Swedish students under the age of 16 didn’t miss a single day of school to COVID closure and were never masked. According to this study:
- No COVID-19 related learning loss in reading in Swedish primary school students.
- The proportion of students with weak reading skills did not increase during the pandemic.
- Students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds were not especially affected.
HT: Committee to Unleash Prosperity
Private equity investors are increasingly buying gastroenterology practices. Around 1,400 of the nation’s gastroenterologists are employees or partners in practices backed by private equity. According to a recent whitepaper, acquisitions of gastroenterology practices by private equity grew by 28% last year. As one investment manager noted:
We are in the Golden Age of older rectums—from a supply side, at least. Elderly people will make up 20% of the population by 2030, and health care costs are projected to approach 20% of the nation’s gross domestic product—the highest in the world, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It would seem a boom time for gastroenterologists.
An article in Kaiser Health News described how people who receive preventive medical services often billed for services that were supposed to be free. This is especially interesting since I will probably schedule a colonoscopy this year. Colonoscopies are supposed to be a (free) preventive service under the Affordable Care Act.
Americans consume more calories than ever. Today we eat nearly about 23% more calories than we did 50 years ago. Sixty-nine percent of American adults are overweight, while nearly 37% are obese. About 12% of preschool-age children are obese and 17% of kids ages 2 to 19 years old are obese. Obesity has a negative impact on Americans’ health. There are more than 60 chronic diseases linked to obesity.