Howie and Harlan are joined by Ingrid Katz, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, to discuss why HIV continues to spread despite the existence of cheap and effective treatment, what AIDS activism can teach us about tackling chronic diseases like hypertension, and what outbreaks like Ebola reveal about the consequences of fragile health systems. Harlan reports on a breach of UK Biobank data and what it means for the future of open science; Howie highlights two recent papers illustrating the importance of vitamin C and the danger of treating it as a cure-all.

Show notes:

The UK Biobank Data Breach

UK Biobank

NIH: All of Us Research Program

"UK Biobank health data listed for sale in China, government confirms"

"UK Biobank: Confidential patient health details still online three months after leaks, BMJ finds"

Ingrid Katz

HIV

PEPFAR

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Differentiated Service Delivery

Hypertension

"Prevalence, Awareness, and Treatment of Hypertension in 37 African Countries: Trends From 2003 to 2022"

Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs)

Treatment Action Campaign

"Health & Veritas Episode 224: Nicholas Christakis: The Science of Human Connection"

CDC: Ebola Outbreak: Current Situation"

South African president Thabo Mbeki

"More than Two Decades Since the Abuja Declaration: A Way Forward for Ending AIDS as a Public Health Threat by 2030"

Vitamin C

Linus Pauling

"High-Dose Intravenous Vitamin C and Mortality and Organ Dysfunction in Severe Burn Injury: The VICTORY Randomized Clinical Trial"

"High-Dose Vitamin C in Burns: Time to Stop"

"A 7-Year-Old Girl with Limping and Leg Pain"

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 healthcare headlines including proposed changes to federal research funding, an outbreak of New World screwworm in Texas cattle, and the debate over free expression after researchers were removed from the American Diabetes Association meeting for distributing an editorial critical of federal science policies. They also examine the future of generic GLP-1 drugs, a new Medicare model for heart failure care, and a court ruling with implications for international physicians practicing in the United States.

Show notes:

Research Grants

NIH: NOT-OD-25-132: Supporting Fairness and Originality in NIH Research Applications

Akiko Iwasaki

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

Stuart Buck

"White House proposes new rules giving political appointees final approval on research grants"

U.S. Constitution: Article II

Skinny Labeling and the Supreme Court

"Supreme Court Upholds Preventive Services Requirement Under ACA"

"Supreme Court Rejects Colorado Law Banning 'Conversion Therapy' for L.G.B.T.Q. Minors"

Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. v. Amarin Pharma, Inc. (24-889)

"Hikma v. Amarin: Supreme Court Weighs Future of 'Skinny Labeling'"

Value-Based Care

CMS: Value-Based Care

CMS: Hospital Readmission Reduction

New World Screwworm

CDC: New World Screwworm

USDA: New World Screwworm Economic Impact Report

USDA: Eradicating New World Screwworm with Sterile Insect Technique

American Diabetes Association Meeting

"Join the ADA in New Orleans for the 2026 Scientific Sessions"

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya

Diabetes Care: "Misguided Brushes of a Pen Continue to Dismantle and Destroy Biomedical Research in the United States: We Can No Longer Afford Complacency and Fear. We Must All Act Now!"

"Diabetes researchers ousted from conference after criticizing Trump"

H-1B Visas

Presidential Proclamation on Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers

"Federal judge blocks Trump's $100,000 H-1B visa fee"

"Health Care Professionals Sponsored for H-1B Visas in the US"

Exchange Visitors and the J-1 Classification

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 Mark Siegel, director of Yale's internal medicine residency program, to discuss his approach to mentoring young physicians and building a medical community grounded in purpose and compassion. Harlan examines a breakthrough targeted therapy that could reshape the treatment of pancreatic cancer and other hard-to-treat cancers; Howie tracks the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and argues that policy decisions are hampering the global response.

Show notes:

A Cancer Breakthrough

Pancreatic cancer: Symptoms and causes

"Daraxonrasib or Chemotherapy in Previously Treated Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer"

"Multi-Selective RAS(ON) Inhibitor Nearly Doubles Survival Time in People With Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer"

"KRAS mutation: from undruggable to druggable in cancer"

Mark Siegel

Mark Siegel: Program Director Notes

Mark Siegel on Substack

Academic medicine

Signaling system

Mark Siegel: "What I've Learned in 63 Years"

Yale School of Medicine: Residency & Fellowship Programs

Mark Siegel: "A Sudden Loss Of Vision"

Health & Veritas Episode 224: Nicholas Christakis: The Science of Human Connection

Ebola

WHO: Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak, Democratic Republic of the Congo

WHO: Ebola, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2026

WHO: Alert and Response

"'We are catching up'—WHO chief on DR Congo's Ebola fight"

"Uganda Closes Border With Congo as Ebola Fears Rise"

"Kenyan Court Deals New Blow to Plans for U.S. Ebola Unit"

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 is joined by guest host Megan Ranney, dean of the the Yale School of Public Health, for a live episode recorded at the Yale Innovation Summit, featuring conversations with five innovators at the intersection of healthcare, public health, and entrepreneurship.

