STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about HHS job cuts, Pfizer Covid vaccine probe, and more

Top of the morning to you, and a fine one it is. After a few chilly days, a warm sun and blue skies are finally enveloping the Pharmalot campus, where the official mascots are bounding about the grounds in search of furry noshes. As for us, we are engaged in the usual rituals — firing up the coffee kettle in order to brew a cup of stimulation (the choice today is lavender vanilla) and foraging for items of interest. On that note, here are a few tidbits to help you get started on your journey today, which we hope will be satisfying and insightful. Meanwhile, do keep in touch — we always appreciate tips, insights, and feedback. …

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to significantly cut the size of the department he leads, reshaping the nation’s health agencies and closing regional offices, according to The Wall Street Journal. Kennedy is set to announce Thursday the planned changes, which include axing 10,000 full-time employees spread across departments tasked with responding to disease outbreaks, approving new drugs, providing insurance for the poorest Americans and more. The worker cuts are in addition to roughly 10,000 employees who opted to leave the department since President Trump took office, through voluntary separation offers, according to the documents. The voluntary departures and the plan, if fully implemented, would result in the department shedding about one-quarter of its workforce, shrinking to 62,000 federal health workers. It will also lose five of its 10 regional offices. Documents viewed by the Journal say essential health services will not be affected.

Soon after President Trump won the presidential election in November, GSK brought an unusual claim to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, The Wall Street Journal reports. A senior GSK scientist, who formerly worked at Pfizer, had told GSK colleagues that Pfizer delayed announcing the success of its Covid vaccine in 2020 until after that year’s election. The scientist disputes that account of what he told colleagues. But prosecutors are taking a closer look at what GSK shared with them, which is potentially politically explosive. Trump for years has claimed that Pfizer sat on the positive results of clinical trials, which could have reflected well on his management of the pandemic and reassured voters as they headed to the polls. There has never been evidence to support the accusation. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan has interviewed at least two people in connection with the allegation, including a GSK executive who took notes of a conversation with the former Pfizer scientist.

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