anil oza

@aniloza.bsky.social

4980 Followers 1645 Following

science journalist @stat covering health equity, the nih, and interaction btwn science & society | also: npr, nature, sciam, science, science news (he/him) (signal: aniloza.16)

screenshot from story reading "A note on the use of AI This analysis was conducted in partnership with STAT by Jae Yeon Kim, assistant professor of public policy; Betsy Pleasants, a postdoctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center; and Maria Gallo, professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology. All are at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The researchers used a large language model (LLM) provided by OpenAI to classify comments by whether they support or oppose the proposed rule as well as to count the number of times comments mentioned specified topics. Classification tasks like this would not be possible to conduct in a timely manner by hand and are well-suited to the capabilities of LLMs. This sort of use of LLMs is different from more “generative” uses (like chatting with an AI bot) that are more prone to “hallucinations.” AI tools were also used to assist in the process of writing code for this project, but the entire data analysis pipeline uses repeatable code, mostly R and some Python. None of the summary statistics or charts used in this article were generated by AI. All work was reviewed and verified by humans. STAT also independently reviewed all code and methodology for this project. Per STAT’s AI usage policy, all code and underlying data are available for review on Github. — J. Emory Parker, Data Editor at STAT"
Chart titled "commenters overwhelmingly oppose the proposed rule, percent of aalyzed comments by sentiment and type of commenter."
Graph showing increase in the number of comments on OMB proposal over time
screenshot of NIH's website showing an increase then drop in health disparities funding
screenshot of story reading "This person was a 79-year-old man at the time the request was made in April, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Those sources, who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals, said it drew the interest of top health officials, suggesting the person receiving this drug was well connected. Senior NIH clinician Ranganath MuniyappaNIH A senior clinician at the National Institutes of Health named Ranganath Muniyappa requested the drug to treat the patient for refractory obesity with obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension, a severe version of the disease. Pulmonary hypertension is high blood pressure in the lungs, which can be life-threatening. STAT does not know who the patient is. But given the patient demographics and the unusual nature of the application, STAT asked the White House whether the patient was President Trump, who turned 80 a week ago, is overweight, and has expressed interest in obesity drugs."
Screenshot of the STAT story, reading "In response to concerns that the updated Uniform Guidance, as it is called, could be used as grounds to terminate or not fund health disparities work, an OMB spokesperson said, “In the past, unaccountable deep state bureaucrats have funded woke and wasteful projects like, ‘engaging Black sexual and gender minority youth social media influencers,’ and ‘Addressing Social Determinants of Health Among Racially Diverse Trans Women in the Deep South,’ under the guise of studying health disparities. That ends now.” The official added, “With this new rule, the Trump Administration will bring much-needed accountability to the grantmaking process and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.”"
line graft showing increasing number of general comments, research related comments, and science comments
screenshot of essay reading "In this chaotic time, Vannevar Bush’s Science, the Endless Frontier has emerged as a symbolically meaningful text among scientists, who frequently point to it as the basis for the government’s long-running support of university research. Certainly, Bush marked a call for a new industrial policy in the United States that would make the nation a global leader in the new world order. He would later be credited as the architect of the so-called social contract of science, whereby federal funding is allocated primarily to university researchers in pursuit of free inquiry that might later yield some economic or social benefit. But this mythologized rendering of the innovation system overlooks other key ideas, like those expressed by sociologist Robert K. Merton, that described how the United States should govern science democratically based on lessons learned from the Second World War. Rereading Merton now, even more than revisiting Bush, better exposes the vulnerabilities driving us, as social scientists, to defend a vision of science as—and for—democracy in our own era."
Screenshot of story reading “Working as a lab scientist, studying neuroplasticity in the visual system, had felt like the perfect fit for her, but she began to wonder, “Who will be left in the field to read my work and build on it? Will I be able to get a job as a postdoc? Will my PI fully understand the situation with funding right now?” Because of this uncertainty, once she defends her thesis, she will start working with 27UNIHTED, the group of former NIH staffers and supporters who put the report together and have been advocating for the NIH amid changes from the Trump administration. “I’m so excited for the day when we can just do science,” Friedman said. But for now, “I’m leaving science, and I wouldn’t be leaving science if not for what happened this year.”
