Policy & Ethics

All types of arguments are made to refute: a study; bad measurements; flawed analysis; and the insidious evil intent (or at least bias). A new analysis seeks to describe conflicted interests. (Spoiler alert for those ready to blame Big Pharma, Big Device, and prescribers. They are only the tip of the iceberg.)
Kudos to Dr. Josh Bloom for persistently and valiantly beating the drum against blaming prescription opiates for the “opioid epidemic.” Sometimes battling windmills isn’t for naught.
The story of what we call the "opioid epidemic" has been distorted by lies and deception, resulting in incalculable harm done to both pain patients and those who abuse drugs. The last thing we need is more anti-opioid propaganda. Unfortunately, an article in Healthline provides just this
The recent international climate summit involved 40,000 individuals coming to Glasgow from around the world. The Brits have calculated the carbon footprint of the meeting on carbon footprints.
Instagram recently censored the Cochrane Collaboration, a highly respected nonprofit group made up of medical experts, for allegedly sharing "false content" about COVID-19. This is an inevitable consequence of the growing push for social media censorship.
What went wrong during the COVID-19 pandemic? A team of public health researchers recently outlined some of the crucial policy mistakes we made and explained how we might avoid them in the future.
While Canada has already banned menthol from cigarettes, we are considering similar legislation. A new study reports on the initial impacts of Canada’s ban. Can real-world experience inform our policy decisions?
It's the silly season once again when oldsters are asked if they want to change their Medicare coverage. And especially to Medicare Advantage – the plans that are often free and come with lots of extras: like vision, dental, hearing, and even over-the-counter medications. But are they really an advantage?
Does marijuana use affect mental health? Cato Institute's Dr. Jeffrey Singer and colleagues address just this in a new pre-print of a paper that is undergoing peer review. The preprint can be read on the medRxiv site.
Perhaps I should not give this study any oxygen, but the cherry-picking of words is so egregious that it must be called out. I am talking about a study done by the Lown Institute, a “nonpartisan healthcare think tank.” As Becker’s Hospital Review reports, “Overall, Lown found that “racial segregation is common in urban hospital markets.” Segregation? Does that word inform or inflame?
The media likes to compare COVID-19 outcomes in different states based on carefully selected metrics. A closer look indicates that these match-ups are less compelling than reporters think. This has consequences for the public's trust in science.
Once, a long time ago, it seems, individuals used rules-of-thumb, fancy name heuristics to navigate transactions – social or commercial. As the scale of our interactions grew, rules-of-thumb gave way to algorithms, which were, in turn, unleashed to create new algorithms based upon artificial intelligence. Somewhere along the way, those artificially intelligent algorithms became dangerous. What is high-risk artificial intelligence? Spoiler alert – it is already upon us – welcome to our version of Skynet.