Bacteriophages are viruses that kill bacteria. Phages are common, found in every nook and cranny of the natural world. There are likely trillions of them. They were first used over a century ago but remain largely unknown. A French microbiologist used them to treat dysentery in children just after World War I. They have been used extensively in Eastern Europe but not in the West.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Update on the British NHS
All is not well:
- The waiting list for hospital-based procedures stands at 7.2 million—about 12 percent of the population
- In mid-2022, 42.7 percent of all patients were forced to wait more than four hours before they received any care.
- Compared to 2019, outpatient appointments are down 13.8 percent.
- Official measures of mortality indicate that the NHS’s shortcomings are contributing to higher-than-normal death rates, with perhaps as many as 500 “excess” deaths occurring every week.
Friday Links
- Slower growth and inflation undermine Social Security’s financial health. Is Bidenomics to blame?
- Biden’s reversal of Trump energy policies are costing us $100 billion a year in lost output.
- Cato: End the kidney shortage with a real market. The market clearing price is estimated to be $80,000.
- Overdose prevention centers: the next logical step in harm reduction.
- Ezra Klein on California: “If progressivism cannot work here, why should the country believe it can work anywhere else?”
Thursday Links
- Families making as much as $600,000 can get an Obamacare subsidy. The entire W&M hearing with Sec. Becerra is either very funny or very sad, depending on how the spirit moves you.
- The federal government spent a total of $4.1 trillion on transfer payments to individuals in FY 2022. By comparison, the government spent $2.8 trillion on these programs in 2019.
- Cowen: Would an AI Pause in the US open the door to other countries? What if it stifles the cure for cancer?
- GFPT-4 fails the sophomore econ exam.