In response, ADA said, “These attendees were escorted out by our onsite event security because they demonstrated behavior not consistent with this code of conduct. They were respectfully given the opportunity to cease this behavior and chose not to, which is why they were escorted out.”
comments, 7.28k
document comments, 5.83k
document comments: 4.42k
screenshot of the story, reading "To those involved with the program, it was an attempt to break from the longtime paradigm of researchers from wealthy countries parachuting into low- and middle-income countries to dictate research priorities without consulting the local communities. But that goal feels more elusive than ever, with the U.S. slashing foreign aid. "
screenshot of document comments, reading 1.3k
screenshot of the regulations.gov site, showing "Document Comments" with 353 next to it
Twitter thread from Thomas Dietterich, reading "Attention @arxiv authors: Our Code of Conduct states that by signing your name as an author of a paper, each author takes full responsibility for all its contents, irrespective of how the contents were generated. 1/ 3:03 PM · May 14, 2026 · 66.7K Views Relevant View quotes Thomas G. Dietterich @tdietterich · 1h If generative AI tools generate inappropriate language, plagiarized content, biased content, errors, mistakes, incorrect references, or misleading content, and that output is included in scientific works, it is the responsibility of the author(s). 2/ Thomas G. Dietterich @tdietterich · 1h We have recently clarified our penalties for this. If a submission contains incontrovertible evidence that the authors did not check the results of LLM generation, this means we can't trust anything in the paper. 3/ Thomas G. Dietterich @tdietterich · 1h The penalty is a 1-year ban from arXiv followed by the requirement that subsequent arXiv submissions must first be accepted at a reputable peer-reviewed venue. 4/ Thomas G. Dietterich @tdietterich · 1h Examples of incontrovertible evidence: hallucinated references, meta-comments from the LLM ("here is a 200 word summary; would you like me to make any changes?"; "the data in this table is illustrative, fill it in with the real numbers from your experiments") end/"
screenshot of STAT story, reading "Cassidy’s fate — and political legacy — may ultimately be traced back to two votes, according to pollsters, allies, and opponents of the senator. On Feb. 13, 2021, when some Republicans believed the events of Jan. 6 had pushed Donald Trump out of mainstream politics for good, Cassidy voted to convict Trump for inciting the insurrection. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty,” he said in a statement after the vote. Four years later to the day, with Trump back in the White House, Cassidy cast another vote, this one in line with the president’s wishes. After publicly wrestling with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long history of anti-vaccine advocacy, Cassidy advanced him to become the nation’s health secretary. “The mistake that Cassidy made, which is a political mistake, is he either should have been all in from the very beginning, or he should have stood up and said, ‘no way,’” said his opponent Fleming. “But instead, he flip-flopped, and that’s the worst thing you can do, is be indecisive or change positions.”
screenshot from STAT's morning rounds newsletter reading, "The (sorry) state of science. STAT's Anil Oza published two stories yesterday about the state of science, both of them troubling."
Bar chart showing the odds of a grant ranked in the top 10% will be funded, from 2015 to 2025. Odds fall from consistently being ~90% to 56% in 2026.
Screenshot of a portrait of vannevar bush made into a slack emoji
Screenshot of STAT’s newsletter, morning rounds. It reads, “Fact-checking Jay Bhattacharya on Vannevar Bush We’ll forgive you if you don’t remember the name Vannevar Bush off the top of your head. In 1945, he wrote a report for Congress that served as the guiding document for the longstanding social contract between researchers and the federal government. Nobody loves thinking about, talking about, or sending a custom Slack emoji of Bush more than STAT’s Anil Oza, who first wrote about him in our Polk award-winning series, American Science, Shattered. So when Anil heard that NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya invoked Bush and the “endless frontier” in a recent speech, his ears perked up.”
screenshot from the story reading "Metzl, who coined the term, agrees. “Structural competency is about structures, it’s not about Republicans or Democrats. I would say that certainly there’s individual choice rhetoric, but there’s nothing in what we’ve been doing that says that individual choice is not important,” he said. “My hope with structural competency was that it was something that could actually help bridge political divides around health. Because it’s community-focused and having to do with health finances and costs for medications: things that were important to our last government, and to this government.”"
Chart titled 'over a quarter of impacted respondents moved overseas work to the U.S.' Subtitle is 'Which of the following have happened to your research as a result of NIH's Change to foreign subaward policies?'
