Scientists say climate change is making you age like milk
Maybe you can add moving to Helsinki to your longevity regimen?
Today on the letter: A Latina banger of an anthem, a book that’ll make you think about the health and depth of your friendships, and a nightmare surrogacy experience. On the healthcare front, we also have findings on heat exposure + biological age, American Health Politics, and GLP-1s (always). Behind the paywall, I share my recommendations from a long weekend in Helsinki, Finland.
WHAT I’M INTO
Press Play: “222" by Tei Shi ft. Loyal Lobos
Two is my favorite number, for no reason other than I like even numbers, and it appealed to my 6-year-old eye when I decided 2 was aesthetically pleasing enough to claim as my favorite. At
’s Burger Diva Birthday, I learned it might also be hers. Is this fake news? LMK. I’ve had the refrain, “Caótica/ Frenética/ Re-crazy, yea/ Magnética” stuck in my head since last month when I watched this “conjoined twin” music video. This song is coy + flirty, oscillating between Spanish + English. The video opens with a split-screen shot of Tei Shi dialing Loyal Lobos, but they’re next to each other in matching black body suits. It transported me to one 4AM January morning in my Chinatown tenement apartment after a night at Skin Contact. If you’re asking, “Don’t they close at midnight?” Yes, next question. Thinking I’d lost my phone, I called myself from SDM’s cell, found it in a different room, and answered, “Hi, SEM? It’s me, SEM!” Anyway, I think it’s fun when my friends and I wear similar outfits to the function—birds of a feather, great minds, or whatever.Build Literacy: Lonely Crowds: A Novel by Stephanie Wambugu
This is a story about many things, but at its core, it’s about complicated friendships between women. Two young confidants and co-conspirators grow into imperfect women; it’s a familiar tale, given that my friendships with complex women are my most rewarding. Ruth, our narrator, is a precocious Catholic Girl. She befriends Maria, an orphan who knows how to play the shitty cards she was dealt. Maria is to Ruth in Lonely Crowds as Mila Kunis’ Lily is to Natalie Portman’s Nina in Black Swan. Where Ruth is shy and obedient, Maria is charming and free. Maria’s cavalier and inconsiderate tendencies bring out Ruth’s nurturing side. Maria finds more success in her art than Ruth. Ruth holds Maria on a pedestal and idealizes her. Naturally, these dynamics breed resentment and tension despite deep love and care. In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Wambugu caveats, “I think if you have a friendship without those things, you’re probably not that close.” Ain’t that the truth.
Anti-algorithm news: “The Baby Died. Whose Fault is it?” (Wired)
This one is a doozy. Cindy Bi, a Chinese Venture Capitalist preoccupied with mothering a white son, hired a surrogate to carry her only male embryo. In the worst possible scenario (something you wouldn’t even wish on your worst enemy), the baby was stillborn. Bi has since decided to make her surrogate’s life miserable. I understand that she was grief-stricken, and we shouldn’t judge people by their worst moment, but she crossed wayyyy over the line of impropriety. I have an ongoing agreement with my VC friend that I will alert her if she ever turns into a tone-deaf VC caricature. Which begs the question: Does Cindy Bi have any friends? From a health policy lens, Bi’s rhetoric and attempts to charge her surrogate for murder are concerning. Down the line, this could implicate women who lose a pregnancy or choose to have an abortion. Surrogacy can be a beautiful thing, but we need stronger surrogate protections.
PULSE CHECK!
“Pulse Check” is your curated healthcare + pharma quick hit, complementing the longer, more in-depth “On Health” letters.
Heatwaves age us as much as smoking + drinking. Comparing people’s chronological age to their biological age, scientists found that people aged faster when exposed to extreme heat. This matters because last year was the hottest on record, adding 41 more extreme heat days globally than expected. Beyond aesthetics (i.e., looking hot + young), heat kills more people than other extreme weather-related events in the US. I raised this with BotticelliBimbo (MPH of Stripper Economic Index fame), and she wants you all to know that heatwaves also make us dumber and more aggressive because “heat literally cooks people’s brains.” I’m looking up real estate in Helsinki, Finland, as we speak.
FDA has started publishing redacted Complete Response Letters (CRLs) for drugs under review. This isn’t common practice. Previously, the pharmaceutical company chose when to release these letters. A CLR is when a drugmaker submits their drug for approval, and the FDA says, “Nah fam, we’re not ready to approve this.” It’s not a “No,” they usually need more info or want the company to address concerns. Sometimes the FDA thinks your data is mid and/or sus and wants more evidence, other times it’s a quality assurance concern if your lab fails the vibe check. These letters include a roadmap to help drug makers fix and resubmit. Speaking for myself, I’d worry this move could reveal too much of my drug development strategy to my competitors. I’m not sure how others in the field are receiving this.
The World Health Organization has added GLP-1s to the essential medicines list. This is a list of necessary drugs to promote population health, and helps enable access in lower- and middle-income countries.
RFK Jr. got flamed in a Senate hearing on CDC troubles and vaccine misinformation this week. Where the FDA oversees the development of vaccines + drugs, the CDC studies real-world population-level use outside of the controlled clinical trial setting. The issue is that RFK Jr. and his team updated the COVID-19 vaccine guidelines, which then require CDC approval/endorsement to become official recommendations. Now, why does this matter? Insurance Coverage! If FDA guidance conflicts with CDC vaccine policy, insurers tend to follow the cheaper option: denying coverage for those vaccines. This has major affordability and access implications for most Americans who can’t afford out-of-pocket vaccines. When the COVID-19 vaccine guidelines updates reached the CDC, Dr. Susan Monarez (MAHA CDC Director) resisted. In turn, HHS tweeted that she was resigning. Dr. Monarez was like, “Bet. No, I’m not,” so they fired her. Members of the Senate are now calling for RFK Jr.’s resignation or firing. For now, I’d look at professional societies such as the American Academy of Obstetrics + Gynecology and the American Academy of Pediatrics for evidence-based vaccine guidelines.
WHAT I’M INTO
I went to Helsinki! And I think you should too! Everyone’s skin looked great. (Did you think I was joking about Finnish real estate?).