 'The dangers of abuse are very real'"

"'Malicious use is already happening': machine-learning pioneer on making AI safer"

"Fathers of the Deep Learning Revolution Receive ACM A.M. Turing Award"

"Deep learning"

Bird flu

"First U.S. case of human bird flu in 9 months confirmed in Washington state"

Cleveland Clinic: Bird Flu (Avian Influenza)

"Flu in numbers: NHS faces one of worst winters ever, officials warn, amid concern over mutated strain"

"New flu virus mutation could see 'worst season in a decade'"

"Australia posts record-breaking flu numbers as vaccination rates stall"

FDA: Influenza Vaccine Composition for the 2025-2026 U.S. Influenza Season

Cardiology and AI

"Coronary CT angiography evaluation with artificial intelligence for individualized medical treatment of atherosclerosis: a Consensus Statement from the QCI Study Group"

"Medicare will pay more than $1,000 for AI to analyze a heart scan. Is that too much?"

Free speech and drug promotion

"High-Engagement Social Media Posts Related to Prescription Drug Promotion for 3 Major Drug Classes"

Health & Veritas Episode 195: Jerry Avorn: Countering the Drug Marketing Machine

Medicare premiums

"Medicare premiums to jump 10% heading into 2026"

"Social Security Announces 2.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2026"

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid: 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums and Deductibles

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Harvard internist Jerry Avorn to discuss his research on the pharmaceutical industry and his work promoting evidence-based prescribing. Harlan highlights new results from the American Heart Association meeting, including a one-time CRISPR-based therapy for high cholesterol; Howie reports on an outbreak of infant botulism.

Show notes:

Research from the American Heart Association Meeting

"Phase 1 Trial of CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing Targeting ANGPTL3"

"First-in-human trial of CRISPR gene-editing therapy safely lowered cholesterol, triglycerides"

"Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy Inhibition with Alirocumab: The CAVIAR Trial"

"PCSK9 medication plus statin may help lower cholesterol after heart transplant"

"Investigational daily pill lowered bad cholesterol as much as injectables"

Jerry Avorn

Science Direct: Academic Detailing

Jerry Avorn: "Principles of Educational Outreach ('Academic Detailing') to Improve Clinical Decision Making"

Alosa Health

FDA: Accelerated Approval

Jerry Avorn: Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power, and the Drugs You Take

FDA: Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Advertisements

H.R.5952 - Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 1992

FDA: FY 2025 FDA Budget Summary

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: Open Payments

H.R.3590 - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

"Aducanumab Discontinued as an Alzheimer's Treatment"

FDA: ELEVIDYS

Brigham and Women's Hospital & Harvard Medical School: Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics

Amazon.com: Featured comments on Rethinking Medications

Infant Botulism

California Department of Public Health: "Outbreak of Infant Botulism Linked to ByHeart Infant Formula"

California Department of Public Health: Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program

CDC: "Infant Botulism Outbreak Linked to Infant Formula, November 2025"

"ByHeart recalls all baby formula sold nationwide as infant botulism outbreak grows"

California Department of Public Health: What is BabyBIG?

California Department of Public Health: Postponement of BabyBIG Fee Increase

California Department Of Public Health: Invoice and Purchase Agreement for BabyBIG

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by cardiologist Ali Rahimi, the founder of ALYKA Health, which uses a personalized mobile app to help patients manage their heart health between doctor's visits. Harlan discusses new developments in GLP-1 obesity drugs, including untested microdose treatments; Howie reviews a landmark study investigating whether broad prostate cancer screening saves lives.

Show notes:

GLP-1 Drugs

"Microdosing aims to extend the lifespan of the GLP-1 compounding market"

NIH: Regulatory Framework for Compounded Preparations

Health & Veritas Episode 140: Lee Schwamm: Smarter Healthcare Systems With AI

"FDA takes on GLP-1 compounding boom with warnings about misleading marketing"

"Should You Microdose GLP-1 Drugs?"

