- Sam Altman on “The Gentle Singularity.”
- Do more children get killed with firearms in states that have more permissive gun control laws? No (Just look at Chicago.)
- KFF: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used junk science to defend U.S. policy changes on covid vaccines.
- Air India Flight 17: 242 people onboard died, but one walked away.
Author: John C. Goodman
Saturday Links
- Plusses and minuses of an aspirin a day.
- Benefits of a Brazil nut a day.
- Cutting funds for vaccine research (and spending them in better ways) may make sense.
- American Action Forum on the MAHA report.
- New York spends twice as much per person as Florida.
- Out-of-pocket costs for a typical enrollee are 18–24 percent lower in Medicare Advantage than in traditional fee-for-service Medicare.
- RFK, Jr. seems to have broken all his promises to Sen Cassidy.
Friday Links
- “Routine childhood immunizations in the United States from 1994–2023 are estimated to have prevented around 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and more than 1 million deaths.”
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr. picks to replace the members of the vaccine advisory panel include vaccine skeptics.
- Estimate: Across all causes of health care spending and disease burden, median spending was $114,339 per disability adjusted life year (DALY) averted between 1996 and 2016.
- By 2028, the U.S. is projected to face a shortage of more than 73,000 nurse assistants (NAs) and 63,000 registered nurses (RNs) by 2030. Can AI relieve that?
- America’s hospital system is conspicuously missing from the “waste, fraud, and abuse” targets of DOGE and the House Republicans.
- Democrats used to support work requirements for welfare benefits.
Thursday Links
- How Cato would reform Medicare.
- Study: physical fitness is associated with lower mortality from cardiovascular disease, cancer and even accidents. (speculative)
- Meta-analysis: cutting back on social media use does not conclusively lead to meaningful improvements in youth mental health.
- AAF: Senate attempts to cut Medicare Advantage funding are a mistake.
- Trump now opposes Medicaid money laundering by the states (taxing providers and then giving the money back after it is matched) that got a big boost during his first administration.