- 1 in 5 adults say they have received an unexpected medical bill this year, even though surprise billing has been illegal since January.
- Pregnant woman ticketed for driving alone in an HOV lane claims her fetus was the second passenger.
- Two more studies find that giving people money doesn’t work: “getting the money reminded recipients that they were poor, without doing much to change that long-term condition, which in turn led to worse psychological health and lower happiness among recipients.”
- Arnold Kling on the studies: “There are even worse results than that. It turns out that getting a windfall and ending up back where you started makes you feel worse than you did before getting the windfall.”
- Did the Black Plague have beneficial economic effects? Tyler Cowen reviews James Belich’s The World the Plague Made.
- Circadian medicine: “There’s a skin clock and a liver clock and an immune system clock; there’s a clock for the kidney, heart, lungs, muscles and reproductive system.”
Author: John C. Goodman
Pfizer’s View of its Own Vaccine
Turns out, it is very positive. But in a review of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla’s book, Moonshot, Robert Kaplan asks:
How transparent has Pfizer been? In the book’s more than 200 pages, one topic is not explored in any real depth—side effects. Although the vaccine is generally regarded as safe, side effects do appear to be more common—and perhaps more severe—than for other widely used vaccines. In the 2020 clinical trial that provided the basis for FDA emergency-use authorization, more than 83% of 18- to 55-year-old participants (in comparison with 14% of those injected with a placebo) reported arm pain after their first shot, and approximately a third had a fever in reaction to their second (in contrast to less than 1% for a placebo).
Wednesday Links
- California opens Medicaid to illegal aliens.
- CDC looked at fake numbers in deciding whether children should get the Covid vaccine.
- Government run health care: In jails and prisons its awful.
- Gene editing can alter plants and fight cancer in humans – are designer babies next?
- Krugman completely loses it: compares the GOP to the KKK. (Hmm, wasn’t the KKK a Democratic organization?)
Monday Links
- Colorado gets permission to include a public option in its (Obamacare) exchange. But as Ed Haislmaier and I showed, this won’t matter as long as the playing field is level.
- Buprenorphine is highly effective at preventing overdoses and treating opioid use disorder; but enrollees in Medicaid managed care rarely see a doctor who prescribes it. Even so, that’s better than regular Medicaid.
- Another article on medical debt, missing Devon Herrick’s point that Obamacare is the reason for its rise.
- Responding to the Roe decision, Matt Holt completely loses it. Lesson for us all: don’t write blog posts when you are having a temper tantrum.
- If housing is a health care issue, should Medicaid pay the rent?