Grindr, heart attack risk, bird flu

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Surprisingly, a story from my colleagues Nick Florko and Sarah Owermohle about how Grindr hired a Washington lobbyist is NOT the first time the “social networking app” (their words!) has appeared in STAT reporting. A quick Google search tells me that the word first appeared in an early episode of The readout is LOUD. In print, that honor belongs to a First Opinion essay during the 2022 mpox outbreak.

Could a proposed new risk model lead to more heart attacks?

Last November, a new risk model for assessing a person’s risk of having a heart attack or stroke was presented by the American Heart Association. It was developed specifically to improve a 2013 version that was widely criticized for overestimating the risks. Last month, a specific study suggested that far fewer Americans (about 40% fewer!) would qualify for statins, the cholesterol-lowering drug, with the new risk calculator. Another study now estimates that this could lead to 107,000 additional heart attacks and strokes over the next decade.

The study is causing controversy in cardiology circles, while two medical associations are formulating new guidelines to inform practice, writes STAT’s Liz Cooney. Read more.

Smoking cessation could be another potential use of semaglutide

Add it to the list: a study published yesterday in Annals of Internal Medicine found that, among people with type 2 diabetes who also smoke, new use of semaglutide was associated with a lower risk of medical encounters related to tobacco use disorder compared with other anti-diabetes medications.

Researchers compared more than 222,000 new users of various diabetes medications, including nearly 6,000 new semaglutide users. Those who took semaglutide received fewer prescriptions and less counseling specifically for smoking cessation, adding to research that suggests GLP-1 drugs could reduce cravings for addictive substances. The study indicates a need for clinical trials evaluating the drug’s potential as a treatment for tobacco use disorders.

Researchers call for better data on transgender people

Diana Tordoff, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford, wanted to find a way to analyze HIV transmission that accurately took into account transgender people, who are higher than average risk of contracting the infection. But when she wanted to build a better mathematical model, she discovered that the data didn’t exist.

Mathematical models – such as computer simulations of how a disease spreads in the real world – are an important part of thinking about prevention policy. There are hundreds that focus on HIV, dozens of which are used regularly around the world, but only seven that even consider the existence of transgender people – and even these are flawed.

Historically, HIV research has focused more on transgender people than in any other area of ​​health care. But a lack of data on gender and sexual identity continues to hinder public health efforts. Read more from me at why the missing data is a problem for future prevention and treatment policies.

Grindr wants to lobby in Washington for HIV prevention and IVF

The queer dating app Grindr… starts lobbying? The company hired The Daschle Group, founded by former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, to lobby for “HIV prevention; Challenges to LGBTQ Family Formation, Including Surrogacy and IVF,” STAT’s Nicholas Florko and Sarah Owermohle reported yesterday after reading federal disclosures filed last week.

The move comes as competing bills aimed at protecting IVF, or in vitro fertilization, are in the Senate. Washington has also seen increased lobbying around access to PrEP, the HIV prevention drug. It is unclear how much Grindr pays Daschle’s company to lobby on its behalf.

Read more about what the move means for Grindr and what we know about the lobbyists the company has hired.

Do you know how hot your food should be?

To be clear, there is no evidence that you can get the H5N1 bird flu virus by cooking and eating the meat that ends up in your refrigerator. If you’re concerned about bird flu, make sure you’re not among the small percentage of American adults who drink raw milk.

But as the way our food affects our health is evolving these days, the Annenberg Public Policy Center thinks questioned nearly 1,500 Americans earlier this month about food safety. When given different temperatures for heating poultry, beef and steak and then asked which temperatures would kill an H5N1 virus, more than half of respondents said they were unsure. Furthermore, only about one in four American adults uses a food thermometer “often” or “always.”

So as a refresher, cooking poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit kills bacteria and viruses. Ground beef should be at least 160, while steak should be at least 145.

How a parasite can help deliver drugs to the brain

There is a very exclusive list and a very powerful bouncer at the front door of our brains, while the body works hard to protect it from outside agents. But what if someone on the list brings a plus one? A mouse study published yesterday shows how a parasite already able to cross the blood-brain barrier was developed to treat a brain development disorder in mice.

Scientists at MIT engineered the parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, to make and secrete therapeutic proteins once it was in the brains of mice. This ‘smart microbe’ could be a gamechanger, but first scientists must consider the safety of the treatment. Read more about the science from STAT’s Alia Sajani.

What we read

• Combining ayahuasca compounds with drugs like Ozempic could help treat diabetes, a mouse model suggests: Scientific American

• What America can learn from Rwanda to solve its mental health crisis National Geographic

• How do you know if Biden has made a hard bargain on drug prices, STAT
• Iowa’s six-week abortion ban is now in effect. The 19th
• Healthcare’s ‘Pepsi Challenge’: Physician Practices Test AI Tools in Head-to-Head Pilots, STAT