- Health Execs behaving badly.
- The increase in mortality among middle-aged, non-Hispanic whites is almost entirely driven by the bottom 10% of the education distribution.
- University of Rochester study: the main arguments against telemedicine are all wrong.
- Why can’t the media tell the truth about climate change?
- Study: The overall use of the twenty-three “low-value” medical services across all fifty-one states amounted to $3.7 billion over 10 years. At less than 1/10 of 1% of overall spending, not clear why we should be worried.
- Federal advisory group recommends that all Americans 19 to 64 be screened for “anxiety.”
- No diversity here: Women who get “long Covid” outnumber men by as much as four to one.
Category: COVID-19 and Public Health
Thursday Links
- 10 million Swedes have private health insurance, with 60% paid by employers. “The advantages are quicker consultations and avoiding long waiting lines.”
- Dual eligibles (Medicare plus Medicaid) do better in Medicare Advantage special needs plans than in traditional Medicare.
- Arnold Kling on all the Covid mistakes and who made them.
- Is the CDC causing patients needless pain?
- Study: Midlife crises are real.
The Changing Demographics of Covid Deaths
People are still dying from Covid although who is dying and how many has changed as we enter the third year of the pandemic. Covid has always been a killer of elderly people, but it’s also taken a heavy toll on younger people who were considered essential workers and could not shelter in place. This is data from California:
From April 2020 through December 2021, Covid killed an average of 3,600 people a month, making it the third-leading cause of death in the state cumulatively for that time period, behind heart disease and cancer. From December 2020 through February 2021, it briefly overtook heart disease as the leading cause of death, taking the lives of more than 38,300 Californians in just three months. During its most recent peak, in January 2022, Covid took about 5,900 lives.
Tuesday Links
- Climate anxiety is a mental health problem.
- Biden: the pandemic is over, but not his emergency Covid powers.
- IRS is about to end the Obamacare “family glitch” by re-wring then law. (gated)
- The CDC has lost the public’s confidence. Is the answer to give it more money?
- The 340b program was supposes to support drug therapy for low-oncome patients. Hospitals are using it to rip us off.
- Why don’t men get more vasectomies?