"How microdosing GLP-1 drugs became a longevity 'craze'"

"Bidding war between Pfizer, Novo Nordisk for obesity startup Metsera escalates"

"Trump Negotiating Deal With Ozempic Maker to Sell Some Weight-Loss Drugs for $149""Orforglipron, an Oral Small-Molecule GLP-1 Receptor Agonist for Obesity Treatment"

"How Ozempic's Maker Lost Its Shine After Creating a Wonder Drug"

Ali Rahimi

ALYKA Health

Harlan Krumholz and Ali Rahimi, "Financial Barriers to Health Care and Outcomes After Acute Myocardial Infarction"

"Why High Blood Pressure Matters to Your Health"

Building a Better Delivery System: A New Engineering/Health Care Partnership

NIH: The 21st Century Cures Act

New Evidence on Prostate Cancer Screening and Breast Cancer Treatment

National Cancer Institute: Cancer Stat Facts: Prostate Cancer"

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: Prostate Cancer: Screening"

"The pros and cons of PSA tests for prostate cancer for midlife and older men"

"Share on European Study of Prostate Cancer Screening — 23-Year Follow-up"

"Early Detection of Prostate Cancer — Time to Fish or Cut Bait"

"Ten-Year Survival after Postmastectomy Chest-Wall Irradiation in Breast Cancer"

"Omission of Chest-Wall Irradiation after Mastectomy for Breast Cancer"

In the Yale School of Management's MBA for Executives program, you'll get a full MBA education in 22 months while applying new skills to your organization in real time.

Yale's Executive Master of Public Health offers a rigorous public health education for working professionals, with the flexibility of evening online classes alongside three on-campus trainings.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Nate Wood, a Yale School of Medicine internist and trained chef, to discuss his work combining lifestyle guidance with hands-on training in making healthy, tasty food. Harlan shares new guidance on what counts as a healthy blood pressure; Howie provides an update on rising health insurance costs.

Links:

Blood Pressure

Harlan Krumholz, "Severe Hypertension: The Next Never Event"

JACC: 2025 High Blood Pressure Guidelines Resources

"Trial of Intensive Blood-Pressure Control in Older Patients with Hypertension"

Obesity Drugs

"Semaglutide and Tirzepatide for Obesity: Effectiveness and Value"

"Institute for Clinical and Economic Review Publishes Evidence Report on Treatments for Obesity"

Harlan Krumholz and Jason Abaluck, "Changes in Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Health Care Expenditures Among Patients Prescribed Semaglutide"

Culinary Medicine

"Culinary Medicine: The Secret Ingredient to Good Health"

American College of Lifestyle Medicine

"How each lifestyle medicine pillar supports good nutrition"

Dr. John La Puma

"What to know about 'hyperpalatable' foods"

Food is Medicine Coalition: Our Model

American Academy of Family Physicians: Shared Medical Appointments/Group Visits

Cleveland Clinic: GLP-1 Agonists

Yale New Haven Hospital: Irving and Alice Brown Teaching Kitchen

"Bringing Culinary Medicine to Yale's New Teaching Kitchen"

Dr. Nate Wood

Nate Wood on Instagram

Health Insurance Costs

Kaiser Family Foundation: 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey

"Health Benefits In 2025: Family Premiums Rise 6 Percent, Large Employers Increase Coverage Of GLP-1s For Weight Loss"

"Annual Family Premiums for Employer Coverage Rise 6% in 2025, Nearing $27,000, with Workers Paying $6,850 Toward Premiums Out of Their Paychecks"

"8 Things to Watch for the 2026 ACA Open Enrollment Period"

"ACA Insurers Are Raising Premiums by an Estimated 26%, but Most Enrollees Could See Sharper Increases in What They Pay"

Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Yale School of Medicine immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, a leading authority on vaccines and long COVID. Harlan reflects on America's crisis of trust in federal agencies; Howie provides some good news about bird flu.

Links:

Losing Trust

Harlan Krumholz: "When Your Patient Dies"

"Federal Agents Stage Raid on Canal Street in New York City, Arresting 9"

"White House expands East Wing demolition as critics decry Trump overreach"

"Americans' Job Ratings of Six Key U.S. Agencies Worsen"

"NEJM and public health group are launching rival to CDC's MMWR publication"

"South Carolina measles outbreak rises as schools with low vaccination see new cases"

Akiko Iwasaki

Health & Veritas Ep. 9: Dr. Akiko Iwasaki: Is Long COVID One Disease or Many?