screenshot of the story reading, "It is not just female early-career researchers that fared poorly during the first year of the second Trump administration: The number of Black researchers who received “fellowship” grants in 2025 dropped precipitously. In 2024, the NIH funded 205 such awards, and in 2025 that figure was 122, or a 40% drop. (Such grants for white researchers also dropped, by 9%). This data was first reported by the blogger DrugMonkey. The drop may be, in part, because of the topics that marginalized researchers tend to study. “Women and scientists of color are more likely to study topics that get caught up in the dragnet of being woke,” said Ginther. Indeed, research done by NIH scientists suggests that Black applicants tend to propose research on population health, rather than on basic science, which are funded less frequently. "
screenshot of story reading, "It wasn’t enough to save her three-person team. Sweetwyne still let go of a laboratory technician, and another left on their own. She’s had to return to the bench to help the one remaining staffer with experiments. Sweetwyne expects she’ll have to shut down the lab by the end of this year. And as a non-tenure-track researcher with 95% of her salary coming from grants, Sweetwyne said she’s at risk of losing her position at UW altogether. While she tries not to bring her worries home, her 6-year-old daughter has noticed. Each morning, she hands Sweetwyne a pair of coins and asks, “Is this going to be enough?” Sweetwyne always says yes, and, at the end of each day, hides the pennies and quarters around her house for the child to find again so that she doesn’t run out of change."
screenshot from Anthony Letai reading "4️⃣ Unified Funding Strategy & Multi-Year Funding We are moving toward NIH’s Unified Funding Strategy. This approach gives flexibility to support high-impact science and early-stage investigators. Even amid structural change, we anticipate funding more grants in FY26."
Screenshot of the story reading “Murphy noted the panel lacked the expertise it needed to function, though it may prove challenging to find new members that both meet those needs and align with Kennedy’s policy goals. “It is also almost impossible to find anyone with real and legitimate experience in vaccinology and immunology, someone who’s an actual expert in those areas, who agrees with the direction that the current HHS administration is trying to go with vaccines,” said Brian Dean Abramson, a vaccine law professor at the University of Houston Law Center and Florida International University. Kennedy’s ACIP “was treated more like a public relations exercise more than it was ever treated as an effort to obtain any kind of expertise or ability in the relevant field, in advising the American people on their best practices in terms of vaccination,” he added.”
Screenshot of GBH’s the curiosity desk
Bar chart showing how many people are confident or not in several institutions, including Primary care providers, AHA, AAP, AMA, career scietnists, NIH, FDA, CDC, Fauci, EPA, Dr. Oz, RFK.
Screenshot of this morning's morning rounds, including the header of the newsletter, Theresa Gaffney's byline and the text reading "Good morning. The idea of "looksmaxxing" has officially made it into STAT's science team meetings. There's a lot of journalism discussionmaxxing this phenomenon and one of its leaders, Clavicular. I found this essay by trans writer P.E. Moskowitz particularly interesting."
screenshot reading "Collins is hoping state money would allow him to offer faculty bridge funding while they await NIH funds that have been approved, as well as support to early career faculty by providing them funding to do experiments that would help them gather data to use in applications to the NIH. According to data shared with STAT, UMass Chan has 40 grant proposals pending in the NIH review system that have received fundable scores by both study sections and advisory councils — the two panels that provide peer review for grant applications. They total $152 million — around $30 million in the first year they are awarded. But it’s difficult to say when, or if, that money funds will materialize."
screenshot of the story reading "The scope of the suit became a point of contention during the Friday hearing. Isaac Belfer, the Department of Justice attorney representing HHS, said it was “metastasizing,” arguing that if the case continued to grow to include any changes to vaccine policy, it would essentially be a “moving target,” making it harder to resolve. James Oh, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, responded that it was “a little bit rich” for the government attorneys to make such a claim because “they are the ones creating a moving target. They are the ones trying to implement policy that is fundamentally different than what the U.S. has done until last year. What they are doing is metastasizing harm throughout the United States through their, I think, ill-conceived policy.”"
Photo of moakley courtroom
Screenshot of a post from X. The @NIH account is quote tweeting a STAT post of a story about the NCI studying ivermectin. The tweet reads: "Ivermectin, a macrocyclic lactone discovered in the mid-1970’s, plays a critical role in the treatment of a wide range of parasitic diseases in humans as well as in veterinary practice. Over the past decade, researchers have explored repurposing this molecule as an anticancer agent following the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of ivermectin by a researcher who pioneered the concept of looking for uses beyond antibiotics for biological activity in microorganisms. @theNCI is currently funding intramural research for this purpose."
