Four senior officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced their resignations in recent days, citing what they described as growing political interference in the agency’s scientific work, particularly regarding vaccines. Two of them — Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief science and medical officer, and Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for…
By MATTHEW HOLT For those of you waiting for the Labcorp, Blue Shield of California, Brown & Toland Physicians Physicians update, the ball has been moved a couple of years down the field. If you want to catch up here is part 1, part 2 and part 3) You’ll recall we left it with a mystery…
From Hwang, Jakob and Squires (2025) in AER: Insights: Cousin marriage rates are high in many countries today. While previous studies have documented increased risks of infant and child mortality, we provide the first estimate of the effect of such marriages on life expectancy throughout adulthood. By studying couples married over a century ago, we…
By GREGORY HOPSON There is no doubt Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is sincere about wanting to make the world a better place. The Hudson River cleanup, which he helped lead, is one of the most successful environmental achievements in the United States. It had bipartisan support, set global standards, and earned the highest compliment: imitation….
Not really. At least according a study by Wilson et al. 2025 in Science. In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to…
That is the title of my article out today in The Evidence Base. Here is an excerpt: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are now setting drug prices under the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation program. Unlike other health technology assessment (HTA) bodies worldwide, however, CMS will not consider quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) when setting drug…
By KIM BELLARD On the heels of the disastrous floods in Texas, days away from the Hurricane Katrina twenty year anniversary, and with Hurricane Erin almost becoming another Hurricane Sandy, the dedicated employees at FEMA are worried. Very worried. They’ve got a President who repeatedly has called to dismantle the agency, a DHS Secretary who…
The Trump administration’s cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis. Democratic-led states and select blue-leaning cities fought back in court and saw money for public health efforts restored…
For the most part, Keyanna Jones and her husband thought they knew what to expect when their daughter Chloë had eye surgery last fall. Even Chloë, who was in kindergarten, had a good understanding of how things would go that day. Before the procedure, a hospital worker gave her a coloring book that explained the…
By JASON HINES This is Part 2 of Jason and Gigasheets’ investigation into the Capital Women’s Care vs UnitedHealthcare contract dispute in which (partially at my request) he expanded the investigation to look at other providers in the same market. Revealing stuff!–Matthew Holt While Capital Women’s Care (CWC) battles UnitedHealthcare over contract terms, a deeper look at…