Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026She asked for the drug after an earlier clinical trial of metformin among people who were overweight. “This was a miraculous result for me and I can't thank those scientists enough for making this discovery.” 000
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026“I have been infected with COVID four times and got long COVID after the first three, but not the fourth one—the only difference being that I had metformin in the acute stage of the fourth infection,” said Margaret O'Hara, a trustee of the UK charity Long Covid Support. 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026At least one individual credits metformin with helping them escape long COVID. 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026“If someone said to me, ‘I’m really scared about long COVID,’” Sax would discuss metformin, but the risk of long COVID is low enough that he would not typically prescribe any drug for it, he said. 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026(Author Nina Langeland, infectious diseases professor at the University of Bergen in Norway, said “there was little we could do to improve recruitment.”) 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026And the Paxlovid study suffers from high fragility, said Paul Sax, the infectious diseases chair at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. “With this low sample size, all it takes is a few cases to go on one side or the other, and then you have a completely different result,” he said 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026(Justin Reese, a computational biologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said “there are some ideas,” though more research is needed. Metformin suppresses mTORC1 signalling, he said, “potentially making the cell less hospitable for producing new virions.”) 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026There are also physicians who are not fully swayed by the papers. Compared to Paxlovid, the “evidence base” for metformin is “far less developed,” said Ziyad Al-Aly, an epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. “You would also want to see some mechanistic explanation to understand why.” 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026And, said Myron Cohen, an infectious diseases doctor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the new Paxlovid study “simply pushes me further over into saying to someone, ‘Unless you have a reason not to take Paxlovid, I would probably give you Paxlovid.’” 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026“If I had a patient with acute COVID today,” said Wes Ely, a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, “I’d say to them, ‘We can probably cut that [long COVID] risk in half by you taking these 36 pills—two weeks’ worth of metformin. What do you want to do?’” 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026A trial of 2,983 people, published last month in Clinical Infectious Diseases, found metformin reduced clinician-diagnosed long COVID at 6 months by half. A trial of 144 people, published two weeks ago in The Lancet ID, found Paxlovid reduced self-reported long COVID symptoms at 3 months by 40%. 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 31/07/2026The diabetes drug metformin and the antiviral Paxlovid may help prevent long COVID when given during an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, two new randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials suggest. www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comCan long COVID be prevented? Two drugs finally show promiseRigorous trials suggest they reduce the risk of long-term disease after coronavirus infection. 165
Reposted by Edward ChenRichard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Some fertility clinics offer to furnish clients’ embryos with donated mitochondria to help treat infertility -- this hasn't been proven in rigorous clinical trials and may have safety risks. Scientists who spoke to @nature.com are alarmed. By @edwrdchen.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comFertility clinics are offering young mitochondria in controversial fertility techniqueResearchers are alarmed that the procedure, which has not been rigorously studied, is advertised by clinics around the world. 031
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 08/06/2026Thanks for reading! New correction on the story that this isn't the first reported use of base editing in human embryos, though it's perhaps the most rigorously studied/splashiest one so far. I believe it's also the first with editing at two loci. One prior ex: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... 010
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 08/06/2026Thanks for reading! New correction on the story that this isn't the first reported use of base editing in human embryos, though it's perhaps the most rigorously studied/splashiest one so far. One prior example: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... 000
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026One of the first steps to countering Ebola, they said, is “pay the nurses.” Not doing so “very much undermines the response.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026It may be surprising that some healthcare workers are not being paid—it was for me at least. But a Western infectious diseases physician, who asked not to be named, said this is “unfortunately common the world over in low-resource settings.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Thanks to @marilenharo.bsky.social, Traci Watson for edits, and Rachel Fieldhouse and @ecallaway.bsky.social for flagging ideas. Graph of Ebola cases from Mariana: 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026“Sometimes it is very difficult to get work done with demotivated people.” He said complaints are widespread on WhatsApp groups, with themes like “we are the ones sitting at the frontline” but “people are not caring about us.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026“Sometimes it is very difficult to get work done with demotivated people.” He said complaints are widespread on WhatsApp groups, with themes like “we are the ones sitting at the frontline” but “people are not caring about us.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Doctors report that medical staff are not regularly paid by the government, which employs them in the public health system. “We have a lot of hired staff, medical personnel, who are not even paid,” said Tony Ukety, medical director of a research center in Ituri, DRC. 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026“Part of the contributing factor,” said Nicholas Enrich, who was an acting assistant administrator at USAID, “is they're not able to rely on large swaths of community health workers that had been previously funded through USAID efforts.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026The delay is a “massive organizational issue that everyone knows about,” said an epidemiologist who asked to remain anonymous. “It always come[s] too late.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Yet, as of last Thursday, 13 days after an outbreak was declared on May 15, contact tracing had yet to start in Mongbwalu, where the outbreak probably originated, said Manuel Albela, an epidemiologist with MSF. At the time, MSF planned to begin contact tracing sometime this week. 