- Claude 3 gets 101 on an IQ test — beats all the other AIs.
- First OTC birth control pill arrives. Something our health economists have been promoting for years.
- In addition to Neanderthal DNA, billions of people have Denisovan DNA. (NYT)
- Does poverty affect decision-making in a way that may cause one to remain in poverty? The evidence is weak – despite many attempts to establish it.
- More than 80,000 Americans die of opioid overdose each year despite the availability of lifesaving medications like methadone and buprenorphine. Barely one-fifth of Americans with opioid use disorder receive either drug.
Category: Direct Primary Care
Annual Exams are Often a Complete Waste of Time and Money
There has long been a belief that preventive medical services save money. The theory holds that if Americans’ primary care physicians ordered more preventive medical screening services we would not only be healthier but the cost of the preventive care would be more than offset by the savings from more serious care avoided. In other words, the cost of a colonoscopy would be offset by not getting colon cancer. The only problem with the theory is that it is wrong.
Tuesday Links
- Should you get a full body MRI?
- Did you know that some public employees are paid to do nothing more than administer public sector unions?
- Why do nearly 90 percent of those with opioid use disorder lack access to evidence-based treatments like long-term medication-assisted treatment (MAT)?
- The traffic accident death of world-record marathon runner Kelvin Kiptum is not that unusual. Road crashes are now one of the top causes of the deaths in Africa.
- Scientists make progress toward developing blood tests for psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Does Society Hate Old People?
Kaiser Health News (now called KHN) published an article titled, “Do We Simply Not Care About Old People?” The inflammatory headline was about the high death toll of older adults from covid, saying:
The covid-19 pandemic would be a wake-up call for America, advocates for the elderly predicted: incontrovertible proof that the nation wasn’t doing enough to care for vulnerable older adults.