- JAMA studies: COVID-19 booster vaccines offer significant protection against severe outcomes, including hospitalizations and cardiovascular complications.
- The International Space Station will be replaced by privatized space stations. (A negative view I do not agree with.)
- Everything you ever want to know about tests on the effects of vitamin D.
- If we confiscated all of Elon Musk’s wealth and divided it equally among 350 million Americans, how much extra consumption could each American enjoy? 28 cents.
- One test on one vial of blood can screen for up to fifty different cancers at once. (Not yet approved by the FDA.)
- Cancer deaths in the US have fallen 35% over the past 35 years, resulting in 5 million fewer deaths.
Category: Cost of Healthcare
Friday Links – 26 June 2026
- FDA to speed up approval of new drugs.
- Norway has the world’s most generous long-term-care insurance, spending a whopping 4.1 percent of its GDP on formal elder-care services, 94 percent of which is publicly funded. And yet, nearly half of elderly Dutch residents who need assistance with the basic functions of daily life—dressing, bathing, grocery shopping, paying bills—still partly or even entirely rely on informal care from family and friends.
- The Trump administration doesn’t really have a definition for ultra-processed foods. (The Atlantic)
- Two roads to fast clinical trials that the US is not taking.
- “The compliance costs imposed by federal taxes were estimated at $546 billion in 2024, which was more than 10 percent of the tax revenues raised.” (Entire piece worth reading)
- “The administrative costs of … federal welfare programs, including SNAP, Medicaid, school lunches, housing benefits, and five others … averaged 12.6 percent.” (ditto)
WSJ: DIY Peptide Therapy Gaining Popularity and the FDA is Powerless to Stop It
Many people equate peptides to snake oil, while others are quick to remind that numerous FDA approved drugs are peptides. Glucagon, the active ingredient in GLP-1 drugs occurs naturally in the body but has a short half-life. Scientists figured out a way to make the half-life last roughly one week rather than mere minutes. Telemedicine startups are trying to cash in on the peptide craze, as are many doctors. Much of the information about peptides comes from peptide sellers and longevity doctors on YouTube.
Thursday Links – 25 June 2026
- You are having a nightmare. Why do you wake up before the monster kills you?
- The controversy over whole body scans. (It’s $108,000 per QALY – but four times that if you count the patient’s time and value it at $50 an hour.)
- Polling: Social Security’s finances are worse than most people think.
- “[Economists] found that because nonprofit hospitals cannot distribute profits to shareholders, they accumulate excess tax-free cash — and spend it on themselves. Their facility-wide general and administrative wage expenses run 26 percent higher than comparable for-profit hospitals.”
- Seniors keep getting richer (less likely to be poor) than non-seniors.