Weekly Pulse Digest #15 — January 4, 2026

Published · Researched 2026-09-22

Week of December 29, 2025 – January 4, 2026 · Good Signal

The week in one paragraph. The first new tuberculosis vaccine in a century works — about halfway, which for TB is enormous. The M72/AS01E candidate showed roughly 50% protection against TB disease over three years of follow-up in its Phase 2b trial, the first meaningful efficacy signal since BCG was licensed in 1921 (and BCG protects poorly against adult pulmonary TB). TB still kills more than a million people a year — the world's deadliest single infectious disease — so halving disease risk in adults would be the biggest TB breakthrough in a hundred years. The global Phase 3 trial started in March 2024 and hit full enrollment of 20,000 participants in April 2025; that result is still ahead of us, so this week's story is the completed Phase 2b outcome, not hopes for what's next. Half the cases that would have happened, didn't.

Rising.

Lung cancer's coin flip, broken. In the Phase 3 ADAURA trial, a daily pill of adjuvant osimertinib after surgery for EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer pushed five-year survival to 85% versus 73% with placebo in stage II–IIIA disease, and 88% versus 78% across the full stage IB–IIIA group — a hazard ratio of 0.49. It was the first targeted therapy ever to show a survival benefit in the post-surgery setting for lung cancer, and it changed the global standard of care. Half of these cancers used to recur after surgery.
Rehab and release, twice over. A young harp seal stranded dehydrated in Barnstable, Massachusetts in late January 2026 — vets found rocks in his stomach, common when snow and ice aren't available — got a clean bill of health and was released around April 2026. And seal #26-017, stranded in Virginia Beach on St. Patrick's Day with a lung infection, malnutrition, dehydration, two ear infections, and a fractured tooth, was released fully recovered at 117 pounds on June 30, 2026.
Housed, not promised. The Veterans Community Project's Longmont, Colorado campus — 26 tiny homes for veterans experiencing homelessness, with wraparound services on site — was completed in June 2025. Six months later, public radio was still covering a finished village with residents in it.
Pocket-change philanthropy. Four Myrtle Beach kids — Ella, Haylee, Jaydah, and Liam — ran a $1-a-cup lemonade stand on Culbertson Avenue (with the HOA president's approval and a personal visit), raised $296.50, and aimed it at buying socks for people in need that winter. Fire Station 4 crews and police officers stopped by to cheer them on.

Falling.

The untouchable-disease baseline. TB, the deadliest infectious disease on earth, now has its first real vaccine lead in a century; a cancer that recurred in half its patients now sees nearly nine in ten survive five years. The word "untreatable" is doing a lot less work than it used to.
Veteran homelessness as abstraction. Twenty-six veterans with keys, a village, and services — the tiny-home model keeps converting pledges into addresses.

Quiet signals (early, still watching).

M72's Phase 3 is still the story to watch — and direct social conversation about the candidate hasn't surfaced yet; the signal sits in global-health media. Early.
The Myrtle Beach kids' parents were still deciding which organizations would receive the money when the story ran in August — so the final recipients and the winter sock distribution are still open questions. Still watching.
Current occupancy at the Longmont village wasn't captured; "26 homes completed" is the verified fact, occupancy isn't. Still watching.

Scoreboard. N/A — editions are being written out of sequence, so there are no prior calls to grade.

One line to close. A vaccine a century overdue, a pill that keeps lung-cancer patients alive, and four kids selling lemonade for socks — scale varies, the direction doesn't.