The Wall Street Journal reports that the new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Marty Makary faces numerous obstacles in his plans to remake the federal agency. Dr. Makary faces a reduction in staff, plummeting staff morale, and internal criticism that he is compromising scientific standards.
Category: COVID-19 and Public Health
Wednesday Links
- AAF: Contra Biden Admin., monopoly is not a problem in the US economy.
- Richard McKensie: Trump’s “beautiful bill” will raise federal spending in 2035 to at least 24 percent of GDP from 23.1 percent this year (and 20.6 percent in 2019, before COVID)
- Use and misuse of Ivermectin.
- Covid Redux: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee decided to inoculate essential workers ahead of seniors, even though its own modeling suggested this would increase deaths by up to 7 percent.”
- More evidence that taxes on capital affect investment.
Monday Links
- 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.
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.