Coronavirus

Barber et al. just published a fundamentally flawed study on diabetes medicines in JAMA Network Open (JNO). This study wrongly suggests that cost-based pricing accurately values innovative on-patent medicines, distracts from serious policymaking, and fuels political grandstanding by politicians such as Senator Bernie Sanders. Cost-based pricing could be an economically viable pricing ...

This week, members of the World Trade Organization have convened half a world away in Abu Dhabi. But a proposal on the agenda could have profound consequences for us here in California. Representatives of the World Trade Organization’s 164 member nations will discuss whether to waive patent protections on COVID-19 ...

If you’re among the 81% of Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, you probably remember your first dose. Perhaps you snapped a selfie on your way out of the vaccine clinic. California Sen. Alex Padilla took things a step further and shared a video on Facebook encouraging his constituents to get the jab. ...

Economist Wayne Winegarden and policy associate McKenzie Richards of the nonpartisan, pro-free-market Pacific Research Institute recently authored a research brief detailing how more-severe Covid-19 mitigation policies — namely lockdowns, masking mandates, school and business closures, and social distancing — led to reduced infection and mortality rates, but at the expense of ...

Peter Marks, director of Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research noted that “vaccination remains critical to public health and continued protection against serious consequences of Covid-19, including hospitalization and death.” But what is the protection for those Americans who can’t take the vaccine? Read the ...

States that had more invasive COVID-19 restrictions saw small reductions in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates, but saw large negative impacts on employment, economic growth, and children’s education outcomes, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute.CMEI_Covid_FINAL Click ...

With the expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency, states are finally able to remove people from Medicaid who are not eligible for the program under the law. Some are taking full advantage. A recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that at least 565,000 patients in 12 states have been ...

The price of a COVID-19 shot will soon go up. The federal public health emergency ended this month, and the government will stop providing COVID vaccines to all Americans free of charge. Moderna and Pfizer have both signaled that they plan to raise the prices of their shots once the ...

The federal public health emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic came to an end Thursday, more than three years after it was first enacted in 2020. That comes on the heels of the World Health Organization’s declaration on May 5 that COVID-19 was no longer a global health emergency. And on ...