- The Biden White House pressured Facebook and Instagram to censor Covid facts, including its origin.
- Now we know: Scientists who signed a paper claiming a natural origin for Covid turn out not to have believed it themselves. (WSJ)
- The real DeSantis record: In 2020 Florida had the tenth lowest age-adjusted Covid death rate in the country, which was nearly 20% lower than California’s. (WSJ)
- When did people stop being drunk all the time? From the Middle Ages to the pre-industrial era, the average person consumed about a liter of beer a day, around four times as much as consumption in modern beer-drinking countries. HT: Tyler
- DEI training doesn’t work: 30 years of data from more than 800 U.S. companies show that mandatory diversity training programs have practically no effect on employee attitudes — and may even backfire.
- An estimated 795 000 Americans become permanently disabled or die annually because dangerous diseases are misdiagnosed. Just 15 diseases account for about half of all serious harms. HT: Arnold Kling
Category: John C. Goodman
Friday Links – 31 July2026
- Medigap insurance does not have a minimum loss ratio requirement. Is that because of AARP?
- The drug behind Ozempic and Wegovy pill can treat alcohol abuse disorder.
- Anthony Fauci’s worst lie.
- “Originally intended to protect people from catastrophic medical expenses, third-party payment now accounts for 90% of Americans’ health care spending.”
- New CMS rules for ACOs: “[CMS] will spend more while care providers will get less. Patients will wait longer, have shorter appointment times, and get less care. More people will die needlessly waiting in line for care.
Thursday Links – 30 July 2026
- Fauci’s diaries: he apparently conspired to hold back the Covid vaccine to help Hillary in the fall election against Trump.
- Why do we eat chicken eggs, instead of eggs from ducks, geese or even emus?
- The field of pediatrics is increasingly moving toward regionalized hub-and-spoke models organized around comprehensive “centers of excellence.” This is why care must be available across state lines.
- New study: ultra-processed food consumption may account for between 23% and 38% of cardiovascular disease cases and deaths among Canadian adults.
- Is the person you’re dating the right one for you? An app will answer that question. (WSJ)
- About 400 million people worldwide and 25 to 30 million people in the US have a rare disease. Half are children and a third die before age 5. (NYT)
- The case against non-FDA-approved peptides. (NYT)
More on Socialism
Like the Soviet Union and its gulag prison-work camps, Mao established the laogai prison system in 1949. Eventually, an estimated 1,000 laogai prisons operated nationwide. “Hitler had his concentration camps, Stalin had his gulag, and the Chinese Communist Party had the laogai,” said Harry Wu, activist and former political prisoner.