The United States Preventive Services Task Force, though initially endorsing hormone replacement, in their most recent published recommendation in 2017 discouraged its use. When they first evaluated the impact of HRT in 1996, the USPSTF assigned a "B" grade to hormone replacement therapy for use in primary prevention of chronic conditions in postmenopausal women, basing their results on observational studies and short-term trials. A score of "B" carries an official message of, "The USPSTF recommends the service. There is high certainty that the net benefit is moderate, or there is moderate certainty that the net benefit is moderate to substantial." In light of subsequent results from the Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS) and the WHI trials, the USPSTF downgraded the scoring to a "D," which corresponds to a message of, "The USPSTF recommends against the service. There is moderate or high certainty that the service has no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits," and discourages health providers from offering the service or treatment. In 2017, the USPSTF again evaluated the use of HRT, and again assessed a "D" score. The publication of this most recent recommendation against the use of HRT for the treatment of chronic postmenopausal symptoms was accompanied by several companion editorials, lauding the WHI clinical trial's role in preventing patient harm due to HRT administration, noting also the risks inherent to smaller observational studies, which previously had yielded misleading, potentially harmful recommendations to medical practitioners. It must be noted, though, that this evidence primarily concerns longer-term HRT use for prevention of chronic diseases like osteoporosis or cardiovascular disease. HRT use is still recommended as the most effective therapy for shorter-term treatment of menopause symptoms in symptomatic, newly menopausal women (aged below 60 years or within 10 years of menopause).