Screenshot of the Verge's story, reading: "Reputation laundering has worked well for some in the scientific community for a long, long time. The Nobel Prizes are a case in point. The prizes are named for Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. If you know nothing about Nobel’s life except the prizes he funded, you’re likely to think he was a good guy. You’d never guess that one obituary identified him as a “merchant of death.” Prizes that exist to launder reputations don’t take chances on unknowns. They award exclusively the most elite, and the glow of the awardee’s reputation makes the prize prestigious. The effect is that prizes are given to established scientists who are least in need of funding and support. Prizes, like Epstein’s donations, serve to consolidate power among those who already have it. Prizes, like donations, serve to consolidate power among those who already have it The Nobels have awarded three physics prizes in total to women, out of 210 laureates. Chemistry is doing slightly better, as five women are laureates (of 181 total). Medicine is better yet: 12 entire women (of 216 laureates). And the Nobels only scratch the surface of the reputation laundering endemic in the scientific community."
screenshot reading "The Siri report underscored that the U.S. is in a political moment “unique in the history of public health,” Nair said — namely, that people close to power “are antagonistic to the idea that societies and states, working together, can ameliorate population-level illness and make life better for us.”"
Screenshot of the STAT interview with Tony Letai. Question, in bold, reads "One example of something that people described as harming the trust was the report of “banned words” being searched for at the NCI, and having grants be denied on the basis of such words. Specifically, words like sex, equity, minority." The response, unbolded, is "I can assure you that no one’s grant is being rejected based on the presence of one or several words. It is true that there was a directive, or at least an emphasis in the previous administration. To accentuate grant funding, based on priorities that we feel are distinct from the priorities of reducing the burden of cancer. These include, of course, DEI initiatives. We instead feel that it’s very important to fund the best cancer research, no matter what the color of the skin of the applicant is. The NCI has depoliticized aspects of the grant review process, and of course, it is being described by many as politicization. I think that really depends on what your feelings are about some of these issues, but I would certainly view it as depoliticization."
Screenshot reading “The National Cancer Institute, which was the first institute to project the impact of multiyear funding, predicted it would fund 1 in 25 proposals, down from about 1 in 10 in 2024. At the end of the fiscal year, the NIH had funded 3,758 R01 and R21 awards, which represent the bulk of research grants to universities, down from 5,633 the previous year, despite spending a similar amount of money. Data from the NIH presented at a public meeting showed that early-career researchers had been impacted by the change, and their odds of securing funding dropped from 29.8% to 18.5%.”
Screenshot reading "Over the past quarter of a century, NIAID’s overall strategic plan — which is being updated after almost a decade — had three main foci: (1) HIV research, including developing a vaccine or cure; (2) civilian biodefense and pandemic preparedness; and (3) all other priorities, including most infections and allergic, immunological and autoimmune conditions. To this end, we articulate here a new vision for the work of the NIAID in the twenty-first century. As infectious agents and immune responses and our understanding of them evolve, the research agenda should evolve to address their crucial roles in maintaining human health and preventing or treating disease."
Data visualization titled "Two-thirds of Democrats now say the U.S. losing ground in scientific achievements." Shows three sets of bar charts showing how all US adults responded, Rep/lean Rep, and Dem/lean Dem.
screenshot of a press release reading "INFECTIOUS DISEASES SOCIETY OF AMERICA SELECTS NEXT CEO The Infectious Diseases Society of America has selected Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, FIDSA, as its next chief executive officer, effective Jan. 12, 2026. Dr. Marrazzo is an internationally recognized infectious diseases physician, researcher and public health leader who most recently served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Her appointment marks a pivotal moment for IDSA as the field continues to face rapidly evolving challenges, emerging pathogens and increasing demands on the nation’s health system infrastructure. “Dr. Marrazzo brings exactly the kind of strategic, expert leadership that is needed at this moment to guide the field as we combat infectious diseases with sound science,” said IDSA President Ronald G. Nahass, MD, MHCM, FIDSA. “Her unparalleled experience in infectious diseases—spanning front-line patient care, scientific advancement, public health response and high-level government leadership—positions her to guide us into a new era of strength and impact.” “I am energized about leading IDSA at such a critical time,” said Dr. Marrazzo. “Those of us who work to prevent and manage infectious diseases are confronting unprecedented challenges, yet still have extraordinary opportunities to advance health, science and global preparedness. I have always found inspiration and strength in collaborating with others, and now is a critical time to do this. I look forward to working alongside the Board, leadership and staff for the benefit of IDSA members to strengthen our capacity and improve the lives of our patients and communities.”"
Screenshot of STAT story reading "“I think it’s quite good,” said Michael Lauer, who previously directed the NIH’s extramural arm. “One of the critical points about this is that a grant cannot be arbitrarily or capriciously terminated on the turn of a dime, which is what was happening earlier this year where somebody would get a notice that their grant had been terminated and that was that. Here, the dialogue and negotiation is built into the process: It absolutely has to happen. What it means is it gives the grant recipient an opportunity to present their side of the story.” Since the administration began terminating awards it deemed out of step with its agenda, it has faced legal pushback. Following those challenges, the Department of Health and Human Services outlined ways that the administration could continue to terminate grants in a fashion that could withstand legal scrutiny. Part of that guidance, from HHS’ Office of General Counsel, recommended that the NIH make its priorities public. In August, Bhattacharya did that, stating that his tenure would focus on 12 key priorities, including replication, artificial intelligence, nutrition, and moving away from animal models, among others."
