Theresa Gaffney
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Theresa Gaffney
@theresagaff.bsky.social
1.1K followers 260 following 61 posts
reporter, newsletter writer, & Guild member at STAT
theresa.gaffney@statnews.com
Signal: theresagaff.97

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By now, most people have seen the latest Williams Institute report on the number of trans people in the U.S. But I wanted to add one important piece of context on where that data comes from, because it is disappearing under the Trump admin. In Morning Rounds: www.statnews.com/2025/08/21/h...
Block of text that reads: The Williams Institute, part of UCLA, has been reporting on the size and characteristics of the trans population since 2011, and the report notes that data quality and availability has substantially improved in that time. But that’s changing under the Trump administration. The report uses data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System. But the CDC has said it will no longer process data on transgender identity.
August 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM
theresagaff.bsky.social
today in Morning Rounds, plus the rundown on yesterday's ACIP firings, a declaration and a walk-back at NIH, and new data analysis on 988: www.statnews.com/2025/06/10/h...
A screenshot of the top of a Morning Rounds item, which reads: "'The uncertain future of gun violence research and prevention' Firearms are the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the U.S. — more than car crashes, cancer, or any other condition. But documents from federal health agencies show that fighting gun violence isn’t a major priority for the Trump administration. Like other longstanding problems facing today’s youth, guns were not mentioned once in the report on children’s health from the MAHA commission. And the first budget justification for the proposed Administration for a Healthy America eradicates all funding for firearm injury and mortality prevention research, which, for context, was allotted $12.5 million last year."
June 10, 2025 at 1:53 PM
theresagaff.bsky.social
Happy National Potato Chip Day! Over at STAT's Morning Rounds, we've been celebrating all week. www.statnews.com/signup/morni...
A screenshot of the MR blue box, by me: “Put THIS in the STAT newsletter,” a friend prompted me yesterday. “WHERE are the sour cream and onion chips?” The flavor used to be everywhere, she says, but now every little aluminum bag seems to be labeled cheddar and onion instead. Perhaps we should put commercial determinants of health reporter Sarah Todd on the case. For now, I’d suggest re-visiting her explainer, written with Lizzy Lawrence, about the FDA’s “generally recognizable as safe” exemption. Yesterday, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the agency to study eliminating that loophole. A blue box screenshot, by Allison: Hello all, this is Allison DeAngelis, filling in for your Morning Rounds maven Theresa Gaffney. Yesterday, Theresa brought a new issue to light: The potential disappearance of sour cream and onion potato chips. I’m here to burst her bubble. I wanted to indulge a bit on Saturday, and while I was at Walgreens grabbing some household items, I wandered over to the snack section in search of Funyuns. (Don’t judge me. They’ve got a great crunch and flavor.) Come to find my classic Funyuns have been replaced with a sour cream and onion version! Apparently, Frito-Lay recently launched the new flavor. I hope this hot tip helps you get through your Wednesday. Now, on to the news… Another MR blue box from me: Are you tired of reading about potato chips yet? Well, after a lot of hearty debate about flavors, yesterday at STAT we learned that chips were originally sold without any flavor at all. Until the mid-50s, they just came with one little packet of salt that you could pour over them. Can you imagine a world where chips aren't pre-salted?? Sad. Something more pleasant to munch on: STAT reporters won three SABEW Best in Business awards as well as four honorable mentions. Today's blue box, by Rose Broderick: When I was a bright young lass of 25, my friends and I would skip through the streets of Cincinnati, shouting, “Crunch, crunch, I don’t want no lunch. All I want is potato chips.” Slim Gaillard with the song of the century, by my reckoning. Happy National Potato Chip Day. Anyway, Dave Weldon found out his nomination for CDC head was being pulled hours before his hearing. Brutal. Someone give that man potato chips.
March 14, 2025 at 2:28 PM
theresagaff.bsky.social
I wrote about gender-affirming surgery — what it means to the people that get it, its evolution as a professional specialty in the U.S., and how the incoming administration could put all of that at risk: www.statnews.com/2024/12/23/g...
A 19-year-old patient wearing ripped jeans and loosely tied work boots sits in a chair in the doctor's office. One foot is propped up resting on his knee. He has a spiral notebook and mechanical pencil in his lap. An excerpt from the story: “'In the case of an emerging field like this, where there weren’t a lot of road maps on how to do things and there was so much room for improvement, you have somehow to have a lot of creativity,' she recalled. Trinidad was a small 'Santa Fe Trail' type of town, Bowers said, where she and Biber were the only surgeons of any kind for miles. The people stepping off the Greyhound bus were almost always alone, Bowers remembers. They were usually older, retired, single or divorced, and had lived much of their lives in the closet. After finally coming out as trans, they were often estranged from their families. Insurance wouldn’t cover the procedure, so they always paid in cash. Afterward, they left town without knowing whether any other doctor might understand the procedure enough to be able to address potential future complications. They prepared for the long recovery alone.
December 23, 2024 at 3:56 PM
theresagaff.bsky.social
best photos of the year, curated by the best team in the business: www.statnews.com/2024/12/20/s...
December 20, 2024 at 2:49 PM
theresagaff.bsky.social
Today in Morning Rounds: Bird flu theories, the worst-rated restaurants (antibiotics version), and this: www.statnews.com/2024/12/02/b...
Screenshot of an item from the newsletter, titled: "Depression could make your period worse, LOL." The item reads: "From the 'cosmically unfair' department: Depression could increase the chances of someone experiencing dysmenorrhea, the scientific word for bad period pain. That’s according to a study published last week in Briefings in Bioinformatics. While previous research has identified a correlation between the conditions, there’s been little research on possible causation. Researchers in this study analyzed data from about 800,000 European people and 8,000 East Asian people from previous genome-wide association studies. To attempt to understand causality, they used something called Mendelian randomization, which analyzes genetic variation to estimate the effects of certain modifiable factors. Sleeplessness was a key connecting factor that could make period pain even worse, the researchers found. While the study provides early evidence that depression could worsen period pain, they also note that more research in more diverse populations is needed."
December 2, 2024 at 8:08 PM