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— This past week in healthcare investigations
by Jennifer Henderson, Enterprise & Investigative Writer, MedPage Today
December 24, 2025 • 3 min read
Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.
Who’s Really in Charge at NIH?
Inside the NIH, some have described director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, as a figurehead, while deputy director Matthew Memoli, MD, MS, is “the one wielding the axe,” the Atlantic reported.
“Although Bhattacharya has continued to reiterate his own goals for the NIH — including advancing more innovative research — his recent visions for the agency have largely followed administration talking points such as diverting resources toward chronic disease and clamping down on ‘dangerous’ virological research,” the article stated.
Memoli’s actions, on the other hand, “look like those of a leader who has been given broad discretion to shrink down the agency’s infectious diseases work — an area where he may have a few personal grievances,” the Atlantic reported. He “knows just enough about the agency — and in particular, its approach to infectious disease — to help destroy it.”
The Atlantic spoke with 18 current and former NIH officials for the story. Neither Bhattacharya nor Memoli agreed to an interview, and the Trump administration responded to the Atlantic‘s request for comment after publication, stating it did “not reflect Dr. Bhattacharya’s leadership approach or the way decisions are made at NIH.”
Kennedy Promotes CDC Contact
William Thompson, PhD — the CDC scientist named by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a Senate hearing as one of his contacts at the agency — will be elevated to a new position at the agency, STAT reported.
Thompson, a long-time CDC employee, will be promoted to oversee research related to adverse childhood experiences, the outlet reported. He will be temporarily promoted to the highest level of civilian government workers — a GS-15 with supervisory duties.
The new role also entails shaping parts of the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, and leading students and fellows in research work, according to STAT.
Notably, Thompson has garnered attention via the anti-vaccine movement as a whistleblower who contended that unreported data showed correlation between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, STAT reported. He also has criticized thimerosal in vaccines.
Despite these contentions, Thompson has supported vaccines and acknowledged their ability “to save countless lives” as well, according to the report.
Toxic Fumes To Blame For Pilot, Crew Deaths?
Fume events, in which leaks of synthetic oils or other fluids in an aircraft’s engines produce toxic gases released into the cabin and cockpit, have allegedly been responsible for severe illnesses and even fatalities among pilots and crew members, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The effects of fume events can be mild, fleeting, or absent altogether, WSJ reported. However, in extreme cases, severe illnesses and fatalities have allegedly included amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, heart conditions, brain tumors, and even suicide.
Reports of fume events have sharply risen in recent years, WSJ reported. (The outlet noted in September that, among the largest U.S. airlines, fume events happened nearly 10 times as often last year than a decade earlier.)
“While the existence of fume events isn’t contested, the possibility that they could lead to serious illness — and even deaths — is hotly disputed,” the article stated. “Yet a Journal review of dozens of recent research papers and interviews with more than 20 medical professionals, including brain and heart specialists, epidemiologists, and toxicologists, show an increasing conviction about the link between fume events and potentially fatal diagnoses.”
“It’s a pattern. I can’t ignore it,” Frank van de Goot, PhD, a Dutch forensic pathologist who said he has performed autopsies on 18 flight crew members showing signs of toxic exposures, told WSJ.
