- Lancet study: Covid natural immunity is at least as protective as two doses of mRNA vaccines.
- Nearly all contemporary countries were colonized at some point in their history by a foreign power; yet most citizens have a favorable attitudes toward their country’s former colonizer. HT: Tyler
- Losing fitness: Scientists have found that it is around the three-week mark [of no exercise] that people experience the biggest changes in their ability to get through a workout. (NYT)
- North Carolina’s medical system would have had an additional 55 hospitals, including 24 in vulnerable rural areas, were it not for the state’s certificate-of-need regulations. (WSJ)
- Cocaine Bear scene: what are the effects of swallowing a tablespoon of cocaine?
More on the British National Health Service
In December, 54,000 people in England had to wait more than 12 hours for an emergency admission…. The average wait time for an ambulance to attend a “category 2” condition – like a stroke or heart attack – exceeded 90 minutes. There were 1,474 (20%) more excess deaths in the week ending December 30 than the 5-year average….
China has Health Savings Accounts
And they have had them for a decade. As the New York Times explains:
Companies typically contribute to the pools an amount equal to as much as 9.8 percent of a worker’s salary…. The employee insurance pools currently forward about a third of the money they receive from employers to personal health accounts, and spend the remaining two-thirds on hospitalizations and other expenses. Employees also put about 2 percent of their paychecks into their health accounts until they retire.
While the pooled employee funds in many cities are depleted, personal health accounts across China have accumulated more than $130 billion.
Monday Links
- After the government took steps to raise the price and restrict the supply, opioid consumption and overdoses went up. Casey Mulligan explains why.
- Sally Satel on “Social Justice Therapy.”
- Health care worker shortages: Half of the states, including all in New England and most in the Midwest, have health care employment lower than three years ago.
- Who does AARP really represent? It backed the IRA bill – taking $280 billion away from Medicare and spending the money on heath insurance subsidies for the well-to-do and special interest green energy projects.
- U.S. Energy Dept: the coronavirus most likely came from a lab leak.