Rob Stein
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-02-2025 5PM EDT
Researchers at Brown University analyzed data collected from more than 73,000 older adults in the United States and Europe between 2010 and 2022. They weren't surprised to find that the wealthiest people in both the U.S. and Europe tended to live longer than the poorest. But they were surprised by this.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-02-2025 5PM EDT
The wealthiest Americans didn't live as long as the most affluent Europeans and only tend to have the longevity of the poorest Western and Northern Europeans. That's despite the fact that the U.S. spends more than any other wealthy country on health care. Rob Stein, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 03-05-2025 7PM EST
The cap would cripple the search for new cures for diseases, and three lawsuits challenged the legality of the cap. The cap would cripple the search for new cures for diseases, and three lawsuits challenged the legality of the cap. The federal judge in Massachusetts agreed, extending what had been a temporary restraining order on implementing the cap nationwide. Rob Stein, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 10-27-2024 5PM EDT
The CDC is endorsing recommendations from independent advisors that anyone aged 50 and older get a shot that can protect them against bacteria that can cause pneumonia and other potentially serious complications. Previously, the CDC only recommended the so-called pneumococcal vaccine for those aged 65 and older.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 10-27-2024 5PM EDT
The CDC is also recommending people ages 65 and older and younger people with moderate or severe immune system problems get at least two doses of one of the new COVID vaccines instead of just one. Rob Stein, NPR News.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-07-2025 4PM EDT
Colossal Biosciences in Dallas says company scientists edited the genes of gray wolves to breed animals with key traits of dire wolves. Dire wolves have been extinct for more than 12,000 years and were featured in the HBO series Game of Thrones. The colossal scientists created embryos from genetically modified gray wolf cells and then implanted them into female dogs.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 04-07-2025 4PM EDT
The surrogate mother dogs gave birth to three healthy wolves with dire wolf traits. The company named the animals Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi. Colossal hopes to do something similar with other extinct species, including the woolly mammoth. Rob Stein, NPR News.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
You know, Michelle, people love to travel and get together with family and friends over the holidays. The bad news is that often means they come home with some nasty bug. I talked about this with Dr. Brendan Jackson from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
And you know, Michelle, the flu in particular is spiking right now. Here's Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
And it's not just the flu. RSV is still spreading at very high levels. So is whooping cough, a bacterium called mycoplasma that can cause walking pneumonia. And let's not forget COVID, which is starting to shoot up yet again.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
Well, you know, no one ever really knows what these viruses. The CDC says that unless some new COVID variant emerges, it still looks like this winter will probably be kind of like last year. But that's not great. It still means lots of kids missing school, parents missing work, grandparents and other vulnerable people ending up in the hospital and even dying.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
Dr. Andrew Pavia studies infectious disease at the University of Utah.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
But even then, a long tail, according to Caitlin Rivers, she's an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
So Rivers and others are recommending people should do all the, you know, usual stuff. Wash their hands a lot, mask up in crowded places, open windows if they can, and of course, get vaccinated. It's not too late.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
Yeah, it's called the human metapneumovirus or HMPV. It's getting a lot of attention because of a surge of respiratory illnesses in the north of China. But the World Health Organization and the CDC say they aren't too worried about it. The WHO says the increase in respiratory illness cases seen in China is within the range expected for this time of year.
Up First from NPR
Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
HMPV can cause serious complications, but usually only causes a cold. It's nothing compared to the flu, RSV, and COVID, which according to a new CDC estimate is still killing hundreds of people every week.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
You know, it was quite dramatic. I met the patient at NYU Langone Health in New York City just minutes before she was wheeled to the OR. Her name is Tawana Looney. She's 53 from Gadsden, Alabama. How are you feeling this morning?
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Why are you excited?
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Looney's immune system would reject a human kidney, so the FDA let her get a pig kidney that's been genetically engineered so her body could accept it, even though this is all very experimental.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
As one team of surgeons started preparing Looney for the kidney, another team flew to rural Virginia to retrieve two kidneys from a modified pig cloned at a biotech company's research farm. After the chopper returned with the kidneys, the surgeon stitched one of them to Looney's blood supply, then started blood flowing from Looney's body into the pig kidney for the first time.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Let's give a listen.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Then, Steve, the next test came. That's when surgeons made sure the kidney was doing its job, which is making urine. Wow, beautiful, gorgeous. It's just pouring out. And here's what Dr. Robert Montgomery, the lead surgeon, said right after the seven-hour operation.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
So far, the pig kidney seems to be working great. In fact, Looney was discharged earlier than expected to an apartment near the hospital where doctors are keeping a close eye on her. I visited her there two weeks after the surgery. So how are you doing? I am doing wonderful.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
Now, Steve, it's important to point out that two other patients who got pig kidneys with different modifications died within weeks of their operations. So did two men who got genetically modified pig hearts. But the pig organs seemed to work well in those cases, and they were much sicker than Looney. So doctors are hopeful this time.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
And the hope is that someday genetically modified pigs could provide an unlimited supply of kidneys, livers, hearts, and other organs to help solve the organ shortage.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
But, you know, it's important to point out that there are worries about all this, about pig organs spreading dangerous viruses to people, about breeding and slaughtering thousands of pigs just for their organs, and about experimenting on desperately ill patients like this. So there's still a lot to be worked out.
Up First from NPR
Trump Meets CEOs At Mar-A-Lago, School Shooting In Wisconsin, Pig Kidney Transplant
You bet, Steve.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
Well, this is kind of a good news, bad news story. Let's start with the good news. This winter's COVID surge looks like the mildest since the virus first emerged. Here's Caitlin Rivers. She's an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
There's still plenty of people getting it and even ending up in the hospital or worse. So River says people shouldn't let down their guard. Now, when it comes to COVID, though, I mean, why is this winter's COVID wave so mild? Well, one possible explanation is that we went through an unusually intense summer COVID surge that also started relatively late.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
So lots of people may still have some immunity from when they had COVID this summer, but And no new variant has evolved that's any better at getting around the immunity people have built up. There's also a theory called viral interference. That's when the presence of one virus kind of pushes out other viruses. Here's Aubrey Gordon. She's an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
Now, you probably noticed she said there's a lot of flu out there, and that brings us to the bad news.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
Well, this year's flu season started unusually early and has been pretty intense. And now it looks like we're getting hit by a second winter surge of flu. Here's Caitlin Rivers again from Johns Hopkins.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
So it's looking like the intensity of this year's flu season could have a long tail.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
No, no, which is good news. So far, testing hasn't spotted any signs that the whirring bird flu that's infecting dairy cows and poultry is spreading widely in people. So it's a bit of a mystery. It could just be kind of natural variation that happens with the flu.
Up First from NPR
Trump's Justice Department, Disappearing DEI, Flu Peaks Again
That said, the more people who catch the flu, the greater the chances that people could get infected with both viruses, the regular flu and bird flu. And that could give the bird flu the opportunity to kind of swap genes with the regular flu and evolve into something more dangerous. even potentially cause another pandemic. That's NPR health correspondent Rob Stein.