A popular idea among progressives on the left is a universal basic income (UBI). Supposedly, UBI is magic. It involves giving cash transfers to everyone without strings attached. According to scholars at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill:
The goals really differ, depending on the policymaker but also on who’s proposing it. I think for a lot of folks on the left, they see it as more a platform to build your life on. So it’s going to be there for you when you when you need it.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) ran an article titled, As Fewer MDs Practice Rural Primary Care, a Different Type of Doctor Helps Take Up the Slack. It’s about osteopaths working in rural America. I know several Doctors of Osteopathy (DOs). I also know quite a few Doctors of Medicine (MDs). In fact, I have relatives who are both MDs and DOs. I call this old news because the divisions between the two similar, but slightly different medical societies were patched long ago.
Earlier this year I wrote about bacteriophages, naturally-occurring antibiotics that are not widely available. Phases, as they’re called, are viruses found in nature that kill bacteria. Each is highly specific, killing only one kind of bacteria. That is (possibly) why pharmaceutical companies haven’t shown a lot of interest in developing them as antibiotic drug therapies. Drug companies would need to develop a different bacteriophage therapy for each pathogen targeted. Although mostly ignored by Western drug companies, phages were common in former Soviet-bloc countries. The following is an article about a rare, drug-resistant bacteria that affected Gulf War soldiers treatable only by phages.
It’s hard to imagine enjoying a hospital stay, however hospitals are trying to improve the patient experience. Back when I worked for a hospital the executives would bristle when someone joked that the daily room charge in a hospital cost 10 times the daily room charge in a nice hotel. The ratio is probably closer to 30 times now. Despite the massive price increase, hospitals still don’t excel at hospitality.