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For state lawmakers who want to keep health care decisions about young transgender people’s care between them, their parents, and their doctors — and out of the hands of judges — the best time to act was yesterday. Next best time: right now. (Kimberly Atkins Stohr, 12/4)

As a registered nurse, I've seen how cross-cultural misunderstandings can lead to poor care for my fellow Hispanic patients and families. Sometimes this happens because medical staff see them as "good patients" who are "low-maintenance." But in reality, they often decline to voice their needs because a cultural value, respeto, leads them to defer to authority figures. Sometimes the opposite happens: Staff may believe their Hispanic patients are unreasonably resisting the treatment they need. However, there typically are other factors at play, like increased medical mistrust among Hispanic populations, especially in the context of increased anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. (Lilian Bravo, 12/4)

Marty Makary is a surgeon, prolific author, and avowed contrarian. He’s not a kook but is reckless with the facts, draws dubious conclusions, and, like RFK Jr., could do more harm than good. Here's what the U.S. Senate needs to know. (Merrill Goozner, 12/4)

The World Health Organization advocates for 100 percent voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation—a position that was more defensible in the 1970s, before widespread screening for bloodborne diseases like hepatitis. Today, two-thirds of the world face shortages of blood and blood products, leading to many preventable deaths, especially among women and children. More than 80 percent of the world’s population has access to only 20 percent of the global blood supply. These global inequities in blood and blood product supplies are unacceptable. (Jlateh Vincent Jappah and Ruoying [Carol] Tao, 12/4)

The post-genomics age has large implications for the sorts of science that might be produced in the future. Not only might theory find new terrain, but the many subfields of the biological sciences might move on from a scientific ecosystem driven by large laboratories, centralized power, and the importance of fraught notions like academic prestige. (C. Brandon Ogbunu, 12/5)