Syphilis infections are soaring in the United States. Once thought to be nearly eradicated, it’s making a huge comeback.
Category: Health Reform
Monday Links
- More on what happens when the global population starts shrinking.
- Are we eating too much meat?
- By a 2003 act of Congress, the government’s contribution to Medicare from general revenues is never supped to exceed 45% of the program’s cost. So why has this law never been enforced?
- “Research suggests the [weight loss] medications may pay for themselves or even save money in the long run, by preventing heart attacks and strokes that lead to huge hospital bills.” Yet health plans around the country are dropping coverage. (NYT)
Distracted Driving While on the Phone is a Public Health Threat Nobody Tracks
Your phone is spying on you. It’s sometimes a blabbermouth that reveals more secrets about you than you want to admit even to yourself. It tells advertisers when you Google health conditions you’d rather not share with others. It knows where you go, when you speed, and which locations you spend time at. It knows when you waste time at work texting friends or looking for a new romantic interest on dating websites. If your phone is stolen it will sometimes tell thieves how to steal money from your bank account or credit cards. I use mine to locate the aisle where an item I need is at Walmart and Kroger.
Saturday Links
- Despite President Biden’s commitment to being the most pro-union president in history and despite Secretary of Labor Julie Su’s calm that 2023 was a “banner year for labor actions and unions,” the share of US workers who actually belong to a union is shrinking – and has been shrinking for decades.
- How Covid lockdowns affected learning: a decrease in average scores for eighth graders, losing nearly half of the gains made in the previous 30 years.
- The government’s mandatory health care spending now exceeds its entire discretionary budget.
- Women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male contemporaries. This is also true internationally.
- FREOPP reviews Modernizing Medicare.