Jaya Dadwal, a recent graduate of the School of Public Health and founder of forEVA Health, focused on raising healthcare standards for the female body

Monique Rainford, a Yale School of Medicine ob-gyn and founder of Enrich Health, focused on addressing disparities in maternal health

Kimberley Steele, a bariatric surgeon and program director at the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

Yusuf Ransome, a faculty member at the School of Public Health and founder of Soul Health, a faith tech solution focused on addressing the mental wellbeing of the "missing middle"

Janani Ramaswamy, head of IP and licensing services at Yale Ventures

Show notes:

The Yale Innovation Summit

Yale Innovation Summit 2026

Yale Ventures

Jaya Dadwal

forEVA

FDA: Essure Permanent Birth Control

"Problems Reported with Essure"

Jennifer McFadden

"Women's Health Strategy for England" A UK government report including the finding that 84% of women report that their voices have not been listened to in the healthcare system.

Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS)

Monique Rainford

Megan Ranney and Monique Rainford: "Opinion: Over-the-counter birth control pill could make a huge difference"

Enrich Health

Monique Rainford: Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America

Sejal Hathi: "Nine Months of Medical Attention. Then Almost Nothing"

Kimberley Steele

Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)

Lymphatic System: Function, Conditions & Disorders

ARPA-H: Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics, and Phenotyping Technologies (LIGHT)

ARPA-H: Groundbreaking Lymphatic Interventions and Drug Explorations (GLIDE)

"GLIDE set to prevent and cure human disease by targeting the lymphatic system"

Yusuf Ransome

Yusuf Ransome on LinkedIn: "The hardest part of building a solution is when your own family depends on it"

SOCAH Lab

Pew Research: "Spirituality Among Americans"

Janani Ramaswamy

"Arvinas Announces FDA Approval of VEPPANU (vepdegestrant) for the Treatment of ESR1m, ER+/HER2- Advanced Breast Cancer"

Arvinas

Yale Ventures: Accelerators, Programs, and Innovation Centers

HealthTech Works

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 Nicholas Christakis, director of Yale's Human Nature Lab, to discuss his research on social networks, human connection, and the forces that help societies cooperate and endure. Harlan discusses promising phase 3 results for retatrutide, Eli Lilly's experimental "triple G" obesity drug; Howie provides an update on the fast-growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Show notes:

Obesity Drugs

"Lilly's triple agonist, retatrutide, delivered powerful weight loss in pivotal Phase 3 obesity trial"

"Triple–Hormone-Receptor Agonist Retatrutide for Obesity—A Phase 2 Trial"

Bariatric surgery

Nicholas Christakis

Human Nature Lab

Nicholas Christakis: Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

Free rider problem

Phenotype

Stephen Pinker

The Enlightenment

Nicholas Christakis on YouTube: For the Love of Science

Nicholas Christakis: "The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network Over 32 Years"

Social contagion

Altruism

Wet lab vs. dry lab

Microbiome

Communicable vs. non-communicable diseases

Nicholas Christakis: "The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network"

Nicholas Christakis on YouTube : "Learning in a Time of War"

Tymofiy Mylovanov

The president of the Kyiv School of Economics, who invited Christakis to lecture in Ukraine.

Ebola

CDC: Ebola Disease 2026

CDC: Ebola Disease Basics

"The Ebola virus spreading in Congo is a rare species with no vaccines or treatments"

Hypertension

Watch last week's episode on YouTube.

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 how AI is transforming medical research and publishing, the growing role of consumer health platforms and wearables, new advances in stroke treatment, and the debate over rising hospital costs. They also examine the FDA's approval of flavored vaping products and the nomination of a new surgeon general.

Watch a video version of this episode on YouTube.

Show notes:

Social Media

Health & Veritas on Instagram

Howie's viral reel on Hantavirus

Howie on X

AI and Research

Claude Code by Anthropic

medRxiv

Progress in Treating Strokes

"Endovascular Treatment of Medium-Vessel-Occlusion Strokes"

"Endovascular thrombectomy after large-vessel ischaemic stroke: a meta-analysis of individual patient data from five randomised trials"

"In Memoriam: Eugene Braunwald, MD, MACC"

The Costs of Healthcare

The Keckley Report

"The Hospital-Health Insurer War hurts Everyone"

Hospitals: Higher Value, Higher Prices

"This Is the Biggest Culprit for High Health Care Spending"

"It's The Prices, Stupid: Why The United States Is So Different From Other Countries"

Atrial fibrillation: symptoms and causes

Atrial fibrillation ablation

Health Care Affordability Lab

Zack Cooper's lab at Yale.