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Experts who've responded to Ebola outbreaks, like Megan Fotheringham, who was an office deputy director at USAID, said that contact tracing has been unusually late. “It's the first thing you start doing,” she said. Without vaccines or specific treatments, “that is your public health intervention.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026One, their director of nursing, passed that morning; five were hospitalized; and five “refused” to seek care at the hospital, he said. “They really didn’t want to go there because everybody has the belief [that an] Ebola treatment center is just like [a] mortuary where people are going to die.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026There is also a lack of confidence in the healthcare system that is shared by some of its own workers. As of last Thursday, 11 workers at his hospital had confirmed Ebola, said Tonen-Wolyec. 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026“My suggestion would be to close all these institutions, the health facilities here, to decontaminate them” before re-opening, he said through a French translator. “The virus has invaded all the health infrastructure within Bunia.” 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026The weeks- and potentially months-long delay in confirming the outbreak has allowed the virus to spread roughshod throughout hospitals, said Serge Tonen-Wolyec, an internal medicine physician at Polyclinique Citadelle in Bunia, DRC, where some of the first positive Bundibugyo samples were collected. 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Also critical is desanitizing health facilities, fully implementing contact tracing, and paying staff, experts say. 120
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Adding testing capacity is one way to help contain the ongoing Ebola outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, @marilenharo.bsky.social reports for Nature's News section: www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comWhat it will take to stop the spiralling Ebola outbreakCases in central Africa are rising at an alarming pace, but lessons from past epidemics could help to contain the current spread of infection. 122
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026A tremendous and sincere thanks to each of the scientists, foresters, and land managers who made this story happen by trusting me to report with sensitivity, nuance, and care. Thanks, too, to USFS PO. Thanks to Traci Watson and @alexwitze.bsky.social for edits and encouragement. 010
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Research sites that may be shuttered are located throughout the country. Some regions and lines of research are more affected than others. One prominent example is urban ecology, which can help city parks departments decide which trees are more likely to survive in a changing climate. 110
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Nature’s story has entirely different quotes that do not repeat the above. A former chief, two deputy chiefs, and two associate deputy chiefs comment: www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comWorld’s largest forest research agency faces severe cutback by Trump administrationThe US Forest Service has proposed closing some three-quarters of its research sites in a move that has provoked widespread fear and uncertainty. 110
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026An internal memo distributed to R&D staff promises “forthcoming” information on another opportunity to take early retirement. “What would we lose if we lost this organization?,” a former official reminisced. “It really breaks my heart.” 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026“My heroes are Forest Service scientists,” one academic said. “My closest colleagues are in the Forest Service,” said another. “The Forest Service was instrumental in every study that I carried out,” said a third. “We’re talking almost 40 years.” 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Many have described USFS as “glue” and “connective tissue” that fosters collaboration between land managers, government, academia, and others. 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026The associate chief earlier floated a target of 600 employees for R&D, multiple former officials said. One added: “600 employees, really, it’s not enough to continue to serve the entire mission that we were serving. So what do you do? And the big question is, ‘What have you lost?’” 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026R&D is under a hiring freeze that was started during the previous administration, in early 2024. (Even before, hiring was severely limited.) Congress has appropriated sufficient funds for R&D to hire in FY26, but the chief’s office has prohibited R&D from hiring. 100
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026(The Canadian Forest Service may soon surpass USFS R&D to become the largest forest research organization. CFS has close to 1,000 research employees.) 101
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026USFS as a whole has also had to face a decades-long trend of declining headcount. In the 12-year period immediately before the current administration started, USFS R&D lost a third of its employees. USFS R&D has lost a third again, in just 16 months. 101
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026Attrition in the past year and a half has already damaged USFS science, many said. Some experimental forests “have a couple skeletal crew” who collect samples, “but there are no scientists,” said a retired USFS researcher. “So how are you going to do science at [EFs] if you don’t have scientists?” 101
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026“The manner in which it’s been rolled out has been totally unacceptable and unprofessional and meant to inflict emotional damage,” a current USFS scientist said. “We all see it as an attempt to drive people out of the government.” 111
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 10/05/2026The largest forest research organization in the world, the US Forest Service's R&D branch, may lose up to 74% of its sites under a planned reorganization. Researchers on the ground and former officials shared many thoughts with Nature's News team: www.nature.com/articles/d41...nature.comWorld’s largest forest research agency faces severe cutback by Trump administrationThe US Forest Service has proposed closing some three-quarters of its research sites in a move that has provoked widespread fear and uncertainty. 14026
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 13/04/2026I hope you'll be ok/get better. Thanks for sharing info on the cost of receiving treatment through clinical trials (which, per ethics, should be no cost and I think is the case in Germany too) 030
Reposted by Edward ChenDan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 03/04/2026BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained. That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.socialnature.comMassive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administrationBudget proposal would also curb federal payments for scientific publishing. 26407315
Edward Chen @edwrdchen.bsky.social · 23/01/2026This specific policy doesn't affect HEK-293. But a researcher pointed out to us that it's embryonically derived, and they're concerned it may be impacted in the future (as the NIH has said they plan to seek public comment on human ESCs, and may broaden out.) Also see www.science.org/content/arti....science.orgUniversity fights restrictive Indiana law on fetal tissue researchIndiana University appeals U.S. court ruling, warning of harm to important research 120
