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Hospital shootings steadily increased since 2000
JAMA Network Open
Shootings at hospitals have increased over the years, but nearly a third were preventable with weapons screening, according to an analysis of more than 300 news stories published this week in JAMA Network Open. Large hospitals, those in urban settings, and those in the south saw the most incidents.
As the graph above shows, shootings increased from about 6 per year in 2000 to 34 in 2024. Hospitals have largely struggled to adapt to increasing threats of violence, and the researchers particularly focused on screening as a potential solution. A separate survey of hospital security leaders found that 48% used metal detectors at some hospital entrances, with comprehensive use much less common.
infectious disease
Why hantavirus isn’t the next pandemic
You’ve probably seen a lot of media coverage on the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship moored off the western coast of Africa, including here in this newsletter. It makes sense why the situation — people trapped on a ship where a deadly disease might be spreading — triggers flashbacks to the early days of the Covid pandemic. But as STAT’s Helen Branswell reassured some STAT staffers, this isn’t the Diamond Princess revisited.
Still, scientists and public health experts are watching the situation. There’s a lot to be learned about how hantavirus is spread. But the scientific and public health significance does not equate to widespread risk. Read more from STAT’s Helen Branswell on how the experts are thinking about the outbreak.
science
What a discovery of ‘dark proteins’ could mean
Since ribosome profiling was invented in 2009, scientists have used the method to understand the inner workings of model organisms like bacteria, yeast, and mice. Over the years, many of them encountered never-before-seen mini-proteins that could be traced back to parts of the genome that weren’t thought to produce proteins. Scientists generally wrote off these “dark proteins” as cellular noise. But a couple researchers using the method on human tissue samples had a hunch that there was something more there.
One of those researchers, systems biologist Sebastiaan van Heesch, is now part of a team that has found thousands of the mini-proteins and begun to decipher what it is they actually do. In a paper published yesterday, his team reports that some are involved in critical roles like cell division and DNA repair, while several others are unique to cancer cells that they display on their surfaces. Read more from STAT’s Megan Molteni on the discovery’s potential.