Wearables Venture into Healthcare

"WHOOP Expands Health Platform with On-Demand Clinician Access and New AI Features"

"Introducing ChatGPT Health"

"Introducing the all-new Fitbit Air"

"Dear Tim"

Myoung Cha's blog post on Apple's impact on health.

FDA Resignations Over Vape Policy

Health & Veritas Episode 78: Elizabeth Arleo: Advice for Working Mothers from a Women's Health Specialist

Howie discusses e-cigarettes and lung injuries.

Health & Veritas Episode 118: Lucila Ohno-Machado: AI and the Art of Medicine

Howie mentions mixed evidence for vaping as an alternative to smoking.

"With Commissioner Under Pressure, F.D.A. Opens Door to Flavored Vapes"

"FDA Commissioner Marty Makary Resigns—Trump Posts His Resignation Text"

"Top Kennedy Spokesman Resigns in Protest of Move to Allow Flavored Vapes"

The Financial Side of GLP-1s

Hims & Hers Investor Presentation

"Hims & Hers Health, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2026 Financial Results"

Surgeon General Nominees

"Trump Withdraws Nomination of Casey Means for Surgeon General"

"Exclusive: Deleted tweets reveal new surgeon general pick criticized Trump and RFK Jr. health policies"

"Trump's new surgeon general nominee has both praised and criticized his administration"

"The Madness in RFK Jr.'s Autism Method"

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 Josh Geballe, head of Yale Ventures, to discuss how changes in Yale's mindset, policies, and support systems have helped turn university research into impactful companies. Harlan examines the growing problem of AI-hallucinated citations in published research; Howie provides an update on the deadly Andes hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship.

Show notes:

Fake Citations

"Fabricated citations: an audit across 2·5 million biomedical papers"

JACC Journals

Josh Geballe

Yale Innovation Summit 2026

Yale Ventures

Joe Tsai

Alibaba Group

Craig Crews

"Yale Spinout Halda Therapeutics Announces $3B Acquisition by Johnson & Johnson"

"D-Wave Announces Agreement to Acquire Quantum Circuits Inc., Establishing World's Leading Quantum Computing Company"

"Arvinas and Pfizer Enter into a Transaction with Rigel Pharmaceuticals for the Exclusive Global Rights of VEPPANU (vepdegestrant)"

Yale Ventures: Healthtech Works

Yale Ventures: Planetary Solutions

Alexion

BioLabs

Hantavirus Outbreak

Hantavirus

"Passengers from virus-stricken cruise ship fly to home countries"

"French woman with hantavirus has severe form of disease, is in 'final stage of supportive care'"

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 Lee Schwamm, the Yale School of Medicine's associate dean for digital strategy & transformation and chief digital health officer of the Yale New Haven Health System, to discuss how the system is working to rapidly evaluate and deploy AI tools without compromising patient safety and oversight. Harlan highlights vaccine studies reportedly held back from publication and argues for greater scientific transparency; Howie reports on a deadly outbreak of Andes hantavirus aboard a cruise ship.

Show notes:

Suppressing Science

"F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe"

"Safety Monitoring of Multiple Health Outcomes Following 2023–2024 COVID-19 Vaccination among Medicare Beneficiaries Aged 65 Years and Older in the United States" One of the studies initially blocked by the FDA, published in medRxiv.

Akiko Iwasaki: "Freedom of scientific inquiry: reclaiming space for controversy"

Lee Schwamm

"What is digital transformation?"

"Use of Ambient AI Scribes to Reduce Administrative Burden and Professional Burnout"

Imaging and radiology

"What Is Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)? An Expert Guide"

"Platform Solutions vs. Point Solutions: What's the Difference?"

"A prospective clinical feasibility study of a conversational diagnostic AI in an ambulatory primary care clinic"

"A scoping review of silent trials for medical artificial intelligence"

"Heart failure risk stratification using artificial intelligence applied to electrocardiogram images: a multinational study"

Center for Health Care Innovation

"Beyond Sterling Hall: Artificial Intelligence is a 'Natural'"

Institutional Review Board

"What is hyperscale?"

AgileMD: eCART

"Geoff Hinton: On Radiology"

"What is a private cloud?"

"What Is a GPU?"

