Mask mandates are unpopular. I don’t know anyone who enjoys wearing a mask. Surgeons wear them to avoid infecting surgery patients. Robbers wear them to avoid identification. Masks became political. Liberals who favor collective outcomes support mask mandates while conservatives who favor personal freedom do not. Today in stores I see a few people wearing masks, mostly just a few older people. It always amuses me when a car drives by and the driver — the sole occupant — is wearing a mask.
Tuesday Links
- Misuse of Covid PPP Funds: “largest fraud in US history.”
- Veronique de Rugy: data show that the PPP funds benefited mostly those industries with the largest share of employees able to work remotely (hence the least affected by the lockdown) as well as companies well capitalized (and hence not in need of a loan from the government to make payroll).
- Before publicly dismissing the Wuhan lab leak, Fauci told the FBI it was possible.
- Why do US pharmacies keep running out of drugs? Downplayed: the role of government. see Henderson and Hooper on that.
Study: Needle Exchanges May Do More Harm than Good
Public health research dating back decades found that needle exchanges for intravenous drug users saved lives.
Why Don’t We Have Full Drug Reciprocity with Other Countries?
According to one study, recognizing drug approvals by regulatory bodies in Canada and Europe between 2000 and 2010 would have given U.S. consumers quicker access to 37 “novel” drugs for which “no other FDA‐approved prescription medicine had the same mechanism of action,” including 10 drugs treating mostly orphan diseases “for which no alternative therapy was available in the USA.” Such recognition would have allowed U.S. consumers to access those drugs a median of 13.6 months earlier.