"The Long COVID Puzzle: Autoimmunity, Inflammation, and Other Possible Causes"

"A New Kind of Clinical Trial: Bringing Long COVID Research Into Patients' Homes"

"New Evidence Supports Autoimmunity as One of Long COVID's Underlying Drivers"

"Scientist Dr. Akiko Iwasaki Joins SPEAR Study Group to Investigate Monoclonal Antibodies for Long COVID and COVID-19 Post-Vaccination Syndrome"

"Long Covid: A parallel pandemic"

"Effectiveness of Colchicine for the Treatment of Long COVID"

Akiko Iwasaki and Harlan Krumholz: "Nirmatrelvir–ritonavir versus placebo–ritonavir in individuals with long COVID in the USA (PAX LC): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 2, decentralised trial"

"Does Paxlovid Reduce Long COVID Symptoms? Yale-Led Trial Finds Out"

Akiko Iwasaki: "Unexplained post-acute infection syndromes"

"Post-Acute Infection Syndromes Will Be the Focus of New YSM Center"

CDC: ME/CFS Basics

"Varicella-zoster virus reactivation and the risk of dementia"

Akiko Iwasaki and Harlan Krumholz: "Immunological and Antigenic Signatures Associated with Chronic Illnesses after COVID-19 Vaccination"

"A small study on Covid vaccine safety sparks an online tempest"

"We have 'post-vaccination syndrome.' We are tired of being used to score anti-vax points"

Health & Veritas Ep. 162: Paul Lombardo: Reckoning with the Dark History of Eugenics

Health & Veritas Ep. 163: Michael Dunne: Confronting the Antibiotic Resistance Crisis

Mayo Clinic: Alpha-gal syndrome

Akiko Iwasaki: Woman shares what it's like to live with alpha-gal meat allergy triggered by tick bite"

"'Explosive increase' of ticks that cause meat allergy in US due to climate crisis"

"Why Is Martha's Vineyard Going Vegan? It's All About Tick Bites."

"Beneficial Bloodsucking"

Akiko Iwasaki on X

Bird Flu

"Bird Flu Is Back"

CDC: H5 Bird Flu: Current Situation

"RNA replicon vaccination confers long-lasting protection against H5N1 avian influenza in 23 zoo bird species"

Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Rajlakshmi Krishnamurthy, the Yale School of Medicine's associate dean for population health, to discuss her work building holistic systems for care at multiple institutions. Harlan discusses healthcare headlines including the launch of "TrumpRX"; Howie reports on a new study taking a novel approach to understanding the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Links:

Healthcare Headlines

"The Latest: Gaza ceasefire holds as Israeli military says Red Cross to transfer remains of deceased"

"More than 20 kids in India have died from contaminated cough syrup. Who's to blame?"

"Senate-passed BIOSECURE Act would add arrow to Trump's drug-pricing quiver"

Wuxi Biologics

H.R.8333: BIOSECURE Act

TrumpRx

"Trump unveils deal for AstraZeneca to cut Medicaid drug prices and join 'TrumpRx' site"

"President announces TrumpRx website for drugs, and pricing deal with Pfizer"

"Exclusive: Bill Gates, PAHO consider ways to bring weight-loss drugs to lower-income countries"

Pan American Health Organization

World Health Organization: Obesity and overweight

"Exclusive: Most patients using weight-loss drugs like Wegovy stop within a year, data show"

"In biotech, Boston reigns supreme, but its competitive edge is being challenged in new ways"

"'Disheartening? Yes. Surprising? No.' Report on the future of biotech in Mass. gives a grim outlook."

Population Health

CDC: Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Model

American Academy of Family Physicians: Transitional Care Management

"The University of Chicago Medicine to Join CMS Alternative Payment Model"

UChicago Medicine: Accountable Care Organization

Chicago Health Atlas: Social Vulnerability Index

"Relationship Between Social Risk Factors and Emergency Department Use: National Health Interview Survey 2016–2018"

The COVID-19 Vaccine

"Association of 2024–2025 Covid-19 Vaccine with Covid-19 Outcomes in U.S. Veterans"

Katelyn Jetelina: Updated 2025 fall vaccine guide

Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM.

Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.