‘The Dead Cannot Advocate for Themselves’: What We Heard This Week

“The dead cannot advocate for themselves.” — Suneel Kamath, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, highlighting the funding gap for highly lethal cancers.

“You can’t go above 100%.” — Krina Patel, MD, MSc, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, discussing a trial where every patient with high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma responded to CAR T-cell therapy.

“When you take away that desire for food, then it kind of becomes, ‘Now what do I do?'” — Deena Hailoo, MD, of Northwell Health hospitals on Long Island, New York, on the “emotional flattening” reported by some GLP-1 drug users.

“It doesn’t make any sense not to treat the guy with low testosterone just because you don’t know the root cause.” — Tobias Kohler, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as the FDA took steps to expand indications for testosterone to include idiopathic hypogonadism.

“The doubt you’ve created about all of medicine and science is causing parents to make dangerous decisions.” — Rep. Kim Schrier, MD (D-Wash.), criticizing Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for stirring up distrust of vitamin K shots for babies.

“They lived long enough for them to develop cognitive impairment.” — Isaac Thorman, ScM, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and New York Medical College in Valhalla, noting that while GLP-1 users with type 2 diabetes showed higher rates of cognitive impairment, they also had significantly lower mortality rates.

“This may hopefully contribute to improved vaccine uptake in pregnancy.” — Nicole Sonneveld, MSc, of the National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance at Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network in Australia, on data confirming the safety of co-administering influenza and pertussis vaccines.

“In rare cases, it can act like a sudden pressure spike.” — Christian Ferreira, MD, of Northwell’s Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, New York, discussing a rare case of a cerebrospinal fluid leak that was associated with a suppressed sneeze.