- Genocide in Gaza? The case for Israel.
- Could humans live to be 194?
- “Routine childhood immunizations among children born from 1994 through 2023 are estimated to have prevented approximately 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations, and 1.13 million deaths, producing about $540 billion in direct medical savings and $2.7 trillion in societal savings. Every dollar spent on childhood immunization returned roughly $11.”
- Democratic Socialists of America’s policy agenda would require an estimated $71 trillion to $212 trillion in new federal spending over 10 years.
- Why economic growth is better than redistribution.
- “Every disease is a policy failure.”
Category: Health Economics & Costs
GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs Are Truly Wonder Drugs
The new class of weight loss drugs, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1), were originally developed to treat diabetes. Along the way something curious began to happen. People lost weight and lost their desire to gorge on food.
Hits & Misses 15 August 2026
- Medical News Today: Why reducing protein intake could promote healthy aging
- US News: People need more protein as they age
- Study: Your social life may affect how fast you age
- Science Daily: Exercise may help the aging brain “take out the trash”
- ABC News: Belly fat may be a better predictor of heart disease risk than BMI
- Science Daily: Massive study finds a surprising health divide:
[B]eer, cider, and spirits were linked to higher mortality, while wine was associated with lower risk. Moderate wine drinkers had a 21% lower risk of cardiovascular death compared with people who rarely or never drank.
Saturday Links – 15 August 2026
- AI is beating human doctors in medical tests.
- Caffeine at 5 pm; sleep by 10 pm.
- Immigration is a problem all over the world.
- Yglesias: good comparison of Medicare in Canada vs. Medicare in Australia.
- Burritos actually haven’t gotten more expensive.
- Surveys: men are not lonelier than women. (Slate)
- Why obtaining more health data on otherwise healthy people can be harmful. (NYT)
- “Moving from the highest tax stats – California and New York – with income tax rates as high as 14% – to a no-income tax state like Florida, Tennessee or Texas, a family with $5 million or more in income can increase annual take-home pay by 30%.”