Rob Stein
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The FDA says the policy would allow the agency to approve new treatments in some cases without requiring a study be done first to demonstrate that therapy works.
The new policy is designed to make state-of-the-art technologies like gene editing available to patients in situations where the disease is so rare that it would be impossible to conduct a study first.
The FDA says the new approach would only apply to situations where there is, quote, plausible evidence the treatment would work, and a follow-up study would be needed to confirm the treatment is effective and safe.
An administration official, who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media, has confirmed to NPR that NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya will also oversee the CDC until the president picks a permanent CDC director.
And the most recent acting CDC director, Jim O'Neill, will be nominated to lead the National Science Foundation.
The moves come as the administration has been shuffling top health officials in advance of the midterm elections, when hot-button issues like federal vaccine policy could play a role.
The moves come as federal science agencies continue to be in turmoil since Trump returned to office.
The CDC says the eight new influenza deaths among children in the past week means the flu has claimed the lives of at least 52 children so far this season.
The new deaths come as the number of people getting treated for flu-like symptoms has started to rise again.
That suggests that the nation may be facing a second peak of flu cases in what has already been an unusually severe flu season.
The flu killed more than 280 children last season.
Nevertheless, the CDC recently made a controversial decision to stop recommending that all children routinely get a flu shot.
To sound the alarm about emerging dangers, the CDC issues alerts known as HONs from the agency's health alert network.
These HONs warn health departments, hospitals, doctors about urgent new risks.
The number of CDC health alerts fluctuates, but the agency typically releases at least a dozen annually, sometimes dozens.
In 2025, the CDC issued just six.