In mid-May, a Senate committee minority report announced that in the first three months of 2025, the Donald Trump administration had removed $2.7 billion from the National Institutes of Health. That decision, among other cuts to science funding, is spurred in part by the COVID-19 lab-leak theory, asserts Johns Hopkins University’s Gigi Gronvall.
To lead this week’s coverage, Gronvall interrogates the lab-leak theory, noting that it does not explain core moments of the disease’s rise in Wuhan, China, such as why two versions of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were present in early cases. She also reminds readers that, without science, the United States will not be ready for disease threats such as measles and that the country is losing its biotechnology edge to China.
Next, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation’s Erin DeGraw describes how artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to fill gaps in data on gender-based violence, help survivors safely document their experiences, and inform targeted, proactive interventions.
Traveling to the Middle East, physicians Julia Yarkoni and Mohammad Saeed Gharaati Jahromi analyze the factors driving tobacco use in Iran and Israel. Although the countries differ politically, they are both experiencing a rise in the number of young adults who smoke. That trend is fueled by common factors including stress over the war in Gaza, economic hardship, and overexposure to social media.
On Tuesday, as the seventy-eighth World Health Assembly drew to a close, many celebrated the adoption of the Pandemic Agreement. Although the agreement is a milestone, Founder of Geneva Health Files Priti Patnaik emphasizes its fragility and explains that, in a world of diminishing international solidarity, continued cooperation among member states is needed to effectively address transnational health challenges.
Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor
