Monday Links

Free covid tests are back.

Governments at all levels spend nearly $2 trillion annually to fight poverty (not counting payments related to COVID-19). Stretching back to 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson first declared his War on Poverty, anti‐poverty spending has totaled more than $30 trillion. 

Tyler Cowen: It is estimated that about 40% of Americans are obese. If the government paid for those drugs for everyone who might benefit from them, it could cost more than $1 trillion annually, almost as much as the US spends on Medicare each year, (Bloomberg)

Study: 60-year-old rural men can now expect to live two years less than their urban counterparts – a gap that’s nearly tripled from two decades ago.

Study: Both moderate and light drinkers experience more cancer deaths than occasional drinkers.