North America is about to enter cold and flu season. Covid is on the uptick and may spread to millions of people this winter depending on how many people get a booster and how well the boosters work. Every year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has to decide in the winter to spring which four flu strains are most likely to hit the United States next year. Strains circulating in Asia are often the ones that infect Americans, Canadians and Mexicans in the coming Winter. Thus, the flu vaccine is a cocktail of the four flu strains likely during following flu season.
Category: Drug Prices & Regulations
Friday Links
- Kaiser: Insurers deny medical claims more often than you think.
- Enthoven in Health Affairs: likes our new Medicare book. A “must read.”
- Tom Miller: why most health policy is déjà vu.
- Why is mental health declining for young women? (NYT)
- Are Biden’s regulations the reason for a 20% drop in blood tests for transplant patients? (WSJ)
- How can you do a placebo-controlled drug trial if the disease affects only a few dozen people? (WSJ)
The New York Times (and the FDA) Does a Hatchet Job on Regenerative Medicine
The New York Times did a hatchet job on regenerative medicine. A visiting researcher at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and other surgeons had performed numerous surgeries using BioBurst, a processed umbilical cord fluid, to help fuse together bones in minimally invasive surgeries. The fluid was administered to reduce healing time and reduce the need for more invasive back surgery.
Monday Links
- Health gains from key prescription drugs.
- Steve Henke, et. al., skewer a new Royal Society report on Covid-19.
- Health Affairs study: employers lack leverage to negotiate lower prices. Have they never heard of reference pricing?
- CDC: we are losing the battle against obesity. I thought we lost it a long time ago.
- Inequities at the doctors office: is it because the patients don’t speak up for themselves?