Commentary
Commentary
Get The COVID-19 Vaccine — Whichever One Is Available!
During the past year, many thousands of articles and commentaries have been published on almost every imaginable aspect of the SARS-Cov-2 virus and the COVID-19 pandemic it has caused. They have appeared online, in journals, on preprint servers, in newspapers, and on Facebook and Twitter, to say nothing of local ...
Agriculture
Suppressing Progress
By Henry Miller, M.S., M.D. and John Cohrssen Over the weekend, the FDA issued an emergency-use authorization for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, clearing the path to market for the third coronavirus vaccine. The FDA had previously approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid vaccines in record time—mere weeks after their ...
Commentary
Frivolous Patent Litigation Threatens The Technology Revolution
Patent trolls have been a plague on innovators for too long. Patent trolls are entities that obtain patents (sometimes obscure patents) for the sole purpose of threatening or filing lawsuits in court and then using the prospect of costly litigation to extort unwarranted payouts from an innovative company. The risks ...
Commentary
Biden’s health care agenda entrenches a status quo that isn’t working
Health care reform is back on the agenda in Washington. At the end of January, President Biden signed two executive orders that aim to make it easier for people to sign up for coverage. On Saturday, the House passed a $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief package that includes billions in new health insurance subsidies. The ...
Commentary
New York’s Single-Payer Healthcare Bill Remains A Disastrous Idea
New York Democrats hope that 2021 is the year socialized medicine finally arrives in the Empire State. Senator Gustavo Rivera, the chairman of the state Senate Health Committee, is reportedly planning to introduce the New York Health Act, which would ban private insurance and force all New Yorkers onto a ...
Commentary
President Biden’s Bipartisan Opportunity to Reduce Patients’ Drug Costs
BY ROBERT POPOVIAN & WAYNE WINEGARDEN President Joe Biden should take advantage of a bipartisan opportunity to meaningfully reduce patients’ out-of-pocket spending on biopharmaceuticals. Seizing this opportunity requires the president to recognize that the drug cost problem exists because the current system inappropriately shifts too much of its expenditures to patients. Consider that ...
Commentary
Don’t Overreact to Rising Health Spending
U.S. healthcare spending has reached a new high, according to the latest federal data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate national health expenditures reached $3.8 trillion in 2019, an increase of 4.6 percent over the previous year. That’s just under 18 percent of the national economy. It’s more ...
Commentary
The FDA’s foot-dragging on the AstraZeneca vaccine is indefensible
There’s a COVID-19 vaccine currently saving lives all over the world—but not in the U.S. That vaccine, made by British drug company AstraZeneca, proved 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths in Phase III clinical trials. British regulators authorized it for use nearly two months ago. Since then, millions of people in the U.K. have been ...
Commentary
The 340B Prescription-Drug Swindle Has Gone on Long Enough
In a hearing on Tuesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra revealed just how unfit he is to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Becerra dismissed the need to reform the federal “340B” program, even though it has morphed from a good-faith effort to help low-income Americans access medicines ...
California
The Low Spark of High-Speed Rail
California’s bullet train has become a nearly forgotten source of trouble, eclipsed in the public eye by Covid-19, a gubernatorial recall, and out-migration from the Golden State. But it’s still out there, sucking up time and money, and as empty as it ever was. The California High Speed Rail, its ...
Get The COVID-19 Vaccine — Whichever One Is Available!
During the past year, many thousands of articles and commentaries have been published on almost every imaginable aspect of the SARS-Cov-2 virus and the COVID-19 pandemic it has caused. They have appeared online, in journals, on preprint servers, in newspapers, and on Facebook and Twitter, to say nothing of local ...
Suppressing Progress
By Henry Miller, M.S., M.D. and John Cohrssen Over the weekend, the FDA issued an emergency-use authorization for Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, clearing the path to market for the third coronavirus vaccine. The FDA had previously approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid vaccines in record time—mere weeks after their ...
Frivolous Patent Litigation Threatens The Technology Revolution
Patent trolls have been a plague on innovators for too long. Patent trolls are entities that obtain patents (sometimes obscure patents) for the sole purpose of threatening or filing lawsuits in court and then using the prospect of costly litigation to extort unwarranted payouts from an innovative company. The risks ...
Biden’s health care agenda entrenches a status quo that isn’t working
Health care reform is back on the agenda in Washington. At the end of January, President Biden signed two executive orders that aim to make it easier for people to sign up for coverage. On Saturday, the House passed a $1.9 trillion covid-19 relief package that includes billions in new health insurance subsidies. The ...
New York’s Single-Payer Healthcare Bill Remains A Disastrous Idea
New York Democrats hope that 2021 is the year socialized medicine finally arrives in the Empire State. Senator Gustavo Rivera, the chairman of the state Senate Health Committee, is reportedly planning to introduce the New York Health Act, which would ban private insurance and force all New Yorkers onto a ...
President Biden’s Bipartisan Opportunity to Reduce Patients’ Drug Costs
BY ROBERT POPOVIAN & WAYNE WINEGARDEN President Joe Biden should take advantage of a bipartisan opportunity to meaningfully reduce patients’ out-of-pocket spending on biopharmaceuticals. Seizing this opportunity requires the president to recognize that the drug cost problem exists because the current system inappropriately shifts too much of its expenditures to patients. Consider that ...
Don’t Overreact to Rising Health Spending
U.S. healthcare spending has reached a new high, according to the latest federal data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate national health expenditures reached $3.8 trillion in 2019, an increase of 4.6 percent over the previous year. That’s just under 18 percent of the national economy. It’s more ...
The FDA’s foot-dragging on the AstraZeneca vaccine is indefensible
There’s a COVID-19 vaccine currently saving lives all over the world—but not in the U.S. That vaccine, made by British drug company AstraZeneca, proved 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths in Phase III clinical trials. British regulators authorized it for use nearly two months ago. Since then, millions of people in the U.K. have been ...
The 340B Prescription-Drug Swindle Has Gone on Long Enough
In a hearing on Tuesday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra revealed just how unfit he is to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Becerra dismissed the need to reform the federal “340B” program, even though it has morphed from a good-faith effort to help low-income Americans access medicines ...
The Low Spark of High-Speed Rail
California’s bullet train has become a nearly forgotten source of trouble, eclipsed in the public eye by Covid-19, a gubernatorial recall, and out-migration from the Golden State. But it’s still out there, sucking up time and money, and as empty as it ever was. The California High Speed Rail, its ...
