Little Lost Lambda: How Any Randomized Controlled Trial or Opinion Poll Could Be Misleading
How an analytical simplification, of omitting lambda, a measure of inconsistency, can serious distort randomized clinical trial results.
Read more...Category Archives: Health care
Public Health and Private Equity: What the Walgreens Buyout Could Mean for the Future of Pharmacy Care
Private equity makes more inroads into the health care industry, now with the buyout of the top pharmacy chain Walgreens.
Read more...A Ministroke Can Have Major Consequences
Some of the symptoms of a ministroke, and why you should go to the emergency room pronto if you think you’ve had one.
Read more...Decades On, SSRIs Remain Mired in Mystery and Debate
Experts worry MAHA could wage a war on SSRIs. But some researchers have long questioned the drugs’ efficacy.
Read more...Coffee Break: A Triumph of Gene Editing
Part the First: Gene Editing as a Cure for Genetic Disease. The recent politics of American science has been depressing in the extreme, and last week I promised to cover recent good things in basic and clinical science. I can’t think of anything better than a baby has been treated successfully for a rare, lethal […]
Read more...Thinking Being Offloaded to AI Even in Elite Medical Programs
The use of AI is severely degrading competence in advanced medical/biomedical degree programs in elite universities. Patients be warned.
Read more...Chemical Exposure from Ultra-Processed Foods May Contribute to Health Issues
Another line of thought on why consumption of ultra-processed foods is correlated with poor health outcomes.
Read more...Bobby Kennedy Jr. Makes Eugenics Great Again at Health and Human Services
RFK Jr. embrace pseudoscience and embarks on eugenicist policies that seek to identify and disempower the underprivileged.
Read more...Coffee Break: Notes on Pandemic Responses, a Human Pathogen that Eats the Plastic of Medical Devices, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services Speaks Out
Part the First: Retrospective Notes on a Pandemic. BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal, has recently published two interesting pieces on COVID-19. The first is an analysis by Anthony Costello, who was previously Director of Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health at the World Heath Organization: UK decision not to suppress covid raises questions […]
Read more...Weight Loss Drugs Like Ozempic Prove the Sickness at the Heart of the NHS
Most users of GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic need to stay on them long-term to keep pound off. So is medicine promoting an addicition?
Read more...Wall Street Journal Reports UnitedHealth Under Criminal Investigation for Medicare Fraud
The Department of Justice is reportedly seeking to indict UnitedHealth for Medicare Advantage fraud. Why has it been so hard to make a case?
Read more...Coffee Break: More on the Disruption of American Science and Good News on Intranasal Viruses to Combat Respiratory Viruses
Part the First. A Few Words in Response to the Excellent Commentariat of Naked Capitalism. No one knows better than I that funding of science in the United States is hit or miss. My overall average flirts with the Mendoza Line, which is not so bad. For most I do not miss the grant treadmill/lottery, […]
Read more...Currency Wars, Class Warfare, and the Republican Dilemma Over Medicaid
Faced with a shrinking list of options to trim the budget, Republicans are now eyeing Medicaid – but will that fly among Trump supporters?
Read more...Trump Team’s $500 Million Bet on Old Vaccine Technology Puzzles Scientists
Some raised eyebrows over a Trump Administration big spend for a possible flu vaccine.
Read more...On the Practical Importance of Basic Research for Human Health
I was listening to the journalist Ryan Grim of Drop Site News last week as he talked briefly about his wife’s ongoing cancer treatment. His short gloss was directly on point, and it motivated me to dig deep in my archives on the history of research on breast cancer and how one never knows what […]
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