Twitter blacklisted Stanford physician and economist Jay Bhattacharya for showing Covid almost exclusively threatened the elderly, severely reducing the visibility of his tweets. When Stanford health policy scholar Scott Atlas began advising the White House, YouTube erased his most prominent video opposing lockdowns. Twitter banned Robert Malone, a pioneer of mRNA vaccine technology, for calling attention to the vaccines’ dangers. YouTube demonetized evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein, who suggested the virus might be engineered and predicted vaccine-evading variants. And those are only a few examples.
Category: Health Economics & Costs
Obamacare Doesn’t Want Competition from Better Insurance Plans
HHS, the Treasury Department and the Department of Labor issued proposed rules on Friday that clamp down on short-term limited duration health plans, which offer cheap but sparse coverage that Democrats deride as “junk insurance.” The rule, which is meant to protect consumers and bolster the Obamacare exchange, would overturn a 2018 Trump-era regulation and satisfies liberal lawmakers and patient groups who have demanded the administration act since its first days in the White House.
Saturday Links
- Sirtuins, a compound in red wine, doesn’t that make you live longer. That undermines an argument in Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t.
- Here is a critical review of lifespan.
- One more study: IQ is positively related to life outcomes.
- Sen Cassidy outlines his prescription drug policy agenda.
- Claim: 1 in 3 children in the world are poisoned by lead.
- Oncologists are rationing inexpensive cancer drugs. (NYT)
- Of 252 new drugs approved by the US FDA from 2011 to 2021, only 3 (1.2%) would meet the UK’s cost benefit threshold ($20,000 to $30,000 per quality adjusted life year saved).
- White House targets short term health insurance plans.
Friday Links
- New Zealand adopts affirmative action for its medical waiting lists.
- Governments around the world have spent $1.34 trillion to fight climate change.
- Is virtual care the answer for Obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure in seniors?
- It’s a cocktail after cocktails: an IV drip for hangovers. (NYT)
- Hot dog eating contests: scientists have determined that the human body is capable of eating — at most — 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
- Drinking alcohol before or after intense exercise isn’t advised. (NYT)
- Mark Cuban Cost Pus Drugs to sell biosimilars ($569 v. $6,922 for Yusimry)