Lee Schwamm on what makes an excellent digital patient experience:

• An excellent digital patient experience is one that moves complexity away from the patient and makes it easy for patients to access, navigate, and coordinate care across the continuum without needing to fragment their care across multiple healthcare delivery systems.

• It provides seamless longitudinal continuity of identity, so patients are never asked twice for the same information and their preferences endure between sessions and across experiences. This intelligent hyper-personalization enables care journeys that meaningful, effective and seamlessly intermingle traditional and digital care.

• At a macro level, these experiences are delivered equitably and adjust to the patient's level of digital engagement, engendering trust and conveying empathy. An equitable digital front door is one that opens easily for everyone, allows access to the needed services, and improves clinical care and operational efficiency rather than simply digitizing existing ineffective or byzantine processes.

• Lastly, excellent digital patient experiences are not just built but are maintained and curated, through continuous measurement, iteration, and alignment to the needs of patients rather than the organizational structure of the health system.

Hantavirus

Oceanwide Expeditions Press Releases

Hantavirus

"What Is Hantavirus, the Rare Disease That Killed Betsy Arakawa?"

"Hantavirus cluster linked to cruise ship travel, Multi-country"

Updates from the World Health Organization on X

"'Super-Spreaders' and Person-to-Person Transmission of Andes Virus in Argentina"

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 Yale School of Medicine liver specialist Wolfram Goessling, who reflects on his experience surviving a rare cancer and how it reshaped his approach to patient care, communication, and leadership. Harlan discusses a Utah pilot program that is letting AI authorize prescription renewals, prompting alarm from physicians; Howie reports on a study challenging the effectiveness of a widely used knee procedure.

Show notes:

The Prescribing AI

"Utah and Doctronic Announce Groundbreaking Partnership for AI Prescription Medication Renewals"

Doctronic AI Mitigation Agreement

"AI Prescribing Medications In Utah: A Flawed Regulatory Playbook"

"Utah medical board calls for 'suspension' of AI doctor experiment"

"The Status Quo Is the Biggest Risk" Doctronic responds to coverage of the Utah partnership.

Wolfram Goessling

Wolfram Goessling: Staying Alive: An Oncologist Fights His Cancer The publisher's site for Wolfram Goessling's book on his personal fight with cancer.

Staying Alive: An Oncologist Fights His Cancer The Amazon page for the book.

Facing Cancer The IMDB page for the documentary about Wolfram Goessling's experience.

Facing CancerWatch the documentary with English subtitles.

Angiosarcoma

Goessling Lab

"Wolfram Goessling, MD, PhD, to be Appointed Chair of YSM Internal Medicine, Chief of Internal Medicine at YNHH, & Physician-in-Chief for Medicine"

Hepatology

Gastroenterologist

"What Is Shared Decision Making?"

"Teach-Back: Intervention"

Liver Cancer

Jaundice

Appendicitis

"Meet Wolfram Goessling, New Chair of the Yale Department of Internal Medicine"

Longwood Symphony Orchestra

Knee Surgery

"Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy versus Sham Surgery for a Degenerative Meniscal Tear"

"Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy for Degenerative Tear—10-Year Outcomes"

"Analysis of Charges and Payments for Outpatient Arthroscopic Meniscectomy From 2005 to 2014: Hospital Reimbursement Increased Steadily as Surgeon Payments Declined"

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 take on tough questions at the intersection of medicine and society. They trace the deadly history of anti-vaccine activism, unpack Yale's report on trust in higher education, and explore the peptide craze. They also confront the rising moral distress among clinicians working in systems that too often prevent them from caring for patients the way they were trained to. Plus, student research assistant Tobias Liu stops by for a farewell conversation.

Show notes:

Tobias Segment

"Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Kickback Resolutions and Associated Financial Penalties, 2000-2025"

Anti-Vaccination

Alfred Russel Wallace

WHO: Smallpox

"US surpasses 1,000 measles cases for the 3rd time in 26 years"

Trust in Higher Education

"Report of the Committee on Trust in Higher Education"

"Yale Report Finds Colleges Deserve Blame for Higher Education's Problems"

"Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression at Yale"

Peptides

WebMD: Peptides

"Peptides take off as a DIY treatment but is that a good idea?"

"A peptide in FDA's step"

Moral Distress

"Moral Distress and Occupational Burnout in US Physicians"

"The Moral Crisis of America's Doctors"

The Pitt

Psychedelics

"Trump expedites review of psychedelics to treat mental health disorders"

"U.S. Overdose Deaths Decrease Almost 27% in 2024"

2026 Breakthrough Prize

"Breakthrough Prize 2026"

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.