Screenshot reading: STAT interviewed more than 15 FDA sources, public health experts, industry players, and colleagues of Høeg, and reviewed clinical data along with Høeg’s blog posts and interviews, to get a sense of how she may lead the drug center. The current FDA staffers asked not to be identified because they feared retaliation. Høeg will be the fifth person to direct the center this year as the agency grapples with personnel upheaval. Staffers, as well as industry and patient stakeholders, desperately want the drug center to be stable again. Based on STAT’s reporting, Høeg may not bring that stability.
Screenshot reading: "Plan A was to go into pharma; as a former academic, it was the part of the research ecosystem he had yet to work in. But he’s still looking, and has had to expand the kinds of positions he’s considering. “I wanted to broaden my skill set,” he said, so that he can return to the federal government or public-private partnerships to be a “maximally effective part of the repair and rebuild effort” at NIH."
Screenshot reading: "“I’m excited that Grant Witness found a way to stay in the fight. The threat to American science, the threat to public health, the threat to environmental science remains,” he said. “I know I can advocate for that science better by investing in Grant Witness than I can as a research scientist at Harvard.”
Underrepresented Populations in the U.S. Biomedical, Clinical, Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Enterprise In spite of tremendous advancements in scientific research, information, educational and research opportunities are not equally available to all. NIH encourages institutions to diversify their student and faculty populations to enhance the participation of individuals from groups that are underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences, such as: Individuals from racial and ethnic groups that have been shown by the National Science Foundation to be underrepresented in health-related sciences on a national basis (see data at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/showpub.cfm?TopID=2&SubID;=27) and the report Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering). The following racial and ethnic groups have been shown to be underrepresented in biomedical research: Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. In addition, it is recognized that underrepresentation can vary from setting to setting; individuals from racial or ethnic groups that can be demonstrated convincingly to be underrepresented by the grantee institution should be encouraged to participate in NIH programs to enhance diversity. For more information on racial and ethnic categories and definitions, see the OMB Revisions to the Standards for Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1997-10-30/html/97-28653.htm). Individuals with disabilities, who are defined as those with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, as described in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended. See NSF data at, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310/static/data/tab7-5.pdf. Individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, defined as those who meet two or more of the follo…
Photo of a lab bench, littered with pipettes, empty containers, with a background of interlaced hexagons.
Chart showing Transition grants awarded postdoctoral researchers. Total number of grants awarded in the first 270 days of the year, by year. Shows steady increase from 2016 to 2024, then takes a dip in 2025.
"Modeling and studying these networks can help scientists build a deeper understanding of human biology and potential disease causes and therapeutics. But the only way to model such a network is through computational tools like the ones that Quackenbush and his lab build, said Ramos at Texas A&M. Each application in the Network Zoo is named after a different animal, like PANDA or EGRET, and can help scientists explore different aspects of gene regulatory networks. One recent application, PHOENIX, helps scientists better understand how gene networks change over time and is the first such network model that can scale to all estimated 20,000 genes in the human genome, and was noted by the NCI as a key advance in 2024."
Chart showing early career grants awarded from 2016 to 2025. grants steadily increased until 2025, where it hit the lowest point in the past 10 years.
Screenshot of STAT's morning rounds newsletter, with a morning rounds icon at the top and a byline for Theresa Gaffney. The newsletter reads "Good morning. Okay. There is a lot going on. First off: Tracy Beth Høeg will be the next leader of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Also on deck today: The CDC's vaccine advisory committee will review the hepatitis B vaccine. Revisit some of our previous coverage on the shot here and here. And finally: Please spend some time with the first three installments of our latest series: American Science, Shattered. In part 1, you'll learn why some reporters have become so fixated on a man named Vannevar Bush that we had to make a custom Slack emoji of his face. "
In a statement Friday, Murray said, “If this administration thinks that summarily ousting NIH employees whose only offense is calling on the agency to respect science and academic freedom will go unnoticed, they can think again … We need answers immediately.”
Screenshot reading “A Department of Health and Human Services official familiar with the matter told STAT Norton was placed on leave because “Instead of focusing on her actual job to promote gold standard science, radical leftist Jenna Norton chooses to constantly criticize this administration, even when she is supposed to be working.” The official declined to be named because they are not authorized to discuss personnel matters. “